Sports / Soccer |
Man. United quit Malaysia tour(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-05-24 15:32 English Premier League champions Manchester United have cancelled their planned visit to Malaysia in July under pressure from the Asian Football Confederation. The decision followed talks in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday between AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam, Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards and Manchester United chief executive David Gill. As AFC concerned, Malaysia play a host for the Asian Cup during Man. United's visit, which means the club cannot play the game without the official approval of the AFC. United said the only way the match could go ahead was if the AFC changed its mind. An AFC official Thursday told its position remained unchanged -- that the match cannot take place while the Asian Cup is on from July 7-29. All four Asian Cup host nations -- Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam -- made pledges to the AFC that they would not hold or promote any other football matches during the flagship tournament. However, the rest of United's Asia tour to South Korea, Japan and Macau is
set to go ahead despite AFC's calls for it to be
postponed. |
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