Kota Kinabalu: Sabah FA secretary general, Alfred Lojiton has called on the Malaysian Football Association (FAM) to look into the postponement of the Sabah-Police Premier League clash.
This is in the wake of a national newspaper, Berita Harian report revealing that there could be other agenda behind the postponement.
"It would be a wise thing for the FAM to find out the truth behind all this.
If it is true that there is no work being done then I see no reason why the match should have been postponed, he said.
"If the report is true of course we will be very upset because the match was postponed for no reason, said Lojitan on Tuesday.
"And furthermore it is not good for the league itself when a particular team receives different treatment from the other.
"If the FAM is to have double standards in their ruling or decision, I don't think it will do the sport good.
"It is our humble call to ask the FAM to thoroughly look into the newspaper report because this little thing cannot go on and affect the development of the league.
"At the same time, we would also be requesting our President Datuk Anifah Aman, who is one of the Vice Presidents (of FAM) to bring the matter up to the FAM.
The match that was initially scheduled for March 23 at the MPS Stadium was postponed following a request by Police, who produced a letter from the Majlis Perbandaran Selayang to the FA of Malaysia stating that the venue will be under repair during the match day.
In the letter it stated that the stadium would be closed for some drainage works from March 21-25.
However a check by the said newspaper (Berita Harian) on Sunday found that there were no repair work done and thus this gave an indication that something was going on.
The FAM regulations clearly states that any request for postponement must be made 14 days before match day.
Another factor to take into account is the mutual agreement between the two teams.
The said newspaper then went on to assume that the postponement was made on the request from the sponsor of the Police team who refused to play following the absence of one of its import players from Kenya, Benedict Changi, who flew home to play for his country's Olympic squad. The said newspaper also quoted FAM Secretary General Datuk Dr Seri Ibrahim Saad as saying that the postponement was made two days before match day as they have no choice following a letter from the MPS.
"We did not postpone the match on purpose. The Police team management informed us about the MPS plan to do some drainage works on the stadium.
"And because there is no stadium available around Klang Valley, we had no choice but to postpone the match. For the record, the match has been rescheduled for May 7."
