Founding
A football league competition involving the representative sides of the state football associations was first held in Malaysia in 1979. When it began, it was intended primarily as a qualifying tournament for the final knock-out stages of the Malaysia Cup. It was not until 1982 that a League Cup was introduced to recognise the winners of the preliminary stage as the league champions. Over the years, the league competition has gained important stature in its own right. [2]
Initially the only teams allowed to participate in the league were the state FA's sides, teams representing the Armed Forces and the Police, and teams representing the neighbouring countries of Singapore and Brunei (though the Football Association of Singapore pulled out of the Malaysian League after the 1994 season following a dispute with the Football Association of Malaysia over gate receipts, and has not been involved since).
In 1992, FAM created another amateur league for local clubs in Malaysia to compete, which is called the National League (Liga Nasional in Malay) [3] The league was managed by FAM outside entity, Super Club Sdn. Bhd. Some of the clubs which compete in the league are Hong Chin, Muar FA, PKNK from Kedah, DBKL, PKNS, BSN, LPN, BBMB, Proton, PPC and PKENJ. Unfortunately, the league only ran for a couple of seasons before it folded. Some of the clubs were then evolved and joined the main league, such as PKENJ, which became JCorp and now as JDT.
Between 1994 and 1997, there was no second level league as the top two leagues were combined. 1994 was when Malaysian football league turned professional. The Liga Semi-Pro essentially replaced by the Liga Perdana, a new national league which was added, alongside a second cup competition, Piala FA, joined the existing Malaysia Cup.
In 1997, promotion from Malaysia FAM Cup to the professional Malaysian League was introduced for the first time. Johor FC and NS Chempaka FC were the first two sides to be promoted that year to Liga Perdana 2 for 1998 season.
In 1998, Liga Perdana was divided into two divisions consist of Liga Perdana 1 and Liga Perdana 2. [4] [5] During this time both of the division was still just referred as Malaysian League as a whole.
During 1998, Liga Perdana 1 consist of 12 teams while Liga Perdana 2 had 8 teams. [4] 10 teams that previously qualified for Malaysia Cup which played in 1997 Liga Perdana was automatically qualified to Liga Perdana 1. The other two spots were filled by playoff round of 5 lowest teams in 1997 Liga Perdana and the Malaysian Olympic football team. The lowest four teams from playoff round will then put into Liga Perdana 2 alongside Police, Malaysia Military, Negeri Sembilan Chempaka F.C and PKN Johor. At this time the league still consisted of semi-pro team where each team was allowed to register 25 players where 12 players must be a professional for Liga Perdana 1 and a minimum of six professional players in Liga Perdana 2. [4]
Both leagues continued until 2003 when Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) decided to privatise the league for 2004 season onwards where Liga Super was formed. Teams in Liga Perdana 1 and Liga Perdana 2 were then put through a qualification and playoff to be promoted into Liga Super. Teams that failed the qualification were put into new second-tier league, the Liga Premier.
Malaysia 
Brunei 
