Penang

The club was founded in 1920 unofficially, and officially as Football Association of Penang (FAP) in 1921. Penang is the oldest football team in Malaysia and one of the oldest football clubs in Asia. The team is based in the state of Penang in the north of Malaysia. Penang have consistently been a decent team throughout their history, producing players such as the country's first Olympian. Penang is the fourth most successful team in Malaysian football history with 16 champions.^[]

On 21 October 1921, the club was founded. Almost all the big matches were played at Victoria Green, home of the Chinese Recreation Club. The team enter into the final of the Malaysia most prestigious football tournament, Malaysia Cup's final in 1934, but the team lost to Singapore FA with a heartbreaking score of 1–2. Penang enter into the final of the last edition of Malaysia Cup before World War II and they lost to the same opponent in 1934. During the World War II, football competitions were stopped.

An era spanning the 1950s to the 1970s when Penang was among the top teams in inter-state football.

The 1950s saw Penang producing players such as the country's first Olympian, Yeap Cheng Eng, Yeang Kah Chong, Tan Swee Hock, Wong Kam Poh, Yap Hin Hean, Liew Fee Yuen, Lee Ah Loke, the Pang brothers and more. Since the early 1950s, Aziz Ahmad was Penang's top goal-getter in 1953 and 1954. He scored the winning goal when Penang defeated Singapore 3–2 in the 1953 Malaya Cup final in Ipoh. Penang won 3 Malaysia Cup champions (1953, 1954 and 1958) and 4 FAM Cup champions (1952, 1955, 1956 and 1957).

Some of the well-known FAP officials then were Loh Hoot Yeang, who was president for many years, A.S. Mohamad Mydin, Tan Cheng Hoe, Yaakob Syed and Haris Hussain.^[] David Choong was president in 1962 when Penang made the FAM Cup final, but lost 3–4 to Selangor in a contest on May 12 before a crowd at the City Stadium.^[]

In October 1963, Penang trounced Perlis 13–0 in a Malaysia Cup tie at the City Stadium.

Aziz took over as captain when Cheng Eng retired.^[] By 1965, veterans such as Siang Teik and Aziz made way as Penang rebuilt.^[] M. Kuppan took over as captain with Yeap Kim Hock, James Raju and Ibrahim Mydin the only other survivors.^[]

For the first time, Penang also preferred the services of four British Airmen based at the RAF Support unit which was based at the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Butterworth base which participated in the local league. They were John Leather, Clive Warren, Vic Probert and Alan Peacock.

The late 1960s saw the emergence of Aziz's nephews, the Abdullah brothers—Namat and Shaharuddin. At his peak, Shaharuddin was a goal-getter together with Isa Bakar.^[]

Penang made the Malaysia Cup final in 1968 to face mighty Selangor but nobody expected it to be a massacre. Selangor romped home 8–1 in one of the most one-sided finals ever.

In 1974, Penang heroically knocked Singapore out in the semifinal to face northern rival Perak in the final. Namat Abdullah led Penang to a 2–1 victory in what was to be the state's last Malaysia Cup final victory. Penang stepped into the final of Malaysia Cup in 1977 as they lost the match to Singapore. In 1976, Penang became the first and only club from Malaysia to win the Aga Khan Gold Cup which was the early version of Asian Club Championship, beating Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club 3–0 in the final at the Bangabandhu National Stadium under the guidance of coach Lim Boon Kheng.

Football Association of Malaysia introduced the Malaysia First Division League in 1982. Penang was one of the founding members of the league. The first edition of the league saw Penang become the champion. In 1983, Penang was the first runner-up of the league. After that, the team faced stagnation until the mid-1990s because failed to win any major trophy.

