MFL: Local players will be protected despite calls to relax naturalisation rules

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Football League (MFL) has assured the local players they will be protected in the M-League despite calls to relax the registration rules for naturalised players.

The MFL naturalisation rules state that a naturalised citizen can only be registered as a local player five years after he gets a valid citizenship.

Pahang winger Mohamadou Sumareh is expected to get the green light to be registered as a local player in the first transfer window of the M-League for the 2019 season.

Last October, the MFL made an exemption and ruled that Sumareh can be registered as a local in the 2019 season’s second transfer window which opens on March 2 but the Pahang Football Association have appealed to cut short the cooling-off period.

It is learnt that Pahang may get their wish as Sumareh’s registration as a local in the first transfer window – which ends on Jan 20 – is on the verge of being accepted by the MFL board.

On Jan 10, teams were required to register first 20 players for the 2019 season and the remaining players have to registered after the first transfer window.

MFL chief executive officer Kevin Ramalingam said that M-League organisers can make an exception on a case-by-case basis.

“The five-year cooling-off period still remains and we don’t want our local players to be sidelined. We’re only making an exception for Sumareh’s case and that too due to several circumstances. As an example, Sumareh has been in Malaysia since he was 12-years-old,” said Kevin yesterday.

“We need to keep the rule because we don’t want teams to exploit the loophole ... giving foreign players citizenship and registering them as a local in the M-League is not good for Malaysian football in the long run.

“The teams should work on their development and getting their young players to move up to the senior team.

“We at MFL believe that this five-year cooling-off period will protect the local players.”