[3] The club was officially established in 1953, with primary funding from Malang's municipal budget.

It was part of the Indonesian Super League until January 2011 when they hosted LPI's inaugural match and stopped relying on public funds.

[4] Persema has yet to secure a trophy throughout its tenure in the Indonesian Super League, consistently occupying mid to lower positions in the standings.

Subsequently, Persema earned promotion to the ISL in 2009 and remained in the league until shifting to the LPI in 2011.

Persema is now popular as the club that first hired European-born naturalized players Irfan Bachdim and Kim Jeffrey Kurniawan whose nominations to the Indonesia national under-23 football team in 2011 were cancelled by the Football Association of Indonesia because they chose to play in the breakaway league.