The Malaysia Premier League () was the second-tier professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

league in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. It replaced the

Liga Perdana 2 Liga Perdana 2 or Liga Perdana Dua () was the nation's second-tier professional football league in Malaysia that operated from 1998 to 2003. The league was formed and established in 1998 as second-tier league after FAM decision to allows clubs ...

in the

Malaysian football league system The Malaysian football league system, also known as the Malaysian football pyramid, is a series of League system, interconnected leagues for men's association football, football clubs in Malaysia. The system has a hierarchical format with promoti ...

. The Malaysia Premier League was contested by 12 clubs. The season usually ran from early February to late October, with a

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

break depending on the

Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar (), also known in English as the Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the Ramad ...

. Clubs played 22 matches (home and away), totalling 132 matches in the season. Most games were played on Fridays, with a few games played during weekdays. The league operated on a system of

promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

with promotion to the

Malaysia Super League The Malaysia Super League (), known simply as the Super League (), is the men's top professional Football in Malaysia, football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnersh ...

and relegation to the

Malaysia M3 League The Malaysia A1 Semi-Pro League (, previously known as the Malaysia M3 League and the MBSB Bank Championship due to sponsorship reasons) is the second level football league of the Malaysian football league system.http://johorsoutherntigers.com ...

. In 2015, the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP) - later known as the Malaysia Football League (MFL) - was created in the course of the privatisation of the Malaysian football. The partnership saw all 24 clubs of the Malaysia Super League and the Malaysia Premier League, including the

Football Association of Malaysia The Football Association of Malaysia (commonly abbreviated as FAM; ) is the national governing body of football in Malaysia, headquartered at Wisma FAM. The FAM is also one of the founding members of both the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) a ...

(FAM) as a managing partner and

MP & Silva MP & Silva Limited was an international sports marketing and media rights firm based in London. Founded in 2004 by Italian businessmen Riccardo Silva and Andrea Radrizzani, the company was primarily involved in the acquisition and international ...

as a special partner, to become stakeholders. The

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

was the final season of the Premier League, as it was discontinued in favour of an expanded Super League, and a future second-tier league. From the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

to the 2018 season, the league was known as the 100PLUS Liga Premier for sponsorship reasons. The last champions were Johor Darul Ta'zim FC II.

History

Origin

The

(FAM) decided to privatise the

Malaysian League The Malaysian League, also known as the M-League ( Malay: ''Liga Malaysia'' or ''Liga-M''), is a terminology used to describe the professional football league in Malaysia. The terminology was mainly used to describe the league and its divisions ...

from the 2004 season onwards where the Malaysia Super League and Malaysia Premier League were formed. Teams in

Liga Perdana 1 Liga Perdana 1 or Liga Perdana Satu () was the nation's top-tier professional football league in Malaysia that operated from 1998 to 2003. The league was formed and established in 1998 to succeed the Liga Perdana (1994–97) after FAM decision ...

and

were then put through a qualification and playoff phase to be promoted into the Malaysia Super League. Teams that failed to qualify were put into the new second-tier league, the Malaysia Premier League. Liga Perdana 1 was the nation's top-tier league from 1994 until 2003 when it was then succeeded by the formation of a new professional football league, the Malaysia Super League in 2004 formed by the Football Association of Malaysia. Liga Perdana 2 was replaced by the new Malaysia Premier League where the teams were divided into two different groups. The inaugural season for the new second-tier league started in 2004 with 18 teams divided into 2 said groups. Between 2004 and 2006, the Malaysia Premier League was divided into two groups of 8 teams, with the number changing due to some teams withdrawing: * First Division: Malaysia Super League * Second Division: Malaysia Premier League Group A * Second Division: Malaysia Premier League Group B At the end of the season, the top team from each group of the Malaysia Premier League were promoted to the Malaysia Super League. The teams that finished at the bottom of each group were relegated to the

Malaysia FAM League The FAM Cup ( Malay: Piala FAM) was a knock-out football tournament for the Malaysia M3 League and the Malaysia M4 League in Malaysia. From 2008 to 2018 it was held as a third-tier league and used the FAM League (Liga FAM) name. The competit ...

