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| Photo: Official photo from The Malaysian Insider |
Professional Footballers Association of Malaysia (PFAM) has revealed on Tuesday that three teams from Malaysia Super League last season have yet to pay the salaries of 21 players with RM 4.47 million in total.
ATM, Kelantan and Felda United are the three teams that have yet to settle the debt.
Two MSL outfits, Kelantan owe RM477, 000 to five of their former players, while Felda United have yet to pay RM222, 000 to their former player Azrul Ahmad.
But the recently-relegated ATM, is the biggest devil of all, owing RM3.7 million to 15 of their former players. What is more surprising is that, the players have two different contracts signed with the team. One contract is approved by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), while another contract is a contract between the players and the management.
The official contract is said to be in lower amount of wages while another contract is a much higher amount of wages. Since FAM only acknowledge the official contract, ATM looked like as if they only have yet to pay the players for a month, when in fact they have yet to pay for the unofficial contract for 6 months. PFAM also suggested that the unofficial contract exist so they could pay less on income tax, EPF and Socso. In extreme cases, they could be charged in court and can end up in jail.
Kelantan have been unable to pay for their players up to four months since last year, but the arrival of Dato Seri Vida means that they finally managed to pay all of their players, except for the five players who left the team this year. In addition, they have yet to pay their former player, Obinna Nwaneri, since he left the team a year ago.
Felda United owe a huge sum of RM222, 000 to former player Azrul Ahmad since they terminate his contract a year earlier, meaning that they have to pay for the compensations as well.
If the unpaid salary have yet to settle within the given time, Kelantan, ATM and Felda might face a three to six-point deduction, or worse, demoted to the lower league.