Pan Gon to announce AFF Cup target a er friendlies

Harimau Malaya head coach Kim Pan Gon will set the target for his team in the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup 2022 once he has evaluated their performance in the two warm-up matches against Cambodia and the Maldives next month.

Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) secretary-general Noor Azman Rahman said Pan Gon would announce the target a er evaluating and shortlisting the 23 players for the AFF Cup in the middle of next month.

“We must wait until a er the two friendlies before announcing the target. Pan Gon will announce it by virtue of also being the team manager,” he told reporters a er announcing the collaboration between FAM and Active Sports, which is the distributor of Puma brand goods in Malaysia yesterday.

FAM on Wednesday released a list of 29 players called up to a end the Harimau Malaya centralised training camp from Nov 29 for the friendlies against Cambodia at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Dec 9 and the Maldives at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium in Cheras on Dec 14.

Malaysia, who have been drawn in Group B of the AFF Cup, will face Myanmar in Yangon on Dec 21, Laos in Bukit Jalil (Dec 24), Vietnam in Hanoi (Dec 27) and Singapore in Bukit Jalil (Jan 3, 2023).

In the 2020 edition that was held in Singapore in December 2021, the Harimau Malaya squad were eliminated in the group stage, with their best-ever achievement being emerging champions in the 2010 edition.

In a related development, he confirmed that Brunei would use the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium in Cheras as their home venue for the AFF Cup this time.

Brunei, who are in Group A, will entertain defending champions Thailand on Dec 20 and Indonesia on Dec 26 at the venue.

Meanwhile, under the RM1 million FAM-Active Sports twoyear collaboration, the Puma Orbita FAM 2 ball would be used in the Youth Cup, President’s Cup, National Women’s League and the Tun Sharifah Rodziah Cup competitions beginning from the 2023 season. — Bernama