2018 Malaysia Super League

The 2018 Malaysia Super League (Malay: Liga Super Malaysia 2018), known as 2018 unifi Malaysia Super League (Malay: unifi Liga Super Malaysia 2018) for sponsorship reasons,^[1] was the 15th season of the Malaysia Super League, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia.^[2]

Liga Super Malaysia

Season	2018
Dates	3 February – 29 July 2018
Champions	Johor Darul Ta'zim 5th Super League title 5th Liga M title
Relegated	Kelantan Negeri Sembilan
AFC Champions League	Johor Darul Ta'zim Perak
Matches played	132
Goals scored	402 (3.05 per match)
Top goalscorer	Rufino Segovia (19 goals)
Biggest home win	Pahang 4–0 Negeri Sembilan (10 March 2018) Kedah 4–0 Selangor (13 April 2018) Kuala Lumpur 5–1 Kelantan (22 May 2018) Pahang 4–0 Kuala Lumpur (25 May 2018) Selangor 4–0 Kelantan (1 June 2018) PKNS 4–0 Terengganu (14 July 2018) Johor Darul Ta'zim 4–0 Kelantan (20 July 2018) PKNS 4–1 Perak (28 July 2018)
Biggest away win	Negeri Sembilan 0–4 Johor Darul Ta'zim (5 May 2018) Melaka United 0–4 Johor Darul Ta'zim (26 June 2018) Kuala Lumpur 1–5 Perak (18 July 2018)
Highest scoring	8 goals PKNS 5–3 Negeri Sembilan (11 July 2018)
Longest winning run	10 games Johor Darul Ta'zim
Longest unbeaten run	19 games Johor Darul Ta'zim
Longest winless run	7 games Melaka United
Longest losing run	4 games Selangor Kelantan
← 2017 2019 → All statistics correct as of 29 July 2018.

Johor Darul Ta'zim were the defending champions.

Club licensing regulations

Starting this season, every team in the Liga Super Malaysia must have a FAM Club Licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated. To obtain a FAM Club Licence, teams must be financially healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations. As part of privation effort for the league, all clubs compete in Liga Super Malaysia and Liga Premier Malaysia will be required to obtained FAM Club Licence.^[3][4]

As in other national leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division:

• A greater share of television broadcast licence revenues goes to Liga Super Malaysia sides.
• Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps Liga Super Malaysia teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships.
• Liga Super Malaysia teams develop substantial financial muscle through the combination of television and gate revenues, sponsorships and marketing of their team brands. This allows them to attract and retain skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct first-class stadium facilities.

Despite several reminders from FAM from the beginning of 2015, however there are few teams failed to get the approval for both AFC and FAM club licenses from First Instance Body (FIB) .^[5][6]

Team(s)	AFC Club License Status	FAM Club License Status
Johor Darul Ta'zim	Passed	Passed
Kedah	Failed	Passed
Kelantan	Failed	Passed
Kuala Lumpur	Failed	Passed
Melaka United	Failed	Passed
Negeri Sembilan	Passed	Passed
Pahang	Passed	Passed
Perak	Failed	Passed
PKNP	Failed	Passed
PKNS	Passed	Passed
Selangor	Passed	Passed
Terengganu	Failed	Passed

*Updated: 6 December 2017

Team changes

The following teams have changed division.

To Malaysia Super League Promoted from Premier League Kuala Lumpur Terengganu PKNP Negeri Sembilan

From Malaysia Super League Relegated to Premier League Felda United T–Team Sarawak Penang

Teams

Sarawak and Penang were relegated to 2018 Malaysia Premier League after finished 11th and bottom place of last season league. Kuala Lumpur and Terengganu promoted to 2018 Malaysia Super League after securing place as champions and runners-up in 2017 Malaysia Premier League.

On 21 November 2017, it was announced that T-Team who finished ninth in the Super League last year, will play in the 2018 Malaysia Premier League pending approval from Football Malaysia LLP (FMLLP).^[7] The suggestion then were approved on 4 December 2017, followed by an announcement stating that Felda United, who finished third last season are ineligible to compete in this year top-tier competition. They were replaced by Negeri Sembilan and PKNP.^[8]

Johor Darul Ta'zim

Kedah

Selangor

PKNS

Kuala Lumpur

Melaka United

Negeri Sembilan

Terengganu I

Kelantan

Perak
PKNP

Pahang

Locations of teams in the 2018 Malaysia Super League.

