No UniKL but number of teams in hockey league unaffected

PETALING JAYA: Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) will not be defending their Charity Shield and Malaysian Hockey League (MHL) titles this year.

The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) confirmed that UniKL did not submit their final confirmation form to compete in the league starting on Feb 18 even after they were given additional time.

Competitions Committee chairman Datuk Seri Dr Anil Jeet Singh said their omission would not affect the number of teams in the men’s league as the national development team will replace them.

“UniKL wanted to take part in this year’s edition, but they failed to submit the final form and we gave them until Feb 7 but we didn’t get any response,” said Anil.

“So we decided to omit UniKL and the national development team, featuring several juniors, will replace them.’’

UniKL won the league for three consecutive seasons since 2019 and in 2020, they created history by sweeping all the titles - the Charity Shield, League and TNB Cup.

As for the Charity Shield, which should be played between UniKL and defending TNB Cup champions Terengganu, Anil said they would make a decision soon.