KUALA LUMPUR: Mohamadou Sumareh, the country’s first naturalised football player, will find out next Wednesday if Pahang can register him as a local player for this season’s Malaysia League (M-League).
Malaysia Football League (MFL) chief executive officer Kevin Ramalingam said they received the request from the Pahang Football Association (PFA) regarding the matter on Dec 19 and would study it thoroughly.
“According to existing rules, any naturalised player can only be registered as a local player after five years of citizenship.
“We are considering shortening it to one year as the Gambian-born Sumareh has been in Malaysia since he was 12,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
“But I want to stress here that we will not continue making such exemptions after this as it could affect the development of local players.” – Bernama