KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has been given the honour to be the first country to use the newly introduced ranking system when the country hosts the 2024 Sepak Takraw World Cup Championship at the Titiwangsa Stadium from May 19-26.
Secretary-general of the International Sepaktakraw Federation (ISTAF) Datuk Abdul Halim Kader said the introduction of the system was one of the efforts to enable the sport to gain recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for inclusion in the Olympic Games.
"Perhaps after this, ISTAF will only allow ranked countries to enter prestigious tournaments such as the Asian Games just like badminton and other sports.
"This (ranking) is a process of continual updating to win recognition from the IOC and if sepak takraw enters the Olympic Games, there is already a system introduced and not haphazardly ad hoc, that is why this World Cup in Malaysia is very important," he said after the Sepak Takraw World Cup committee meeting here today (January 8).
Also present at the meeting was the president of the Sepaktakraw Association of Malaysia (PSM) Datuk Mohd Sumali Reduan.
Touching on the 2024 Sepak Takraw World Cup tournament, Abdul Halim said that at least 16 countries will take part in the prestigious tournament with 11 of them having confirmed their slots through three events namely team, regu and doubles.
He said the 11 countries involved are Malaysia, Thailand, India, South Korea, Myanmar, China, Chinese Taipei, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore and Japan.
"Participation in the Sepak Takraw World Cup is only open to the men's teams because the women's event will be held in Saudi Arabia next year.
"So, many elite teams will be participating and we actually got positive feedback from Germany, a combination of European countries and the United States which also want to send teams. Closing date for participation is at the end of this month," he said. — BERNAMA