PETALING JAYA, July 12 — All M-league teams must invest in an automated external defibrillator (AED).

In endorsing the medical committee’s recommendation, the FA of Malaysia (FAM) executive committee also directed the committee to form a unit to vet the health records of all players in the top two divisions.

“We adopted Fifa’s pre-competition medical assessment (PCMA) and there is a constant need to improvise health measures,” said FAM deputy president Datuk Seri Afandi Hamzah.

“All teams must have an AED unit as it can be administered quickly to save lives. Teams will have to purchase it themselves though.”

Yesterday, Mailsport published a special report titled “tackling calamities”, questioning the sporting fraternity if arrangements were in place to provide immediate medical assistance when needed.

National Sports Institute chief executive officer Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz conceded Malaysian sports could be better equipped to handle emergencies and called FAM to ensure team doctors plays a more active role in football.

At present, an AED unit and a team doctor is compulsory only for M-League matches. Teams need to register a doctor for the season but often appoint doctors on a match-to-match basis.

“The health measures should be the same for all instances — be it a competitive or friendly match. We need this to be implemented too and the medical committee will be asked to discuss measures further,” said Afandi, who chaired the Exco meeting.

Just last month, T-Team skipper David Oniya collapsed due a cardiac arrest barely three minutes into a friendly match against Kelantan at the Sultan Mohammad IV Stadium. He later died at the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital but questions were asked if the response was quick enough.

FAM requires all M-League players to undergo an electrocardiogram (ECG) test prior to player registration each year. However, an echocardiogram, which creates images of the heart to enabled a more thorough diagnosis, is only advisable if the ECG raises suspicion.

These records are not inspected as FAM competitions department only checks if a doctor had certified the player fit for play in the summary assessment.

The medical committee will set up a sub committee, comprising qualified medical practitioners, to look into ECG reports of all Super League and Premier League players before issuing a playing licence starting next year.