Safee Sali to have trial with Queen's Park Rangers

New Queen's Park Rangers owner Tan Sri Tony Fernandes will hand two Malaysian national players, including Safee Sali, a trial at the English Premier League club.

Fernandes said QPR manager Neil Warnock was impressed with Safee after watching tapes of the Pelita Jaya striker, who was instrumental in Malaysia's AFF Cup triumph last year.

"Neil Warnock saw tapes of Safee and he was very impressed. We're hoping to bring him and one other over for a trial after the transfer period closes," Fernandes told radio station Hitz.fm yesterday.

"The potential for a Malaysian (player) to be noticed is much bigger now that we are here (in England)."

Safee, who joined Indonesian Super League side Pelita from Selangor early this year, would not be the first Malaysian to go on trial at an English club.

Kedah winger Baddrol Bakhtiar and Selangor's Bunyamin Umar attended a two-week training stint with Chelsea in 2008 while Sabah's Liverpool-born goalkeeper Syed Adney Syed Hussein had trials with Middlesbrough and Darlington.

But if Safee is to have any hope of playing in England, QPR would need to overcome stringent British work permit requirements as Fernandes acknowledged.

"We have some issues with the ranking (of the national team) and work permit. We'll deal with it when the time comes," added Fernandes.

To qualify for a work permit, a non-European Union player must feature in at least 75 per cent of his national team's 'A' level matches and his country must have averaged at least 70th in Fifa's world rankings.

While Safee is a first choice for Malaysia, the country's ranking of 146 works against him.

It was the same fate that befell former national midfielder Lim Chan Yew in 2005 when he was about to sign with Bournemouth, then in the English Third Division, only to fail to obtain a work permit.

Safee will return to Selangor, albeit for a one-off outing, at the annual Sultan of Selangor's Cup clash with Singapore in Shah Alam on Oct 1.

Safee will be one of four guest players, including three Britons, who will turn out for Selangor to level the playing field against a Singapore side dominated by naturalised players.

"We hope to have three players from Britain and Safee to balance the Selangor team against a strong Singapore side," said organising chairman Datuk Abdul Karim Munisar on Wednesday.