With only 43 days left on the calendar for the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, things are not looking up Malaysia’s national U-22 football team.
Datuk Ong Kim Swee has revealed that at least eight selected players have been barred by their respective clubs from reporting to the training camp that is scheduled to start on the 5th of July.
The players were barred from leaving the club due to the packed schedule in the M-League this month. Both Super League and Premier League fixtures have kicked off, and there will also be Malaysia Cup fixtures scattered all over the month.
If that isn’t bad enough, there is also very little that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) can do about this predicament.
This situation naturally gained the attention of our Youth and Sports minister, who has been working hard with his team to make sure Malaysia come out on top in the 2017 SEA Games, especially since we are the hosts.
“We’re already in the final preparation phase for the SEA Games. The states and clubs should release their players for national duty.” BHarian quoted the minister as saying.
“Datuk Ong Kim Swee has less than two months to train the team, and this is already a challenge for us.”
“I’d like to make a request to all the football clubs, please cooperate with the head coach (Datuk Ong Kim Swee). We need to win gold at the SEA Games. The fans are going to fill up the stadium and we don’t want to give them anything less.”
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