Sri Pahang FC

Sri Pahang Football Club (Malay: Kelab Bola Sepak Sri Pahang) is a Malaysian professional football club based in Kuantan, Pahang. Founded in 1959 and has traditionally worn a yellow home kit since. At the beginning, club's home matches were held around the city public fields and outside Kuantan, predominantly around districts of Pahang.

Sri Pahang

Full name	Sri Pahang Football Club
Nickname(s)	Tok Gajah (The Elephants)
Short name	SPFC
Founded	1959; 65 years ago (1959) (as Pahang FA)
Ground	Temerloh Mini Stadium (due to stadium renovations in Darul Makmur Stadium, since May 2024)
Capacity	10,000 (Temerloh Mini Stadium)
President/Owner	Tengku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah
Head coach	Fandi Ahmad
League	Malaysia Super League
2023	2023 Malaysia Super League, 5th of 14
Website	http://www.sripahangfc.com.my/
Current season

The lowest point of the club was in 2012, when Pahang FA were relegated to the Malaysia Premier League. The club came back from the abyss to the Malaysia Super League in 2013 after winning the play-off match against Kedah Darul Aman.

Sri Pahang has won 5 Malaysia Super League title, 1 Malaysia Premier League title, 3 Malaysia FA Cup, 4 Malaysia Cup and 3 Malaysian Charity Shield.

History

Early years (1959–1979)

Pahang FA was established by Sultan Abu Bakar in 1959 to represent the state of Pahang in the HMS Beagle Cup. In the next year, the association begins with the preparation against another states before taking part for the first time in the HMS Beagle Cup. Construction of their current home ground, Darul Makmur Stadium, was completed by the Council of Kuantan in 1970.

Rise to prominence (1980–2008)

Led by the legendary Jamal Nasir, Pahang FA won the first cup in 1983 when they won the Piala Malaysia, the most prestigious tournament in Malaysia football after a win over Selangor FA in the tournament, breaking the long duopoly of Selangor FA and Singapore FA and also became the first East Coast team to win it. Nonetheless, the most successful era was in the 1990s, when the association reached the final of Piala Malaysia 4 times even though they only succeeded once in 1992. 1992 was the best year when the association won the double, the Piala Malaysia and the league. Sri Pahang in that year was touted as the Dream Team when several high-profile players played for the association with the like of Dollah Salleh, Zainal Abidin Hassan, Ahmad Yusof, Khairul Azman Mohamed, Abdul Mubin Mokhtar, Australian football legend, Alan Davidson and Singaporean football legend, Fandi Ahmad. The association defeated Kedah FA in final stage to win the Piala Malaysia, thanks to the fastest goal ever in Piala Malaysia history by Zulhamizan Zakaria.^[vague]

Pahang FA was also the first winner of the inaugural Malaysia Super League in its new format in 2004 winning 14 matches, 5 draws and 2 losses in 21 league games.

As one of the most successful football teams in Malaysia from 1980 to 2007, Pahang FA had produced many talented local players from the academy such as Khairul Azman Mohamed, one of the best goalkeepers in Asia in the 1990s, the prolific striker, Azizul Kamaluddin, Mohd Fadzli Saari who played in SV Wehen Wiesbaden in Germany and Muhammad Juzaili Samion who also played for the 4th division of Ligue 1 club, FCSR Haguenau in 2000.

In 2005, Pahang FA was invited to the 2005 ASEAN Club Championship in which they ended up as runners-up losing the final to Singaporean side, Tampines Rovers.

In 2008, many players from talented young Shahzan Muda were absorbed into Pahang FA.

Inconsistency (2009–2012)

In the 2011, Pahang FA played in their worst ever season in the club history finishing in 13th place with 5 wins, 7 draws and 14 losses as they were relegated to the 2nd tier of Malaysia football, the Malaysia Premier League. While in the Malaysia Premier League, Pahang FA showed great improvement in the 2012 season as they had a great run in the 2012 Malaysia FA Cup making it to the quarter-finals of the cup. The club was also the 2012 Malaysia Premier League runner-up in 2012 sitting 8 points behind first place ATM FA, qualifying the association to play in the promotion "play-off" matches to the Malaysia Super League. Pahang FA than beat Kedah FA 3–2 on penalties shootout in the final of the "play-off", winning promotion to the 2013 Malaysia Super League.

