2012 Malaysia Super League
The 2012 Liga Super also known as the Astro Liga Super for sponsorship reasons is the ninth season of the Liga Super, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia.
The season was held from 10 January and concluded in 14 July 2012.
The Liga Super champions for 2012 was Kelantan.
Teams
A total of fourteen teams will contest the league, including eleven sides from the 2011 season and two promoted teams from the 2011 Liga Premier. Singapore Lions of Singapore will also participate in the 2012 season, replacing Harimau Muda A.Perlis and Pahang were relegated at the end of the 2011 Liga Super after finishing the season in the bottom two places of the league table.
2011 Liga Premier champions PKNS and runners-up Sarawak secured direct promotion to the Liga Super.
Following an agreement between the Football Association of Singapore and the Football Association of Malaysia, Young Lions, with most of the members of the squad are players from Singapore's national under-23 team, will replace Harimau Muda A, which represent the Malaysian Under-23 national football team. While the Singapore Lions will compete at the Liga Super, Harimau Muda A will take the Young Lions position in the S. League. Young Lions was later replaced by a new team, named LionsXII that will replace the former under-23 football team.
- Felda United
- Johor FC
- Kedah
- Kelantan
- Kuala Lumpur
- Negeri Sembilan
- Perak
- PKNS¹
- Sabah
- Sarawak¹
- Selangor
- LionsXII*
- T-Team
- Terengganu
- – LionsXII
Team summaries
Stadium
| Team | Location | Stadium | Capacity |
| Felda United | Kuala Lumpur | Hang Jebat Stadium | 35,000 |
| Johor FC | Pasir Gudang | Pasir Gudang Corporation Stadium | 15,000 |
| Kedah | Alor Setar | Darul Aman Stadium | 32,387 |
| Kelantan | Kota Bharu | Sultan Mohammad IV Stadium | 25,000 |
| Kuala Lumpur | Kuala Lumpur | Hang Jebat Stadium | 35,000 |
| Negeri Sembilan | Paroi | Tuanku Abdul Rahman Stadium | 40,000 |
| T-Team | Kuala Terengganu | Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium | 15,000 |
| Perak | Ipoh | Perak Stadium | 42,500 |
| PKNS | Petaling Jaya | Petaling Jaya Stadium | 25,000 |
| Sabah | Kota Kinabalu | Likas Stadium | 35,000 |
| Sarawak | Kuching | Sarawak State Stadium | 26,000 |
| Selangor | Shah Alam | Shah Alam Stadium | 80,372 |
| LionsXII | Jalan Besar | Jalan Besar Stadium | 8,000 |
| Terengganu | Kuala Terengganu | Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium | 15,000 |
Stadium changes
- Selangor home stadium was originally the Shah Alam Stadium, but Selangor changed it into the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil after the Shah Alam stadium was being repaired and renovated.
- * The KLFA Stadium was closed down for repairs, meaning both Felda United and Kuala Lumpur were forced to move their home stadiums to the Hang Jebat Stadium which is located in Malacca. The stadium will also be the only venue that will be played at daylight, rather than playing in the night.
- Terengganu had shared stadiums with fellow team neighbours, T-Team since 2011 after the roof collapse of the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium. However, on 19 December 2011, The Terengganu Menteri Besar, Ahmad Said announced that the stadium will undergo repairs and maybe will be usable for Terengganu halfway through the league.
Personnel and sponsoring
Coaching changes
Pre-season
In season
Sponsorship changes
Foreign players
| Club | Visa 1 | Visa 2 | Visa 3 | Visa 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Felda United | Mickaël Antoine-Curier | Eddy Viator | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Johor FC | Arthuro Henrique Bernhardt | Fernando de Abreu Ferreira | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Kedah | Abdulfatah Safi | Vedran Gerc | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Kelantan | Obinna Nwaneri | Mohammed Ghaddar | Mijo Dadic | Keita Mandjou | - | - | - | - | - |
| Kuala Lumpur | Zakaria Charara | Emmanuel Okine | - | - style="vertical-align:top;" | Negeri Sembilan | Jean-Emmanuel Effa Owona | Marian Farbák | - | - |
| T-Team | Bojan Petrić | Marco Tulio | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Perak | Michal Kubala | Albert Dominique Ebossé Bodjongo Dika | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| PKNS | Michaël Niçoise | Helmi Loussaief | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Sabah | Brendan Gan | Hendrik Helmke | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Sarawak | Guy Bwele | Joël Epalle | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Selangor | Ramez Dayoub | Boško Balaban | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| LionsXII | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Terengganu | Erison da Silva Santos | Francis Doe | - | - | - | - | - |
Note:
- Teams participating in AFC Cup 2012, can employ two extra Foreign Player, as the AFC allows 4 foreign players, making it a total of four Foreign Players, but the third and fourth Foreign Player is only allowed to play for the AFC Cup 2012 Tournament.
