KUALA LUMPUR: The Football Malaysia LLP (FMLLP) announced on Monday that the ASEAN player quota will be implemented in the Super League for five seasons starting from next year.
Under the new regulation, Super League clubs will now be allowed to register three foreign players, one Asian player and one ASEAN player.
Previously, Super League clubs were only allowed to register a maximum of four foreigners with one signing coming from Asia.
However, the top-tier clubs can only field all five foreign signings in the Super League.
The quota for the Premier League remains at four foreigners.
The Super League teams can only field four foreign players in the FA Cup and the Malaysia Cup.
The new regulation applies to players from ASEAN members — Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam.
The ASEAN player must have at least 30 caps to be eligible for the quota. Teams who want to sign an ASEAN player with less than 30 caps must get an approval from FMLLP first.
The new ruling was endorsed by the FMLLP board on Sunday.
FMLLP chief executive officer Kevin Ramalingam said :”Australia are not eligible for the ASEAN quota although they have been competing in the region’s youth-level tournaments.”
“Why only implement in the Super League? There was a dispute whether the new ruling would reduce opportunities for local players in matches, so we decided to implement it only in the top-tier competition.
“Anyway, this is a commercial decision surrounding the broadcasting of Super League matches in other countries. We want to create more interest outside the country for the league.
“The ruling will take effect next year and will be reviewed after the 2022 season. It will give us an option to abolish the ruling if it is not commercially successful after the review,” said Kevin on Monday.
The new season starts on Feb 5.