The glory days came after the team faced the stagnation period for more than 15 years. Penang enter into the FA Cup final for the first time in the team history in 1997 and they lost to Selangor. After the disappointment, Penang won the 1998 Malaysia Super League. The team failed to defend the champion as they only manage to get runner-up in 1999. The 2000 FA Cup saw Penang lost to Terengganu after a nail-biting penalty shootouts. Penang was the runner-up of the top division league in 2000. After two consecutive years as the runner-up of Malaysia Super League, Penang become the champion of the league in 2001. Penang FA historically won the FA Cup for the first time in 2002 thanks to the goal scored by Gustavo Romero on the 65 minutes. Penang first attempt into the Charity Shield saw the team won the trophy after they beat Selangor.

Although the team got a good start by winning the Charity Shield, but the team only finished mid table in the league and in round two of the FA Cup. Penang finished third in the group stage of the Malaysia Cup and failed to qualify for the second round. In 2004, Penang ranked fifth out of 8 in the league and eliminated in the second round of FA Cup. Yunus Alif's boys won the group stage of Malaysia Cup but lost in second round. The league performance in 2006 is worse than 2005 as the team only ranked sixth. Penang won the first round of FA Cup, but they failed to qualify for the third round. They top the group of Malaysia Cup for two consecutive years but still can't advanced for the third round after losing the second round matches. The next season saw Penang ranked sixth again in the league and lost the first round match of FA Cup. The team lost the quarter final matches of Malaysia Cup. In 2006–07 season of Malaysia Super League, the team ranked tenth throughout the league. Penang finished the journey of FA Cup in round one. Penang finished fifth out of six in the Malaysia Cup group stage. New coach, Mohd Bakar was appointed to replace Josef Herel in the 2007–08 season. The Panthers finished 12th in the league, round two in FA Cup and last in the Malaysia Cup group stage. For the same season until 2012, the club was facing a critical financial condition. The state's footballers had not been paid for four months, and called on the current administration to honour the contracts signed with players. In 2009, Penang FA finished third from the last in the top division league. Penang was knocked out from the FA Cup in round two for two consecutive years. Penang was eliminated from the Malaysia Cup tournament after finished third in the group stage.

In 2010, the darkest period ever in the team history came. Reduan Abdullah squad had only collected 10 points and finished at the bottom of the league. Penang was relegated from the top flight after 18 consecutive spells in the top flight of Malaysian football. The club continued to decline and in 2011 the worst fears were reached when they were relegated to FAM League after the team struggled in the second division with only collected 4 points after 22 matches. Janos Krecska was appointed as coach in 2012. The team finished mid-table in the third tier end of the year.

Penang FA's legend, Merzagua Abderrazak, took over as the club head coach in 2013. The aim of the club, which was to promote to the Malaysia Premier League, was achieved successfully under the tactician. Penang won a silverware after an 11-year wait. However, they may have to leave their talismanic Moroccan coach Merzagua Abderrazzak because he needs to obtain an A-level coaching licence in his home country to be able to continue coaching.

Due to the problem, the club appointed K. Devan as the new head coach. Under his guidance Penang claimed the third spot of the Premier League and qualified into Malaysia Cup after absent for four years. Penang finished last place in the group stage with four points after six matches. K. Devan's contract was not renewed and he was signed by Negeri Sembilan.

Jacksen F. Tiago took over from K. Devan as the head coach of Penang for the next season. His skills and strategies to be somehow a success to the squad when showing good performance facing with major teams in the preseason match; Sime Darby, Johor Darul Takzim, Perak, Selangor, Kelantan. The most notable were the matches versus Selangor and Kelantan which ended with the score of 2–0 favouring the home team. Penang also stepped into the quarter final of Malaysia FA Cup after 13 years. A dramatic finish in the 2015 league campaign saw Penang FA win the runner-up on Malaysian Premier League after so much struggle in 2014 and claimed a ticket to the top flight.

