KL, SELANGOR
Both teams may not be able to enter Agong’s Cup next season
FADHLI ISHAK fadhli.ishak@nst.com.my
KUALA Lumpur and Selangor could be suspended from competing in the Agong’s Cup next season as Malaysia Rugby (MR) are considering taking disciplinary action against them for withdrawing from the tournament this year.
MR Tournament Director Fahmy Jalil said the national body are not happy that both teams confirmed their participation last month only to make a U-turn recently. The competition is set to kick off on Saturday.
MR had set a deadline of May 31 for teams to confirm their participation. Selangor and KL had informed the national body of their withdrawals on July 21 and July 12 respectively.
“We had agreed during the MR executive council meeting last month that teams that withdraw after their confirmations would face disciplinary action,” said Fahmy, when met at the Agong’s Cup launch event in KL yesterday.
“The official reason we had received from both teams was that they did not have sufficient funds to compete this season.
“We are considering suspending them from competing in the next edition of the Agong’s Cup (2018) and will decide this at the next executive council meeting.
“Being banned from the Agong’s Cup next year will see them lose out in terms of funding from their state governments as they have less programmes to run.”
Selangor said they were not able to come up with a competitive team as various states had pinched their best players and urged the national body to relook the current tournament rules which allows players to move freely from state to state.
Fahmy, however, stressed that MR dos not intend to change any regulations in regard to player movement.
“Selangor are one of the most active states in the sport and have a four-division state league that features over 1,000 players. I do not think assembling a 30man squad for the Agong’s Cup should be a problem for them.
“The reason we had allowed for players to move freely was to encourage people to play the game by making it easier for them to play.
“We do not want states to stop them from playing by not releasing them to other teams.”
This is the first time that KL and Selangor have missed the Agong’s Cup since it was introduced in 1983. Selangor have won the competition six times in 1984, 1987, 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2006 while KL have never won the tournament.
Perak are defending champions this year.