Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has announced that the national squad, Harimau Malaya, will be using the Larkin Stadium for their 2019 Asia Cup qualifiers match.
While the match against North Korea will be held at a neutral venue, the match against Lebanon and Hong Kong will be played at the stadium in Johor.
According to FAM’s Secretary-General Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin, the Larkin stadium was chosen based on a few criteria, like the infrastructure; the stadium facilities, equipment, and so on.
“The Malaysia national football team will play against Lebanon at the Larkin, also known as the Tan Sri Hassan Yunos stadium on the 13th of June.” Datuk Hamidin told Harian Metro at a press conference.
He also noted that initially, the Harimau Malaya was supposed to use either the Shah Alam stadium or the Bukit Jalil stadium for the Asia Cup fixtures.
“We have already submitted a letter to AFC (Asian Football Confederation) to update them, as before we were supposed to use either the Shah Alam Stadium or the Bukit Jalil National Stadium for the Asia Cup matches.”
“All of Harimau Malaya’s home matches will take place at the Larkin. Apart from the world-class facilities, the stadium also gives us an advantage, but I cannot discuss that now.”
Apart from facing Lebanon on the 13th of June, Harimau Malaya will be facing Hong Kong on the 5th of September, and our second leg match against North Korea on the 14th of November.
The first leg match against North Korea was initially supposed to take place at the Kim Il Sung stadium on the 28th of March. However, the match was postponed due to security concerns after Kim Jong-Un’s brother got assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on the 13th of February.
Although the date for the postponed-fixture has been revealed to be on the 8th of June, the neutral venue for the match has yet to be decided.
Apart from that, FAM has yet to name a head coach for the Harimau Malaya squad, after former Johor Darul Ta’zim’s head coach Mario Gomez was ruled out of the picture.
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