K. Rajagopal’s side want to climb up the FIFA World Rankings ladder.
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has urged the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to schedule more international friendlies for the national team.
The Malayan Tigers currently sit 159th in the FIFA World Rankings and are intent on improving their position having had triple digits next to their name since 1997 when they were 87th, while their highest rung on the ladder was 75th back in 1993.
FAM’s hesitancy to organise matches against other countries has come under fire recently with their detractors not seeing the benefit of continually playing club sides where the result doesn’t carry any ranking points.
Jamaluddin recently backed the Association’s decision to retain head coach Datuk K. Rajagopal until the end of the year but believes they need to start providing his side with proper opposition if they’re to climb further up the rankings.
“If we look at this year’s calendar, it is not right as we played against a lot of teams with club status,” Goal.com report him as saying to Sinar Harian
While being against Malaysia arranging fixtures with minor club teams Jamaluddin does agree with the friendlies where the opposition is of a superior quality like Chelsea or Barcelona.
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