Piala FAM was established in August 1951 as a secondary knockout competition to the more prestigious Malaya Cup.

[3] The competition was held between the state teams and uniformed units including Singapore, the Police, the Army, and the Malaysian Prison Department in its early days.

[1] The final knockout competition format was played out for the 2007 season where four clubs were promoted including the champions, runners-up and the losing semi-finalists.

[7][8] In 2008, further changes were made when the knockout stages were abolished and a double round-robin league format was introduced.

[14][15][16] It was announced on 19 December 2018 that the format was changed back to a straight knock-out tournament, starting from the 2019 season.