. The two group champions also faced-off to determine the Malaysia Premier League champion.

2007 league revamp as a single group

For the 2006-07 season, the Malaysia Premier League was reorganised into a single division of 11 teams instead of being a competition involving two separate groups of teams. There were a fewer number of teams due to more teams being promoted to the Malaysia Super League, as part of that league's expansion, while some others withdrew from the Malaysia Premier League. From 2007 onwards, the Malaysia Premier League was combined into one single league. * First Division: Malaysia Super League * Second Division: Malaysia Premier League

2010 league season with 12 teams

Over the years since its formation, the league has witnessed numerous changes to its format in order to accommodate the changes to the rules and number of teams competing in the league, only since the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

season was when the number of teams competing was stabilised to 12 teams. In 2015, the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP) was created in the course of the privatisation of the Malaysian football league system. The partnership saw all 24 teams of the Malaysia Super League and the Malaysia Premier League including the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) as the Managing Partner and MP & Silva as a special partner (FAM's global media and commercial advisor) to become stakeholders in the company. The company owned, operated and ran five entities in Malaysian football under its jurisdiction, which included the Malaysia Super League, the Malaysia Premier League, the Malaysia FA Cup, the Malaysia Cup and the Piala Sumbangsih. It aimed to transform and move Malaysian football forward.

End of Premier League

MFL has announced in 2022 that it will be discontinuing the league in favour of an expanded Super League from 2023 and a future second-tier semi-professional league replacing the Premier League, meaning that 2022 season is to be the final season of the Premier League in its current form. Excluding feeder teams and FAM-MSN Project team, which will be shifted into the Reserve League, the remaining 6 teams from the 2022 season will have the chance to be promoted to the 18-team

2023 Malaysia Super League The 2023 Malaysia Super League () was the 20th season of the Malaysia Super League, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia since its establishment in 2004, and the 42nd season of top-flight Malaysian football overall. It is the ...

at the end of the season, either automatically (top 4 teams) or through playoffs with the top 2 2022 Malaysia M3 League teams (bottom 2 teams). Late in 2022 though, it was decided by MFL to cancel the playoffs and promote all the non-feeder teams to 2023 Super League, as teams from M3 League have failed in their Super League licence application.

Club licensing regulations

Every team in the Malaysia Premier League must have a licence to play in the league, or risk getting relegated from the league. To obtain a licence, teams must be financially healthy and meet certain standards of conduct such as organizational management. As part of the privatisation efforts for the Malaysian Football League, all clubs competing in the Malaysia Super League and Malaysia Premier League are required to obtain FAM Club Licensing. As a preliminary preparation towards the total privatisation of the league, FAM Club Licensing Regulations was created with the hope of it being enforced throughout the Malaysia Super League fully by the end of 2018 and the Malaysia Premier League by end of 2019.

Privatisation of the league's football clubs

In November 2016, the Melaka United Soccer Association became the third FAM affiliate to separate itself from the management of its football team with a separate entity called

Melaka United F.C. Melaka United Football Club () was a Malaysian professional football club based in Malacca that competed in the Malaysia Super League. They were owned by Kenteam Sdn Bhd, which is one of main nitrile glove producers in Malaysia. The club's hom ...

from the

2017 Malaysia Super League The 2017 Malaysia Super League () was the 14th season of the Malaysia Super League, the top-tier professional association football, football league in Malaysia.Pahang Football Association with Pahang F.C. and the

Johor Football Association Johor Football Association (JFA; ) is the governing body of Association football, football for the state of Johor, Malaysia. JFA is responsible for coordinating and developing football in Johor, and has teamed up with the Football Association o ...

with

Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C. Johor Darul Ta'zim Football Club, or simply JDT, is a professional football club based in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, that competes in the Malaysia Super League, the top tier of Malaysian football. Founded in 1972 as PKENJ FC, the club was ...

in early 2016. State football associations such as the

shifted its focus to state football development and managing their own state league, the

Johor Darul Taʼzim League Johor Football Association (JFA; ) is the governing body of football for the state of Johor, Malaysia. JFA is responsible for coordinating and developing football in Johor, and has teamed up with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) as th ...

