KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — Malaysia have been drawn in Group B alongside world-ranked 18th Iran for the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) Nations Cup 2025, which will be held in August.
The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) announced that apart from Iran, Harimau Malaya, under coach Peter Cklamovski, who is ranked 131st in the world, will also face hosts Tajikistan (ranked 104th in the world) and Afghanistan (160th).
According to the schedule, Malaysia will open the campaign against Tajikistan on August 29, followed by Iran on September 1 and Afghanistan on September 4, with all three matches taking place in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
“Meanwhile, Group A will take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, featuring four other teams, namely hosts, Uzbekistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, and Oman,” it said in a statement tonight.
Only the winner of each group will qualify for the final, scheduled to be held in Tashkent on September 8. The runners-up of each group will play for third place in Dushanbe on the same date.
After the tournament, Malaysia will continue the remaining Group F matches of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers against Laos in Vientiane on October 9 and here (October 14) before meeting Nepal in Kathmandu (November 18) and facing Vietnam away in March next year.
Meanwhile, Harimau Malaya head coach Peter Cklamovski described the 2025 Nations Cup draw as an important step in the Malaysian national squad’s journey towards building a more competitive team.
“The Nations Cup is an exciting tournament and it is an important step in our journey as a national team. We have been waiting for the draw for some time, and we have obviously had Plan A or Plan B,” he said in an audio shared by FAM.
Cklamovski also described the match against Iran as a great opportunity to assess the true level of the national team.
He also hopes that all Malaysians will give their full support to the national squad in this tournament.
“They are going to a World Cup. It is a massive challenge for us, a massive opportunity for us. We will use it as a way to benchmark ourselves against the best.
“A test of our football against them, we will take our football to them as hard as we can,” Cklamovski said.
— Bernama
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