Malaysia Wrap

OK the Malaysian season has finished. The Malaysia Cup will be drawn at the end of July and will start after Ramadhan.

Kelantan won the Super League and the FA Cup. They are still going strong in the AFC Cup, facing Arbil home and away in September.

The Malaysians have decided it has been a few years since they last changed the format of their league so in 2013 the top flight will have 12 teams instead of the present 14 so we have a mad rush to escape the drop.

KL, poor KL who went through the season playing their games in Melaka, are chronically starved of funds and managed not to win, are down. Who will join them? The Borneo rivals, Sabah and Sarawak, along with Kedah, who only recently were by far the best team in the country, will play off with Pahang who finished second in the Premier League.

Going out of the Premier League are Perlis who won the Malaysia Cup in 2004 and 2006. I was actually in KL in 2005 on Malaysia Cup Final day and can recall their fans milling round, enjoying their day in the capital. Those three appearances constitute their only runs to the final in the history of the famous old competition. They join other state teams Penang and Melaka. Perhaps being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is next for Perlis?!

MBJB, one of a number of teams from the southern most state of Johor were also relegated while there will also be a play off to see who will join them in the third tier FAM Cup. MP Muar, NS Betaria and Malaysia Pos will compete against FAM Cup runners up Shahzan Muda.

SPA get promoted to the Premier League, the latest in a long line of daftly named clubs in Malaysia. You would think that given the interest in the English game there people would have the smarts to actually name football clubs after a town or a suburb but oh no. We get the post office (Malaysia Pos), the armed forces (ATM), a road (PLUS) and now SPA who are a social club for civil servants!