Founded 1933
FIFA affiliation 1956
AFC affiliation 1954
Football arrived in Malaya with the British. The locals soon picked
up the game, and before long it was the country's leading sport. Towards
the end of the 19th century, football was one of the central
pillars of most sports clubs in Malaya. But it was not structured. Even
when the Selangor Amateur Football League took shape in 1905 – which
ensured proper administration and organization – the competition was
confined only to clubs in the Kuala Lumpur area.
In 1921, a national tournament featuring all the states that made up
Malaya was started. The competition, known as the Malaya Cup (later
renamed the Malaysia Cup in 1963), has been continuously since then,
except during the war years.
In 1926 the Selangor Amateur Football League was established, and in
1936 the Football Association of Selangor was formed and this
association soon started organizing tournaments and this inspired other
states in Malaya to follow suit.
In 1920, the battleship HMS Malaya visited the country. After
engaging local opposition in football and rugby, the officers and men of
HMS Malaya decided to commemorate the matches by presenting trophies
for annual competitions in both rugby and football in Malaya.
In 1926, the Football Associations of Perak, Selangor, Negeri
Sembilan, Malacca and the Singapore Amateur Football Association, came
together to form the Malayan Football Association (MFA), in order to field a Malayan team against an Australia side that visited Singapore that year.
In 1933, the MFA was revived to form the Football Association of Malaya
(FAM). Initially, the FAM was based in Singapore. It was chiefly
responsible for the running of the Malaya Cup competition. The annual
tournament – played along inter-state lines – was a huge success.
The first president of FAM was Sir Andrew Caldecott followed by M.B.
Shelley, Dr. J.S. Webster, S.D. Scott, R. Williamson and Adrian Clark,
who served up until 1940 – before Europe went on a full-scale war with
Germany . In 1940, control of the FAM moved from Singapore to Malaya,
with A.R. Singham becoming the first Asian secretary in 1941.
The FAM's first president after the war was J. King, to be followed
by H. Byson, and then Dr. C Rawson, who served for two years before
vacating for the first ever non-British personality to take over the
helm.
In 1951, Tunku Abdul Rahman (who was to become the first Prime
Minister of Malaysia) became the FAM president. It was under Tunku Abdul
Rahman that football in Malaysia entered its next phase, with the FAM
taking a much bigger role than just being the backbone in the
organisation of the Malaysia Cup.
The FAM was inducted as one of 14 founding members of the Asian
Football Confederation (AFC) in 1954, before becoming a full-fledged
member of FIFA two years later.
Tunku Abdul Rahman's love for the game was the main catalyst which
resulted in the construction of the Merdeka Stadium and in 1957 it
became hallowed ground for all Malaysians when it was the venue chosen
to announce Malaysia's independence from Britain.
It also signaled the birth of the Merdeka Tournament (Pestabola Merdeka), that was to all intents and purposes the centre piece of the independence celebrations.
The Merdeka Tournament proved to be a huge success, inspiring similar
tournaments like the Jakarta Anniversary tournament, the King’s Cup in
Thailand and President's Cup in South Korea. The inaugural tournament –
then the premier football competition in Asia – was won by Hong Kong.
However, Malaya won the title three years in a row, in 1958 and in
1959, and sharing it with South Korea in 1960. The country qualified for
the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Following the change in name to the Football Association of Malaysia
in the early 1960s, Tunku Abdul Rahman continued to play a big role in
the development of the game through various youth competitions.
Following his departure in 1974, the reins of the FAM was taken over
by Malaysia's second Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, who served for
just one year. The post was then filled by Tan Sri Datuk Seri Setia Raja
Hamzah Haji Abu Samah in 1976, who was the Minister for Trade and
Industry at the time.
Between 1976 and 1984, various football activities were introduced
under Tan Sri Datuk Seri Raja Hamzah, and Malaysian football reached a
new height in the international arena following his appointment as the
AFC president.
The FAM entered a new era of modernization and professionalism when
His Royal Highness the Sultan of Pahang, Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah took
over.
His Royal Highness was integral in the growth of football in the new
era with the introduction of the semi-pro league in 1989 before the game
went fully professional several years later.
Among the high points in Malaysian football under His Royal Highness
was the successful hosting of the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, as
well as the organization of the Premier League, which has been called
the Malaysia League (M-League) since 2004.
During the glory days of Malaysian football in the 1970s and 80s,
names like Mokhtar Dahari, Santokh Singh and Soh Chin Aun would strike
fear in teams all over Asia.
source: http://www.fam.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=128&lang=en
