Sabah FA

Kota Kinabalu turns hostile once a year for the Borneo Derby, the fixture that puts Sabah FA against Sarawak FA and Kuching City FC.

The club itself started life as the North Borneo Football Association, renamed Sabah Football Association once Malaysia formed in 1963, and only took its current name, Sabah Football Club, in 2021. Matlan Marjan is the name still attached to the club's best spell, having led it to the FA Cup in 1995 and the league title the year after. Before that, twin strikers Hassan Sani and James Wong had already made the forward line something opposing defences worried about.

Manchester United once played a friendly in Kota Kinabalu, in 1981, and left with a 2-0 win; the fact that a club of United's stature made the trip says something about how the fixture was regarded at the time. El Hadji Diouf wore Sabah's colours in 2014 and 2015, a rare instance of a genuine international name turning out in the state. More recently the club beat Penang on penalties to take the Malaysia Cup in 2022, after the tie finished level over two legs, and added the MFL Challenge Cup this year.

Yellow and blue are the traditional colours, though red has appeared in recent seasons, including 2019. Sabah play as 'The Rhinos' — Sang Badak — a nickname that has outlasted every rebrand the club has gone through since 1950. Their matches are held at Likas Stadium, which holds 35,000, after years at the smaller Penampang Stadium; on derby nights it is Kota Kinabalu itself that fills the ground.