KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 — It’s been almost a year and still the Malaysia Stadium Corporation (MSC) has not done much about the bad condition of the pitch at the National Hockey Stadium, says Malaysia Hockey Confederation (MHC) president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal.

It is learnt that MHC had written to the MSC about the bad state of the pitch, which posed a great risk to the players, early this year.

Subahan hoped that MSC, now headed by chairman Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, would act fast as the venue would be used to host the next round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Qualifiers, dubbed the Hockey Series Finals, in April 2019.

Besides hosts Malaysia, Austria, Canada, Italy, Wales, Vanuatu, China and Brazil will compete in the Hockey Series Final scheduled from April 26 to May 4. Only the top two finishers will advance to the final round of the qualifiers.

Subahan said that the pitch had not been cleaned since it was laid before the SEA Games last year, with "a lot of grease and all these algae kind of thing on the pitch and it is quite dangerous”.

"We need it to be cleaned because we are going to host the Olympic qualifiers in April. We really hope that MSC, which now has a new chairman, will seriously look into it and help ensure the pitch is in good condition for the safety of the players,” he told Bernama. — Bernama