. In February 2017, the FMLLP released a statement regarding the official status of Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C. and

Johor Darul Ta'zim II F.C. Johor Darul Ta'zim Football Club II (; ) or simply JDT II is a feeder club for Johor Darul Ta'zim. The club set to play in Malaysia A1 Semi-Pro League from 2025–26, the second tier of the Malaysian football league system. Club's names * 19 ...

where Johor Darul Ta'zim II became an official feeder club to Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C. when the feeder club agreement between both clubs was approved on 19 August 2016. Through the agreement, both clubs were allowed an additional four player transfer quota which can be used outside of the normal transfer windows for players between both clubs. The feeder club was also required to register a minimum of 12 players under the age of 23 for its squad from 2017 onwards. A feeder club will be required to be in the league below the main club at all times which meant that Johor Darul Ta'zim II will never be allowed promotion even if the club won the Malaysia Premier League. By 2018, a feeder club must field four players under the age of 23 in their first eleven during match days and a feeder club is not allowed to play in other cup competitions where the parent club competes in such as the Malaysia FA Cup and the Malaysia Cup.

Logo evolution

Since the inception of the league as the second-tier league in 2004, numerous logos had been introduced for the league to reflect sponsorships. In its inaugural season, the Dunhill logo was incorporated as a title sponsor and it was the only season sponsored by the tobacco company before

tobacco advertising Nicotine marketing is the marketing of nicotine-containing products or use. Traditionally, the tobacco industry markets cigarette smoking, but it is increasingly marketing other products, such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco pr ...

was banned in the country. From 2004 to 2010, the Malaysia Premier League incorporated the TM brand as part of its logo as the title sponsor. After the end of the TM sponsorship which lasted for seven consecutive years, FAM launched a new logo for the 2011 season, partnering with Astro Media. The Astro branding was incorporated as part of the Malaysia Premier League logo from the 2012 season, until the end of the 2014 season. In the 2015 season, no title sponsor was incorporated and the league was sponsored by MP & Silva. For the 2016 season, a new logo was introduced as part of takeover by the FMLLP, when

100PLUS 100PLUS (often pronounced as "hundred plus") is a brand of isotonic sports drink manufactured by Fraser and Neave. It was created and launched in 1983 in both Malaysia and Singapore, with the name commemorating 100 years of Fraser and Neave's ...

was announced as title sponsor.

Sponsorship

Finances

The FMLLP introduced the merit-point system starting from the 2016 season. Points were awarded based on a team’s league position, progress in the Cup competitions (Malaysia FA Cup and Malaysia Cup) and the number of live matches shown. A point in the season’s Malaysian League was worth RM41,000. The money is distributed twice per season. First during early in the season where the teams will receive a basic payment out of that particular year's league sponsorship and the second payment will be received at the end of the season where all merit-points have been calculated. For the 2016 season, the first basic payment consisted of a 30 percent cut out of the RM70 million in league sponsorship that equated to RM21 million which was distributed among the 24 teams of the Malaysia Super League and the Malaysia Premier League. Teams in the Malaysian League have quite often been involved in financial problems as their spending was more than their revenue. The Professional Footballers Association of Malaysia (PFAM) is one of the active members in pursuing the issue of unpaid salaries. In January 2016, the PFAM president suggested a couple of solutions to promote financial sustainability on the competing teams' parts where the teams should make long-term investments by operating according to their budgets and requiring teams' wage bills to be no bigger than 60 percent of their total spending. Other suggestions included for the salaries to be deducted directly from team grants and winning prizes, for points to be deducted from teams experiencing payment issues, and a ruling that requires teams to settle all their late salary payments before the start of every new season. In response to these issues, the FMLLP decided that starting from the 2016 season, football clubs would be given warnings with the deduction of three league points if they failed to pay a player's salary. If the problem persists, it will affect the licence of the clubs. When a club's licence is withdrawn, the team will not be able to compete in the next season. If a team doesn't adopt the right structure, they will be left behind and club licensing will be a problem for them, with the team ultimately dropping out from competing in the league. Other than this, each team raises revenue via sponsorship deals from local, regional and international sponsors for their team.

