Thestar- The national futsal
team will compete in an inter-club tournament in Iran ahead of the Asian
Football Confederation (AFC) qualifying tournament in Kuantan next
month.
Coach P. Balakrishnan said that in the tournament in Teheran beginning
next week, Malaysia would be up against top club sides from China,
Uzbekistan, Thailand, Japan, Turkmenistan and the host country.
“We may not be playing against national teams but the club sides are of
equal standards and they will provide us with quality sparring ahead of
the AFC qualifiers,” said Balakrishnan.
He added that seven-time Asian champions Iran had a good club system to
produce players of calibre for the national team.
Malaysia, Turkmenistan, Cambodia, Maldives and Vietnam will play their
qualifying rounds from the Asean Zone at the Sukpa Indoor Sports Complex
in Kuantan from April 18-21. Macau will host the East Zone qualifiers
from April 11-23 and they involve Hong Kong, North Korea, South Korea
and Australia.
Only three teams from the qualifiers will advance to the Finals in
Uzbekistan from May 21-28. The winner of the two zones and the best
runners-up qualify.
A total of 13 teams go directly into the Finals based on the AFC
rankings. They are Iran, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Thailand,
Kuwait, Tajikistan, China, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Taiwan and
Indonesia.
The Malaysian team: Zaidi Ramli, Nik Zainuddin Nik Othman, Abdu Halim
Abdul Hadi, Mohd Fuad Yusoff, Mohd Azhari Ithnain, Mohd Saiful Mohd Noor,
Norul Ahyat Elias, Mohd Feroz Abdul Karnim, Mohd Aideal Boon Abdullah,
Mohd Zaidi Zulkhapri, V. Muneswaran, M. Karthik, Mohd Zary Affendi Mohd
Arif, K. Thayalan, A. Gopinath. |