The national football team will now be known as Harimau Malaysia, instead of Harimau Malaya, in a bid to be more inclusive, the Football Association of Malaysia said.
“This is to show that the national squad belongs to all Malaysians, including those in Sabah and Sarawak who before felt sidelined by the name Harimau Malaya,” FAM president Tengku Abdullah Ahmad said in a statement.
Harimau Malaya is the name of a tiger subspecies which live in peninsular Malaysia. There are no tigers existing in the wild in the Borneo states.
The tiger is Malaysia’s national symbol, and is portrayed in the national emblem.
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin last year urged for a name change to Hari Malaysia in appreciation of fans in Sabah and Sarawak.
Tengku Abdullah said the nickname Harimau Malaya was first used in football to refer to national striker Abdullah Mohd Don, who played actively in the 1940s and 1950s.
He was first referred to as ‘Harimau Malaya’ by Indonesian president Sukarno in 1953, Tengku Abdullah said.
He said FAM feels the name ‘Harimau Malaya’ is also no longer relevant because the country has not been known as Malaya since it joined Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia in 1963.
The name change also received support from sponsors Telekon Malaysia, Bank Islam, Nike and 100Plus, he said.
He said a new logo is also needed and Malaysian logo designers are invited to join the competition for a grand prize of RM10,000.
The winner will also get to spend time with the national squad at the AFF Suzuki Cup match at the end of this year, he said.
Fans not impressed
The name change, however, failed to impress fans who have long lamented the poor state of national football.
“Dear FAM, the national squad can be called 'Orang Utan' for all I care as long as I get to see them qualify for the World Cup in my lifetime,” Twitter user @jimicheng said.
Others were sceptical over the name change, which comes in the lead-up to the Sarawak election.
“Just in time for Sarawak election. I will still call you Harimau Malaya, because Harimau Malaysia doesn’t exist,” Twitter user Effi Saharudin @1Obefiend said.
The fact that 'Harimau Malaysia' is not an actual tiger species was not lost on football fans.
"Malayan tigers exist in the wild. Malaysian tigers exist in the figments of Putrajaya's wild imagination," Twitter user Faizal Hamssin @faizalhamssin said.
