United Malays National Organisation
The Philippines and Indonesia strenuously objected to this development, with Indonesia claiming Malaysia represented a form of neocolonialism and the Philippines claiming Sabah as its territory. The United Nations sent a commission to the region which approved the merger after having delayed the date of Malaysia's formation to investigate. Despite further protests from the Indonesian President, Sukarno, the formation of Malaysia was proclaimed on 16 September 1963. Indonesia then declared a "confrontation" with Malaysia, sending commandos to perform guerilla attacks in East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak). The confrontation was ended when a military coup replaced Sukarno with Suharto. The Philippines, which had withdrawn diplomatic recognition from Malaysia, also recognised Malaysia around the same time.
Malaysia national football team
Before the establishment of Malaysia on 16 September 1963, North Borneo (now Sabah), Sarawak, Malaya and Singapore are represented by their own national teams, a situation which pre-dated the establishment of a Malaysia. Malaya and Singapore usually competed in an international competition such as the Merdeka Tournament while North Borneo and Sarawak competed in Borneo Cup. Malaya's biggest achievement in football was becoming the bronze medalist of the 1962 Asian Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia after defeating South Vietnam 4–1.
The beginning of Malaysia football team match took place in Merdeka Stadium on 8 August 1963 with the combined strength of Singapore and Malaya (although the federation was only existed after 16 September 1963). With the combined forces of Malaya and Singapore, the team start their match with Japan, thought lost 3–4. The team continued to use combination of players from Singapore and Malay Peninsula until the formation of the Malaysian Federation and ended when Singapore's separated from Malaysia in 1965. Since then the squad was only represented by West Malaysian players, mainly due to difficulties of that time to travel to East Malaysia and the players were not well known to mainstream West Malaysian football.