RELIEF FOR SELANGOR
Club get green light to use National Stadium as home venue
FADHLI ISHAK fadhli.ishak@nstp.com.my
THE National Stadium in Bukit Jalil will be Selangor’s home venue for the 2018 MLeague season. FA of Selangor (FAS) president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal said their application to play at the venue was approved by the Malaysia Stadium Corporation yesterday.
The 33-time Malaysia Cup champions have become a nomadic side since last season as several requests from FAS to play at Shah Alam Stadium were not granted by the Selangor state government.
Last season, Selangor not only played their home matches at Selayang Stadium, they were also not given financial support by the state government.
Going by the looks of things, the state government are not expected to channel a budget to the team for the 2018 season.
“We applied three times requesting for the Shah Alam Stadium last year for the 2017 season but they did not respond,” said Subahan yesterday.
” We also did not hear anything from the state government when we wrote in recently requesting for the stadium and a small budget for next year..
“We have no say as it is under the purview of the Selangor Menteri Besar (Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali).
“The Shah Alam Stadium was built for Selangor but the irony is that our team are not been granted usage. Instead, they allowed PKNS and other teams to play there last season.”
Subahan thanked the Malaysia Stadium Corporation for granting FAS’ application to use the National Stadium as their home venue.
“I would like to extend my gratitude to Malaysia Stadium Corporation chairman Datuk Mohamad Sahfri Abd Aziz for giving us the venue.
“It is a huge honour to be given this privilege and I am very humbled because the state (government) who is supposed to be supporting us is not,” Subahan said.
Subahan said the National Stadium, however, needs to be inspected by Football Malaysia LLP (FMLLP) before it can be used by Selangor.
“We submitted all the necessary documents to FMLLLP today and I do not foresee a problem.
“I am quite sure that the National Stadium will meet all the requirements, such as the brightness of the floodlights, set by FMLLP.”