KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) intends to organise two series of Tier 1 international friendly matches involving the Harimau Malaya through the biomedical bubble concept in the country in September.

Its secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam said FAM had made an application to the National Security Council (MKN) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) through the Ministry of Youth and Sports to present its own proposal paper for organising the matches.

According to Stuart, FAM has also obtained consent from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to jointly assist in the presentation of the proposal paper to strengthen the facts and arguments on the proposed organisation of these matches.

He said AFC would share details on standard operating procedures (SOP), facts and their experience in handling the second round of the 2022 World Cup/ 2023 Asian Cup Qualifiers and the AFC Champions League using this method.

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“AFC have also agreed to cooperate and assist FAM in undertaking the two international friendlies utilising the biomedical bubble concept in September,” he told Bernama today.

He said FAM are confident that the proposal paper and details of the SOP to organise the matches the biomedical bubble way would be approved by MKN and MOH as it took into account all aspects of safety and health for the national squad and the opposing teams.

He said these SOP and biomedical bubble method have been implemented and proven to be effective globally and not something that have not been tested.

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“FAM will in no way take any risk concerning the safety of players, officials and all Malaysians and FAM is confident that this biomedical bubble can be implemented in a safe and secure manner for the safety of all parties involved,” he said.

Meanwhile, Stuart confirmed that the three teams in FAM’s consideration for the two Tier 1 international friendly matches during FIFA’s window (for such matches) from Aug 30 to Sept 7 are Palestine, ranked 104th in the world, India (105). and Taiwan (141).

Malaysia are currently ranked  153rd in the world. — Bernama