Myanmar denies playing friendly with Malasia because of its lower position on FIFA Rankings

The first reason given by MFF is that they could not be subjectively involved in the match, as the development of Covid-19 epidemic became extremely dangerous and serious.

“The Secretary-General of the Malaysia Football Federation asked to hold a friendly match, but we had to think carefully because Covid-19 is raging.

Head coach Antoine Hey also does not want to take risks to attend this match,” said the secretary general of the Myanmar Football Federation, Ko Ko Thein.

In addition to the reason for the Covid-19 epidemic, Mr. Ko Ko Thein also said that Myanmar refused to play friendly against Malaysia because the opponent is ranked lower than them in the FIFA rankings.

“If we lose to a team with a lower position in the FIFA rankings like Malaysia, the position of the Myanmar team may be reduced. Therefore, the head coach wants to play friendly against a higher-ranking opponent," the MFF Secretary-General added.

Currently, Myanmar is ranked at 136, while Malaysia is only ranked at 154, Vietnam - Thailand and the Philippines are still the top three representatives in Southeast Asia.

Although the 2022 World Cup qualifying matches in Asia were postponed due to the COVID-19 virus from March and June to October and November, the Myanmar national team under head coach Antoine Hey still assembles on March 12.

Myanmar is temporarily in the 4th position in group F with 6 points after 2 wins and 3 losses, the chances of going to the third Qualifier are not high when the distance between them with the top Japanese team was 12 points.

Recently, Myanmar also caused a stir when they were investigated by FIFA an extraordinary loss with a score of 0-7 on Kyrgyzstan's field in the third round of Group F on October 10, 2019.