Hong Kong football friendly against Malaysia cancelled amid protest fears
- Match was supposed to be held at Hong Kong Stadium on October 15 but Malaysians claimed ‘its incapability of visiting Hong Kong’
- Hong Kong coach Mixu Paatelainen was hoping for a warm up game before team play Bahrain and Cambodia at home in their World Cup qualifiers
Hong Kong’s football friendly against Malaysia has been cancelled after the Southeast Asian nation claimed its “incapability of visiting Hong Kong”.
The match was scheduled to take place at the 40,000-seat Hong Kong Stadium on October 15, five days after Hong Kong play Iraq in Basra in the 2022 World Cup Asian zone qualifiers.
The Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) said the Malaysians gave sudden notice of their withdrawal on Wednesday. A HKFA spokesman said they had tried to convince Malaysia to change their mind but to no avail.
“The Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) regrets to announce that the international friendly match between Hong Kong and Malaysia, which is scheduled on 15 October 2019 is now cancelled after Football Association of Malaysia submitted a written notice to HKFA on 25 September 2019, announcing that their incapability of visiting Hong Kong.
“The HKFA understands fans’ expectation for all Hong Kong representative team home matches and attempted to negotiate with the Malaysia side, however both sides failed to reach any positive results at the end,” the statement said.
