2021 Malaysia Premier League

Malaysia Premier League
Season	2021
Dates	6 March – 24 September 2021
Champions	Negeri Sembilan; 2nd Second Division title
Promoted	Negeri Sembilan; Sarawak United
Relegated	Perak II
Matches played	109
Goals scored	288 (2.64 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jordan Mintah ; Fernando Rodríguez (16 goals)
Biggest home win	7 goals ; Sarawak United 7–1 FAM-MSN Project ; (10 April 2021)
Biggest away win	6 goals ; FAM-MSN Project 1–6 Terengganu II ; (7 May 2021)
Highest scoring	8 goals ; Sarawak United 7–1 FAM-MSN Project ; (10 April 2021)
Longest winning run	5 matches; Terengganu II
Longest unbeaten run	14 matches; Terengganu II
Longest winless run	17 matches; FAM-MSN Project
Longest losing run	6 matches; FAM-MSN Project
	← 2020 2022 →

The 2021 Malaysia Premier League is the 18th season of the Malaysia Premier League, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia since its establishment in 2004.

First and second place non-feeder team will be promoted to the 2022 Malaysia Super League. The top 5 non-feeder teams will qualify for the 2021 Malaysia Cup.

Team changes

A total of 11 teams contested the league, including 9 sides from the 2020 season, 1 relegated from the 2020 Malaysia Super League, and 1 team formed by FAM and National Sports Council Malaysia (NSC).

To Premier League

Relegated from Super League

Felda United(disqualified)²
PDRM

Promoted from Liga M3

No teams.¹

New Team

FAM-MSN Project³

From Premier League

Promoted to Super League

Relegated to Liga M3

No teams.⁴

Expulsion

UKM(disqualified)⁵

Notes:

^1 No teams from M3 League were promoted due to the 2020 M3 League season cancellation.

^2 Felda United's application for privatization was not approved by Football Association of Malaysia and therefore the team not qualified to participating in the league.^[1]

^3 FAM-MSN Project were a development team form by FAM and National Sports Council Malaysia (NSC) as alternative career pathway for the NFDP graduates. They took the spot left by Felda United.

^4 No teams from Premier League were relegated due to the FAM decision to keep the league teams at 10 following Felda and UKM expulsion.

^5 UKM FC registration was not approved by FAM as they failed to provide concrete proof of financial backing for the new season.^[1]

Stadium and locations

Johor Darul Ta'zim II

Selangor II

Sarawak United

FAM-MSN Project

Kelantan United, Kelantan

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Locations of teams in the 2021 Malaysia Premier League teams

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
FAM-MSN Project	Shah Alam	UiTM Stadium	10,000
Johor Darul Ta'zim II	Larkin	Tan Sri Dato Haji Hassan Yunos Stadium	30,000
Kelantan	Kota Bharu	Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium^[1]	22,000
Kelantan United	Kota Bharu	Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium	22,000
Kuching City	Kota Kinabalu	Likas Stadium	35,000
Negeri Sembilan	Seremban	Tuanku Abdul Rahman Stadium	45,000
PDRM	Kuala Lumpur	Kuala Lumpur Stadium	18,000
Perak II	Ipoh	Perak Stadium	27,036
Sarawak United	Krubong	Hang Jebat Stadium	40,000
Selangor II	Selayang	Selayang Stadium	16,000
Terengganu II	Kuala Terengganu	Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium	15,000

Personnel and sponsoring

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor(s)
FAM-MSN Project	Yusri Che Lah	Amirul Akmal Safarinizam	Kelme
Johor Darul Ta'zim II	Rafa Gil	Fadhli Shas	Nike	UNICEF
Kelantan	Marco Ragini	Che Safwan Hazman	93 Sports	Zamburger
Kelantan United	Akira Higashiyama	Badhri Radzi	Umbro	Yakult
Kuching City	Irfan Bakti	Joseph Kalang Tie	StarSport	Serba Dinamik
Negeri Sembilan	K. Devan	Zaquan Adha	Kaki Jersi	Visit Negeri Sembilan, Matrix
PDRM	Wan Rohaimi Wan Ismail	Safiee Ahmad	Oren Sport	Top Glove
Perak II	Syamsul Saad	Izaaq Izhan Yuswardi	Kaki Jersi	Lenggong Valley (home) & Royal Belum (away)
Sarawak United	E. Elavarasan	Taylor Regan	Joma	Punggor Wibawa
Selangor II	Michael Feichtenbeiner	Shivan Pillay	Joma	PKNS
Terengganu II	Badrul Afzan	Argzim Redžović	Al-Ikhsan	redONE

