THE Football Association of Malaysia, better known by its acronym FAM, was originally established as the Malayan Football Association (MFA) on September 11, 1926 in a meeting held at the Selangor Club.
Selangor, Perak, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Singapore became the founding members of MFA after they decided to form a controlling body for association football in Malaya.
The purpose was to regulate domestic and international football activities, as opposed to the HMS Malaya Cup committee which was in charge of the competition since it was introduced in 1921.
So in 1925, the association football section of the HMS Malaya Cup delegates decided, in Singapore, to form the MFA.
John Middleton Sime, a Scottish accountant from the founding family of the conglomerate Sime Darby, took on the helm as the first MFA president on September 11, 1926 and so thus the seeds of a new beginning were sown.
Then in 1932, the MFA was renamed Football Association of Malaya (FAM) with Sir Andrew Caldecott as president, while Singapore FA (SAFA) secretary W.W Dean became honorary secretary.
The practice then was for a committee to be elected on a yearly basis, with J.J. Sheehan as president in 1936, followed by Dr. J.A. Webster in 1937 and Adrian Clarke in 1939 before the headquarters was shifted to Kuala Lumpur in 1940 for A.R. Singam to head the office as the first non European secretary. When FAM was revived after the war, J.E. King became president in 1947 before C.P Rawson, the Chief Welfare Officer of Malaya, took over in 1950.
In 1951, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, became the first Malayan to helm FAM as the governing body featured strongly behind the scenes in establishing Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 1954.
The success of the Merdeka Tournament, inaugurated in 1957, and the introduction of the Asian Youth Championship were both the brainchild of Tunku Abdul Rahman. This earned FAM respect across the world, along with a bronze medal at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta.
In 1961, the seven-storey headquarters named FAM House at Birch Road (now Jalan Maharajalela) in Kuala Lumpur was built at a cost of RM317,000 and inaugurated on December 7 by Tunku Abdul Rahman.
In line with the establishment of Malaysia, FAM was renamed as the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) in 1964.
The 1970s was a glorious decade for the national football team, as they qualified for the 1972 Munich Olympics, bagging the 1974 Asian Games bronze medal, qualified for the 1976 AFC Asian Cup finals and earned a ticket to the 1980 Moscow Olympics which was boycotted due to the Government’s directive in protest against the Soviet Union’s annexation of Afghanistan.
In 1979, FAM moved to the new Wisma FAM building worth RM1.87 million in Sungai Way-Subang which is now known as Kelana Jaya. The same year Dato’ Kwok Kin Keng, honorary secretary of FAM since 1952, called it a day due to health reasons.
In 1984 the late Sultan Ahmad Shah was elected FAM president, while Tan Sri Hamzah Abu Samah was returned as vice -president. A year earlier the back-up squad named The Tigers was formed, with Kevin Keegan making a guest appearance as the Tigers coach in the 1984 Merdeka Tournament.
The semi-pro league was launched on May 5 1989, featuring nine teams - Pahang, Selangor, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kedah, Sarawak, Kelantan and Johor in Division One while eight teams - Melaka, Armed Forces, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Perak, Terengganu, Brunei and Sabah competed in Division Two.
The league turned professional in 1994 and three years later FAM hosted the 1997 FIFA Youth World Cup.
The millennium began with Dato’ Dell Akbar Hyder Khan becoming the first former international player to be appointed general secretary in 2000, succeeding long-serving Dato’ Paul Mony Samuel. The Super League, the top tier of the domestic competition, was launched in 2004. In 2007, Malaysia was one of four host countries to stage the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.
The Tiger in Harimau Malaya awoke in 2009 with the national U-23 squad ending a long drought by bagging the gold medal in the 2009 Laos SEA Games and successfully defending the gold in Jakarta 2011. In between, Dato’ K. Rajagobal’s men lifted the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup in Jakarta.
The transition of FAM leadership continued in 2014 when Sultan Ahmad Shah relinquished the presidency he had held with such esteem for three decades and his son, Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, took over. In 2017, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim was elected president.
Datuk Haji Hamidin bin Haji Mohd Amin created history by being the first commoner to be installed the FAM president. He is now in his second term.
Having introduced the FAM Roadmap, F:30 which was launched by FIFA president Gianni Infantino in 2018, FAM is now on track to be among the top five member countries in terms of governance in Asia by the year 2030.
Five years before FAM celebrates its centenary, the leadership is working overtime to leave a legacy of their own, including laying down the foundations of a new headquarters and a national training centre in Putrajaya as major components in creating the desired high-performance culture not only for the workforce but ultimately the national team. - The Vibes, September 11, 2021
