On Friday, news broke out that a third team has announced their intentions of departing from the 2023 Liga Super Malaysia season. Following the disqualifications of Melaka United and Sarawak United due to financial issues, Petaling Jaya City FC have resigned from the upcoming Liga Super season, thus reducing the teams participating in next season’s revamped league into 15.
Unlike both Melaka and Sarawak – who were banned from the league due to unpaid debts to players, staff members, former players and former staffs amounting to months and even years, PJ City have decided to pull out from next season’s Liga Super due to differences in vision with league organizers Malaysia Football League (MFL).
The past two seasons saw PJ City owner Datuk Seri Vijay Eswaran perform something revolutionary with his club. In a league dominated by foreign talents, PJ City decided to eschew signing players from outside Malaysia and instead build a squad completely comprised of local talent. Underneath the “Yakini Lokal” (Trust in Locals) banner, PJ City battled their way against established sides utilizing foreign players using a squad that is 100% Malaysian.
Despite initial doubts, the move proved to be a success. Numerous local talents such as Darren Lok, Kogileswaran Raj, Kalamullah Al-Hafiz, Kumaahran Sathasivam, Gurusamy Kandasamy, Filemon Anyie, Mahalli Jasuli and Jeremy Lim have represented PJ City during the “Yakini Lokal” era and whilst the likes of Gurusamy, Mahalli, Kumaahran and Darren were already well-established players prior to joining PJ City, the likes of Kogileswaran, Kalamullah, Filemon, and Jeremy established their careers whilst representing the Phoenixes during this two-year period of utilizing only Malaysian players.
League performance-wise PJ City did not fare badly during the “Yakini Lokal” era, finishing 8th in 2019, 7th in 2020 and 2021, and 9th in 2022, proving themselves to be just as competitive as the other 11 teams participating in the Liga Super. The Phoenixes have also curiously built a reputation as a bogey team for league conquerors Johor Darul Ta’zim, often giving the Southern Tigers a tough time during their matches against one another.
However, the buildup towards the 2023 season saw the merging of both the top-flight Liga Super and the second-tier Liga Premier Malaysia into a single Liga Super, which saw the promotions of club sides Kelantan FC, Kuching City FC, Kelantan United, PDRM FC, UiTM FC and Perak FC as well as the removals of JDT II, Selangor FC 2, and Terengganu FC II to a separate reserves league.
This revamp of the Liga Super thus also brought upon a revamp on foreign players regulation, with JDT, Selangor, and Terengganu being able to register up to nine players due to the foreign players from their reserve teams being transferred into their main teams. It is unknown on whether other teams are able to register nine foreigners as well, but it is most likely that they would be able to do so as well.
Despite this increase in foreign quota, clubs are expected to adhere to the AFC’s stipulation of using only six foreign players in a single match, with five (3 foreign + 1 AFC + 1 ASEAN) being expected to feature in the starting lineup and one being named in the bench.
The decision to increase the number of foreigners in next season’s Liga Super did not sit down well with Vijay and his QI Group, who have placed an emphasis on local player development within the day-to-day running of PJ City. Feeling that his team would unable to bridge an ever-increasing gap between themselves and their peers, Vijay took the heavy decision to pull the QI Group’s support of PJ City, putting the club up to sale in the process.
Should no buyer declare their interest in taking PJ City off the hands of Vijay and his QI Group, the Phoenixes would have to sit out the upcoming Liga Super season.
“We wish to stress that the decision was not due to financial problems but the football environment which will become more tricky with the restructuring of the M-League from next season especially on raising import player quota,” said PJ City club president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal, as quoted from the Malay Mail, “We respect the decision taken by MFL, who knows better as the leaders of football. This doesn’t mean we are leaving football, we will still be doing development, talent scouts, grooming players and feed them to the national team and clubs.”
Despite stepping away from the Liga Super, Subahan went on to state that the QI Group remains committed in developing football within the Petaling Jaya region, investing RM2.5 million into upgrading the Petaling Jaya Stadium with a new pitch, a synthetic running track, and changing rooms.