Coaching changes

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Outgoing coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming coach	Date of appointment
Kuching City	Akira Higashiyama	End of Contract	30 November 2020	Pre-season	Irfan Bakti Abu Salim	1 December 2020
Negeri Sembilan	Sazali Saidon	End of Contract			K. Devan
Selangor II	Rusdi Suparman	End of Caretaker Spell			Michael Feichtenbeiner
Kelantan United	Nazrulerwan Makmor	Redesignated to Technical Director			Akira Higashiyama	5 December 2020
FAM-MSN Project	Inaugural head coach				Yusri Che Lah	10 December 2020
PDRM	Ishak Kunju	End of Contract	30 November 2020		Mat Zan Mat Aris	24 December 2020
Terengganu II	Roshadi Wahab				Badrul Afzan Razali	24 December 2020
Perak II	Abu Bakar Fadzim				Syamsul Saad	2 January 2021
Kelantan	Yusri Che Lah				Marco Ragini	15 January 2021
PDRM	Mat Zan Mat Aris	Sacked	31 March 2021	Mid Season	Wan Rohaimi Wan Ismail	31 March 2021

Foreign players

Players name in bold indicates the player was registered after the start of the season.

The number of foreign players is restricted to four each team including at least one player from the AFC country.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	Former Player
Johor Darul Ta'zim II	Luis Cabrerra	Kei Hirose	Fernando Rodríguez	Shane Lowry	Nicolás Fernández
Kelantan	Christos Intzidis	Mario Arqués	Jack Hindle	Natanael Siringo Ringo
Kelantan United	Shuhei Fukai	Masashi Motoyama	Gassama Alfusainey	Yuki Tanigawa
Kuching City	Aylton Alemão	Hudson Dias	Ijezie Michael	Yuta Suzuki	Bryan Jones
Negeri Sembilan	Arthur Cunha	Francis Koné	Alain Akono	Bae Beom-geun	Diogo Campos Fernando Barbosa Rafael Gomes de Oliveira
PDRM	Alvaro Cuello	Alexander Amponsah	Lazarus Kaimbi	Bruno Suzuki	Victor Kamhuka
Perak II	Ghislain Guessan	Charlie Machell		Samir Ayass
Sarawak United	Sandro	Uche Agba	Taylor Regan	Lee Chang-hoon
Selangor II	Jordan Ayimbila	George Attram	Alex Agyarkwa	Hein Htet Aung
Terengganu II	Argzim Redžović	Dechi Marcel N'Guessan	Jordan Mintah	Masaki Watanabe

Naturalisation players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3
Johor Darul Ta'zim II	Stuart Wilkin	Nathaniel Shio Hong Wan
Sarawak United	Stuart Wark	Khair Jones

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Negeri Sembilan (C, P)	20	12	5	3	33	16	+17	41	Promotion to Super League and Qualification for the Malaysia Cup group stage
2	Sarawak United (P)	20	11	5	4	37	14	+23	38
3	Terengganu II^[a]	20	9	8	3	37	18	+19	35
4	Johor Darul Ta'zim II^[a]	20	9	7	4	38	20	+18	34
5	Kuching City	20	7	6	7	22	22	0	27	Qualification for the Malaysia Cup group stage
6	Kelantan	20	8	3	9	23	28	−5	27
7	Kelantan United	20	8	2	10	25	28	−3	26
8	PDRM	20	7	5	8	22	25	−3	26
9	Selangor II^[a]	20	5	9	6	27	26	+1	24
10	Perak II^[a] (R)	20	4	5	11	14	37	−23	17
11	FAM-MSN Project^[b]	20	1	3	16	12	56	−44	6

Source: MFL
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Johor Darul Ta'zim II, Perak II, Selangor II and Terengganu II cannot be promoted from Malaysia Premier League and play in Malaysia Cup as Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C., Perak FA, Selangor F.C. and Terengganu FC (their parent clubs) remain in Malaysia Super League and play in Malaysia Cup. Should the team be relegated to Malaysia Premier League or will not play in Malaysia Cup, Johor Darul Ta'zim II, Perak II, Selangor II and Terengganu II will have to drop to Malaysia M3 League or will play in Malaysia Cup.
^ FAM-MSN Project is only as a back-up squad and will not promote to Super League.

