Singapore will no longer be in the Malaysia Cup. 4 years after returning to the Malaysian League, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) announced that Singapore will not be invited back next year for the Malaysian Super League.
A lot of people were surprised by this, and I count myself among them. However what surprised me was the timing of the announcement, the current season is still on-going, and not the announcement itself. I always though Singapore's return to the Malaysian League was going to be a short affair and I was right. I never thought Singapore will be in the Malaysian League for the long term because well...I can't see what Malaysia is getting out of the deal?
The LionsXII participation in the Malaysian Super League got great interest in Singapore. Malaysian side Harimau Muda entry in the S.League is an after-thought. When Singapore left in 1994, Malaysian football survived and some would argued even thrived. The S-League is, and some would argued always has been, on life-support. We Singaporeans like to blow our own horn but the fact is that Singapore football need the Malaysian Super League far more than Malaysia need Singapore. They sure as hell don't need the local S-League.
So the FAM decision does not surprise me. They are getting little to no return with Singapore's return to the Malaysian League so they are making the only decision that makes sense to them. Truthfully, looking at it from their point of view, they made the correct decision.
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