MFL to expand Super League, discontinue Premier League from 2023

Through the revamp, a Reserve League will be introduced from next season, with all 18 teams involved in the 2023 Super League required to field Under-23 sides for development purposes.

Malaysia Football League (MFL) president Datuk Ab Ghani Hassan said all 21 stakeholders, comprising the 12 Super League teams and nine Premier League representatives, have agreed to the restructuring during an extraordinary general meeting today.

He said the revamp, among others, offered more game time and more competitive matches to players, besides raising the commercial value of the domestic league, thus benefiting all parties.

"This agenda can allow the Harimau Malaya to be more competitive on the international stage. It will also be more commercially viable because, with more matches, not only the MFL but also the teams will have more advantage in terms of sponsorship," he told a media conference after chairing the meeting.

The M-League revamp will see each Super League team playing 34 matches per season from 2023 onwards compared to just 22 matches currently.

At the same time, Ab Ghani said the restructuring was also to streamline every team to have a reserve team that is similar in concept to the feeder squads of Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT), Selangor FC and Terengganu FC.

"So, we are streamlining this with the creation of the Reserve League being seen a levelling the playing field for all teams involved in the league next season," he said.

Currently, a total of 12 teams are competing in the Super League while 10 are involved in the second-tier Premier League, with teams in both leagues having to play 22 and 18 matches respectively per season. Of the 10 teams in the Premier League, six are club sides, three are feeder clubs and one is the FAM-NSC Project squad.

The revamp from next season will see all six club sides in the Premier League gaining promotion to the Super League, with the bottom two having to go into a playoff against the two top sides in the amateur-level M3 League.

If the teams from M3 League manage to qualify for the Super League next season, they will have to complete the club licensing process that will be evaluated by the MFL.

Meanwhile, the FAM-NSC Project squad, established specifically for the development of young players, will take up the 19th spot in the Reserve League.

Starting from next season, the MFL will allow all teams in the Super League to register nine foreign players, but they will, however, adhere to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)'s stipulation of using only six import players.

The MFL will also continue to allow only five import players to be fielded, which is three plus one Asian player and one ASEAN player, at any one time while only one import player can be on the bench.

Elaborating, Ab Ghani said although it would be tough to set the fixtures, the MFL already have a strategy to ensure the smooth running of next year's competition through the organising of a series of workshops involving all the affected teams.