Can Harimau Malaya do what the Southern Tigers just did?
Go to Spain, the land of European champions, and play quality friendly matches against good teams there.
Sports critic Sadek Mustaffa said the national team should get the Regent of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, with his global connections, to help out in this area.
"We need to think outside the box, and it's time to use Tunku Ismail's global connections to secure quality opponents. If we cannot get top nations, we should look at playing top football clubs.
"We know that during international breaks most clubs will lose their players, but I think clubs in Japan and Saudi Arabia have top quality players who are no longer internationals," said Sadek.
He felt that Harimau Malaya, who lack matches against top sides, have already made a bad move by withdrawing (due to logistical and player availability issues) from the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) Nations Cup from Aug 29-Sept 8.
Sadek said the national team, who have risen to world No. 125, need to play quality matches against top clubs to maintain their momentum.
He added that it would be a waste for the foreign-based national players — Facundo Garces, Imanol Machuca, Rodrigo Hidalgo — to spend hours travelling to join Harimau Malaya only to play low-quality matches.
FAM announced on Wednesday that Malaysia will play friendly matches against Singapore and Palestine in September.
"What's the point of playing matches that are not going to help our team improve? We have good players based abroad, and they would spend more than 24 hours travelling to play these low- quality matches.
"The national team management already blundered by pulling out of the Nations Cup."
Sadek said the Nations Cup withdrawal should be a lesson for FAM and the national team management.
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