PJ City, a club in Liga Super Malaysia, still does not use foreign players following concept #YakiniLokal although MFL approved team registered 9 foreign players since season 2023.
The Malaysia Football League (MFL) yesterday presented the restructuring of the Malaysia League for the 2023 season. More interestingly, next season’s Super League competition will have 18 teams competing instead of 12 teams.
There is another change that has surprised local football fans, which is about the increase in the quota of imported players for each competing team.
The MFL confirmed that each team is allowed to take 9 imported players but only 5 imported players are on the field while the other player is on the bench according to the guidelines of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Commenting on the reforms, PJ City head coachoperator, P. Maniam is confident that the club’s owners will remain with the move to continue to give opportunities to local talent to prove their abilities in the Malaysian League competition.
“I think Dato Sri Vijay Eswaran (club owner) has made a decision and I think he will not withdraw.”
“He will continue what has been planned. This is good for PJ City to allow local players to play more often,” P. Maniam said.
“I believe in the talent of local players. I want to prove that PJ City can perform brilliantly without meeting the maximum quota of five imported players (in the Super League).” Dato Sri Vijay Eswaran said.
“If all teams use the maximum amount of imported players, 60 local players will not get the chance to play in the team’s starting lineup.
“It is not surprising that the national team coach always complains that they do not have quality players in the attacking and central positions because in the Malaysian League these positions are filled by imported players,”
PJ City is one club only not used foreign players in Liga Super Malaysia since season 2021 until now.
Credit Photo : PJ City
