KUALA LUMPUR (1 May 2020) – Malaysian Football League (MFL) – the organiser of the M-League – have proposed a single round format for the M-League in September 2020 following the latest rejection of an earlier restart by the Malaysian government.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, said that contact sports like football, rugby, wrestling, boxing, and basketball will have to wait longer before they can resume after getting clearance from the Ministry of Health and strictly follow the guidelines.
With the latest development, MFL have come up with a new plan to have the resumption of the M-League in September behind closed doors.
According to the Chief Executive Officers of MFL Datuk Abdul Ghani Hassan, the league will resume from Sept 1 but it will only be a one-round league – which means only 11 matches will be played instead of 22 played on a home and away basis.
The remaining matches in the first round will be completed by the end of September and the earlier fixtures will be retained.
Only four matches had been played by the teams before the M-League was suspended on 16 March – two days before the Movement Control Order (MCO) was enforced on 18 March.
Ghani also revealed that the Malaysia Cup format will also be changed and will be played on a knockout basis instead of the old format of group matches.
The quarter-finals and semi-final will also not see home and away matches. The Malaysia Cup, the oldest football tournament in Asia is slotted to begin in October.
The FA Cup and the Challenge Cup will not be held this year so as to finish the season in time and give the national team to complete their World Cup /Asia Cup qualifiers and also the upcoming AFF Suzuki Cup.
