Sarawak FA

Like its traditional rival and neighbour of Sabah, Sarawak also produced some quality player such as James Yaakub.[6] Generally, Sarawak is known as The Kenyalang, named after the state bird. In the 1980s, the Black Cats was chosen as the team's pseudonym; however, following series of notorious crocodile attacks at heavily infested rivers in the state during the 1990s, the nick Bujang Senang is chosen to represent Sarawak's chivalric and ferocious play. The name is chosen after a legendary and notorious man-eating crocodile Bujang Senang, who is believed to reside at the Batang Lupar River in the Sri Aman Division.[7] In 1988, under the coach Awang Mahyan Awang Mohamad, he introduced the slogan Ngap Sayot and brought the team to its first Malaysia Cup semi-final,[8] defeating other teams deemed several times to be more stronger than Sarawak, such as Selangor, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur and Pahang.[9] Several other themes then emerged, among them are Ngap Ajak and Tebang Bala Sidak. Recently, the Semangat 88 (Spirit of 88) theme is used alongside Ngap Sayot to emulate the success of the 1980s team. In 1989, Sarawak again appeared to be on the course to make their first final in the competition, but a referee's misjudgement during the quarter-final match in Kuala Lumpur saw the team controversially eliminated at the stage. The incident strained national integration and causing Sarawak football organisation to withdraw their affiliation from the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) for a while.[3]

Under the management of New Zealander coach Alan Vest (former interim manager at Australia's Perth Glory) from 1992, the team rose from an underachiever to a successful side especially when a huge investment was made.[10][11] The most popular foreign players in the team was John Hunter (known in the team as John "Kerbau (Buffalo)" Hunter). David Evans an Australian, holds the record as the tallest player ever in the league's history, as well as the longest serving foreign player. Other players such as Billy Bone, Alistair Edwards, Doug Ithier as well as Neathan Gibson were also popular with fans. Following the addition of foreign players since the early 1990s, Sarawak won the Malaysia FA Cup in 1992, Liga Perdana in 1997 and Malaysia Charity Shield in 1998.[10][12][13][14] They also reached their first ever Malaysia Cup final in 1999, only losing 1–2 at the end to Brunei.[15] This era also witnessed a significant change of venue in 1997. After the end of the 1997 FIFA World Youth Cup, Sarawak moved to its current home, the Sarawak Stadium which is adjacent to the old stadium (although the team re-used the old Stadium Negeri for several home matches afterwards). The new stadium was regarded quite unfortunate as the old one, but throughout the time the new stadium becomes an identity for the team itself. The new stadium has hosted several international matches, such the Asian Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final round match between Sarawak and Kashima Antlers of Japan, and other friendlies with clubs from Singapore, Australia and Germany. After the departure of Vest in 1999, the team were left without any foreign touch due to recent change in FAM policy. With the coming of Vest's apprentice and also an ex-captain of Sarawak, Abdul Jalil Rambli, the team managed to reach both the finals of Malaysia Cup and the FA Cup in 2001.[16] It is also noted at the time that the team were second after Selangor in terms of wealth and excellence in management as well as players' welfare, which subsequently became a favourite in most competitions and one of the most consistent teams.

Sarawak emerged as the overall champion for the 2013 Malaysia Premier League edition.[2]

"The Invincibles" has been used to refer to the Sarawak team for the 2013 season managed by Dutch coach Robert Alberts.[17] The team completed the season campaign unbeaten, with their league record was 18 wins, 4 draws and 0 losses in over 22 games in total.[18][19] Alberts was praised for his remarkable job in getting the locals to successfully combine with foreign players such as Bosnian striker Muamer Salibašić and Cameroon centre-back Guy Bwele.[2][20] The team venture in other domestic cups however ended in the quarter-finals after losing both legs against Kelantan in the FA Cup by 1–4 on aggregate, and losing 2–4 on aggregate against Pahang in the semi-final match.[21]

The flag of Sarawak has always been an inspiration for kit colour schemes. Historically, the home shirt is red and black, augmented by black shorts and red socks. However, colours for both shorts and socks may occasionally change to either red or white, according to season's preference. Certain seasons have seen yellow, orange and even white kits worn as first choice kits. Owing to team's success mostly dressed in red and black, the team is sometimes colloquially known as Merah Hitam (the Red and Blacks). Similarly, the away kit is always blue and black; akin to its home kit, colours for both shorts and socks may occasionally change to either blue or white, according to season's preference. Certain seasons have seen white, yellow and navy blue kits worn as change kits. For current season, these colours are set as their "third" kit as the team prefers yellow shirt, black shorts and red socks as their away kit.

