THIS has to stop. The FA of Malaysia (FAM) have to muscle up and ban errant teams, who do not settle salary arrears, instead of 'tolerating' their drama season after season.
Melaka and Kelantan have been the usual suspects for the last few seasons with Kedah being the latest to fall into the 'errant club' category.
Unhappy Thailand midfielder Naruphon Putsorn terminated his contract with Melaka recently after he was only paid his February and quarter of his March salaries.
This year, many clubs have made unwarranted excuses to either slash or not pay salaries by blaming the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is despite all of them clearing the Economic Control Programme (ECP) initiative before the start of the season.
The FAM and the Malaysian Football League (MFL) need to take a tough stand as the ECP was supposed to pre-determine the expenditure of each club this year.
"It was a continuous string of empty promises on the phone. My letters, through a lawyer, were also left unanswered.
"I only received my first salary in April, three months after I had arrived at the club," explained Naruphon.
The 32-year-old said he had never experienced this with previous clubs.
"I came to Malaysia because I heard good things about the league from other players.
"My former teammates, Diogo Santo (Johor Darul Ta'zim), Anawin Jujeen (PJ City FC) and Mart Hartmann (UiTM FC) have no problems at their present clubs here.
"Their clubs are fulfilling contractual obligations. However, I would like to state that I was not mistreated at Melaka. I left because the team failed to meet their part of the contract."
Newly appointed team manager Akram Abdullah declined to comment.