Malaysia’s FAM Hopes AFC Will Heed Majority’s View on World Cup, Asian Cup Qualifiers

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 (Bernama) -- The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has expressed its hope that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will agree to allow the remaining fixtures of the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup Group G second-round qualifiers to take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in June. FAM deputy president Mohd Yusoff Mahadi said Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, have all expressed their agreement to hold the matches in a carnival format in the UAE. He said Group G leaders Vietnam, however, were also eyeing an opportunity to host the remaining fixtures themselves, and had yet to make a decision on the matter. "I hope that the AFC can agree to the suggestion, because the majority of the teams have already agreed for the qualifers to be postponed to June, only one (Vietnam) team hasn’t. So the AFC can take into consideration the majority factor to help them reach a decision. "As far as we know, Vietnam isn’t against the idea, it’s just that they haven’t made a decision, and if there is a postponement, they have requested that the matches take place on their home ground,” he told Bernama on Tuesday. According to earlier plans, Malaysia was to take on the UAE in Dubai on Mar 25 before hosting Vietnam on Mar 30, however, following concerns over the situation of the pandemic, several teams agreed to a proposal for the fixtures to be held in a carnival format in June. According to Mohd Yusoff, FAM is waiting for the final decision from AFC before making further preparations for the national squad, including deciding on the central training camp session. He opined that the UAE was better suited to host the fixtures as UAE had more home games left compared to Vietnam. "The UAE had a lot more away matches previously, and based on the current scenario, three out of four of their remaining matches are at home, that is why we agreed that if the carnival is held in June, it should be in the UAE,” he added. UAE is scheduled to face Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam at home, with the only away match in Indonesia. Vietnam, meanwhile, only has one more home game against Indonesia out of three remaining fixtures. After five matches, Malaysia is currently second in Group G with nine points behind leaders Vietnam (11 points), while Thailand is third with eight points. The UAE is fourth after earning six points with one match in hand. -- BERNAMA