Both Melaka United and Sarawak United are set to be barred from next season’s revamped Liga Super Malaysia due to the two teams’ financial arrears, announced the Malaysian Football League on Wednesday.
The Malaysian football pyramid is set to undergo a huge restructuration for the upcoming 2023 season. The Liga Premier Malaysia, the second tier of Malaysian football, is set to be put on hiatus for the next few years, with all non-reserve teams in the league receiving promotions to the Liga Super. As for this season’s Liga Premier champions Johor Darul Ta’zim II, Selangor FC 2, and Terengganu FC II, they will join a newly-formed reserves league starting from next year.
Initially Kelantan FC, Kelantan United, Kuching City FC and PDRM FC received promotions to the Liga Super for next season, with both UiTM FC and Perak FC being set to take on the top two Liga M3 sides PIB FC and Kuala Lumpur Rovers in a play-off to determine the last two spots for the revamped Liga Super. But since both PIB and Kuala Lumpur Rovers failed in their licensing for the top flight, both UiTM and Perak are set to join Kelantan, Kelantan United, Kuching City and PDRM in the top flight next season.
Ideally the revamped Liga Super will see 18 teams fighting it out for the title instead of the current 12. But that number is set to decrease to 16 following the decision to exclude both Melaka and Sarawak from the competition.
A side whose financial woes were well-documented in recent years, Melaka were seemingly set for a healthy future financially after glove manufacturers KenTeam took over the team at the start of this season. However, reports began to emerge on Thursday from an anonymous source from Melaka speaking with the New Strait Times that salaries began to stop in July with a number of youth players going unpaid as long as four months. The Mousedeers have failed to submit their receipts of salary payments to the MFL, thus leading to their ban from next season’s Liga Super.
Melaka’s financial woes also led to them being barred from this year’s Malaysia Cup which will start on October 25th.
As for Sarawak, the once star-studded squad had owed salaries to former players Sandro Mendoca and Taylor Reagan, who took their cases to FIFA. Earlier in August, Cambodia international Boris Kok also took to social media in slamming Sarawak over their failure to pay four months worth of his salary, while on September former head coach B. Sathianathan had also voiced his displeasure over Sarawak failing to pay him last year as well as between February and June of this year.
Both Melaka and Sarawak have one week to file their appeal and should they fail to do so by October 19th, next season’s Liga Super will only see 16 teams playing instead of 18.