PETALING JAYA: Palestine have withdrawn from the Merdeka Tournament which begins on Friday.
The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) confirmed the team could not get the border clearance to continue their travel to Malaysia for the historical tournament.
Palestine were supposed to play Tajikistan on Friday (Oct 13) while the Harimau Malaya will take on India in another match on the same day at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
FAM deputy president Datuk S. Sivasundram said there would be no replacement.
“We received confirmation from Palestine this morning (2am) that they have withdrawn from the Merdeka Tournament,” he said.
“We are aware of the conflict (war) there and pray that the situation will improve there.
“FAM will not make any changes to the existing fixtures where Tajikistan will move into the final and will meet the winners of the match between Malaysia and India on Oct 17.
“We cannot find a replacement as it is too close to the tournament while all the other teams have their own plans during the international break.
“Some teams are playing their World Cup qualifiers on Oct 12-17 while others will be involved in friendlies.”
It was the second time in two months that a team had pulled out of the Merdeka Tournament as Lebanon had also done the same in August for a different reason.
Lebanon had withdrawn as they didn’t want to face Palestine, their opponents in the Merdeka Tournament, as both teams are in the same group of the World Cup qualifiers.
However, the FAM found an immediate replacement as Tajikistan accepted the invitation to play in the tournament.
FAM vice-president and competition committee chairman Mohd Firdaus Mohd said the choice of the opposing teams was confirmed after a discussion with national coach Kim Pan-gon and the governing body didn’t anticipate such a situation at the eleventh hour.
“We had initially decided to invite the teams in the top 100 based on the suggestion of our national coach (Pan-gon) as it will help Malaysia to improve their ranking by beating these teams,” said Firdaus.
“We decided to maintain the fixtures after discussing with the other teams as a round robin format will make it difficult for them to change their planned itinerary.”
Malaysia are also using the Merdeka Tournament as part of their preparation for the World Cup qualifiers next month and also the Asian Cup in Qatar in January.
