Football: Fringe players will have to wait

ONG Kim Swee's plan to give several fringe players a chance to press their claim in the national Olympic squad for Wednesday's first round, second leg qualifier against Pakistan came to nought due to a FA of Malaysia regulation.
Players called up for national training are barred from domestic competition, a rule which also applied to Young Tigers A for their FA Cup second round clash against Johor in Shah Alam on Thursday.

As Kim Swee had already selected 21 Tigers players for the Olympic squad, it left him with just nine players to call upon for the FA Cup match, and of those nine, three have just recovered from injury.

Kim Swee had considered giving Johor a walkover but decided against it and called up 10 Bukit Jalil Sports School President's Cup players instead.
The match could easily have descended into a farce but credit ought to be given to the severely-weakened Tigers team, who battled gamely to only lose 2-1 against Premier League side Johor.

"The rules say that players in the Olympic squad cannot play so I was left with just nine players for this match. Had I not been able to call up the Bukit Jalil players, we would have been forced to concede a walkover.

"It's a pity this happened because had we won this match, I would have been able to field my strongest line-up in the next round.

"Even if I had been able to field my reserves today (Thursday), we could have won," said Kim Swee, who added however that the Olympic qualifier was a more important assignment than the FA Cup.

The six Bukit Jalil boys who started, did their most to impress and striker Norhamizaref Hamid even scored, looping a header over Johor goalkeeper Afif Amiruddin in the 62nd minute.

But the Tigers' joy at cancelling Jasazrin Jamaluddin's 13th minute opener was short-lived as Norizam Salaman grabbed the winner for Johor from the penalty spot in the 67th minute after Tigers defender Nazri Ahmad was adjudged to have brought down Shoufiq Khusaini in the box.

"We only had one day of training together and the Bukit Jalil boys did well under the circumstances," said Kim Swee.

The rule also means that four other players called up by Kim Swee -- Kelantan goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat, Negri Sembilan striker Ahmad Fakri Saarani and Kedah's Faizal Abu Bakar and Ahmad Shakir Ali -- were also barred from their teams' FA Cup matches yesterday.