2018 Malaysia Super League


The 2018 Malaysia Super League, known as 2018 unifi Malaysia Super League for sponsorship reasons, was the 15th season of the Malaysia Super League, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia.
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.
As in other national leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division:
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 .
TeamAFC Club License StatusFAM Club License Status
Johor Darul Ta'zimPassedPassed
KedahFailedPassed
KelantanFailedPassed
Kuala LumpurFailedPassed
Melaka UnitedFailedPassed
Negeri SembilanPassedPassed
PahangPassedPassed
PerakFailedPassed
PKNPFailedPassed
PKNSPassedPassed
SelangorPassedPassed
TerengganuFailedPassed

*Updated: 6 December 2017

Teams

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. 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.

Venues

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

TeamHead coachCaptainKit manufacturerMain sponsor
Johor Darul Ta'zim Raúl Longhi Hariss HarunNikeForest City
Kedah Nidzam Adzha Baddrol BakhtiarAL
Kelantan Yusri Che Lah Shahrizan IsmailLottoBMW Raza Premium
Kuala Lumpur Fábio Magrão Indra Putra Mahayuddin,
Melaka United E. Elavarasan Khairul Fahmi Che MatWarrix CGN
Negeri Sembilan Mário Lemos Kim Do-heonALMatrix Concepts
Pahang Dollah Salleh Matthew DaviesFILA
Perak Mehmet Duraković Nasir BasharudinAL,
PKNP Abu Bakar Fadzim Hafiz RamdanFILA, MAPS
PKNS K. Rajagopal Safee SaliKappaPKNS
Selangor Nazliazmi Nasir Amri YahyahLotto, CRRC
Terengganu Irfan Bakti Kipré TchétchéChicken 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

Foreign players

Southeast Asia 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.
ClubPlayer 1Player 2Player 3AFC PlayerASEAN PlayerFormer Players
Johor Darul Ta'zim Marcos António Fernando Elizari Fernando Márquez Gonzalo Cabrera Hariss Harun Jorge Pereyra Díaz
Luciano Figueroa
Harry Novillo
Nicolás Fernández
Jorge
Kedah Liridon Krasniqi Sandro Paulo Rangel Andik Vermansyah Álvaro Silva Pablo Pallarès
Kelantan Cássio Cristiano Bruno Lopes
Ferdinand Sinaga
Mohammed Ghaddar
Morgaro Gomis
Do Dong-hyun
Alaeddine Bouslimi
Lazarus Kaimbi
Kuala Lumpur Paulo Josué Juninho Guilherme de Paula Bobirjon Akbarov Achmad Jufriyanto
Melaka United Steven Thicot Ifedayo Olusegun Yahor Zubovich Lee Chang-hoon Shahdan Sulaiman Tiago Gomes
Jeon Woo-young
Negeri Sembilan Alex Moraes Flávio Júnior Nicolás Vélez Kim Do-heon Ángel Guirado Prak Mony Udom
Renārs Rode
Pahang Mohamadou Sumareh Austin Amutu Patrick Cruz Issey Nakajima-Farran Safuwan Baharudin Sergio Unrein
Alex Moraes
Chan Vathanaka
Francis Doe
Perak Leandro Wander Luiz Gilmar Jad Noureddine Misagh Bahadoran
Robert Cornthwaite
PKNP Ritus Krjauklis Franklin Anzité Kim Sang-woo Keo Sokpheng
Yeon Gi-sung
Lyuben Nikolov
PKNS Romel Morales Bruno Matos Rafael Ramazotti Zac Anderson Faris Ramli Jonathan Acosta
Selangor Willian Pacheco Alfonso de la Cruz Rufino Segovia Evan Dimas Ilham Armaiyn
Terengganu Igor Zonjić Lee Tuck Kipré Tchétché Do Dong-hyun Thierry Bin Kim Hyun-woo
Lee Jun-hyeob
Bruno Suzuki

Naturalisation players

Notes:

Results

League table

Result table

Positions by round

Team \ Round12345678910111213141516171819202122
Team \ Round
Johor Darul Ta'zim2221111111111111111111
Perak8379643322223322222222
Pahang71063222233332233453434
PKNS5414355644666666666353
Terengganu6852534455445555535645
Kedah91186766566554444344566
PKNP4711810997777788910101088109
Selangor113581081098999988789988
Kuala Lumpur121210129810889887779891010910
Melaka United36474779101010101010107977777
Kelantan1091210111111111111111112121212121111121211
Negeri Sembilan115911121212121212121211111111111212111112

Season statistics

Top scorers

Players sorted first by goals, then by last name.
RankPlayerClubGoals
1 Rufino SegoviaSelangor19
2 Kipré TchétchéTerengganu14
3 Guilherme de PaulaKuala Lumpur13
4 Yahor ZubovichMelaka United12
5 GilmarPerak11
6 Gonzalo CabreraJohor Darul Ta'zim9
7 Flávio JúniorNegeri Sembilan8
7 Ifedayo OlusegunMelaka United8
7 Nicolás VélezNegeri Sembilan8
7 SandroKedah8

Top assists

Players sorted first by assists, then by last name.
RankPlayerClubAssists
1 Paulo JosuéKuala Lumpur9
2 Gonzalo CabreraJohor Darul Ta'zim7
3 Akhyar RashidKedah6
3 Bruno MatosPKNS6
3 Hafiz RamdanPKNP6
3 Safuwan BaharudinPahang6

Hat-tricks

Notes:

– Home ; – Away

Own goals

As of 28 July 2018
RankPlayerForAgainstDateGoals
1 K. ReubenPKNSKedah25 February 20181
1PKNP1
1 Saifulnizam MiswanPKNP27 June 20181
1 Nasriq Baharom1

Clean sheets

RankPlayerClubClean
sheets
1 Farizal MarliasJohor Darul Ta'zim13
2 Helmi Eliza EliasPahang7
3 Hafizul HakimPerak6
4 Shahril Saa'riPKNS5
5 Wan AzraieTerengganu3
5 Ramadhan HamidKedah3