Venues

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Johor Darul Ta'zim	Johor Bahru	Tan Sri Dato' Haji Hassan Yunos Stadium	30,000[9]
Kedah	Alor Setar	Darul Aman Stadium	32,387[10]
Kelantan	Kota Bharu	Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium	30,000[11]
Kuala Lumpur	Kuala Lumpur	Kuala Lumpur Stadium	18,000[12]
Melaka United	Krubong	Hang Jebat Stadium	40,000[13]
Negeri Sembilan	Seremban	Tuanku Abdul Rahman Stadium	45,000[14]
Pahang	Kuantan	Darul Makmur Stadium	40,000[15]
Perak	Ipoh	Perak Stadium, Ipoh Naval Base Stadium, Lumut	42,500 12,000[16]
PKNP	Ipoh	Perak Stadium, Ipoh Penang State Stadium, Batu Kawan	42,500 40,000[17]
PKNS	Shah Alam	Shah Alam Stadium	80,372[18]
Selangor	Kuala Lumpur	Kuala Lumpur Stadium	18,000[19]
Terengganu	Kuala Terengganu	Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium	15,000[20]
Source:[21]

1: ^ Perak plays at Lumut due to the upgrading of their own stadium at Perak Stadium
2: ^ PKNP plays at Batu Kawan due to the upgrading of Perak Stadium
3: ^ Kelantan plays their home games at their opponents stadium during Ramadan, due to ban of Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium usage by state government during Ramadan

Personnel, kit and sponsoring

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Main sponsor
Johor Darul Ta'zim	Raúl Longhi (caretaker)	Hariss Harun	Nike[22]	Forest City
Kedah	Nidzam Adzha	Baddrol Bakhtiar	AL[23]	ECK
Kelantan	Yusri Che Lah (caretaker)	Shahrizan Ismail	Lotto[24]	BMW Raza Premium
Kuala Lumpur	Fábio Magrão[25]	Indra Putra Mahayuddin[26]	SkyHawk [permanent dead link][27]	JL99, Ekovest
Melaka United	E. Elavarasan	Khairul Fahmi Che Mat	Warrix[28]	EDRA CGN[29]
Negeri Sembilan	Mário Lemos	Kim Do-heon[30]	AL	Matrix Concepts[30]
Pahang	Dollah Salleh[31]	Matthew Davies[32]	FILA	Aras Kuasa
Perak	Mehmet Duraković[33]	Nasir Basharudin[34]	AL	Lembaga Air Perak, Quest International University Archived 2018-01-25 at the Wayback Machine
PKNP	Abu Bakar Fadzim[35]	Hafiz Ramdan	FILA	Perak Corp Archived 2020-02-18 at the Wayback Machine, MAPS
PKNS	K. Rajagopal[36]	Safee Sali	Kappa	PKNS
Selangor	Nazliazmi Nasir	Amri Yahyah	Lotto	redONE, CRRC
Terengganu	Irfan Bakti[37]	Kipré Tchétché	Kobert	Chicken Cottage

• Notes;
• Shahrel Fikri was the official captain of PKNP, before he was loaned to Nakhon Ratchasima, Hafiz Ramdan filled in as captain for PKNP.

Coaching changes

•    Indicate the positions in the relegation zone.

Team	Outgoing coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Week	Table	Incoming coach	Date of appointment
PKNS	Sven Gartung	End of contract	31 October 2017	Pre-season		K. Rajagopal	22 November 2017[36]
Kelantan	Zahasmi Ismail	End of contract	30 November 2017			Sathit Bensoh	7 December 2017[38]
Kedah	Nidzam Adzha	Resigned	30 November 2017			Ramón Marcote	11 December 2017[39]
Negeri Sembilan	Asri Ninggal	End of contract	30 November 2017			Jörg Steinebrunner	20 December 2017[40]
Kelantan	Sathit Bensoh	Sacked	15 February 2018	3	12	Yusri Che Lah (caretaker)	16 February 2018[41]
Johor Darul Ta'zim	Ulisses Morais	Resigned	25 February 2018	4	1	Raúl Longhi (caretaker)	26 February 2018[42]
Negeri Sembilan	Jörg Steinebrunner	Resigned	28 February 2018	4	11	Azraai Khor	28 February 2018[43]
Selangor	P. Maniam	Rested	14 March 2018	5	8	Nazliazmi Nasir (caretaker)	14 March 2018[44]
Kelantan	Yusri Che Lah (caretaker)	End of caretaker role	19 March 2018	5	11	Fajr Ibrahim	21 March 2018[45]
Kedah	Ramón Marcote	Move to development coach	28 March 2018	5	6	Nidzam Adzha	28 March 2018[46]
Melaka United	Eduardo Almeida	Sacked	2 May 2018	8	7	E. Elavarasan	7 May 2018[47]
Negeri Sembilan	Azraai Khor	Sacked	10 May 2018	10	12	Mario Lemos	10 May 2018[48]
Kelantan	Fajr Ibrahim	Resigned	5 June 2018	14	12	Yusri Che Lah (caretaker)	5 June 2018[49]

Foreign players

Southeast Asia (SEA) players need to have acquired at least 30 international caps for their senior national team with no period restriction on when caps are earned and those who has less than 30 international caps will be subjected to FMLLP approval.

Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	ASEAN Player	Former Players
Johor Darul Ta'zim	Marcos António[50]	Fernando Elizari[51]	Fernando Márquez[52]	Gonzalo Cabrera[53]	Hariss Harun[54]	Jorge Pereyra Díaz[55][56] Luciano Figueroa[57] Harry Novillo[58] Nicolás Fernández Jorge[57]
Kedah	Liridon Krasniqi[59]	Sandro[60]	Paulo Rangel[61]	Andik Vermansyah[62]	Álvaro Silva[63]	Pablo Pallarès[64]
Kelantan	Cássio[65]	Cristiano[66]	Bakhtiyar Duyshobekov			Bruno Lopes[67][68] Ferdinand Sinaga[69] Mohammed Ghaddar[70] Morgaro Gomis[71] Do Dong-hyun[72] Alaeddine Bouslimi[73][66] Lazarus Kaimbi[74]
Kuala Lumpur	Paulo Josué[75]	Juninho[76]	Guilherme de Paula[77]	Bobirjon Akbarov[78]	Achmad Jufriyanto[79]
Melaka United	Steven Thicot[80]	Ifedayo Olusegun[81]	Yahor Zubovich[82]	Lee Chang-hoon[83]	Shahdan Sulaiman[84]	Tiago Gomes[80] Jeon Woo-young[85]
Negeri Sembilan	Alex Moraes[86]	Flávio Júnior[87]	Nicolás Vélez[88]	Kim Do-heon[89]	Ángel Guirado[86]	Prak Mony Udom[86] Renārs Rode
Pahang	Mohamadou Sumareh[90]	Austin Amutu[91]	Patrick Cruz[92]	Issey Nakajima-Farran[91]	Safuwan Baharudin[93]	Sergio Unrein Alex Moraes Chan Vathanaka[91] Francis Doe[91]
Perak	Leandro[94]	Wander Luiz[95]	Gilmar[94]	Jad Noureddine[96]		Misagh Bahadoran[95][97] Robert Cornthwaite[98]
PKNP	Ritus Krjauklis[99]	Franklin Anzité[99]	Karl Max	Kim Sang-woo[100]		Keo Sokpheng[99][101] Yeon Gi-sung[99] Lyuben Nikolov[99] Alfred Okai Quaye
PKNS	Romel Morales[102]	Bruno Matos[81]	Rafael Ramazotti[103]	Zac Anderson[104]	Faris Ramli[102]	Jonathan Acosta[104][81]
Selangor	Willian Pacheco[105]	Alfonso de la Cruz[106]	Rufino Segovia[107]	Evan Dimas[108]	Ilham Armaiyn[108]
Terengganu	Igor Zonjić[109]	Lee Tuck[109]	Kipré Tchétché[110]	Do Dong-hyun[111]	Thierry Bin[109]	Kim Hyun-woo Lee Jun-hyeob[112] Bruno Suzuki[113]

Naturalisation players

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5
Johor Darul Ta'zim	Junior Eldstål3 4	Darren Lok3 4	Natxo Insa3 4	La'Vere Corbin-Ong3 4	Kiko Insa3 4
Melaka United	Khair Jones3 4	Nicholas Swirad3
Negeri Sembilan	David Rowley3
Pahang	Matthew Davies3 4
Perak	Brendan Gan3 4
PKNS	Daniel Ting3

Notes:

^3 Carrying Malaysian heritage.

^4 Participated in the Malaysia national team squad.

Results

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Johor Darul Ta'zim (C)	22	19	2	1	47	9	+38	59	Qualification for the AFC Champions League group stage
2	Perak	22	10	6	6	35	27	+8	36	Qualification for the AFC Champions League second preliminary round
3	PKNS	22	10	5	7	37	29	+8	35
4	Pahang	22	9	7	6	35	21	+14	34
5	Terengganu	22	10	4	8	32	31	+1	34
6	Kedah	22	9	5	8	37	36	+1	32
7	Melaka United	22	9	4	9	33	38	−5	31
8	Selangor	22	7	6	9	35	39	−4	27
9	PKNP	22	7	4	11	25	31	−6	25
10	Kuala Lumpur	22	7	3	12	39	51	−12	24
11	Kelantan (R)	22	5	3	14	20	43	−23	18	Relegation to the Premier League
12	Negeri Sembilan (R)	22	4	3	15	27	47	−20	15

Source: FAM, FMLLP
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Result table

