KUALA LUMPUR: This year's Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) top-tier division has been expanded to four nations as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been promoted.
This was confirmed by Malaysia Rugby (MR) honorary secretary Fahmy Jalil when contacted today. The competition will be held in June.
The top-tier has traditionally been a tri-nation competition. Malaysia was promoted to the premier division in 2018 and has finished last behind Hong Kong and South Korea in every edition since then.
Fahmy, who is also an Asia Rugby (AR) competitions committee member, views the decision to promote the UAE positively.
"I think it is a good move as the teams will get to play an extra match and it will also make the competition more balanced," Fahmy said.
"This is because the UAE are of a similar standard to Malaysia so we are expecting a close fight with them."
The Bunga Raya squad is scheduled to play Hong Kong at home on June 1, followed by away matches against South Korea on June 8 and the UAE on June 22.
"We have yet to decide which stadium we will use to host the match against Hong Kong," said Fahmy.
"The reason we are scheduled to play the UAE last is because it will likely serve as a relegation play-off, of course this will depend on the results earlier in the tournament."
It was believed that AR have been reluctant to relegate Malaysia to Division One in previous seasons due to the large gap in quality when compared to teams like Pakistan which could result in matches with lopsided scores.
The UAE, Pakistan, Singapore and the Philippines were listed in Division
One last year but the competition was not played as a number of teams were facing financial constraints.
On a separate note, MR selected the directors for their 12 committees during their first executive committee meeting of the year here yesterday.
Among the notable appointments include former national assistant coach Hamrizal Hamdan, who has been appointed director of coaching, and MR president Amir Amri Mohamad, who is now MR director of finance.
MR committee directors:
Refereeing: Nik Ramadhan Nik Abdullah
Finance: Amir Amri MohamadCoaching: Hamrizal Hamdan
Development: Syamsul Erwin Muhamad LagisCompetitions: Faeez Mohamad Alias
Technical and high performance: Shahizam TukiranMarketing and publicity: Azmir Zanul Abdin
Disciplinary board: Azmir Zanul AbdinLegal and regulations: Supt Muhammad Najib Hamzah
Women rugby: Abdul Rashid AdlieTraining and education: Hazeline Aasyiqueen Jaafar
Medical and player welfare: Dr. Hazwan Khair