Sarawak United Football Club was a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. The club didn't compete in the

2023 Malaysia Super League The 2023 Malaysia Super League () was the 20th season of the Malaysia Super League, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia since its establishment in 2004, and the 42nd season of top-flight Malaysian football overall. It is the ...

due to a failed licensing appeal.

History

Founded in 1974 as the Malaysia Malays' Football Association football team, the club changed its name to Selangor Malays' Football Association football team when competing in the

2017 Malaysia FAM League The 2017 Malaysia FAM Cup (referred to as the FAM Cup or FAM League) is the 66th season of the Malaysia FAM League since its establishment in 1952. The league is currently the third level football league in Malaysia. MISC-MIFA are the previous cha ...

season. They were rebranded again as Selangor United for the

2018 Malaysia FAM Cup The 2018 Malaysia FAM League was the 67th season of the Malaysia FAM League since its establishment in 1952. The season started on 25 February 2018 and concluded on 6 September 2018. Sime Darby were the defending champions. The season marked the c ...

season. Unfortunately, Selangor United did not last long in the game as the team faced financial difficulties. In 2019, the club was bought over by the FAS and the new owners subsequently rebranded the club as Sarawak United. With FAS buying and rebranding the team, the move was a win-win situation for FAS, because thanks to the move, FAS has made sure that a team representing the Malaysian state of Sarawak is playing in the

2020 Malaysia Premier League The 2020 Malaysia Premier League was the 17th season of the Malaysia Premier League, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia since its establishment in 2004. The season started on 29 February and should end on 20 July 2020. Howev ...

. All that happened after the main football team run by FAS to compete in the Malaysia Premier League at the time, known as the Sarawak FA state football team, were relegated to the Malaysian third-tier division, the

Malaysia M3 League The Malaysia A1 Semi-Pro League (, previously known as the Malaysia M3 League and the MBSB Bank Championship due to sponsorship reasons) is the second level football league of the Malaysian football league system.http://johorsoutherntigers.com ...

in 2019. In 2020, the Malaysia Premier League however saw the participation of two Sarawak-based football clubs with Kuching City being promoted to the Malaysia Premier League that year.

2016 season

* Malaysia Malays' Football Association entered the Malaysian football league competition in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

season. * The team is managed by the Selangor Malays' Football Association, an affiliate of Malaysia Malays' Football Association. The team finished

season in seventh place.

2017 season

* Starting from 2017 season, the team has been rebranded to Selangor Malays' Football Association as an effort to bring in local area support. The club has managed advanced to second round of

2017 Malaysia FA Cup The 2017 Malaysia FA Cup was the 28th season of the Malaysia FA Cup a knockout competition for Malaysia's state football association and clubs. The final was played between Pahang and Kedah at the Shah Alam Stadium in Shah Alam, Selangor. Kedah bea ...

after defeating SAMB.http://www.mstar.com.my/sukan/bola-sepak/2017/02/05/piala-fa/ Felcra FA, PBMS FC Lepasi Pusingan Pertama Piala FA * However, they were knocked out from the tournament after a defeat of 0–3 against

Perak Perak (; Perak Malay: ''Peghok'') is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kel ...

2018 season

* They were re-branded again as Selangor United in 2018. The club succeeded in winning the semi-final in the knock-out stage of the

, and were promoted to Premier League as finalists, even though they were beaten in the final 0–2 by Terengganu City.

2019 season

* The club made their debut into professional football for the

2019 Malaysia Premier League The 2019 Malaysia Premier League is the 16th season of the Malaysia Premier League, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia since its establishment in 2004. Team changes A total of 12 teams contested the league, including 8 side ...

, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. They finished 9th in the league by the end of the season. * In the December 2019, the club were bought over by the Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) after the Selangor Malays Football Association stop receiving fund from the Selangor State government and were forced to get rid of the team.

New era

2020 season

The 2020 season was Sarawak United's 1st year in their history and also first season in the Malaysia Premier League. Along with the league, the club also participated in the Malaysia FA Cup but was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic. On 13 March, it was announced that the

would be suspended indefinitely, due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 1 May, it was announced that the league would resume in September depending on the situation at the time. Due to time constraints, the home-and-away format for the Premier League had been scrapped. Teams played each other only once. Sarawak United FC finished their

campaign with 3 Wins, 2 Draws and 6 Losses after 11 matches.

