Youth, President Cup competitions expected to return in Feb 2022

PETALING JAYA: After being cancelled for two consecutive years due to Covid-19, Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) vice-president Mohd Firdaus Mohamed is confident that the President’s Cup and Youth Cup competitions can be held early next year.

Mohd Firdaus, who is also FAM Competition Committee chairman said it had agreed to hold developmental tournaments for the under-21 and under-19 players in mid or late February 2022.

“We have sent the application to the National Security Council (MKN) and it is understood that it has been approved. So we hope these tournaments run smoothly according to the original format, and there are no problems.

“(Young players) have not played in a competitive league for two years, it has hampered FAM’s efforts in searching for new talent. InsyaAllah, we are confident and believe that next year they can be held,” he told reporters after officiating the 2021 Penalty Super League (PSL) preseason here, yesterday.

According to the previous format of the cup competitions, all competing teams (approximately 20 to 22) were drawn in two groups, with the best four from each group advancing to the quarterfinals.

FAM had changed the format to hold group-level competitions by zones beginning in the 2020 edition to reduce travel costs, however, the 2020 and 2021 editions of the tournaments had to be cancelled following the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Mohd Firdaus, FAM would also re-establish the FAM Cup for under-25 players based on a knockout format, after the Youth Cup and President’s Cup campaigns end next year.

“Any teams that do not have the opportunity to play in the M3 League due to financial constraints and so on, we will give them the opportunity to play in this tournament, because we have seen before, that the FAM League had produced many players who went on to represent Malaysia,” he explained. The FAM Cup, which was originally held on a knockout basis, was changed to a league format known as the FAM League in 2008, but was later rebranded as the M3 League in 2019.

Meanwhile, Mohd Firdaus said he would bring a proposal to work with PSL at the next Competition Committee meeting, which would provide the best exposure to players before taking on the important task during actual matches.

The preliminary rounds of the PSL will be held in four series, namely today, Nov 21, Nov 27 and Dec 5 – with each series to be joined by 64 teams. The top eight teams from each series will qualify for ‘The Final’ on Dec 12, with a chance to grab RM15,000 in cash prize as champions.

The PSL champions and runners-up would then join the Penalty Champions League competition – against winners from the Liga Penalti Rakyat (LPR) Malaysian Tour and Raja Penalti 2021/2022 - which offers a prize money of RM30,000 for the champions.