PETALING JAYA: More than 20 players from a third-division football team, previously on the brink of entering the premier league, claimed they were not paid their wages for two months.
Several members of Perlis United Football Club (PUFC) are now forced to take on side jobs, including dispatch work and rubber tapping, to make ends meet, the New Straits Times reported.
Presently, PUFC is eighth in the 14-team Liga M3. The club was on the verge of advancing to the Super League, the country’s top tier football league, last month but it did not progress due to multiple issues.
Former PUFC captain Azizi Mat Rose, 42, claimed nearly RM150,000 was owed to 23 players from last season. He said the players have demanded their wages, but the club’s management has stayed silent.
Azizi, who has played for JDT, Kelantan and Terengganu, said he was only concerned for the fate of players who have nowhere else to go, despite being unpaid.
Striker Sadam Hashim, 32, said he was forced to tap rubber as he has a family to feed.
Malaysian Football League, the company that runs the country’s major football leagues, had considered PUFC to advance to the top Super League for the 2024-2025 season, after it claimed to have sponsorship offers amounting to RM25 million from four different parties.
In a statement last month, MFL CEO Stuart Ramalingam said PUFC had also submitted a RM5 million cheque from one of the sponsors as proof of the team’s funding.
He added that the club also submitted letters of support from the Perlis state government, signed by menteri besar Shukri Ramli and the Perlis Football Association.
On March 21, PUFC CEO Rozailmee Zulkeply was reported by Utusan Malaysia as saying that he would be appealing against MFL’s decision against letting the club advance to the Super League.
FMT has contacted PUFC for comment. - FMT
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