KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Football League (MFL) are ready to re-evaluate the foreign import quota of five players which includes one from the Asean region if there are requests from competing teams in the Malaysia League (M-League).
MFL chief executive officer, Kevin Ramalingam explained that the earlier decision on the quota for an Asean import player is for a period of three years to see just how much of an impact there is overall on the M-League.
However, Kevin said that MFL will always make space and room for all teams to make suggestions through the right channels of course.
“We do not have any plans to re-evaluate except of course if there are requests to do so from the teams themselves, as the teams are all partners in MFL.
“They have their own space and means to put forth any matter or issue that they want MFL to consider and evaluate. We have a board of directors and congress where we discuss such matters.
“However, to date there are no requests or suggestions and when we came to the decision last year, it was for a period of three years and after that only will we re-evaluate,” said Kevin.
Even though MFL’s main objective in introducing the quota for Asean imports beginning this season was to improve the commercial value of the M-League, however there have all sorts of positive and negative reactions to the move.
There are those who regard the move to introduce the hiring of Asean imports as a burden for teams and Action Football Asia (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd managing director, Effendi Jagan Abdullah had stated in previous reports that M-League teams have to spend a fair bit if they want quality Asean imports from neighboring countries.
Apart from this, based on MFL’s observations throughout this season, Kevin pointed out that there has been welcome, good developments in the M-League especially in terms of live viewership via media channels across the Asean region.
“For us, the interest from other Asean countries to see our league’s development and progress is bigger this year compared to previous years.
“So for us, at the beginning it has somewhat achieved its objective. When we decided on this matter we did state that it is a commercial decision to improve on the league’s appeal and value in the Asean region,” stressed Kevin.