Promoted after finishing second in the 2015 Malaysia Premier League, Penang beefed their squad with several youngsters from the Harimau Muda project and signed three new imports. The Panthers were hopeful of at least staying in the MSL but things did not go so well as Penang soon found themselves stuck in the relegation zone that led to the 'resting' of Jacksen F. Tiago. The appointment of MSL winning coach Bojan Hodak as chief executive officer and Nenad Bacina as head coach to replace Jacksen offered some promise for the second half of the season but Penang still struggled to find consistency. It wasn't until the final day of the season, in the final minute at that, did Penang save their top flight status thanks to the goal from Faizat Ghazli.

I-League winning coach, Ashley Westwood signed a two years contract with the club in November 2016 to replace Nenad and Bojan. However, Penang FA terminated their contract with head coach, Ashley Westwood under mutual consent due to poor results in March 2017 and he was replaced by Zainal Abidin Hassan.

Zairil Khir Johari, who took over from Nazir Ariff Mushir Ariff has resigned as president of the Penang Football Association (FA) following a bad season by the Penang Panthers in the 2017 Super League on Oct 9, 2017. PFA trustee Datuk Abdul Rashid Ismail, who was then act as president, were trying to resolve the issue of player's salary pending. Former player Reinaldo Lobo, had reported PFA to Fifa after the club failed to pay him for six months.

After relegation to Malaysia Premier League, Zainal Abidin Hassan remains the head coach in charge of the club with him, the likes of Mohd Faiz Subri, Yong Kuong Yong, Sanna Nyassi and Mohd Azrul Ahmad were retained. But the departures has seen Syamer Kutty Abba moving to Johor Darul Ta'zim, Jafri Firdaus Chew & K. Reuben to PKNS FC, Rafiuddin Rodin to Perak. Somehow Zainal Abidin Hassan manages to keep The Panthers in Malaysia Premier League as they finished in 10th position for 2018 season and thus avoided a successive drop of division, having been relegated from the Super League the previous season. As of August 2018, FAP are currently laden with a total debt of RM11.2mil, which the players have not received their monthly income for four-and-a-half months.

Dr Amar Pritpal Abdullah was elected as Penang FA president after edging out Datuk Seri Ho Kwee Cheng, promises to settle Premier League players’ outstanding salaries amounting to RM3.5mil. Penang FA who only narrowly escaped relegation to the FAM Cup in the 2018 Premier League season searched for stability ahead of the 2019 season under the helm of new management of the team. It was announced later that former Hanelang F.C. head coach Ahmad Yusof to replace the outgoing Zainal Abidin Hassan.

The FA of Penang have set a modest target for the 2019 season, to stay in the Premier League by aiming for a top five finish next season. A move that is designed to bring stability to the team after two horrendous seasons as new management work to settle past problems. Penang state government will be taking up the responsibilities to clear the debt on a budget separate from the one awarded to the Penang FA. The Panthers however are on the hunt for more sponsors to come in to supplement that amount. Penang FA struggle to manage themselves after half of season at poor position (bottom league). Manzoor Azwira has been appointed as a Head Coach to replace Ahmad Yusof. Penang FA back with changes under Manzoor Azwira. He bought new import player like Casagrande and Sergio Aguero and at the end, Penang FA climb to 2nd placed and secure a place to Super League. less than 24 hours after securing promotion to the Super League, Penang FA found themselves back in the Premier League after being docked six points by the FA of Malaysia (FAM) due to a decision by Fifa. This came after a complaint filed by former Penang defender Reinaldo Lobo to Fifa over salary claims.

In 2020 the government of Malaysia stopped all sports activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Penang FA was on track to winning the league after being unbeaten in 8 matches. They made in again to secure promotion to the Super League next season after beating Kuala Lumpur 2–1 at City Stadium. Penang eventually won their first ever Malaysia Premier League title after beating Kelantan United 4-0 which see them promoted to the 2021 Malaysia Super League.

Penang ended the 2021 Malaysia Super League season in third place 2 points behind 2nd place Kedah Darul Aman.