On 11 April 1996 His Honourable Dato’ Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister, in his official address at the National Sports Convention proposed that an act should be enacted to ensure that all parties involved in sports perform their roles and responsibilities in accordance to their objectives and the aspiration of all Malaysian. Subsequently, on 12 September 1997 the bill received the royal assent.  

The need for the Act was driven by the decline in the overall performance in sports at local and international level despite the substantive amount of money spent by the government. The decline was partly attributed to the failure of most sports association to develop highly competitive athletes. The Act is intended to overcome these weaknesses and to turn Malaysia into a sporting nation and attain international excellence in sports.  

Hence the Sports Commissioner’s Office was established on 1 January 1998 to administer the Sports Development Act 1997.