Sabah

Early years as North Borneo (1950–1963)

From the 1950s until 1963, the team represented North Borneo in the Borneo Cup, competing against Sarawak FA and Brunei FA. North Borneo won the inaugural edition of the tournament in 1962. Following the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, North Borneo became part of Malaysia and was renamed Sabah. the North Borneo Football Association (NBFA) changed its name to Sabah Football Association (Sabah FA) to reflect the territory's new status.

Amateur and semi-professional era (1963–1994)

Sabah established itself as a competitive force in Malaysian football during the amateur and semi-professional eras. The team entered the Malaysia Cup in 1978 after qualifying for the competition for the first time in 1977. During the 1979 Malaysian League season, Sabah recovered from a slow start to win its remaining matches, recording several significant victories, including an 8–0 win over Sarawak FA, an 11–0 victory against Perak FA and a 6–1 win over Terengganu FA. Sabah FA finished as runners-up behind Singapore FA and scored 49 goals in 12 matches, making it the league's highest-scoring team that season.

During the 1980s, Sabah became one of the prominent teams in Malaysian football, with players such as James Wong, Hassan Sani and Peter Rajah contributing to the team's reputation. These players led Sabah to become one of Malaysian football's most feared teams during the 80's. Sabah also hosted notable international opponents during this period. On 10 June 1981, a Sabah Invitation team played a friendly match against English club Manchester United.

Sabah continued to produce notable players in the following decade. In 1991, striker Matlan Marjan became the first Malaysian player to score twice against England in an international 'A' match, achieving the feat during Malaysia's encounter with the England national team.

Professional era and domestic success (1994–2000)

When professional football was introduced by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), Sabah made a reputation of being one of the Malaysian League's most competitive sides. Quality players were produced from the ranks during the 1990s, most notably Matlan who helped Sabah finish as runners-up during 1993 and 1994 Malaysia FA Cup, and who at one time was appointed as the national team captain by Claude Le Roy. The positive results were cut short by the match fixing scandal in 1994. Matlan was the one of several players found guilty. As a punishment for their involvement in match fixing, he and the other players were banned for life by FIFA and banished from the state of Sabah under the Restricted Residence Act. After the scandal, Sabah began its rebuilding process. Sabah won their first professional trophy, the 1995 FA Cup. In the 1996 season, Sabah won their first league title and went through to the final of the Cup for the first time, but were beaten by Selangor on penalties. Sabah then reached the final of the 1998 Malaysia FA Cup.

Relegation and continued cup runs (2000–2003)

The 2000 season could be considered as Sabah's worst since joining the Malaysian professional league as they were relegated to the second division, and could not get past the group stages of the Malaysia Cup. However, Sabah quickly regained its performance in the 2001 season where they finished as runners-up behind Johor FC. In the 2002 season, Sabah was lining up players of calibre such as Zainizam Marjan, Khairul Azman Mohamed and Josiah Seton, finishing third in the league and again managed to get through to the final of Malaysia Cup by beating Selangor Public Bank and Perak. Sabah however finished as runners-up yet again by losing to the same team that beat them in 1996 final, Selangor. This time, Sabah lost by golden goal scored by Amri Yahyah. In 2003, Sabah again finished third in Liga Premier One. They reached the final of Malaysia Cup. This time they lost to club-side MPPJ by 0–3, with hat-trick from Juan Manuel Arostegui.

Early years in the Malaysian Super League (2004–2007)

When the Malaysia Super League (MSL) was introduced in 2004, Sabah struggled to be competitive against other teams in the top league. Sabah only managed to stay in Super League for two seasons as they were relegated to the Malaysia Premier League (MPL) in 2005. After the relegation, Sabah continued to struggle for promotion. They lost to Pahang in the 2007 season play-off.

Return to the Super League and relegation (2008–2012)

After 6 years in the 2nd tier MPL, Australian head coach Gary Phillips was able to guide Sabah to promotion in 2010 in his first season in charge. After poor results which have affected Sabah's performance in 2011, Gary Phillips was replaced by local head coach Justin Ganai to save Sabah from relegation zone. Justin improved Sabah performance in the 2011 Malaysia Cup where the team reached the quarter-finals. He was retained as for the 2012 season but step down eventually. Sabah got relegated back to the Malaysia Premier League after losing to Kedah. Salt was added to the wound as the relegation was followed by them failing to qualify to the group stage of the 2012 Malaysia Cup.

Return of foreign players and rebuilding (2013–2018)

Sabah started their 2013 season back in the Malaysia Premier League as their main defenders Ronny Harun and Mafry Balang left and Rozaimi Abdul Rahman was loaned out to Harimau Muda A. 2013 season was led by Northern Irishman head coach David McCreery and they end up in 5th place, but lost the Malaysia Cup play-off 0–4 to Negeri Sembilan at Shah Alam Stadium. McCreery left at the end of the season. The year 2014 saw a major changes in the team's sponsorship by which local brand Carino was signed as their kit supplier and Ararat Sports plus BSA as their sponsor. During this season, former Sabah player Milomir Šešlija become their head coach, replacing McCreery in the hot seat. They finished 8th out of 12 in the MPL, missed the Malaysia Cup group stage for third consecutive seasons and also got out of the FA Cup in the early stage.