Rise of The Elephants (2013–2018)

Pahang FA than had a great run in the 2013 Malaysia Cup reaching all the way to the final where they won against Kelantan FA 1–0. Azamuddin Akil won the 'Best Player' award while Matías Conti become the joint top scorer. In the 2014 Malaysia Cup, Pahang FA make it all the way to the final in which they successfully defended it against Johor Darul Ta'zim with Nigerian striker, Dickson Nwakaeme scoring both goal in the 2–2 draw which send eventually ended up with Pahang FA winning it 5–3 on penalties shootout. Nwakaeme also became the cup top scorer with eight goals.^{[citation needed]}

Pahang FA also won the 2014 Piala Sumbangsih in which Matías Conti scored the only goal against LionsXII. Pahang FA also won the 2014 Malaysia FA Cup facing Felda United in the final in which the club were losing 1–0 in the process before Faizol Hussien levelled the match at 1–1 in the 80th minute. Nwakaeme than scored in the 89th minute to seal the win for Pahang FA in which resulted the club to win a cup double in 2014.^{[citation needed]}

In 2018, Pahang FA had another great run in the 2018 Malaysia FA Cup in which they won 2–0 against Selangor FA in the final after losing 2-3 to Kedah FA in the final of the 2017 Malaysia FA Cup.^{[citation needed]}

Ups and downs (2019–present)

In 2021, Pahang FA was rebranded as Sri Pahang Football Club.

Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors

Sponsorship

Period	Manufacturer	Main Sponsor	Other Sponsor
1989–1990	Schwarzenbach	Dunhill	Genting
1991	Puma
1992–1998	Diadora
1999–2000	Mikasa
2001–2003	Kronos
2004–2005	Adidas
2006–2007		TM
2008	Hummel
2009–2010	Lotto
2011		ZON Hotel
2012		Resorts World Genting	Aras Kuasa
2013	Stobi		Chili's
2014–2016	Puma	Aras Kuasa	Resorts World Genting
2017	Jako
July 2017 – 2018	Fila
2019–2020	Umbro		Football Republic
2021–2023	Hakka.Clo	Visit Pahang (home), Invest Pahang (away)	Extra Joss
2024–present	Voltra Pro	Invest Pahang	Arwana Ekspres

Stadium

Darul Makmur Stadium has been the home ground of the club since 1970.

Sri Pahang are currently based at Darul Makmur Stadium in Kuantan, Pahang. The capacity of the stadium is 40,000 and also has a running track.^[1] The stadium has a running track, in addition to the football field. It was opened in 1970, while capacity was increased after renovations in 1995 in conjunction with Kuantan hosting the Sukma Games in 1996 and 2012.

In 2012, the association had to play in Temerloh Mini Stadium as the home ground for the first time after the Darul Makmur Stadium was put under renovation for the 2012 Sukma Games. A year later, the club returned to the newly renovated Darul Makmur Stadium and in the same year, they lifted the Piala Malaysia for the third time, ending a 21-year cup drought.

Players

First-team squad

As of 1 May 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  MAS Zarif Irfan 3 DF  MAS Adam Nor Azlin 4 MF  MAS Asnan Ahmad 5 DF  SRB Aleksandar Cvetković 6 DF  MAS Syazwan Andik 7 MF  MAS Sean Selvaraj 9 FW  LBR Kpah Sherman 10 MF  UZB Kuvondik Ruziev 11 FW  UKR Mykola Agapov 12 MF  MAS Baqiuddin Shamsudin 13 DF  MAS Ashar Al Aafiz Abdullah 15 DF  ARG Stefano Brundo 16 FW  MAS Ezequiel Agüero 18 GK  MAS Azfar Arif 20 MF  MAS Azam Azih

