MAN U’S BEST LINE-UP TO FACE MALAYSIA ON JULY 18

PETALING JAYA, April 28 — English Premier League (EPL) club Manchester United (MU) will field their first team against the Malaysian national team in a match at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil, on July 18.

The match promoter, Proevents International Sdn Bhd (Proevents), said however that the full list of the players coming under team manager Sir Alex Ferguson would be disclosed later.

“The team will arrive in Kuala Lumpur one day before the match and there will be a lot of competitions for the fans to win the passes or tickets to watch the training seasions and the match,” Proevents managing director San Boon Wah told a news conference at Wisma FAM here today.

San said Kuala Lumpur would be their first destination for the Red Devils in their Asian Tour 2009 before heading to Indonesia on July 20, South Korea (July 24) and two days later in China.

The ticket prices would be announced in 10 days times and would range from RM50 to RM90.

San said that the tour to Kuala Lumpur would be great because the team had a big fan base here and the exposure would be worldwide and broadcast to almost 400 million households.

Meanwhile, Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) general secretary Datuk Azzuddin Ahmad said the match would be played at 5.30pm, at the request of the the Red Devils.

“We are looking forward to the match because it will be one of the best exposures for the national team against a quality team such as MU,” he said.

Azzuddin said the list of player who would represent the national team would be decided by national coach K. Rajagobal but the FAM promised that the match would be worth the price.

“Rajagobal will have at least 10 days training to select the best players and we have rescheduled a few of the Malaysian League matches,” he said.

The tour is the Carling Cup and World Cup Club champions’ fourth trip to Malaysia, after 1991, 1995 and 2001 when they hammered the Malaysian national team 6-0.

In July 2007, their friendly match in Kuala Lumpur had to be cancelled due to the clash of dates with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup. Kuala Lumpur was one of the four hosts for the AFC Cup. — Bernama