Courtesy: The Star On Line


MBPP live up to expectations

Wednesday, 28 December 2016

THE Penang Island City Council (MBPP) futsal team kept their promise to qualify for the National Futsal League (NFL) 2017 in just their first attempt.

The MBPP team, who were only set up earlier this year, remained unbeaten in all their four matches during the recent NFL qualifying tournament at the Panasonic Sports Complex in Shah Alam, Selangor.

MBPP were the first among the 10 teams in the qualifying tournament to book their place in the NFL, the premier futsal competition in Malaysia, after clinching top spot in Group B.

The Penang clubside beat Kuantan Rangers 4-3, Armed Forces 5-1 and KSMR Kangar 10-4, and drew 3-3 with the Penang state futsal team.

Initially, only the top two teams from the qualifying tournament were supposed to make the cut to NFL 2017. But following Selangor’s pullout from the league, the organisers increased the number to three.

Besides Group B champions MBPP, Petaling Putra also gained automatic qualification after topping Group A.

KL City clinched the final berth to the NFL 2017 after edging KSMR Kangar 2-1 in the playoff between the two groups’ runners-up.

“I am happy with my players for delivering the results during the qualifying tournament.

“They played to instructions and applied everything we tried out during our training sessions.

“Everything worked out well for us during the qualifiers,” said MBPP coach Mohamad Faizal Osman.

He added that there would be no let-up in the intensity of the team’s training despite securing a place in the NFL 2017.

“I gave the players a well- deserved one-week break after returning from the qualifying tournament.

“After that, it is back to hard training for the boys. We need to prepare for the start of the NFL 2017 season on Feb 4. We want to ensure that MBPP will put up a strong challenge and not just make up the numbers in the league,” said Mohamad Faizal.

Besides the three newcomers MBPP, Petaling Putra and KL City, the other seven teams in NFL 2017 are Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Perak, Pahang, Sabah, Terengganu T-Team and 2015 champions Felda United.

NFL was not held in 2016 following the sudden withdrawalof the main sponsors Felda.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com