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 DF  MAS Azwan Aripin 25 GK  MAS Wan Mohd Syazmin (on loan from Kedah Darul Aman) 26 MF  MAS T. Saravanan 27 DF  MAS Fadhli Shas 29 DF  MAS Azrif Nasrulhaq Badrul Hisham 30 DF  MAS Ibrahim Manusi 33 MF  MAS Saiful Jamaluddin 35 FW  MAS Syaahir Saiful Nizam 38 MF  MAS Adam Alif Mustapa 44 DF  MAS Hasnul Zaim 55 MF  MAS David Rowley 88 MF  ARG Manuel Hidalgo (on loan from Johor Darul Ta'zim)

Under-23s

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  MAS Nasyrullah Zaki — MF  MAS Adam Malique

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  MAS Aqil Arazi — FW  MAS Lokman Bah Din

Club official

Position	Nat	Staff
Technical director		Tajuddin Noor
Team manager		Dollah Salleh
Technical advisor		Fandi Ahmad
Head coach		Fandi Ahmad
Assistant head coach		Ahmad Yusof
		Ahmad Shaharuddin
		Jalaluddin Jaafar
Opposition / Tactical / Set Piece Analyst		Rudie Imran Masih
Goalkeeper coach		Omar Salim
Fitness Coach		Azmi Ibrahim
Team doctor		Shah Rezal Sujit
Physiotherapist		Adam Zuhairy Zafri
Physiotherapist		Mohd Riduan Amin
Masseur		Muhd Hazeem Mustafar Kamal
Masseur		Mohd Suhaimi Ramli
Security officer		Muhammad Keny Anyie
Kit man		Ahmad Faizal Ibrahim
		Suffian Sulaiman
Under-23's team manager		Jalaluddin Mohd Deli
Under-23's head coach		Mohd Yazeed Hamzah
Under-23's assistant coach		Shahrizan Salleh
Under-23's coach
Under-23's goalkeeper coach
Under-23's fitness coach
Under-23's physiotherapist		Azeri Bin Adnan
Under-20's team manager		Zamani Kamal
Under-20's head coach		Mohd Shukri ismail
Under-20's assistant coach		Mohd Ali Tahar
Under-20's coach		Mohd Shaifullah Abdul Aziz
Under-20's goalkeeper coach		Zakaria Abu Bakar
Under-20's fitness coach		Mohd Kaizai Zainulddin
Under-20's physiotherapist		Amirul Afiq Lokiman
Under-20's masseur		Muhd Azrie Amirudin
Under-18's team manager		Dato' Mohd Mazri Mahmud
Under-18's head coach		Hamdan Mohamad
Under-18's assistant coach		Mohd Hazrani Hazim
Under-18's coach
Under-18's goalkeeper coach		Muhd Zyuraimi Abdul majid
Under-18's fitness coach		Mohd Rosidi Mohamad@Abdullah
Under-18's physiotherapist		Mumtazah Putra
Under-20's masseur		Mohd Amiruzaman Hamdan

Club personnel

Sri Pahang Football Club Sdn. Bhd. is the company which owns Sri Pahang Football Club.^[2]

Sri Pahang Football Club Sdn. Bhd. Owners

YAM Tengku Abdul Rahman Ibni Sultan Ahmad Shah Al-Mustafi Billah

Raja Dato' Shaharudin bin Raja Jalil Shah

Rizal bin Che Hashim

President

YAM Tengku Abdul Rahman Ibni Sultan Ahmad Shah Al-Mustafi Billah

Deputy president

Muhammad Safian Ismail

Board of Directors

Raja Dato' Shaharudin bin Raja Jalil Shah

Rizal bin Che Hashim

Chief Executive Officer

Suffian Awang^[2]

