Sabah lost the 2025 FA Cup final 5-0 to Johor Darul Ta’zim in front of 40,044 people at Bukit Jalil. A few months later they won the 2026 Challenge Cup, beating Penang on penalties for their first title in that competition. Same club, two different cups, two very different nights.
Malaysian football runs four domestic cups alongside Liga Super, and the names blur together fast. This guide separates them, with the dates, formats and qualification rules you need to follow each one.
Key Takeaways
- Four cups run alongside the league: the Charity Shield, the FA Cup, the Malaysia Cup and the Challenge Cup.
- The FA Cup and Malaysia Cup each have 16 teams, and the Challenge Cup is for the eight clubs that lose in the Malaysia Cup round of 16.
- The FA Cup winners get a place in the AFC Champions League Two, while the Malaysia Cup winners get nothing continental.
- The Charity Shield has counted as the first league match of the season since 2016.
The Four Cups at a Glance
Each cup has a different start date, a different pool of clubs and a different reward. This table covers the basics before the sections below go deeper.
| Cup | First Held | Teams | Who Qualifies | Asian Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charity Shield | 1985 | 2 | League champions and Malaysia Cup winners | No |
| FA Cup | 1990 | 16 | Super League and A1 Semi-Pro clubs | Yes |
| Malaysia Cup | 1921 | 16 | Super League and A1 Semi-Pro clubs | No |
| Challenge Cup | 2018 | 8 | Malaysia Cup round of 16 losers | No |
The calendar is easy to remember once you see it. The Charity Shield opens the season in August, the FA Cup runs from September to January, the Malaysia Cup takes over from January to May, and the Challenge Cup slots in from February to April. For the wider picture of how these cups sit around the league, the complete guide to the Malaysia Super League covers the format and calendar.
Charity Shield: The Season Opener
The Charity Shield, known in Malay as the Piala Sumbangsih, is a single match that opens the season. It was first played in 1985, when Selangor beat Pahang 2-1 at Stadium Merdeka.
It pairs the reigning Super League champions with the Malaysia Cup winners. If one club won both, the league runners-up take the second place, which is why JDT hosted Kuching City on 21 August 2026.
Since 2016 the match has also counted as the first league game of the season, with league points on the line. That is why JDT’s 3-0 win in August 2026 was both a trophy and a league result. JDT hold the most titles, and you can read how they got there in the guide to Johor Darul Ta’zim’s dynasty.
Malaysia FA Cup: The Route to Asia
The Malaysia FA Cup began in 1990, and it is the cup that matters if you care about continental football. The winners qualify for the following season’s AFC Champions League Two.
The 2025 edition had 16 teams, made up of 13 Super League clubs and three from the second-tier A1 Semi-Pro League. DPMM of Brunei took part as an invited club. Ties were two-legged up to the semi-finals, with a single-match final.
Away goals do not count. A tie that is level on aggregate goes to 30 minutes of extra time and then penalties, which is how Sabah beat Selangor 5-4 in the 2025 semi-final.
1. Who Has Won It
Selangor, Kedah and JDT each have five titles. Pahang and Kuala Lumpur City have three each, and 14 different teams have won it.
Kedah won in 2017 and 2019, and Pahang took the 2018 trophy. Since then JDT have owned it.
2. JDT’s Four in a Row
JDT have won the last four FA Cups, from 2022 to 2025. The finals were 3-1 against Terengganu, 2-0 against Kuala Lumpur City, 6-1 against Selangor and 5-0 against Sabah, so they scored 16 goals and conceded two across those matches.
The 2023 final was played at their own Sultan Ibrahim Stadium. The other three were at Bukit Jalil.
The 2026-27 edition runs from early September, and the final is scheduled for 16 January 2027.
Malaysia Cup: The Oldest Trophy in the Country
The Malaysia Cup, or Piala Malaysia, is the oldest competition on this list. The first match was played on 20 August 1921, when Selangor beat Penang 5-1 in Kuala Lumpur. It was called the Malaya Cup until 1967, when it became the Piala Malaysia.
