Datuk Haji Hamidin Haji Mohd Amin, president of Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), confirm to send official application to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to bid for the right to host the AFC Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers 3rd round.
The decision on whether Malaysia will succeed in hosting or not will be known after the official draw on 24 February.
Despite meeting the criteria set by the AFC, Malaysia has to compete with other countries that have also submitted official applications to host.
“The AFC will decide whether we succeed or not because I understand from the AFC General Secretary (Datuk Windsor John) that almost most of the teams bid to be the hosts, not just us.” Datuk Hamidin said in Harian Metro.
So, the AFC has their criteria and so far I understand we still (meet the criteria), just have to compete with other countries.
“Some (countries) have no quarantine at all. So, the AFC will look at all the criteria and most importantly our team must be ready whether to play in the country or abroad,”
“It’s true, but this time it’s different because many have been vaccinated. So, we just follow the SOP of KKM and MKN and we continue to bid even though our secretariat has already sent the application,”
Although cases of COVID-19 infection are now on the rise in the country, FAM continues to bid to host and is confident the transmission of omicron variants can be controlled by adhering to standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the government.
The AFC has also informed that the AFC Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers 3rd round would be held centralised venue and all matches would follow a ‘single round robin’ format. And will be held on 3 dates that have been set, on 8, 11 and 14 June 2022. The venue of the match at this point has not yet been set and it is open for bidding by any member (MA) involved.
Credit Photo : Jameslwfisher/Reddit