Media coverage

Radio Televisyen Malaysia Radio Televisyen Malaysia (, Jawi: ; abbreviated as RTM, stylised as rtm), also known as the Department of Broadcasting, Malaysia (; Jawi: ) is the national public broadcaster of Malaysia, headquartered at Angkasapuri, Kuala Lumpur. Establi ...

(RTM), a free-to-air broadcaster had been broadcasting the Malaysian League for years even before the formation of the Malaysia Premier League. They continued to broadcast the league for the most part exclusively until the end of the 2010 season where Astro Media were announced as sponsors and were contracted to manage the broadcasting rights of the league for four years spanning from 2011 until the 2014 seasons. During this time, the league was broadcast on one of the cable channels of Astro Media, which was Astro Arena alongside RTM where it showed

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

broadcasts. In 2015, Astro Media lost the broadcasting rights to the league where the rights were given to

Media Prima Media Prima Berhad (; Trade name, doing business as Media Prima and stylized in Letter case, lowercase title), also abbreviated as MPB, is a Media of Malaysia, Malaysian media company based in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. It is the largest media and en ...

, a parent company of multiple free-to-air channels alongside the broadcast with RTM. In 2016, RTM stopped broadcasting the Malaysia Premier League. However, the broadcasting rights for the 2016 season were given to Media Prima for 3 years with a maximum of three games in each gameweek shown live on television. In 2019,

MyCujoo MyCujoo was a video streaming platformPaul Nicholson"AFC rolls out live streaming platform as media and marketing workshops gather pace" ''Inside World Football'', 29 July 2016. providing live and on-demand broadcast of football matches, sports ...

won the Malaysia Premier League broadcasting rights for the 2019 season, with MyCujoo airing up to 3 games per week and in 2020, aired all 66 games of the season that was truncated due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Although the broadcasting rights were held by the broadcasters, Malaysia Premier League matches have not been shown live for a quite some time as most of the production is fully utilised for Malaysia Super League matches. As a result, matches from the Malaysia Premier League most of the time are only shown as highlights for sports news segments on local television.

Champions

Since the inception of the Malaysia Premier League as a second-tier league in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman (دار الأمان; Arabic for 'The Safe Abode') and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of ...

PDRM FA Polis DiRaja Malaysia Football Club or Royal Malaysian Police Football Club (), well known as PDRM FC (After ''PDRM FC Sdn Bhd'' established in 2020, formerly known as ''PDRM FA''), is a Malaysian professional association football, football clu ...

and

Felda United Felda United Football Club was a Malaysian football club based in Jengka, Pahang, owned by the Malaysian Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA).

are the most successful Malaysia Premier League teams with two titles.

Best performing teams

Table below is a list of the number of league winners since 2004.

Great honours

Great honours for the Malaysia Premier League are entitled to the team who have won 2 trophies (

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

) or 3 trophies ( treble) in the same season. It covers the Malaysia Premier League, Malaysia FA Cup and the Malaysia Cup. As of 2021, only

Selangor Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the e ...

has achieved this feat.

Treble

Players

Golden Boot winners

Below is the list of golden boot winners of the Malaysia Premier League since its inception as a second-tier league in 2004.

Foreign players

The foreign players policy has changed multiple times since the league's inception. In 2009, FAM took a drastic measure when they changed the foreign players policy to banned them from playing in the league until 2011. Foreign players were only allowed be back to the league starting from the 2012 season onwards. All foreign players must obtain International Transfer Certificate from their previous national football governing body that their previous clubs are affiliated to before they can be register with the FAM in order to play in the Malaysia Premier League. * 2009–2011: foreign players banned. * 2012: 2 foreign players. * 2013: 3 foreign players. * 2014: 4 foreign players and only 3 can be on the field at a time. * 2015–2022: 4 foreign players including 1 Asian quota.

References

{{Football in Malaysia 2 Second level football leagues in Asia Sports leagues established in 2004 2004 establishments in Malaysia