List of head coaches

Years	Nat	Name	Achievements
1994–1996		Yunus Alif	– 1995 Liga Perdana – 1999 Liga Perdana 1
1997–1998		Jorgen Erik Larsen
1999		Alan Davidson
1999–2000		Fuzzeimi Ibrahim
2001–2002		Yunus Alif
2003		Ralf Borges Ferreira
2004–2006		Zainal Abidin Hassan	– 2004 Malaysia Super League
2007		Ahmad Yusof
2008		Zainal Abidin Hassan
2009		Tajuddin Noor
2010–2013		Dollah Salleh	– 2013 Malaysia Cup
December 2013–March 2014		Ron Smith	– 2014 Piala Sumbangsih
March 2014–December 2015		Zainal Abidin Hassan	– 2014 Malaysia FA Cup – 2014 Malaysia Cup
December 2015–March 2016		Ahmad Shaharuddin Rosdi
March 2016–December 2016		Razip Ismail
December 2016–December 2020		Dollah Salleh (2)	– 2018 Malaysia FA Cup
December 2020–March 2021		Thomas Dooley
March 2021–December 2021		Dollah Salleh (3)
January 2022–July 2022		Christophe Gamel
July 2022–January 2023		Dollah Salleh [interim] (4)
January 2023–		Fandi Ahmad

Team managers

Years	Nat	Name
1999		Talib Sulaiman
2000–2003		Jamal Nasir Abdul Nasir Ismail
2004–2005		Shahiruddin Abdul Moin
2006–2007		Zainal Abidin Hassan
2008		Omar Othman
2009–2017		Che Nasir Salleh
2018–2021		Suffian Awang
2021–2022		Che Nasir Salleh
2023–		Dollah Salleh

Club record

Updated on 24 October 2019.

Note:

• Pld = Played, W = Won, D = Drawn, L = Lost, F = Goals for, A = Goals against, D = Goal difference, Pts= Points, Pos = Position

  1st or Champions   2nd or Runner-up   3rd place   Promotion   Relegation

Season	League										Cup			Asia
	Division	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	D	Pts	Pos	Charity	Malaysia	FA	Competition	Result
2004	Liga Super	21	14	5	2	48	29	+19	47	1st	–	Semi-finals	Semi-finals
2005	Liga Super	21	10	5	6	37	29	+8	35	2nd	–	Quarter-finals	1st round	AFC Cup	Group stage
2005–06	Liga Super	21	7	6	8	21	24	−3	27	7th	–	Group stage	Champions	–	–
2006–07	Liga Super	24	7	6	11	32	41	−9	27	9th	–	Group stage	2nd round	AFC Cup	Group stage
2007–08	Liga Super	24	8	6	10	26	31	−5	30	8th	–	Group stage	Semi-finals	–	–
2009	Liga Super	26	5	2	19	32	63	−31	17	13th	–	Group stage	1st round	–	–
2010	Liga Super	26	10	3	13	31	50	−19	33	8th	–	Quarter-finals	1st round	–	–
2011	Liga Super	26	5	7	14	19	36	−17	22	13th	–	Play-off	Semi-finals	–	–
2012	Premier League	22	14	4	4	60	29	+31	46	2nd	–	Quarter-finals	2nd round	–	–
2013	Liga Super	22	10	5	7	36	32	+4	35	5th	–	Champions	Semi-finals	–	–
2014	Liga Super	22	11	4	7	36	30	+6	37	3rd	Champions	Champions	Champions	–	–
2015	Liga Super	22	13	5	4	43	29	+14	38[lower-alpha 1]	3rd	Runner-up	Semi-finals	Semi-finals	AFC Cup	Quarter-finals
2016	Liga Super	22	6	6	10	25	40	−15	24[lower-alpha 2]	9th	–	Group stage	3rd round	–	–
2017	Liga Super	22	12	4	6	44	26	+18	40	2nd	–	Quarter-finals	Runner-up	–	–
2018	Liga Super	22	9	7	6	35	21	+14	34	4th	–	Quarter-finals	Champions	–	–
2019	Liga Super	22	12	7	3	37	21	+16	43	2nd	–	Semi-finals	Semi-finals	–	–
2020	Liga Super	11	4	2	5	18	18	0	14	8th	–	not held	not held	–	–
2021	Liga Super	22	4	6	12	23	37	-14	18	10th	–	Group Stage	not held	–	–
2022	Liga Super	22	8	4	10	33	31	+2	28	7th	–		Quarter Final	–	–

Source:^[3][4]

1. Pahang was deducted 6 points due to involvement in the delay in the process of solving the problem of salary and compensation by the former imports 2013 season, Mohamed Borji.
2. Pahang has been awarded 3 points free from the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) after offenses committed by the Football Association of Kedah (Kedah FA) putting the suspended player during the match against Pahang on August 3, 2016.

