March 12, 2004
Singapore champion Home United has been handed an advantage by FAM when out of the blue, the Malaysia Super League was suspended indefinitely so that the Malaysia national team can play a friendly match against Indonesia on March 17.
The inaugural Malaysia Super League, barely into its 1st month, is into it 2nd break to allow the national team & U23 team to prepare for friendly matches.
It has received mixed reaction from M-league champion Perak who is meeting Home United in the AFC Cup on April 6.
Perak is glad as it allowed those nursing injuries such as skipper Ahmad Shahrul Azhar, goalkeeper Hamsani Ahmad, Liberian striker Frank Seator, Cameroon attacking midfielder Essa Basile & Argentine defender Luciano Goux time to recover.
However there is a chance Perak will lose the rhythm of the team again just when they are on the winning track after beating Penang (4-0) having drawn with Pahang (0-0) & Selangor Public Bank (1-1) earlier.
Also 6 Perak players, Hamsani, Chan Wing Hoong, K. Nanthakumar, Liew Kit Kong, V. Saravanan & Khalid Jamlus, have been called up to the Malaysia national team & Perak training is affected by it
The Malaysia Super League is only expected to resume on either March 23 or April 3 & the general feeling is that it will be like playing an opening match of the season again