Malaysian Football History

I published this post to let the viewers to get the knowledge of Malaysian football history which known as the 'Tigers'. Before Malaysia gain its independence from the British, Malaysian football team is known as Malaya National Football Team. After Malaya establish in 16 September 1963 which change the name of our country from Malaya to Malaysia until today the tiger squad had change its name to Malaysia National Football Team. Malaysian squad get its nickname the 'Tigers' as the tiger is the national symbol of Malaysia.
Malaysian football team is controlled by the Football Association of Malaysia or also known as FAM. This association had been organised Malaysian football team since before 1963(Malaya National Team). The Malaysian team is very well known among the Asian country because of its dedicated and agressive player in early 1950s and 1960s. The well known player in that era was Abdul Ghani Minhat(nicknamed "Raja Bola" or "King of the Ball"), Arthur Koh, G. Govindaraju, Robert Choe, Edwin Dutton and Stanley Gabriel. Malaysian team continue its glory in 1970s and 1980s where in this era,the most feared player by other football team although in Asia or in Europe, Mokhtar Dahari. Mokhtar Dahari was the backbone of the Malaysian Team in every tournament. Besides him,the other best player was Namat Abdullah, Shaharudin Abdullah, Wong Fook Chuan, N. Thanabalan, Zulkifli Norbit and lead by Abdullah Nordin. In 1972, Malaysia qualified to enter the Olympic in Munich after beating other country such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Philippines. In 1974, Malaysian team won a broze medal in the Asian Games after beating North Korea 2-1. The glory continue when Malaysia qualified to enter the Asian Football Cup(AFC) in 1976 and 1980. Malaysian team continue producing best player such as Zainal Abiddin Hassan, Dollah Salleh, Serbegeth Singh and Lim Teong Kim. However, the glory fell like a house of cards in 1994 as Malaysian football was embroiled in one of the biggest bribery scandals in the country. Many star players like Matlan Marjan and Azizol Abu Haniffah were involved the corruption scandal that destroyed the credibility of Malaysian football. High-profile players who survived, such as Azman Adnan and Khairul Azman Mohamed continued to inspire cult followings, but the game had been badly hit. In 2000s, Malaysia still producing quality player such as Muhamad Khalid Jamlus, Akmal Rizal Ahmad Rakhli and Indra Putra Mahayuddin but still failed to generate a mainstream interest in national football.The decline of the Malaysian National Team comes in tandem with the decline of its domestic leagues. Many Malaysian fans point to the bribery scandal of 1994 as the catalyst, but the popularity of subscription TV has also led Malaysia's large footballing viewership away from live domestic matches to pre-recorded high-profile European games. With the dearth of mainstream interest and starvation of funds, Malaysian football today is miles away from its glorious days of the 1970s and 1980s.