Kuching City F.C.
Kuching City Football Club or simply known as Kuching City is a professional football club based in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia that participates in the Malaysia Super League.[2] It is the third professional football club based in the state of Sarawak.
Full name | Kuching City Football Club |
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Nickname(s) | Il Gatto (The Cats) |
Short name | KCFC |
Founded | 2015 2021 , as Kuching City | , as Kuching FA
Ground | Sarawak State Stadium |
Capacity | 40,000 |
Co-owner | Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman Kamaludin Akil |
CEO | Iswandi Ali Hassan[1] |
Head coach | Aidil Sharin Sahak |
League | Malaysia Super League |
2022 | Malaysia Premier League, 3rd of 10 (promoted) |
Website | Club website |
History
In 2015, with the commencement of the People Football League introduced by the Football Association of Malaysia, the purpose of the league was to transform lower leagues in Malaysia and promote amateur football in all districts and states across Malaysia.[3][4] Consequently, Kuching F.A. was founded alongside it to represent the district of Kuching in Sarawak.
FAM Cup
In the 2015–16 Liga Bolasepak Rakyat, Kuching won the inaugural edition[5] after beating Padang Besar 3–1 at the Selayang Stadium. With the championship, Kuching got an automatic promotion into the 2017 Piala FAM.
In their first season in FAM League, Kuching achieved 4th place in Group B, qualifying the team for the play-offs. They were knocked out in the quarter-final stage by UKM F.C., which later gained promotion to 2018 Malaysia Premier League as finalist of the play-offs. Kuching's second season in the FAM League saw them in the 4th place in Group A, the same as previous season. Unfortunately, changes in the play-off qualifying saw them miss out on the knock-out stage as only top two teams of each group chosen. Kuching were registered to play in the 2019 Malaysia FAM Cup, but were also invited by FAM to play in the 2019 Malaysia Premier League, as a number of teams pull out from the league.[6]
After announcing their promotion to the 2020 Malaysia Premier League, Kuching changed their kit to a new one to kick start their new journey, the colours are green with white stripes and "City of Unity" is written in the middle of the kit. The following season, they added ''City'' to back of Kuching.
Kuching City reach promotion to 2023 Malayasia Super League for the first time in history after the MFL License have been approved for the 2023 season. On 2 August 2023, former Singaporean legend, Aidil Sharin Sahak was annouced as the new head coach of the club signing Namibia captain, Petrus Shitembi and Tajikistani midfielder Nuriddin Davronov. In the 2023 MFL Challenge Cup, Aidin Sharin guided Kuching City to advanced to the semi-finals where they beat his former club, Kedah Darul Aman 4–0 on aggregate.
Crest and colours
Kuching's Crest has a Yellow shield and on it is the flag of Sarawak where the club originated from, and a Green White stripped Tiger on it. "City of Unity" is written in the middle of the crest.
Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors
Season | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
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2017–2023 | Starsport | LSC & Kuching City of Unity |
LSC, Yakult & Kuching City of Unity | ||
Serba Dinamik, LSC & Yakult |
Players
First-team squad
- As of 6 January 2023.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Development squads
Kuching City B (U23)
Head Coach: Kamaruddin Anuar
- As of 3 March 2023
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Season by season record
Updated on 1 November 2022.
Season | Division | Position | Malaysia Cup | Malaysian FA Cup | Malaysian Charity Shield | Regional | Top Scorer (All Competitions) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015–16 | Liga LBR | Champions | DNQ | – | – | – | |
2017 | FAM League | 4th of 7 Group B | DNQ | – | – | – | |
2018 | FAM League | 4th of 7 Group A | DNQ | Second round | – | – | Shafitri Salim (4) |
2019 | Liga M3 | 2nd | DNQ | Second round | – | – | Joseph Kalang Tie (18) |
2020 | Premier League | 4th | Cancelled | Cancelled | – | – | Bryan Jones (4) |
2021 | Premier League | 5th | 3rd of 4th Group stage B | Not held | – | – | |
2022 | Premier League | 3rd | Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | – | Abu Kamara (12) | |
2023 | Super League | – | – | ||||
Foreign players (Since 2019 Era)
Season | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 | Player 7 | Player 8 | Player 9 | Former Player |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 Malaysia M3 League | Yuta Suzuki | |||||||||
2020 Malaysia Premier League | Hudson Jesus | Bryan Jones Anicézio | Yuta Suzuki | Yuki Tanigawa | ||||||
2021 Malaysia Premier League | Hudson Jesus | Aylton Alemão | Ijezie Michael | Yuta Suzuki | Bryan Jones | |||||
2022 Malaysia Premier League | Gabryel | Aylton Alemão | Abu Kamara | Yuki Tanigawa | Keanu Marsh-Brown | |||||
2023 Malaysia Super League | Célio Santos | Aylton Alemão | Bruno Dybal | Yuki Tanigawa | Mihailo Jovanović | Abu Kamara | Dechi Marcel | Petrus Shitembi | Pedro Henrique | Sudi Abdallah
Sirojiddin Kuziev |
Club staff
As of 1 December 2022 [7]
Team Management | |
---|---|
Role | Person |
President | |
Technical Director | Wan Jamak Wan Hassan |
Manager | Kamaludin Akil |
Assistant Manager | Iswandi Ali Hassan |
Head Coach | Aidil Sharin Sahak |
Assistant Coach | Firdaus Morshidi
Zulkarnien Poasa |
GK Coach | Mohd Azley Abdullah |
Fitness Coach | Edward Jamid Unting |
Team Doctor | Abang Mohd Nurfarhan Abang Samatan |
Physiotherapist | Mohd Khairul Nizam Suhaimi
Ferdinand Lisa |
Media Officer | Darul Imran Azmi |
Masseur | Mohamed Zawawi Ali Hassan |
Masseur | Mohd Shahrizan Sahari |
Kitman | Mohammad Hysham Adenan |
U21 Manager | |
U21 Asst. Manager | Awang Azami Awang Idris |
U21 Head Coach | Mohd Aiyyman Shah Johny Abdullah |
U21 Asst. Coach | Firdaus Morshidi |
U21 Coach | Nizam Mahmud |
U21 GK Coach | Abdul Gani Anuar |
U21 Fitness Coach | |
U21 Physio | Gary Nyelang |
U21 Masseur | Padil Abet |
U21 Kitman | Mohd Hezan Andy Mohd Sait |
U21 Kitman | Awang Mahathir Awang Idris |
U21 Kitman | Sepul Gemok |
Honours
League
- Malaysia M3 League
- Liga Bolasepak Rakyat
- Winners: 2015–16
References
- "New imports set to bolster Kuching City's Super League 2023 campaign". The Borneo Post. 6 January 2023. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
- "Kuching Joins Liga FAM". SarawakCrocs.com – Sarawak's No.1 Football Site. 2 January 2017.
- "Liga Bola Sepak Rakyat (LBR) to revive interest at district level". SPORTS247.MY – The Ultimate Malaysian Sports Channel. 13 June 2015.
- http://www.fourthofficial.com/2015/20837/liga-bolasepak-rakyat-will-unearth-more-talent-najib-razak/ Liga Bolasepak Rakyat will unearth more talent – Najib Razak
- "Kuching FA Juara Sulung Liga Bolasepak Rakyat". SarawakCrocs.com – Sarawak's No.1 Football Site. 28 May 2016.
- "Liga Premier: Kuching FA masih tunggu lampu hijau daripada FAM". 30 November 2018.
- lbr.my. "Coaching Staff". Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.