Terengganu’s Lee may Tuck in nicely for Harimau Malaya

PETALING JAYA: The ball is in Terengganu’s court to change the status of their midfield maestro Lee Tuck (pic) to play on a local ticket in the M-League.

Englishman Tuck is eligible to play for Malaysia under FIFA’s heritage ruling due to his maternal Malaysian grandmother.

Terengganu coach Irfan Bakti has claimed that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) are looking into getting the 30-yearold midfielder Malaysian citizenship to play for the Harimau Malaya.

If Tuck gets the nod to play for Malaysia, he’ll be the seventh player under the FIFA heritage ruling to don the national jersey after Corbin-Ong, Matthew Davies, Darren Lok, Brendan Gan, Khair Jones, Kiko and Natxo Insa.

Irfan added that he hopes that FAM will sort the documentation for Tuck soon before the 2019 M-League starts so that they will be able to sign another foreign player in place of Tuck.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Football League (MFL) the M-League organisers have no qualms to change the status of Tuck from a foreign player to local.

MFL chief operations officer Mohd Shazli Shaik Mohd said the process of changing the status wouldn’t take long to process.

“The registration for a heritage player can be done almost immediately as long as their club have the proper documentation like a MyKad,” said Shazli.

“This process is different from cases for a naturalised player which need the consent from the FML board of directors. Plus, for naturalised players, there’s a fiveyear waiting period before they can play under local player quota,” he added.