More recently, Sarawak have also introduced a third, or alternate kit. In general, most Sarawak kits are influenced by the colours of top Italian football clubs, AC Milan and Internazionale. Sarawak's first known kit manufacturer is Puma, followed by Diadora. Since 1991, the team has worn Lotto kits, which have witnessed tremendous success and fame before switching to local brand Rossi in September 2001. After nine years, Adidas became the kit of choice for one season prior to the appointment of another local brand, Starsport to supply kits for the team until at least 2016.

• Asian Cup Winners' Cup: 1 appearance

1999: Quarter-final

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away
1998–99	Asian Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Ho Chi Minh City Customs	3–1	2–1
		Second round	Yangon City Development	3–01	1–0
		Quarter-finals	Kashima Antlers	2–4	0–10

¹ Yangon City Development were unable to field a team for the second leg due to player illness.

As of 9 June 2020.[25]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ahmad Uzair Zaidil 3 DF Sugunthan a/l Maniam 4 DF Asrin Kalam 5 DF Shukor Sulaiman 6 DF Muhamad Alif Najmi Ahmad 7 DF Mohd Hashim Shamsudin 8 DF Dalglish Papin 9 DF Ahrasu Ananthan 10 DF Mohammad Nor Ubaidullah 11 MF Nashrul Shazrin Roslan 12 MF Sulaiman Jamali 13 MF Fauzan Dzulkifli 14 FW Nor Mohd Hafizz Nor Azam 15 FW Amar Muaz Zamri 16 FW Azrizan Ahmad

No. Position Player 17 FW Abdi Effendi Mukhrijen 18 MF Ushindi Baraka 19 FW Nursalam Zainal Abidin 20 MF Nur Areff Kamaruddin (captain) 21 FW Wan Zulhilmi Wan Mustafa 22 FW Denis Amadire 23 MF Mohd Hafizie Erwinshah 24 MF Nizam Abu Bakar 25 GK Ayyub Hakimi Saiful Affendi 26 MF Shazlan Zaidin 27 DF Omar Hitimana 28 FW Hattaphon Bun An 29 FW Ntambwe Papy 30 FW Fitri Za'aim Amran 99 GK Navind Raj a/l Gnanasegaran

• Poasa Sahar (1979–1981)
• Edrus Alwi (1982)
• Alan Bradshaw (1983)
• Chow Kwai Lam (1984)
• Che Su (1985–1987)
• Mahyan Mohammad (1988–1989)
• Wahet Uji (1990–1991, 2005)
• Alan Vest (1992–1998)
• Jalil Rambli (1999–2003, 2005–2006)
• Trevor Morgan (2004)
• Pengiran Bala (2007, 2017–2018)
• Mohammad Mentali (2007–2008)
• Kunju Jamaluddin (2008)
• Fairuz Yunus (2008)
• Robert Alberts (2008–2009, 2011–2015)
• Zaki Sheikh (2009–2011)
• K. Rajagopal (2015)
• David Usop (2016–2017)
• Ian Gillan (2018)
• Pengiran Bala (2018)
• Mohd Farhan Abdullah @ Anai Igang (2019)
• Sim Timbe (2020–)

The following coaches won at least one trophy when in charge of Sarawak:

Name	Period	Trophies
Alan Vest	1992–1998	1992 Malaysia FA Cup, 1997 Premier League, 1998 Malaysia Charity Shield
Robert Alberts	2011–2015	2013 Premier League