History
The tournament began in 1921, when it was called the Malaya Cup. The original trophy was presented by the officers and men of a British battleship, the HMS Malaya. In honour of this, the competition was renamed the HMS Malaya Cup in 1933. A new trophy was inaugurated in 1967, and since then the competition has been known as the Malaysia Cup. A rugby union tournament of the same name, was started in parallel with the football cup, and still bears the same name.
A league competition was introduced in Malaysia in 1982. Since then, the Malaysia Cup has been held after the conclusion of the league each year, with only the best-performing teams in the league qualifying for the Malaysia Cup. When the league began, it was intended primarily as a qualifying tournament for the Malaysia Cup. However over the years, the league competition has gained important stature in its own right.
In 2003, Selangor MPPJ became the first club team to win the cup. Prior to that year, the two teams which made the final had always been representative sides of the regional Football Associations, or military teams.
Teams representing two of Malaysia's neighbouring countries have been involved in the competition. Brunei won the cup in 1999 and continue to be involved (though in recent years they have been represented by the club side Brunei DPMM FC, whereas initially their team was organized by the Football Association of Brunei). Singapore used to enter a team organized by the Football Association of Singapore. Their team won the cup 24 times and are the second most successful side in the competition's history after Selangor. However after their last win in 1994, Singapore withdrew from the competition following a dispute with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) over gate receipts and have not been involved since. In 2011, Football Association of Singapore announced that Singapore would be back to join the Malaysia Cup in 2012.
On 5 December 2011, Football Association of Singapore had unveiled the new squad list and line up planned for the 2012 edition of Malaysia Cup. The team will hence be named as LIONSXII.
Read more about this topic: Malaysia Cup
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