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches.
In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Team ╲ Round
Negeri Sembilan	4	2	1	1	1	1	1	3	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	1	1
Sarawak United	3	1	2	2	2	2	3	1	2	2	2	1	3	3	3	1	1	1	2	2
Selangor II	2	4	3	5	3	4	5	5	7	7	5	5	5	4	5	6	6	6	6	9
Terengganu II	1	3	6	6	4	5	6	7	6	6	3	3	2	2	2	3	3	4	3	3
Johor Darul Ta'zim II	7	9	7	7	5	3	2	2	3	4	6	6	6	5	4	4	4	3	4	4
Kelantan	8	5	4	3	6	6	4	4	5	5	6	4	5	7	8	7	6	7	8	6
Kelantan United	9	6	5	4	7	7	7	6	4	3	4	7	7	6	7	9	8	9	9	7
Kuching City	6	8	9	10	8	9	9	9	10	10	8	9	9	9	10	8	9	8	7	5
PDRM	10	11	10	8	9	10	10	10	8	9	10	8	8	8	5	5	5	5	5	8
Perak II	5	7	8	9	10	8	8	8	9	8	9	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	10	10
FAM-MSN Project	11	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11

	Leader

Source: MFL

Results

Home \ Away	FMP	JDT	KEL	KLU	KUC	NSE	PDRM	PRK	SUD	SEL	TFCII
FAM-MSN Project		0–5	1–2	0–3	2–2	1–3	1–3	0–2	0–4	0–1	1–6
Johor Darul Ta'zim II	5–1		1–1	3–0	3–1	0–0	1–0	3–2	1–1	0–0	3–2
Kelantan	2–1	0–3		3–1	1–0	2–1	1–2	0–1	0–1	2–1	0–2
Kelantan United	0–1	0–0	0–2		1–0	0–2	2–0	2–1	2–3	2–2	1–0
Kuching City	2–0	2–1	3–1	1–3		1–2	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	0–2
Negeri Sembilan	2–0	2–1	2–1	2–3	0–0		4–2	5–0	1–1	0–0	2–2
PDRM	0–0	2–2	1–2	1–0	1–2	0–1		1–1	0–3	0–3	2–1
Perak II	0–0	0–2	1–1	0–4	0–2	0–2	0–3		0–3	4–3	0–0
Sarawak United	7–1	1–0	3–1	2–0	2–0	0–1	0–2	4–1		1–1	0–0
Selangor II	4–2	1–1	3–1	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–1		1–4
Terengganu II	4–0	4–3	0–0	4–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	2–2

Source: [2]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

As of 24 September 2021^[2]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Jordan Mintah	Terengganu II	16
1	Fernando Rodríguez	Johor Darul Ta'zim II	16
3	Uche Agba	Sarawak United	14
4	Gassama Alfusainey	Kelantan United	11
6	Alain Akono	Negeri Sembilan	9
	George Attram	Selangor II
	Nurshamil Abd Ghani	Kelantan
8	Azhad Harraz	FAM-MSN Project	8
9	Bruno Suzuki	PDRM	7
9	Zaquan Adha	Negeri Sembilan	7
11	Alif Hassan	Kuching City	5
11	Francis Koné	Negeri Sembilan	5

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
George Attram	Selangor II	FAM-MSN Project	4–2 (H)	12 March 2021
Uche Agba	Sarawak United	FAM-MSN Project	7–1 (H)	10 April 2021
Jordan Mintah	Terengganu II	Kelantan United	4–1 (H)	2 May 2021
Jordan Mintah	Terengganu II	FAM-MSN Project	6–1 (A)	7 May 2021