Kuching City

Sarawak's own football association put a team into the newly launched Liga Bolasepak Rakyat in 2015, entering as Kuching FA. The club won that inaugural competition and the FAM Cup in the same season, then began climbing: runners-up in the M3 League in 2019 brought promotion to the Malaysia Premier League, and in 2021 the side rebranded as Kuching City FC as it settled into that division. Promotion to the Malaysia Super League followed in 2022.

The nickname "The Cats" plays on the meaning of Kuching itself, which translates as cat in Malay, and the club has kept the green and white of the old Kuching FA at the centre of its identity even as black and yellow crept into it. Home games are played at the Taha Ariffin Stadium , though the club shifted to a ground in Johor Bahru for its 2026–27 AFC Champions League Two fixtures while the stadium was brought up to AFC standard.

The same season produced a second-place finish in the Malaysia Super League, enough to send the club into continental football for the first time. On Borneo, that campaign also hardened the rivalry with Sabah FC into the fixture now known as the Borneo Derby.