The 2023 MFL Challenge Cup is the third edition of

Malaysia Challenge Cup The MFL Challenge Cup ( Malay: ''Piala Cabaran MFL''), which was previously referred to as the Malaysia Challenge Cup, is a prestigious football tournament in Malaysia that is organized under the joint supervision and management of the Malaysian ...

tournament organised by

Football Association of Malaysia The Football Association of Malaysia (commonly abbreviated as FAM; ) is the national governing body of football in Malaysia, headquartered at Wisma FAM. The FAM is also one of the founding members of both the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) a ...

(FAM) and

Malaysian Football League The Malaysian Football League, also known simply as the MFL, was created during the course of the privatisation of the Malaysian football league system.https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sport/johor-crown-prince-resigns-as-fam-president-appo ...

(MFL). The tournament began on 18 September and ended on 3 December 2023. The qualified teams will compete on the knockout stage to compete in a

two-legged In sports (especially association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum of ...

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

beginning with the quarterfinals followed by semi-finals and the final. Each tie is played on a home-and-away

basis. The

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

and

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

are used to decide the winner if necessary. A total of 8 teams competed in the knockout phase, which the eight losers of the

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup (), formerly known as Malaya Cup, is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the country's oldest cup tournament, i ...

round of 16 will participate into the tournament. This was the first Challenge Cup to be held since the 2019 edition, after the previous 3 years saw the tournament not held due to various circumstances. This was also the first tournament under its new name, the MFL Challenge Cup. PDRM defeated Kuching City in the final, with 4–1 on aggregate, thus winning the competition for the first time in club history.

Teams

All 8 teams eliminated from the Malaysia Cup round of 16 will enter the tournament:

Format

Each tie in the

knockout phase A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, then 30 minutes of

was played (the

was not applied). If the score was still level at the end of extra time, the winners were decided by a

. In the final, which was played as a single match, if the score was level at the end of normal time, extra time was played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the score was still level.

The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows: *In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner would be designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).

Schedule

The schedule was as follows (all draws were held at the

headquarters in

Petaling Jaya Petaling Jaya (), colloquially referred to as "PJ", is a city in Petaling District, in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Originally developed as a Satellite city, satellite township for Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, it is part of the G ...

Selangor Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the e ...

Knockout-stage

Bracket

----

Quarter-finals

The first legs were played on 18 and 19 September 2023, and the second legs were played on 4, 5 and 6 October 2023.

Matches

;First leg ;Second leg ''Kelantan United won 11–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ;First leg ;Second leg ''PDRM won 5–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ;First leg ;Second leg ''Kuching City won 4–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ;First leg ;Second leg ''Penang won 5–3 on aggregate.'' ----

Semi-finals

The first legs were played on 21 and 22 October 2023, and the second legs were played on 4 and 5 November 2023.

Matches

;First leg ;Second leg ''PDRM won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ;First leg ;Second leg ''Kuching City won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ----

Final

The first leg was played on 29 November 2023, and the second leg was played on 3 December 2023.

Matches

;First leg ;Second leg ''PDRM won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ----

Winner

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Notes

References

External links

* {{2023 in Malaysian football

Malaysia Super League The Malaysia Super League (), known simply as the Super League (), is the men's top professional Football in Malaysia, football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnersh ...

Teams

Format

Schedule

Knockout-stage

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Matches

Semi-finals

Matches

Final

Matches

Winner

Statistics

Top goalscorers

See also

Notes

References

External links