Home \ Away	JDT	KED	KEL	KLU	MEL	NSE	PAH	PRK	PKP	PKN	SEL	TRG
Johor DT	—	2–1	4–0	2–0	3–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	3–0	3–0	2–0	2–0
Kedah	1–2	—	1–2	3–2	0–2	3–3	2–0	1–3	1–3	2–1	4–0	1–1
Kelantan	1–2	0–1	—	4–2	1–1	0–2	2–1	3–2	1–2	0–2	2–1	1–1
Kuala Lumpur	1–0	4–3	5–1	—	3–4	2–1	2–2	1–5	1–1	2–1	0–2	3–0
Melaka United	0–4	4–1	2–1	2–4	—	3–0	2–2	1–2	2–0	1–1	3–2	0–3
Negeri Sembilan	0–4	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–3	—	1–3	1–1	1–2	3–1	3–1	1–2
Pahang	1–2	2–2	3–0	4–0	2–0	4–0	—	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	0–1
Perak	1–2	0–0	1–0	3–0	0–0	2–0	1–1	—	4–3	0–2	3–0	3–2
PKNP	1–2	0–1	2–0	2–1	1–2	1–0	1–2	1–2	—	0–1	0–2	2–1
PKNS	0–0	3–4	1–0	3–2	2–0	5–3	1–0	4–1	1–1	—	2–2	4–0
Selangor	2–2	1–2	4–0	3–3	4–1	2–1	1–3	1–1	1–1	2–1	—	2–0
Terengganu	0–1	1–1	2–0	3–1	1–0	3–2	1–3	2–0	2–1	2–2	4–1	—

Updated to match(es) played on 29 July 2018. Source: FAM, FMLLP
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.

Positions by round

  Leader

  Relegation to 2019 Liga Premier

Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Johor Darul Ta'zim	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Perak	8	3	7	9	6	4	3	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Pahang	7	10	6	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	2	2	3	3	4	5	3	4	3	4
PKNS	5	4	1	4	3	5	5	6	4	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	3	5	3
Terengganu	6	8	5	2	5	3	4	4	5	5	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	3	5	6	4	5
Kedah	9	11	8	6	7	6	6	5	6	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	5	6	6
PKNP	4	7	11	8	10	9	9	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	9	10	10	10	8	8	10	9
Selangor	1	1	3	5	8	10	8	10	9	8	9	9	9	9	8	8	7	8	9	9	8	8
Kuala Lumpur	12	12	10	12	9	8	10	8	8	9	8	8	7	7	7	9	8	9	10	10	9	10
Melaka United	3	6	4	7	4	7	7	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	7	9	7	7	7	7	7
Kelantan	10	9	12	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	12	12	11
Negeri Sembilan	11	5	9	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	11	11	11	12	12	11	11	12

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of matches played on 29 July 2018.[114] Players sorted first by goals, then by last name. Rank Player Club Goals 1 Rufino Segovia Selangor 19 2 Kipré Tchétché Terengganu 14 3 Guilherme de Paula Kuala Lumpur 13 4 Yahor Zubovich Melaka United 12 5 Gilmar Perak 11 6 Gonzalo Cabrera Johor Darul Ta'zim 9 7 Flávio Júnior Negeri Sembilan 8 Ifedayo Olusegun Melaka United Nicolás Vélez Negeri Sembilan Sandro Kedah

Top assists

Players sorted first by assists, then by last name.

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Paulo Josué	Kuala Lumpur	9
2	Gonzalo Cabrera	Johor Darul Ta'zim	7
3	Akhyar Rashid	Kedah	6
	Bruno Matos	PKNS
	Hafiz Ramdan	PKNP
	Safuwan Baharudin	Pahang

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Do Dong-hyun	Kelantan	Perak	3–2 (H)	24 February 2018
Rufino Segovia	Selangor	Kelantan	4–0 (H)	1 June 2018
Kipré Tchétché	Terengganu	Negeri Sembilan	3–2 (H)	27 June 2018
Rufino Segovia	Selangor	Kuala Lumpur	3–3 (H)	15 July 2018

Notes:
(H) – Home; (A) – Away

Own goals As of 28 July 2018 [115] Rank Player For Against Date Goals 1 K. Reuben PKNS Kedah 25 February 2018 1 Ganiesh Gunasegaran PKNP Kuala Lumpur 25 February 2018 Saifulnizam Miswan Kuala Lumpur PKNP 27 June 2018 Nasriq Baharom Negeri Sembilan Melaka United 28 July 2018

Clean sheets

As of matches played on 28 July 2018.

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Farizal Marlias	Johor Darul Ta'zim	13
2	Helmi Eliza Elias	Pahang	7
3	Hafizul Hakim	Perak	6
4	Shahril Saa'ri	PKNS	5
5	Wan Azraie	Terengganu	3
	Ramadhan Hamid	Kedah

See also

• 2018 Malaysia Premier League
• 2018 Malaysia FAM Cup
• 2018 Malaysia FA Cup
• 2018 Malaysia Cup
• 2018 Malaysia Challenge Cup
• 2018 Piala Presiden
• 2018 Piala Belia
• List of Malaysian football transfers 2018