7 New Year wishes for Malaysian football in 2024: will Harimau ...

Malaysia national footballer Dion Cools (right) will be hoping to do well at the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar. (PHOTOS: Getty Images)

WITH the Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) juggernaut claiming the quadruple for a second successive year and winning the Malaysia Super League for the 10th successive season, the league is in danger of being a one-team league. But these are exciting times are in the offing for the Malaysian national team.

What will 2024 be like? Here’s my wish list for Malaysian football in 2024:

1. Malaysia to advance to the round of 16 at the Asian Cup finals

A place in the round of 16 at this month's Asian Cup finals in Doha is not impossible for Kim Pan-gon’s men, despite Malaysia being the lowest-ranked team in Group E.

The opening tie against world No.87 Jordan on 16 January is key to Malaysia’s prospects. After Jordan, world No.86 Bahrain await them on 20 January, followed by Jurgen Klinsmann’s South Korea five days later.

Under Moroccan coach Hussein Ammouta, Jordan boasts of Montpellier’s right winger Mousa Al Tamari, who has had UEFA Champions League experience. This means left-back Corbin Ong may be fully occupied in the first game.

The engine room is expected to be stoked by Natxo Insa, Brendan Gan and Paulo Josue – a veteran trio with a combined age of 116 years – to supply the chances for either Romel Morales or Darren Lok in the No.9 position, supported by Faisal Halim on the left flank and Arif Aiman Hanapi on the right.

Kim is only the fourth coach and the first foreigner to be given the opportunity to lead Malaysia in the Asian Cup finals. The late Datuk M. Kuppan (Iran 1976), the late Mohamad Che Su (Kuwait 1980) and Norizan Bakar (Kuala Lumpur 2007) could not take their teams beyond the group stages.

Malaysia’s previous appearance as hosts 17 years ago was a forgettable affair, as a team that featured Hardi Jaafar, Hairuddin Omar, Shukor Adan, Indra Putra Mahayuddin and Safee Sali suffered embarrassing defeats - 1-5 by China, 0-5 by Uzbekistan and 0-2 by Iran.

While Kim is fortunate that the tournament has been expanded to 24 teams, he could rue the lack of match practice ahead of the kick off, with Syria the only warm-up match scheduled on 8 January as Saudi Arabia had declined a friendly. By contrast, Indonesia are based in Turkey before flying to Qatar, while Thailand were scheduled to take on Japan in Tokyo on New Year’s day.

Four of the best third-placed teams from the six groups will accompany the group winners and runners-up to form the last 16.

2. Two more wins for Harimau Malaya to advance in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers

Regardless of the outcome of the Asian Cup finals, the national team remain on track to advance into the third round the 2026 FIFA World Cup 2026 Asian zone qualifiers when they resume in March.

Having collected the maximum six points following victories over Kyrgyzstan and Taiwan, Malaysia will travel to Oman on 21 March and play host to the same team five days later, before completing the fixtures with a tricky trip to Kyrgyzstan (6 June) and a home tie against Taiwan (11 June).

Depending how his disciples fare in Doha, Kim will be expected to prepare his team so that they are psychologically fresh as by then the new M-League season will be entering its second month.

Malaysia's Safawi Rasid (left) tussles for the ball with Thailand's Sasalak Haiprakhon during their AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup semi-final second leg clash. (PHOTO: Pakawich Damrongkiattisak/Getty Images)

3. Malaysia to win the Asean Cup 2024

Malaysia last won the AFF Cup, now renamed the Asean Mitsubishi Electric Cup, 14 years ago under Datuk K. Rajagobal, which helped revive interest into the domestic game. As the most watched football tournament in the region, the Asean Cup is Malaysia’s most realistic opportunity to win a silverware at senior international level.

So what if it is held outside the FIFA calendar? The Cup began offering ranking points since the 2016 edition and there is prestige in winning it. Malaysia came close exactly last year, losing emphatically 0-3 to Thailand in the semi-finals.

The Asean Cup is expected to be held sometime late this year outside the FIFA match dates as the calendar is already congested with the AFC Asian Cup and the African Nations Cup in January-February, the Euros and Copa America in June-July, and two international dates each in September, October and November.

4. JDT to start expanding their empire beyond Malaysia

With Hector Bidoglio making a comeback in place of outgoing manager Esteban Solari, JDT have to create a bigger impression at Asian level, having been listed by FIFA as the 11th- ranked club in the continent ahead of the expanded Club World Cup next year.

Despite news that JDT have released players to reduce their operational costs by 40 per cent for 2024 and 2025, the possibility of earning one of the four slots in the world club competition is too good to resist.

Playing in the Super League is merely warm up practice for JDT who have swept every silverware available in the domestic game and the time has come for them to penetrate the Asian elite, no less.

5. Premier League to be revived

It was in March 2022 that the Malaysian Football League (MFL) presented a proposal to Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to abolish the Premier League, seen as not saleable to potential sponsors because it was neither a commercial product nor a proper technical development league.

Of the 10 teams in the Premier League in 2022, six were club sides, three feeder clubs and one was the FAM-NSC Project squad. The Premier League was difficult to sell as a commercial product because the integrity of the competition was compromised due to the presence of feeder clubs, where the players are free to join their Super League colleagues without proper guidelines.

For the 2023 season, the original idea was for all six club sides in the Premier League to be granted promotion to the Super League, with the bottom two having to go into a playoff against the two top sides in the amateur-level M3 League organised by AFL. Due to a variety of factors including the licensing process, the 2023 season began with 14 teams in the Super League.

MFL might want to consider reverting to a two-tier league by reducing the number of teams in the Super League and impose a less stringent licensing process for the Premier League outfits. This will greatly reduce the teams’ expenses on top of providing more local players competitive matches in the Premier League.

6. A perfect pitch to call home for the national team

A well-laid pitch and a smooth surface for Kim’s team to launch an assault at qualifying for the third round of the World Cup qualifiers, without facing uncertainties each time they play an international match.

7. Arif Aiman Hanapi to impress in Qatar

A generational talent like Arif Aiman has to one day leave the nest and try to make the grade overseas for him to become a better player. The Asian Cup is the perfect platform for him to raise the bar and naturally his commercial value.

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