Harimau Muda is a former

Malaysia national under-22 football team Malaysia national under-22 football team (also known as Malaysia Under-22, Malaysia U-22 or Malaysia B-22) represents Malaysia in international football competitions including in the SEA Games of the 2017 edition. It is managed by the Football ...

. The squad is the feeder team for senior national football team. The club is managed by the

Football Association of Malaysia The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM, ms, Persatuan Bola Sepak Malaysia) is the national governing body of football in Malaysia responsible for organising the Malaysia national football team within the country. The Football Association of ...

. After winning the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

in 2009, the club were split into two teams,

Harimau Muda A Harimau Muda A was the club name for the former Malaysia Under-22 National Football Team, representing Malaysia in international football (soccer), football competitions such as the AFC U-22 Asian Cup, Champions Youth Cup as well as other under ...

and

Harimau Muda B Harimau Muda B was the club name for the former Malaysia Under-21 National Football Team and was managed by the Football Association of Malaysia. The national team played as a club under the name Harimau Muda B which took part in Malaysia Premi ...

due to schedule conflicts between league and international matches. Harimau Muda was reinstated in 2015 by combining Harimau Muda ''A'' and ''B'' back into a single U-22 team with the exception of

Harimau Muda C Harimau Muda C is the team name for the former Malaysia national under-19 club. Football Association of Malaysia managed the Malaysia U-19 team as a football club that took part in Malaysia FAM League from 2013 season. The C team is for under-1 ...

which still plays in

FAM League The FAM Cup (Malay: Piala FAM) was a knock-out tournament for teams in both the Malaysia M3 League and the Malaysia M4 League in Malaysia. The tournament was a cup format, but from 2008 to 2018 was held as a third-tier league tournament and used ...

. On 25 November 2015, it was confirmed that the Harimau Muda has disbanded by FAM which means all the player from

and

will be returned to their own state.

History

The team is aimed at developing Malaysian youth players. The name "Harimau Muda" means "Young Tigers" in

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

Premier League (2007)

Harimau Muda was made up of Under-21 players from across

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, mainly chosen from the SSBJ football team and in the President Cup. Harimau Muda first participated in the Premier League Malaysia 2007-08. Harimau Muda's performance did not go as the

expected, with the club finishing 8th in the 2007–08 season. The FAM considered dissolving the club, but gave Harimau Muda a second chance to participate in the 2008/09 Premier League season, but this time with more experienced, and better players. Harimau Muda proved to FAM that they did not deserve to be dissolved, as their Manager

Ong Kim Swee Ong Kim Swee () is a Malaysian football manager and former footballer, who is the Head coach of Malaysia Super League club Sabah. He spent most of his career playing for East Malaysian teams, notably Sarawak and Sabah during the mid 1990s. Ong ...

led the Harimau Muda team into winning the 2008/09 Premier League season, losing only 2 matches on the way. Following the club's split into two teams, Harimau Muda was not allowed to be promoted into the Malaysia Super League. The

gave

a spot in the Malaysia Premier League later on.

Club splitting (2009)

Owing to international duties in 2009, the Malaysia national U-21 team was needed to participate in the

2010 AFC U-19 Championship qualification The Qualification Competition for the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship. The Draw The draw for the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship (Qualifiers) will take place at AFC House on 20 February 2009. A total of 42 teams will come out of the pots. In the West Zo ...

. But they also needed to participate in the Premier League Malaysia and the

Malaysia FA Cup 2009 The 2009 Malaysia FA Cup, also known as the ''2009 TM Piala FA'' due to the competition's sponsorship by TM, was the 20th season of the Malaysia FA Cup. Selangor has won the title for the fifth time, defeating Kelantan in the final.http://www.rs ...

. This cause a major schedule conflict that posed a great problem for the

. In July 2009, the Harimau Muda were split into two teams.

and

. Harimau Muda B was sent to Zibo,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to participate in the

and Harimau Muda A was to participate in the Premier League and the FA Cup. Harimau Muda B continued to participate half of the 2008–09 Premier League and the FA Cup with only reserves players, SSBJ football team players and mostly loaned age under 21 players from the President Cup, while the key players were with Harimau Muda A. with a combination of reserves players and loaned players, Harimau Muda B manage to play well in the league with the management of the assistant coach. When Harimau Muda A returned to

, they combined and won the 2008–09 Premier League.

officially split the team into two teams after the 2008–09 Premier League finished in order to avoid another major schedule conflict.

Comeback (2015)

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, former FAM's Deputy President has stated that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) must disband the Harimau Muda system, stating the Harimau Muda system is no longer relevant, it was not planned for the long term, and the state football associations should take the responsibility to groom potential players. However, he does not know that Japan use the same method of Harimau Muda concept. Japan U22 also participate in a league which is J3 in their local scene. The difference is the Japanese did not have fixed players. They have 200 players registered and can be called up any time to duel in J3 matches. By doing so, the competition for U22 places is more fiery and open.

Honours

* Malaysia Premier League ** Winners (1):

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

* Bangabandhu Cup ** Winners (1):

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Competition records

Bangabandhu Gold Cup

Staff and coach

* Team Manager: * Assistant manager: * Head coach: * Assistant coach: * Goalkeeper coach: * Physio : * Fitness coach :

References

External links

Football Association of Malaysia

Harimau Muda News
{{AFC teams Malaysia national football team Association football clubs established in 2007 Defunct football clubs in Malaysia 2007 establishments in Malaysia Singapore Premier League clubs 2015 disestablishments in Malaysia Association football clubs disestablished in 2015