Numbering in FA Cup second round draw causes confusion

A 6 and a 9 became the two most talked about numbers in Malaysian football on Monday after confusion arose during the 2nd Round FA Cup draw.

What was supposed to be a run of the mill cup draw turned out to have plenty of talking points after the number orientation left the draw conducted by the Malaysian Football League (MFL) gathering more interest than it already was.

The social media was abuzz when the number '9' was pulled out from the bowl when the position number had already been drawn out earlier. It was quickly corrected as number '6' and Kedah was handed an away game against Selangor United.

However upon closer inspection the previous earlier number '9' pulled out which gave Kelantan a home cup tie against Selangor, was actually the number '6'. So essentially Selangor United should be playing Kelantan while Kedah should be hosting Selangor did not quite turned out that way.

MFL chief executive officer Kevin Ramalingam later clarified that despite the error, the panel of observers had allow the initial draw to stand with the concerning teams all not having raised any complaints. Which leaves Selangor United v Kedah and Kelantan v Selangor remaining on the fixture list.

Earlier due to Perlis being kicked out of the competition, there was one slot which became a bye and that went to Johor Darul Ta'zim FC. A total of 10 non professional teams made it to the second round draw with one fixture drawn between Jerantut FA and JB FA, which means that there will be at least one of them making it to the third round.

In the full completed draw where 14 fixtures were decided, there were only one all Super League clash between PKNS FC and Melaka and one all Premier League clash between PDRM and Sarawak. Which meant that all the other 12 fixtures sees a team from the lower division facing one in a higher division.

The draw in full

Protap FC v UKM FC
Perak v Negeri Sembilan
Selangor United v Kedah
Batu Dua FC v PKNP FC
Kelantan v Selangor
PDRM v Sarawak
PKNS v Melaka
Penjara FC v Pulau Pinang
PIB FC v Pahang
Tun Razak FC v Kuala Lumpur
Kuching FA v Felda United
Ultimate FC v Terengganu FC
UiTM FC v PJ City FC
Jerantut FA v JB FA
Kelantan United v Sabah