Sime Darby shock football fans by pulling out of M-League next season

KUALA LUMPUR: FAM Cup champions Sime Darby FC (SDFC) dropped a bombshell by withdrawing from the M-League next season.
The club through its official website www.simedarbyfc.com made the announcement which will certainly shock the entire nation, especially so because Sime Darby are the FAM Cup champions and have gained promotion to the Premier League next season.
Sime Darby will however, play in the Division One competition of the Kuala Lumpur football league which starts on Dec 7, due to their affiliation with the Kuala Lumpur Football Association.
The club which did not offer any reasons for pulling out said their focus would now be on the development of football at the grassroots, especially Under-12, and their training programme would start in January at the SDFC Training Centre in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam.
However, the decision to pull out could be due to the huge financial implications involved in playing in the M-League.
SDFC shot into prominence by winning the FAM Cup in 2010, thus qualifying to play in the Premier League from 2011-2013 before gaining promotion to play in the Super League for two seasons, 2014 and 2015, but dropped to the Premier League in 2016.
However, SDFC were relegated to the FAM Cup this year.
The team's best achievement was making it to the 2012 FA Cup final but lost to Kelantan 0-1. — Bernama