Selangor hold the record with 33 titles, followed by Singapore FA with 24, Perak with eight, JDT with six and Kedah with five. Fifteen different teams have won it.
JDT have won the last four editions, from 2022 to 2026, and the 2026 final drew 50,032 spectators to Bukit Jalil. They beat Kuching City 2-0 on 23 May 2026. The last winner who was not JDT was Kuala Lumpur City in 2021.
1. The 2026 Format
The 2026 edition had 16 teams in the knockout stage. The top eight Super League clubs were seeded into one pot, and the remaining eight places went into an unseeded pot. DPMM took part as an invited club.
The round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals were two-legged, and the final was a single match at Bukit Jalil. Clubs that lose in the round of 16 drop into the Challenge Cup.
2. The 2026-27 Schedule
The draw is expected on 31 December 2026, with the first round on 22 to 24 January 2027. The final is on 30 May 2027.
Winning it does not earn an Asian place. That belongs to the FA Cup winners.
MFL Challenge Cup: The Newest Cup
The Challenge Cup was founded in August 2018, after the idea was first proposed in December 2017. In 2018 it was built for clubs that had missed out on the Malaysia Cup.
The first edition had eight teams in two groups of four, with a knockout stage from the quarter-finals. Terengganu II beat UKM FC 4-2 on aggregate in the final. JDT II won in 2019, beating UKM on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate draw, and the cup was not held again until 2023.
1. How It Works Now
Since the 2023 revival, the eight clubs that lose in the Malaysia Cup round of 16 enter a knockout bracket. Ties are two-legged from the quarter-finals.
The 2026-27 competition starts on 10 and 11 February 2027, with the two-legged final on 11 and 18 April.
2. The Winners So Far
Five editions have produced five different winners: Terengganu II, JDT II, PDRM, Selangor and Sabah. Terengganu II and JDT II are reserve sides, so Sabah are the first Borneo club to lift it.
PDRM beat Kuching City 4-1 on aggregate in 2023. Selangor won the 2024-25 edition by beating PDRM 7-0 on aggregate, although the first leg was awarded to Selangor 3-0 after PDRM fielded an ineligible player. On the pitch Selangor had won that leg 3-2.
3. The 2026 Final
Sabah and Penang drew 1-1 at City Stadium in George Town, with 8,984 in the ground, and 0-0 at Likas Stadium in Kota Kinabalu, with 20,589. Sabah won the shootout 4-3.
The second leg crowd was bigger than most league games draw. In 2025-26 the league average was 3,931 per match.
How the Cups Connect Across a Season
The cups are linked more than they first look. A club knocked out in the Malaysia Cup round of 16 drops straight into the Challenge Cup, so one bad night does not end its season.
At the top, the same four trophies make up a domestic quadruple: the league, the FA Cup, the Malaysia Cup and the Charity Shield. JDT have now won all four in the same season four years running.
For everyone else, the cups are where the surprises happen. Sabah’s FA Cup final and Challenge Cup win are a good example of a mid-table club finding a route to silverware.
Which Cup Matters Most?
It depends what you are after. The FA Cup is the one with the continental reward, the Malaysia Cup has the longest history and the biggest crowds, and the Challenge Cup is the easiest trophy for a mid-table side to win.
The crowd numbers show the pecking order. The 2026 Malaysia Cup final drew 50,032, against 40,044 for the 2025 FA Cup final at the same stadium.
For clubs outside the top eight, the Challenge Cup can be a real prize. Sabah finished ninth in the 2025-26 league and still ended the season with a trophy. The Charity Shield matters differently, because it is both a trophy and a league match.
Following the Cups in 2026-27
The 2026-27 calendar is already set. The FA Cup runs from September to its 16 January final, the Malaysia Cup follows from 22 January to 30 May, and the Challenge Cup fills the gaps from February to April.
If you want to know who is playing, the Malaysia Super League teams guide covers all 12 clubs. The A1 Semi-Pro sides that enter the cups are explained in the league system guide.
For the Asian side, the AFC Champions League Elite profile follows JDT’s continental games. The leagues hub covers the other competitions.