THREE YET TO RESTART TRAINING

UKM, Kelantan and Sarawak United will submit application to MFL for clearance soon

farahazharie@nst.com.my

PREMIER League’s UKM FC, Kelantan and Sarawak United are the three teams who have yet to restart training ahead of the MLeague resumption.

Other M-League clubs, however, have started non-contact training following clearance given by the government to hold sessions from June 15.

Teams will be allowed to conduct fullcontact training from Wednesday.

UKM, Kelantan and Sarawak United have either not applied or received clearance from the Malaysian Football League (MFL) to restart training.

“We are in the midst of submitting our application to the MFL. Our players will undergo Covid-19 swab tests on Wednesday,” said UKM coach Sulaiman Hussin.

“Our target is to restart training either later this week or early next week.

“It is more practical to restart training now as teams can conduct full-contact sessions from Wednesday.

“Non-contact training and online training (during the Movement Control Order period) is similar, so we are looking forward to the full-contact sessions.

“We hope to play three or four friendly matches when we restart training. My players have not undergone physical training for the last four months and it will definitely affect them when they return to football.

“So they need friendly games to regain their match fitness.”

MFL will restart the league in mid-August or Sept 1.

“I think we have enough time to prepare for both restart dates. Our main target is to qualify for the Malaysia Cup.”

UKM have signed Argentine Julian Bottaro to boost their attack ahead of the resumption. He was signed just before the closure of the transfer window on March 15.

“He is still in Argentina. We are looking at the necessary process to fly him in as early as possible. This is because he needs to go through several processes once he is here before he can join the team,” added Sulaiman, who hopes Bottaro will form a lethal combination with Nigeria’s AkanniSunday Wasiu in attack.

UKM are eighth in the Premier League with four points after three matches.