It was not a joint committee meeting between the MHF and NSC but a Project Management Meeting with regards to the preparation of the national team.
Strange because although the committee decided that it will not be beneficial to go on the Chona Tour, the final say lies with the MHF President as the alternative suggestion to hold a double 3 Nation Tournament will entail costs and only Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah can decide on that.
But the more stranger decision was to deny Chua Boon Huat from going to play in the Austran league. Chua has been offered an opportunity to play in the Austrian league, for a period of five days in September and 10 days in October.
It was a case of Chua missing just a couple of days training in September as he was to play matches on Sept 19 and 21 which would probably be a break from training given the fact that Hari Raya is going to be on during that period. And as for October Chua was required to be in Austria from 1 to 10 October and given that the China Tour could well be off it is indeed surprising that Chua was not given the opportunity to ply his trade in a foreign league.
More so is the fact that Chua was initially given the greenlight to play in the New Zealand League, an opportunity that S.Selvarajoo grabbed since Chua opted out due to personal reasons. So really the decision to deny Chua does not make sense as he could have picked up important info on the ability of the Austrian players who will line up against Malaysia in the World Cup Qualifiers.
When contacted Chua said that he has been informed of the decision and opted not to make any statement as he wanted to discuss the matter with team officials.
Efforts are underway to seek the views of coach Tai Beng Hai with regards to this issue.