2021 season

For the 2021 season the club was strengthened with several well -known players. Among them are Malaysian National player,

Norshahrul Idlan Norshahrul Idlan bin Talaha (born 8 June 1986) is a Malaysian professional footballer who plays as a forward and Malaysian football pundit. From 2007 to 2022, he represented the Malaysia national team. He popularly known as Mat Yo by Malaysia ...

and Australian National player,

Taylor Regan Taylor Francis George Regan (born 16 November 1988) is an Australian soccer player who plays as a defender for Charlestown Azzurri. He will join Selangor FC in 2025. Career Newcastle Jets Regan joined the Jets as part of the youth system in ...

. The club seen as strong in every position and was selected as the team of choice to be a Champion of

2021 Malaysia Premier League The 2021 Malaysia Premier League is the 18th season of the Malaysia Premier League, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia since its establishment in 2004. First and second place non-feeder team will be promoted to the 2022 Ma ...

. Sarawak United started the

campaign with a 2–0 victory over Kelantan United. For the 2021 season, Sarawak United team is also the most difficult team to beat by the opposing team. Sarawak United's fort is controlled by an experienced Goalkeeper,

Sharbinee Allawee Mohd Sharbinee Allawee bin Ramli (born 7 December 1986) is a Malaysian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Sarawak United. At international level, he has so far represented his country as Malaysia national team goalkeeper from 2009–201 ...

which is not easy to beat. Imported striker from Nigeria,

Uche Agba Uche Agba (born 24 June 1986) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a forward Honours Al Hidd * Bahraini FA Cup: 2016–17 Al-Riffa *Bahraini Premier League: 2019 * Bahraini Super Cup: 2019 Sarawak United * Malaysia Premier Leagu ...

, on the other hand, emerged as the top scorer for Sarawak United. After 17 matches in the Malaysian Premier League 2021 have been played, Sarawak United was officially promoted and eligible to play in the highest tier of the Malaysian Football League, the

2022 Malaysia Super League The 2022 Malaysia Super League (), is the 19th season of the Malaysia Super League, the top-tier professional association football, football league in Malaysia for association football clubs since its establishment in 2004, and the 41st season of ...

2022 season

Sarawak United was rejected from Malaysia Super League and relegated to M3 League from 2023 season due to failed licensing appeal.

Crest and colours

Since the club's foundation in 1974, they had five main crests. The first colours of the club crest were green and red. For the 2021 Malaysia Premier League season, the team's outfield players wore black shirts, red shorts and red socks for the club's home matches.

Crest

Sarawak United used a crest which was seen as a modified version of the Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) crest for the 2020 Malaysia Premier League season. However, in 2021, Sarawak United changed the team's crest which was more reflective of the ethnic characteristics of Sarawak, although the ''Golden Hornbill'' remained the symbol of choice. File:PB_Melayu_Malaysia.png, Malaysia Malays' Football Association crest; first logo (1946–2016) File:PB_Melayu_Selangor.png, Selangor Malays' Football Association crest; (2017) File:Selangor_United.png, Selangor United crest; (2018-2019) File:Sarawak_United_FC.png, Sarawak United crest; (2020) File:Sarawak United FC logo.png, Sarawak United crest; (2021-2023)

Kit manufacturers

Stadium and locations

Sarawak State Stadium State Stadium (''Stadium Negeri'' in Malay) is a multi-purpose stadium in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. It is currently used mostly for football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking ...

is located in an area of 5 hectares in

Petra Jaya Petra Jaya is a suburb of Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. This suburb was named after the sixth Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Yahya Petra of Kelantan (1975-1979). History The suburb was founded in the 1970s by Sarawak chief minister at that time nam ...

. Officially opened in 1989, It was the largest stadium in Malaysia at that point of time. The stadium can accommodate 26,000 spectators at a time. It has been used to host Sarawak FA home matches.

Season-by-season records (since 2020)

*Pld = Played, W = Won, D = Drawn, L = Lost, F = Goals for, A = Goals against, D = Goal difference, Pts= Points, Pos = Position

Top scorers (since 2020)

Foreign players (since 2020)

Coaches (since 2020)

Honours

Domestic

Malaysia FAM League The FAM Cup ( Malay: Piala FAM) was a knock-out football tournament for the Malaysia M3 League and the Malaysia M4 League in Malaysia. From 2008 to 2018 it was held as a third-tier league and used the FAM League (Liga FAM) name. The competit ...

:: Runners-up (1):

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Malaysia Premier League The Malaysia Premier League () was the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. It replaced the Liga Perdana 2 in the Malaysian football league system. The Malaysia Premier League was contested by 12 clubs. The season usually ra ...

:: Runners-up (1):

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

References

External links

Sarawak Football News
{{Football in Malaysia Malaysia FAM League clubs Malaysia Premier League clubs Football clubs in Malaysia Football clubs in Sarawak Defunct football clubs in Malaysia