Pahang Football Association takes legal action against Sumareh

In a statement today, PBNP claimed that the 25-year-old Gambian-born athlete, who is also the country's first naturalised footballer, had violated various terms and conditions stipulated in the agreement signed between the two parties.

According to the statement, Sumareh breached the contract agreement when he failed to participate in the Pahang team's training session since August 3, as well as failing to attend several Super League matches involving Pahang, since the league resumed on Aug 28.

"So PBNP has a strong basis to state that the player (Sumareh) has violated various terms and conditions as stipulated in the agreement signed.

"PBNP will take appropriate legal action against the player in accordance with the agreement signed based on the relevant regulations set by FAM (Football Association of Malaysia)," said the statement.

At the same time, PBNP denied that it had failed to pay wages to Sumareh, saying instead it had stuck to the agreement signed between the two parties.

"The player himself is aware of this matter," said the statement.

Yesterday, Sumareh who was reported to have another two years remaining under his contract with Pahang, completed his transfer to Thai League side Police Tero FC, with an undisclosed transfer fee.

The transfer came within two weeks of Pahang coach Dollah Salleh's revelation that Sumareh had not trained with the team since early August.

Local media had previously reported that the dispute between Sumareh and PBNP was due to PBNP's failure to pay the player's salary, which saw the player file a claim of more than RM1 million against Pahang through his Swiss-based lawyer.