Even when the Selangor Amateur Football League took shape in 1905 – which ensured proper administration and organisation – the competition was confined only to clubs in Kuala Lumpur.

[2][3] In January 1921, the British Royal Navy battleship HMS Malaya called at various Malaysian ports.

[4] A Malaya Cup committee was set up, and it was decided to run the football competition in northern and southern sections.

[4] The first ever Malaya Cup match was played on 20 August 1921, with Selangor defeating Penang 5–1 in front of an estimated crowd of 5,000 in Kuala Lumpur.

[4] Football began to spread rapidly throughout the region following the establishment of the Cup, although the composition of the teams at the time was mainly based on ethnic background.

The competition was held between state teams including Singapore, Police, Army, and Prisons Department of Malaysia in its early days.

[11][12] In 1959, the Malaya Cup departed from the traditional one-round tournament to a two-round home and away format in three zones: East, South and North.

[15] When it began, it was intended primarily as a qualifying tournament for the final knock-out stages of the Piala Malaysia.

[18] In 1992, FAM created another amateur league for local clubs in Malaysia to compete in, which is called the Liga Nasional.

Some of the clubs that compete in the league are Hong Chin, Muar FA, PKNK from Kedah, DBKL, PKNS, BSN, LPN, BBMB, Proton, PPC and PKENJ.

The lowest four teams from the playoff round were then put into Liga Perdana 2 alongside Police, Malaysia Military, Negeri Sembilan Chempaka F.C., and PKN Johor.

Further changes were made to the Malaysia FAM Cup in 2008 when the knockout stages were abolished and the double round-robin league format was introduced.

They beat Indonesia 42 on aggregate in the final to capture the country's first major international football title.

Malaysia's main rivals on the international stage are their geographical neighbours, Indonesia and Singapore, and past matches between these two teams have produced much drama.

Malaysia is one of the most successful teams in Southeast Asia along with Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, winning the ASEAN Football Championship 2010 and other small competitions while improving at the same time.

Malaysia is one of the national teams to have won the AFF Suzuki Cup as its currently highest international result.

Women Football Association of Malaysia (PBWM) was officially registered in December 1974 where the first president was the Tun Sharifah Rodziah.

A total eight teams compete including Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Pahang, Perak, Penang and Singapore.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are the four most popular Premier League clubs in Malaysia.