AFC Club ranking

As of 2 July 2017^[5]

Current Ranking	Team	Points
94	Selangor FA	9.951
95	Ayeyawady United	9.878
96	Naft Al-Wasat	9.704
97	Al-Suwaiq	9.643
98	Pahang FA	9.617

Continental record

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1988–89	Asian Club Championship[6]	Qualifying Round Group 5	Royal Thai Air Force	1–2		2nd out of 5
			Niac Mitra	0–0
			Bandaran KB	5–1
			Geylang International	2–1
		Semi Final League Group B	Al-Sadd	0–2		5th out of 5
			Al-Ittifaq	1–4
			Mohammedan SC	2–1
			April 25	0–2
1993–94	Asian Club Championship[7]	Preliminary Round	Thai Farmers Bank FC	Withdrew
1995	Asian Club Championship[8]	First Round	Cảng Sài Gòn	Walkover
		Second Round	Ilhwa Chunma	2–3	0–2	2–5
2005	AFC Cup[9]	Group E	Home United	3–3	1–2	3rd out of 4
			New Radiant	1–0	1–1
			Happy Valley	3–1	1–1
2005	ASEAN Club Championship	Group A	Hoàng Anh Gia Lai	4–0		1st out of 4
			FC Zebra	8–0
			Nagacorp	3–0
		Semi Final	DPMM FC	1–0
		Final	Tampines Rovers	2–4	Runner-up
2007	AFC Cup[10]	Group F	Osotsapa	0–4	0–4	4th out of 4
			Mohun Bagan	1–2	0–2
			Tampines Rovers	1–4	0–2
2015	AFC Cup[11]	Group G	Yadanarbon	7–4	3–2	2nd out of 4
			Global	0–0	0–0
			South China	0–1	1–3
		Round of 16	Persipura Jayapura	Forfeited, 3–0 win awarded to Pahang
		Quarter Final	Istiklol	3–1	0–4	3–5

Honours

Domestic

League

• Division 1/Liga Super
  • Winners (5): 1987, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2004
  • Runners-up (6): 1984, 1991, 1998, 2005, 2017, 2019
• Division 2/Premier League
  • Runner-up: 2012

Cup

• Malaysia Cup
  • Winners (4): 1983, 1992, 2013, 2014
  • Runners-up (4): 1984, 1994, 1995, 1997
• Malaysia FA Cup
  • Winners (3): 2006, 2014, 2018
  • Runners-up (2): 1995, 2017
• Piala Sumbangsih
  • Winners (3): 1992, 1993, 2014
  • Runners-up (5): 1985, 1988, 1995, 2007, 2015

Continental

• ASEAN Club Championship
  • Runner-up (1): 2005

See also

• Association football portal
• Malaysia portal

• List of Malaysia Football Chairman

References

1. "Home Venue". Pahang FA. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
2. "Ini Senarai 'Owner', Nama Syarikat Dan Pengarah 21 Buah Kelab Dalam Saingan Liga Super Dan Liga Premier Malaysia". Vocket FC. 6 October 2020. Archived from the original on 13 September 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
3. "Summary - Liga Super - Malaysia - Results, fixtures, tables and news - Soccerway". Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
4. "Malaysia 2016". Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
5. "AFC Club Ranking ( 1st January 2020 ) - Global Football Ranks". Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
6. King, Ian; Stokkermans, Karel. "Asian Club Competitions 1988/89". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
7. Stokkermans, Karel. "Asian Club Competitions 1993/94". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 30 May 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
8. Fujioka, Atsushi; Lee, Seungsoo; Stokkermans, Karel; Visser, Eric. "Asian Club Competitions 1995/96". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
9. Stokkermans, Karel. "Asian Club Competitions 2005". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
10. Saaid, Hamdan; Stokkermans, Karel. "Asian Club Competitions 2007". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
11. Stokkermans, Karel. "Asian Club Competitions 2015". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 21 August 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2020.

External links

• Official website