 | |
| Full name | Petaling Jaya Rangers Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname | The Rangers |
| Short name | PJR |
| Founded | 9 August 2011; 14 years ago (2011-08-09) |
| Dissolved | 2019 |
| Ground | AirAsia-MBPJ Stadium |
| Capacity | 25,000 |
| Owner | AirAsia Group |
| Chairman | Tony Fernandes |
| Head coach | Khairul Anuar Jamil |
| League | Selangor Super League |
| 2019 | Super League, 6th |
Petaling Jaya Rangers Football Club orPJ Rangers was a professionalfootball club based inPetaling Jaya, in the state ofSelangor,Malaysia.[1] Founded in 2011, the club's main ground was theAirAsia Stadium.[2]
In 2018, they played in the third divisionMalaysia FAM League after being promoted fromSelangor Super League in 2014.[2] The club was formerly known asAirAsia Allstars, before being rebranded in December 2016 to Petaling Jaya Rangers F.C.[2][3][4]
Petaling Jaya Rangers Football Club was formed on 9 August 2011 as its former name AirAsia Allstars Football Club and competed in the Selangor State League.[2][1][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] According to founder Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, the initial purpose of the club was to "encourageAirAsia’s staff to excel in sports – football in particular – besides being committed to their daily work in keeping AirAsia as the best low cost airline in the world."[2] The club won the league and were promoted to play in the national league, Malaysia FAM League.
The club was promoted to the Malaysia FAM League for the 2015 season after moving up from the Selangor Super League.[2][1][12] For their first season in the national league, the club appointedMohd Nidzam Jamil as the newhead coach.[13][14] The club ended its first season at 7th place. After the first four matches of the 2016 season, the club replaced Nidzam Jamil with P. Maniam for the remainder of the season.[15][16] The club managed to reach the playoff for theMalaysia Premier League after finishing the season in 3rd place, although did not manage to be promoted.
In November 2016, the club has announced the appointment ofMat Zan Mat Aris as the new head coach with a contract of two years.[17][18][19][20] Mat Zan Mat Aris was the former head coach ofMelaka United who achieved a back-to-back promotion from the third division.[17] They unveiled plans for the 2017 season with a rebranding from AirAsia F.C. to Petaling Jaya Rangers F.C., in order to bring more fans and promote local community support.[1][5][6][11] The club also revealed its plans for 2017 with the focus on engaging communities.[21] The club aimed to actively engage with and serve football fans in the area.[1][5][7]
Petaling Jaya Rangers announced an exclusive partnership withQueens Park Rangers (QPR) to start a football academy.[1][5][6][11] The academy aimed to nurture and train the next generation of footballers.[1][5] Working together with the team, QPR lent their expertise in training players and staff.[1][5][7][11] PJ Rangers were put in group B for the2017 Malaysia FAM League, with seven other clubs.[22] The club was knocked out from the2017 Malaysia FA Cup in the second round after a 2–1 defeat byUiTM.[23][21] At the end of the season, PJ Rangers finished second and were defeated byShahzan Muda FC 3–1 in the quarter-finals of the knockout stage.
In the2018 Malaysia FAM Cup season, the club again achieved second place in group B and qualified for the knockout stage. PJ Rangers failed at the penultimate stage when they were defeated 4–3 on aggregate toSelangor United. At the end of the season, the management announced that they would not participate in the next FAM Cup season, instead rejoining the Selangor Super League in 2019.[24]
PJ Rangers home stadium was thePetaling Jaya Stadium inPetaling Jaya,Selangor.[5][6][7][9] In2015 Malaysia FAM League, the club played in MPSJ Stadium,Subang Jaya, before moving to UPM Mini Stadium,Serdang for the remainder of the season. For thesecond season, the club once again moved, to theShah Alam Stadium.[6]
The original crest, adopted when the club was founded in 2011 featured the logo of AirAsia as the main theme with the Allstars suffix. Despite the club being founded in 2011, the words "EST 2001" featured on the crest. This was reference to the establishment of theAirAsia company afterTune Air, bought it from a Malaysian government-owned company in September 2001.[25][26] The crest was replaced with a new design to reflect the club's rebranding with a colour theme of maroon and gold for the 2017 season. The logo was designed by Rafizi Ibrahim, a freelance graphic designer who hails from Petaling Jaya himself. His winning design was chosen through a logo competition held in 2016 and was personally chosen by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes himself"
As part of the rebranding effort, the club changed its name to Petaling Jaya Rangers with the emphasis on engaging the Petaling Jaya community[5][6] via community programs.[27][5][6]
The club aimed to be a sustainable self-funding entity and reduce its dependency on AirAsia via financial funding through other methods of corporate sponsorship, gate receipt, and merchandise.[5][2][6][7][11][21]
In 2016 The PJ Rangers kit was supplied byLine 7.[21] The club has also had other shared shirt sponsors, as they have been previously sponsored byGE Aviation in 2015 season.
| Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | EGO SPORT[28] | AirAsia /GE Aviation |
| 2016 | Line 7 | AirAsia |
| Season | League | Top goalscorer | FA Cup | Malaysia Cup /Challenge Cup | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | Pos | Name | Goals | |||
| 2015 | FAM League | 16 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 21 | 16 | 7th, group B | DNQ | DNQ | ||
| 2016 | FAM League | 16 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 19 | 17 | 30 | 3rd, group A | Second round | DNQ | ||
| 2017 | FAM League | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 15 | 11 | 23 | Quarter-finals | Second round | DNQ | ||
| 2018 | FAM League | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 9 | 14 | Semi-finals | Raslam Khan | 9 | Second round | DNQ |
| 2019 | FAS Super League | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 6th | Syamsol Sabtu | 3 | DNQ | DNQ |
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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For recent transfers, seeList of Malaysian football transfers 2018 andList of Malaysian football transfers 2017
| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| 2014 |  Asmawi Bakiri |
| January 2015–28 March 2016 | Mohd Nidzam Jamil[13][14] |
| 30 March–October 2016 | P. Maniam[15][18][19] |
| November 2016–20 October 2017 | Mat Zan Mat Aris[17][20] |
| 20 October 2017 – 2018 | Hassan Sazali Waras |
| 2019 | Khairul Anuar Jamil |
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Founder | Kamarudin Meranun |
| Patron | Tony Fernandes |
| President | Riad Asmat |
| Deputy President | Simon Lim |
| Vice President / Chief Finance Officer | Mustaffa Ramly |
| Vice President II | Victor William |
| Secretary | Mohd. Fakhrurrazi Ismail |
| Treasurer | Mustaffa Ramly |
| Security officer | Govindrana/l Karuppiah |
| Media officers | Mohd. Rizuan Bidin |
| Galvin Tan | |
| Community manager | Galvin Tan |
| Coordinator | Melvin Jacob |
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Team manager | Dato’ Halim Mu’azzam Bin Dato’ Ayob |
| Assistant manager | Galvin Tan |
| Head coach | Khairul Anuar Jamil |
| Assistant coach | Mohd Fauzi Mohd Yaakob |
| Goalkeeping coach | Muzaffar Shah Dzulkifli |
| Physiotherapist | Muhammad Hafizzudin Mohd Ramli |
| Kitman | Muhd Zukri Abd Hamid |
