Sabah F.C.

From the 1950s until 1963, Sabah competed as North Borneo football team in the Borneo Cup together with Sarawak football team and Brunei national football team. Following the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, the North Borneo Football Association (NBFA) changed its name to Sabah Football Association (Sabah FA). Sabah qualify into the Malaysia Cup for the first time in 1977 and enter the competition in 1978.

Amateur and semi-pro era

Sabah was a well known team during the Malaysian football amateur and semi-pro era and produced many quality players, namely the trio of James Wong, Hassan Sani and Peter Rajah. These players led Sabah to become one of Malaysian football's most feared teams during the 80's. One fine example was during the 1979 Malaysian League where Sabah started slowly. After a run of 8 matches, they stood with 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, but during the later stages they stepped up by winning all remaining matches, most of them by huge margins including an incredible 8–0 thrashing of Sarawak, 11–0 hammering of Perak and the 6–1 beating of Terengganu. At the end of the season, Sabah finished as runners-up behind Singapore and became the highest scoring team with 49 goals in 12 games. In 1991, Sabah striker Matlan Marjan became the first Malaysian to score a double against England in 'A' international matches.

Professional era

When professional football was introduced by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), Sabah made a reputation…