- LionsXII will not be permitted to have any foreign players as it is an all Singaporean team.
League table
Results
Fixtures and Results of the Liga Super 2012 season.Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
Week 17
Week 18
Week 19
- 1 The venue was changed from Kuala Lumpur FA original venue at Hang Jebat Stadium, Melaka to Kelantan FA venue at Kota Bharu at the request of Kuala Lumpur FA.
Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
- 1 The venue was changed from Kuala Lumpur FA original venue at Hang Jebat Stadium, Melaka to Sabah FA venue at Kota Kinabalu at the request of Kuala Lumpur FA.
Week 23
Week 24
- 1 The venue was changed from Kuala Lumpur FA original venue at Hang Jebat Stadium, Melaka to Selangor FA venue at Shah Alam at the request of Kuala Lumpur FA.
Week 25
Week 26
- 1 The venue was changed from Kuala Lumpur FA original venue at Hang Jebat Stadium, Melaka to Perak FA venue at Ipoh at the request of Kuala Lumpur FA.
Round table
Play-offs
Promotion/Relegation
The play-off matches to determine promotion and relegation will be held at Hang Tuah Stadium and Hang Jebat Stadium, Malacca from 17 to 19 July 2012, as next season Liga Super will be reduced to 12 teams from 14 teams this season. Team that finished 11th in the Liga Super, Sarawak will meet second placed team in Liga Premier, Pahang while team that finished 12th in the Liga Super, Kedah will meet team that finished 13th in the Liga Super, Sabah. The winner of both semi-final match will meet in the final to determine who will stay in the 2013 Liga Super. The winner will stay in the Liga Super; the other 3 teams will be relegated to 2013 Liga Premier.;Semi-final 1
;Semi-final 2
;Final
Season statistics
Top scorers
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Jean-Emmanuel Effa Owona | Negeri Sembilan | 15 |
| 1 | Francis Doe Forkey | Terengganu | 15 |
| 3 | Michal Kubala | Perak | 13 |
| 4 | Boško Balaban | Selangor | 12 |
| 5 | Shahril Ishak | LionsXII | 10 |
| 5 | Ahmad Shakir Mohd Ali | Negeri Sembilan | 10 |
| 5 | Mohd Khyril Muhymeen Zambri | Kedah | 10 |
| 8 | Mohammed Ghaddar | Kelantan | 9 |
| 8 | Zairo Anuar Zalani | T-Team | 9 |
| 8 | Mohd Faiz Subri | T-Team | 9 |
| 11 | Shahdan Sulaiman | LionsXII | 8 |
| 11 | Mohd Badri Mohd Radzi | Kelantan | 8 |
Own goals
Hat-tricks
Scoring
- First goal of the season: Mohd Raimi Mohd Nor for Felda United against Sabah
- Last goal of the season: Bobby Gonzales for Sabah against Negeri Sembilan
- Fastest goal of the season: 33 Seconds – Arthuro Henrique Bernhardt for Johor FC against T-Team
- First own goal of the season: 41 Minutes – Aiman Syazwan Abdullah of Kuala Lumpur for LionsXII
- Widest winning margin: 9 goals
- *LionsXII 9–0 Sabah
- Highest scoring game: 9 goals
- *Terengganu 6–3 Sabah
- *LionsXII 9–0 Sabah
- Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 9 goals
- *LionsXII 9–0 Sabah
- Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 3 goals
- *Terengganu 6–3 Sabah
- Widest away winning margin: 4 goals
- *Kuala Lumpur 0–4 Felda United
- *Sabah 0–4 PKNS
- *Kuala Lumpur 2 – 4 Sabah
- Most goals scored by an away team: 4 goals
- *PKNS 1–4 Sarawak
- *T-Team 1–4 PKNS
- *Kuala Lumpur 0–4 Felda United
- *Sabah 0–4 PKNS
Clean sheets
- Most clean sheets: 11
- *Kelantan
- Fewest clean sheets: 1
- *Kuala Lumpur