Malaysia W

Origins

The Malaysia Super League was formed in 2004 following a decision by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to privatise the league. The inaugural season started on 14 February 2004. As a result, the Malaysia Super League Sdn Bhd (or MSL Proprietary Limited) was created to oversee the marketing aspects of the league, but it was not fully privatised.

The league has seen numerous changes to its format from eight clubs, at one point 14 clubs and now 12 clubs and then back to 14 clubs to accommodate changes to the league rules and withdrawal of certain clubs from the league in order to create a competitive environment and professional management among the clubs.

Foundation

The Malaysian League was revamped to be a fully professional league in 2004 which coined the creation of a new top-tier division, the Malaysia Super League. Between 2004 and 2006, the professional football league in Malaysia was divided into two levels and two groups:

Top tier: Malaysia Super League (8 teams)

Second tier: Malaysia Premier League Group A (8 teams)

Second tier: Malaysia Premier League Group B (8 teams)

The new top-tier Malaysia Super League was competed by eight teams while there were 16 teams competing in the new Malaysia Premier League which was divided into 2 groups. While there were only eight teams in the league prior to the 2006–07 season, positional movements were radical. Successive losses would condemn clubs to a relegation dogfight. Similarly, successive wins would put a team in contention for the title. The Malaysia Super League had gone through two format changes in its short history spanning three years. The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) decided to expand the Malaysia Super League to accommodate 14 teams instead of eight, which was the number of league teams during the Malaysia Super League's first three seasons. But the plan was held off when some of the teams withdrew from the league due to financial reasons. The 2009 to 2012 seasons were the only seasons that the league would have 14 teams, with all teams playing each other twice culminating in 26 matches per team and 182 matches in total.

For the 2007 season, the Malaysia Premier League was combined into one division rather than two groups and in 2008 the Malaysia FAM League was revamped to a league format instead of a knockout competition format, with the latter itself replaced by a new third tier called the Malaysia A1 Semi-Pro League in 2019:

Development

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 in the Malaysia Super League and the Malaysia Premier League involved, 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 FMLLP owned, operated and ran the Malaysia Super League. Besides that, other competitions in Malaysian football were also under its jurisdiction, which include the Malaysia Premier League, the Malaysia FA Cup, the Malaysia Cup, and the Piala Sumbangsih. It aimed to transform and move Malaysian football forward to another level.

More than a decade after the league's inception, a total of eight clubs have been crowned champions of the Malaysia Super League with Pahang being the first champions. Johor Darul Ta'zim have won the league 7 times while Kedah, Selangor, and Kelantan have won the league twice each; Pahang, Perlis, Negeri Sembilan and LionsXII have won it once. On 9 September 2016, Johor Darul Ta'zim became the first team to win the Malaysia Super League three times consecutively.