New M-league Season Kicks Off In May 2024

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 (Bernama) -- The new Malaysia League (M-League) season for 2024/2025 will start on May 3, 2024 and is scheduled to end in April 2025.

The Malaysian Football League (MFL) in a statement said that the change in the M-League calendar schedule, which usually starts in February, is in line with the transition of the local league according to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) calendar format.

According to MFL, it was forced to make a slight change to the previous start date of the Malaysia League, which was in mid-April 2024 after taking into account several factors, particularly the involvement of M-League club players with the national senior (Harimau Malaya) squad, the Under-23 (B-23) squad this year as well as club participation in the 2023 AFC Cup.

“After the Malaysian League ends on Dec 17, 2023, Harimau Malaya players are to report for the centralised training camp on Dec 26, 2023 before heading to the 2023 Asian Cup in Doha, Qatar on Jan 12, 2024 to Feb 10, 2024.

“Then the assignment of the Harimau Malaya squad will continue with the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Qualifying Round match against Oman on March 21 and 26, 2024,” according to the MFL.

In the meantime, the MFL stated that Sabah FC will continue the AFC Cup semi-final campaign in the Asean Zone on Feb 13 or 14, 2024 , as well as the involvement of young players from Malaysian League clubs with the National Under-23 squad in the final round of the Under-23 Asia Cup in Doha, Qatar starting April 15-May 3, 2024.

With several international assignments at the beginning of the year (2024), particularly involving the Harimau Malaya squad and the Under-23 squad, MFL also takes into account the time constraints of the teams in preparing for the new league season 2024/2025 following the Ramadan month from the beginning of March 2024 and the Aidilfitri festivity expected on April 10 or 11, 2024.

Changes to the original planning of the Malaysian League calendar also had to be done by the MFL following the AFC's announcement regarding the date of the 2024 Under-23 Asian Cup only being made on May 17, 2023.

The MFL also informed that the new season of the MFL Cup competition will start on May 13 while the registration date for players involved in the 2024/2025 M-League transfer window will start from Feb 3 to April 26 next year.

-- BERNAMA