The FA Cup competition this year will see 35 teams from the Super League, Premier League and FAM League.

However, the season will begin with stage one involving 11 teams from the FAM League.

In the draw conducted in Shah Alam today, five of the 11 teams received a ‘bye’ while six other teams have to compete in an elimination round on Jan 30 to enter stage two.

Awaiting them in stage two will be 12 teams from the Super League and 12 teams from Premier League.

The draw for stage two is scheduled on Feb 19 and 20.

“Unlike previous years, there will be no seeded teams in the FA Cup this year and it will be an open draw as well,” said Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership chief executive officer Kevin Ramalingam.

This means last year’s FA Cup runners-up Kelantan will not be placed as a seeded team and their position in the second round is also via the drawing process.

For the record, last season’s FA Cup champions, Lions XII will not be taking part in the Malaysian League this season after FAM decided not to extend the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) on their participation.

All matches in stage two of FA Cup will played on the knockout system.

- Bernama