League may be scrapped

PETALING JAYA: The FA of Malaysia (FAM) may scrap the FAM League if there are less than eight teams. However, some teams are crying foul, adding the national body should have looked into status of the teams before drawing up the fixtures for the league.

They said it was foolish to cancel the league, especially when deciding on the qualifiers for the Premier League next season.

"We know the bottom Premier League teams will be relegated to the FAM League but what about the winners of the FAM League?" asked a coach.

Another coach, speaking on anonymity for fear of being penalised by FAM for "speaking against policy matters", added the teams should have been scrutinised by FAM earlier instead of at the 11th hour.

"Did the competitions committee just wake up? Only now have they decided to speak to the teams and ask them to pay the up for the insurance scheme. The league is supposed to start in less than a week," he stressed.

"This should have been discussed a long time ago. Why waste time drawing up the fixtures if the teams competing have failed to even get the basics right, including obtaining insurance policies for the players?

"There is just no sense of professionalism, from the top to bottom. The players and coaches are the ones who suffer," he added.

The league, which was supposed to start tomorrow (Feb 1), has been postponed indefinitely.

A letter, signed by FAM general-secretary Datuk Azzudin Ahmad (pic), was sent to the teams last Wednesday.

Among the teams registered for the league are Penang, Malacca, UiTM FC, Armed Forces (Land), Johor Melodi Jaya, Pahang Kuantan Port, KL SPA, PBAPP and Penang Sinar DiMaja Maisarah.

However, the meeting revealed Malacca, Penang Sinar DiMaja Maisarah, KL SPA and UiTM FC were yet to pay their insurance premiums. They have until Feb 7 to do so.

The first paragraph of the letter states: "If the teams fail to pay, their participation in the FAM League will be cancelled."

The committee also decided that Armed Forces (Land) will need to provide a copy of their insurance policy and if the terms and coverage of the policy are not as good as that offered by the national body, Armed Forces (Land) will need to then take up FAM’s insurance policy.

Nevertheless, Paragraph Three of the letter comes as a shocker as the committee decided that "the league will be postponed to a later date and if there are less than eight teams competing, then the FAM League will be cancelled".

The insurance fiasco followed Mailsport’s expose that players in the M-League were not insured for the first four months of he competition last year.

This came about after former Negri Sembilan physiotherapist See Kim Leong passed away on Feb 5, 2011 but his family were not compensated. They eventually learnt Kim Leong was "not insured".