AFP - Malaysians on Thursday celebrated their first win at a regional football tournament in more than two decades, prompting the prime minister to declare a public holiday.
Malaysia took its first ASEAN Suzuki Cup on Wednesday, beating Indonesia 4-2 on aggregate over two legs of the Southeast Asian championships finals in Jakarta.
The country last won the biennial Southeast Asian Games at the 1989 Kuala Lumpur tournament and had never taken the ASEAN Cup, launched 14 years ago.
The success dominated the front pages of almost all local papers, with the influential Star daily declaring "The Cup is ours" and the New Straits Times plastering a picture of the victorious players across its front and back pages under the headline "CHAMPIONS".
Premier Najib Razak declared Friday a public holiday to mark the victory, according to state media.
"This is the greatest night in Malaysian football. The team had done us proud and we must build upon this success to propel Malaysian football to greater heights," he told the Bernama news agency late Wednesday.
An aide to the premier confirmed the announcement and comments Thursday.
The returning footballers were mobbed by over 500 fans at Kuala Lumpur's international airport in the afternoon, who presented team members with bouquets of flowers and waved Malaysian flags and banners.
In the second leg, held in Jakarta's Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Indonesia beat Malaysia 2-1 but it was not enough to overcome Malaysia's 3-0 win in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday.
Losing the ASEAN Suzuki Cup tournament was a bitter pill for Indonesia to swallow after beating Malaysia 5-1 in a qualification match earlier this month.
Last week's first leg was marred by incidents in which fans aimed laser beams at Indonesian players during the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment