PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Football League (MFL) will introduce Financial Fair Play (FFP) for the M-League season starting in May.
The implementation of the FFP has been in the talks since last season after half the teams in the league faced salary arrears issues heading into the new season.
In a statement, MFL said an in-depth study had been carried out by the MFL Club Licensing Unit to adapt FFP to the local football scene while referring FFP to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
“As a result of the study, a system adapted for the M-League requirements for the implementation of FFP has been agreed upon by the MFL board members through a meeting held on March 6,” the statement read.
“The first year of FFP in the M-League will be an introductory year to monitor the salary payments of players and officials which have become the main issue faced in the league as well as increasing the clubs’ responsibility in ensuring strong financial stability.’
After the M-League clubs submit all their documentation and the salary payments monitoring period is over in the first year, MFL will continue to oversee and implement revenue and economical spending rules from the second year onwards to ensure long term sustainability of the clubs.
MFL have hosted its first online FFP briefing session with all the clubs and MFL FFP chairman Sheikh Mohd Nasir Sheikh Mohd Sharif on Thursday and have shared all the FFP requirements for the 2024-2025 season to the teams.
Among the clubs that faced salary arrears last season was Kedah, who although managed to settle their debts just in time to retain their national licence, were still slapped with a three-point deduction for the upcoming season and were fined RM50,000 for having missed the payment deadline.
However it wasn’t the same story for Kelantan and Sarawak who were expelled from the Super League due to their financial problems.
