KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Will Thailand be sending their national Under-23 squad for the Merdeka Cup tournament?
That seems to be the poser as sources in Bangkok revealed 16 out of the 22 players selected for the tournament hail from division two southern region league Nara United FC.Three other players are from Muangthong FC youth team while the remaining players are from the Thai Police team.
“This is not our national Under-23 team as most of them are attached to their clubs and have commitments. This is just a selection of players, mostly from Nara United,” revealed an insider.
“The Thai Press had questioned Thailand FA (FAT) over this matter but have not been able to get a straight answer from them.”
FAT have yet to respond to Mailsport’s queries, via email, over this matter.
The FA of Malaysia (FAM), however, have yet to receive the team list from Thailand as the deadline is tomorrow. The team is expected to arrive on September 5 ahead of the tournament in Kuantan from September 7-14. The two other teams competing in the four-nation tournament are Myanmar and Singapore.
Harimau Muda A coach Ong Kim Swee hoped the Thailand national Under-23 team will turn up for the meet.
“If true, then it is not right as they are not respecting the tournament. I even heard Singapore will not be sending their top Under-23 players,” said Ong.
He said stiff competition is important as the teams are preparing for the year-end Sea Games.
“There is no point bringing Under-23 players if they are not national team material. This is an avenue for us to gauge our performance.
“But I truly hope this is not true and we will be playing with national junior teams.”
A similar episode occurred Sin 2009 when Malaysia hosted Zimbabwe for a series of friendly international matches. However, Mailsport — in its report Con Deal? on July 13, 2009 — revealed the team was instead Zimbabwe club Monomotapa United FC.
FAM had earlier refuted the claim, adding the team came with a letter signed by Zimbabwe FA (Zifa). The national body later admitted it will pay more attention to teams playing in the country after Zifa CEO Henrietta Rushwaya, who had approved the team’s trip to Malaysia, was charged with corruption, bribery and match-fixing.
