History
1970s until 1990s
In March 1975, Women's Football Association of Malaysia was established with Tun Sharifah Rodziah as its first President and Datin Teoh Chye Hin taking on the role of Secretary General. Among the earlier member states in this new association were Perak, Penang, Negri Sembilan and Melaka. [3]
Soon after its formation, the Malaysia women’s national football team participated in their first competition, the first Asian Women’s Football Championship which now known as AFC Women’s Asian Cup organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in Hong Kong. The Malaysian team managed to earn a respectable fourth placing after losing to Australia in the third place play-off. [3]
Encouraged by the team’s success in Hong Kong, Datin Teoh Chye Hin set in motion plans in 1976 to organise a special football competition for secondary schoolgirls in Perak. By the late 1970s, football associations in other states also started organising similar competitions to inject fresh blood into their respective state teams. [3]
These efforts started bearing fruit in the early 1980s when the Malaysian women’s football team coached by Shamdin Yusoff finished third in the 1983 AFC Women’s Asian Cup tournament held in Bangkok, Thailand. [3] One of Malaysia's key player in the 1983 tournament is Normala Rashid who is dubbed as the 'Lady Mokhtar Dahari' by the Malaysian media in the 1980s. [4]
Despite the success in 1983, not much has been heard about Malaysia women’s football team until 1995 Southeast Asian Games. Assembles only 15 days before the tournament, Malaysia coached by Paramsivam Manickam manage to grab the silver medal, losing 1–0 to host Thailand in the final. [5]
2000s
Entering 2000s, women's football in Malaysia is considerably underdeveloped with no women's football league. Despite that, Malaysia still manage to enter the semi final and finish fourth at the 2003 Southeast Asian Games under the guidance of Zhang Hong, a women's football coach from China which also the first female to coach Malaysia women's football team. [6] [7]
In 2005, the team was one of eight that included the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore, that were expected to field a women's football team to compete at the SEA Games in the Philippines. [8] However, Olympic Council of Malaysia decided not to sent the team to the competition after they suffered their heaviest defeat in history, a 16–0 lost at home to Myanmar in a friendly. [9]
In 2006, Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) appointed former player Normala Rashid as FAM’s head of women’s football. Among the achievements during her role is the first ever gold medal for the national women’s team at the Arafura sports festival in Australia, a semi-final qualification at the 2007 AFF Women's Championship in Myanmar, and the first national women’s futsal interstate championship. [4]
However, Malaysia still performing badly in regional and continental competition, especially in the 2009 Southeast Asian Games, which saw Malaysia lose all matches by large margins, leading FAM to suspend the women's national team from international competition. [10]
2010s
Malaysia return to international stages in 2011 AFF Women's Championship but still lost heavily to Thailand and Myanmar. In 2012 AFF Women's Championship, Malaysia have the chance to enter the semi final but eventually lost 3–2 to Laos. At the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, Malaysia coached by Jacob Joseph qualified to the semi final for the first time after 10 years and finish in fourth place. [11]
In December 2015, FAM hired Asyraaf Fong Abdullah to coach the women's national team. [12] However, Malaysia still failed to advance past the group stage of AFF Women's Championship in 2015 and 2016. In 2017 the team start the year on positive notes by defeating Bangladesh 2–1 and Singapore 4–0 to win the Women's Development Tournament hosted by Singapore. [13] At the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, Malaysia lost all their matches despite playing at home.
Jacob Joseph return as the head coach of Malaysia women's team in 2018 and led the team at the 2018 and 2019 AFF Women's Championship and 2019 Southeast Asian Games which Malaysia failed to advance past the group stage.
2020s
After the pandemic in 2020, Malaysia played their first match after 2 years against Thailand and Palestine for the qualification to 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup. Malaysia lost 4–0 to Thailand and won 2–0 against Palestine. After the qualification match ended, the national players urged FAM to setup the first women football league in Malaysia. [14] Consequently, FAM finally establish Malaysia National Women's League in 2023. [15]
In 17 November 2022, FAM appointed Soleen Al-Zoubi from Jordan, the second female head coach in Malaysia women's team history. [15] Under Al-Zoubi, Malaysia finisehd third in the 2023 Women's International Friendly Tournament defeating host Saudi Arabia 1–0. [16]
In 14 May 2025, FAM appointed Joel Cornelli as first Brazilian head coach of the national women's football team replacing Soleen Al-Zoubi, who has been reassigned as FAM women's football technical director. [17] Cornelli lost the first match 2–1 against Hong Kong at the 2025 Women's Tri-Nation Cup. Eventually, he become the first coach to won 5 straight games for Malaysia women's team starting in the match against Bhutan, 2 times friendly against United Arab Emirates, and Palestine and Tajikistan at the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification. The winning streak ended by North Korea in the final match of the qualifiers.
Team image
Nicknames
The Malaysia women's national football team has been known or nicknamed as the "Harimau Malaya (Malayan Tigress)" [1] or Skuad Kebangsaan (National Team)".
Kits and crest
The logo symbolises the unity and forward progress of Malaysian football. Composed of four main elements, the logo stands for the development and awareness of the international image and patriotism of the sport in Malaysia. The Malayan tiger leaping over a football is the main element of the logo, and symbolises the courage and dignity portrayed while playing the game. The paddy stalks represent the prosperity and wealth of Malaysia, and the development of football in the country from the grassroots level. The Malay kris that rests at the top represents nationalism, and awareness that represents Malaysia at every level of football. The entire emblem is enclosed within a circle that represents the unity and timelessness of the sport.
Kit suppliers
Similar to the men's team, the national team kit was manufactured by Adidas from the 1970s, who also sponsored the national team kit. Since 2007, the official Malaysia team kit has been manufactured by Nike. The home kit's design of black and yellow stripes is a throwback to the kit used by the Malaysian national team of the 1920s. The great national team of the 1970s also sported similar stripes, which are supposed to be reminiscent of the stripes of a tiger, the symbol of Malaysia's national football team. Since November 2010, Nike Malaysia has replaced Adidas as the team kit sponsor. [18]
Supporters
Ultras Malaya is the name of the major supporter of the national team. They are known for their high fanaticism and support towards the national team. In every international match the national team played, a group standing in the supporter's area can be found. The main colours of the supporters are usually black with a yellow scarf and banners just like the national team kit colours. These supporters always bring flares, drums and large national flags to the stadiums. [19]
According to the website of Football Association of Malaysia, Malaysia main sponsors include Bank Islam, Malaysia Airlines, Nike, Telekom Malaysia, 100plus, Extra Joss, KN, Wonda Coffee, Origina, Sanctband Active, Milo and Kronos with the association also establish social responsibilities partners with One Goal and Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT). [20]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
10 (7 August 2025) [2] 
New Zealand 3–0 Malaysia 
Timor-Leste 0–13 Malaysia 
Chinese Taipei 16–0 Malaysia 
