MALAYSIA TO FIELD U-16 PLAYERS IN ASEAN U-17 BOYS' CHAMPIONSHIP

KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will field a younger squad to participate in the 2026 ASEAN Under-17 Boys’ Championship in Indonesia this April.

The decision to only send 16-year-old players instead of the 17-year-olds is to give Shukor Adan's Harimau Malaya Under-16 (U-16) squad early preparation ahead of the 2027 U-17 Asian Cup Qualifiers in November.

National Football Development Programme (NFDP) technical director Datuk Ong Kim Swee said the decision was made after discussions with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) management, including FAM technical director Scott O'Donell.

"The 2026 ASEAN U-17 Championship is actually used as a preparation or warm-up for teams under the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) who will compete in the 2026 Asian U-17 Cup in Saudi Arabia in May.

"Five teams, namely Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Australia, sent their U-17 squads (born in 2009) to this tournament because they qualified for Saudi Arabia while we failed in the qualifying round last November," he said in a statement today.

Kim Swee said that despite sending a young squad, he is confident and believes that the country's players will still be able to provide a great challenge in Indonesia.

The 2026 ASEAN U-17 Championship will be held in East Java, Indonesia from April 11 to 24, 2026 with Malaysia in Group A with hosts Indonesia, Vietnam and Timor-Leste.

Group B features Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines while Group C is lined up with Australia, Cambodia, Singapore and Brunei.

For the record, the national team failed to advance past the group stage at the 2024 edition in Surakarta, Indonesia.

-- BERNAMA