Errant Super League sides face possible points deduction penalty

Only three matches into the new 2018 season and already the fundamental problems with Malaysian football rears its ugly head once again. Fresh from allegations of bribery and selling matches last week, it's now the turn of failure to comply with regulatory matters that will be the major talking point this week.

Kelantan and Kuala Lumpur are two Super League sides that have failed to either send or complete the right documentation on time. While two more sides from the same division in Selangor and PKNS FC only sent in their documentations past the given deadline of 3 February 2018.

The deadline is already an extended one given to teams as the original deadline was 29 December 2017, which was then extended to 14 January 2018 prior to the latest deadline.

Selangor only completed the documents on 11 February 2018 while PKNS was a week later on 19 February 2018.

The same two problems also extends to the Premier League sides with Sarawak, Penang, Kuantan FA and PDRM all failing to complete their documentation registration. While UKM FC only did so on 19 February 2018 as did MIFA FC who submitted their on 15 February 2018.

It's unwanted attention on the respective teams and the leagues in question after the efforts of Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP) in bringing in the big bucks this season after several massive commercial deals for the leagues.

All 10 teams in question faces the possibility of points deduction as was done to Kelantan and T-Team after their respective failures to comply with the regulations last season. It's a scenario which has got the president of Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) enraged as is seen by his response through Johor Southern Tigers' Facebook page.

"I was made to understand that FMLLP will deduct points and hand out punishments to the respective associations for failing to complete the registration documentations of the teams participating in the M-League."

"I completely understand the actions taken by FMLLP to ensure that the league is run professionally and want to show to the sponsors that there are big expectations to make the league more professional.

"Even though I don't agree with the actions that will be taken because it will create speculations from some quarters that will say me or JDT Football Club wants to sabotage the others teams at the top of the league.

"That is why I think that FMLLP shouldn't take any action or deduct points from those teams involved. Instead, we should just let them participate in the league. Let the sponsors who forked out millions of ringgit see why our league isn't developing. 

"It's not just about associations who aren't professional but the mentality of local football fans as well. Even with the information and explanation provided by FMLLP, they (fans) still do no understand. I can only say good luck to that.

"Lastly, as president of FAM and owner of JDT, I'd like to apologise to the sponsors who have taken out millions of ringgit to see the league run in a professional way. This is the reason why Malaysian football has not evolved towards a more professional way - the behavior and mentality that are stuck in the past," said HRH Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim in his statement.