The Malaysia football season will kick off this Saturday with the Charity Cup or the official name of it: The Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Cup between treble winners Kedah against beaten Malaysia Cup finalist; Selangor.

For the first time ever, Terengganu will have two representatives in the Malaysian League.

Terengganu, the traditional powerhouse and the team which many Ganuans have thrown their support will be joined by T-Team. Both teams however are in different divisions, with Terengganu plying their trade in the Super League while FAM Cup champions T-Team will make their professional debut in the Premier League.

The opening day of the season will see Terengganu hosting Perlis at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Shah Stadium. Then they will travel to the capital to play KL PLUS FC at the KLFA Stadium in Cheras on Tuesday before coming back to the East Coast to host UPB-MyTeam on Saturday.

T-Team meanwhile will play their first ever professional match on Friday, hosting Melaka at the Sultan Mizan before making the same trip to the capital. Their opponent at the MPS Stadium is the Malaysian Armed Forces.

Both teams have astute and experienced coaches in Mohd Nik and Che Ku Marzuki, ironically both of them were in the same Terengganu team that qualified to the last four of the Malaysia Cup where they bowed out to eventual winners, Kedah.

The recent FAM ruling that foreign players are no longer permitted to play in the Malaysian League has brought a bit of equality among competing teams. The move should benefit teams as they would be able to save on the high salaries paid to the foreign players.

Another aspect this ruling could help is the development of more Malaysian players who should grab this opportunity to showcase their potentials and abilities to the fans, who by the recent poor showing by the national team at the AFF Suzuki Cup will be more skeptical in parting with their hard earned money to watch the Malaysian League.

Both Terengganu and T-Team have made acquisitions to strengthen their squads.

Terengganu's success in the four team pre-season tournament, the Mentri Besar Cup should bolster the players' confidence and gives Mohd Nik the idea who will be the core players to bring success to Terengganu.

Meanwhile T-Team will be banking on the many returning Terengganu born players for the maiden Premier League campaign. Experience should be the key as many of them have played at the top level of Malaysian football before. Based on that promotion to the Super League should be a reasonable target for this season.

Achieving that will mean possible derby matches which should be interesting to say the least. For this season the only possibility of them meeting will be the final of the FA Cup as both teams have been drawn in different sections of the draw.

Many football fans in Terengganu are hoping both teams will be successful in their campaigns this season.