Football In Brunei Darussalam
Brunei Darussalam, ask your friends, colleagues and acquaintances and see how many of them know anything about this tiny nation. Many probably couldn’t even point it out to you on a map or would even recognise the flag of the nation, so how is this oil rich country with strong religious ties so unknown to many? The name Brunei Darussalam translates to ‘abode of peace’ showing its religious prevalence as well as the higher standard of living and the life expectancy here is relatively higher than that of a lot of its Asian neighbours at around 76 years. The nation is seen often as the most observant Islamic nation in Southeast Asia with mosques all around the country. The country can be found on the island of Borneo and has a population short of half a million.
A few stories of the nation are headline news occasionally, a hugely oil-rich area offshore brings huge financial figures into Brunei from companies like Shell. Visitors are welcomed by friendly faces, as long as you follow and respect their laws and religious beliefs. If you are interested in travelling here it is advised to skip this one if you are homosexual, a law was passed in 2014 announcing that homosexuality is a crime punishable by ten years in prison, this has since changed to a more horrific sentence, the law was changed in 2019 stating that homosexuality will be punished with being stoned to death.
Possibly the most famous person of Brunei is the Sultan. Hassanal Bolkiah, regarded as one of the wealthiest people in the world, but what is a Sultan and what do they do? Simply the Sultan is in charge of almost everything regarding the nation, Bolkiah is the King, Prime Minister, Monarchical Head of State, Minister of Defence, Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade as well as being the official Guardian and Protector of Islam and Tradition in Brunei.
So, a tiny nation in Southeast Asian, run by the Sultan, what does this mean for football? Brunei, which may come as a surprise to many, has football as one of their most popular sports, alongside badminton, basketball and volleyball. A league has been in place since 1985 and encountered many changes to formats and renaming due to rights up until 2012 when the league had its last reformation, now the Brunei Super League. The league is professional, and consists of 16 teams, even a nation as small as Brunei has lower divisions with teams being relegated from the Super League to district leagues. Similar to many nations around the world the league isn’t the only prize up for grabs. The Brunei FA Cup and Brunei Super Cup are also available to win, the Super Cup follows the same principle as the English Community Shield, winners of the league play the winners of the cup.
The most successful team since the last reformation of the league is Royal Brunei Armed Forces Sports Council Football Team, abbreviated to MS ABDB FT and nicknamed the ‘Army men’. The Army Men hold four Brunei Super League titles since 2012 placing them at the top of the tree, they also have won seven Brunei FA Cups to sit alongside their title successes. The club consists of players serving in the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, a look at their current squad (2024) shows us this, for example, Lance Corporal Azrul bin Arman is their vice-captain and centre back, with Soldier Muhammad Saiful Ammar bin Hj Adis being a forward and the captain. This does show us that the ranks of the service men do not dictate their influence on the football team as the captain is one of the lowest ranked servicemen in the squad.
As expected from a nation so small the majority of players are from Brunei, the ten highest goal scorers of the Super League era are all from Brunei with the exception of Leon Sullivan Taylor, a Liberian currently playing for Kasuka FC. Not many players come from outside of Brunei but that isn’t to say there isn’t any, a fluttering of Africans, most commonly born in Nigeria, do reside and play in the nation of Brunei. George Olatunde and Michael Henry are from Nigeria and currently find themselves playing for Indera. From recent squad reports it appears as though Duli Pengiran Muda Mahkota Football Club, translated to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Brunei Football Club (DPMM FC), is the most diverse with players from Mexico, Australia, Portugal, North Macedonia and of course Brunei.
Kasuka as reigning champions will be entered into the 2024-2025 AFC Challenge League, this is the first edition of the tournament and takes similarities from the more well-known competition, the UEFA Europa Conference League as it is the third-tier competition in Asian. Teams from larger nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar will participate as well as teams from much smaller nations such Eleven Tiger from the Northern Mariana Islands and Wings from Guam. Kasuka will be entering into the play -off stage in the hope of reaching the Challenge League proper and on their journey making history for Brunei.
So, a tiny nation with a sustained football league, does this have an impact on the national team? A quick look back at the results over the past couple of years shows us that even though the Super League is thriving the fortunes of the national team is not. The last seven games have retuned one win and six defeats, a 3-2 win away at Vanuatu being the only positive result. Notably the back-to-back 6-0 defeats to Indonesia were 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification games, preliminary rounds which eventually saw Indonesia enter the Asian World Cup qualifying proper.
Something many people may have missed though is FIFA’s introduction of their FIFA Series which is debuting this year. This is an invitational tournament taking place in five different nations around the world, with Brunei being one of the invited nations. This is a friendly tournament confirmed by Gianni Infantino (FIFA President) allowing key playing opportunities for all its FIFA members so they can face off against countries they wouldn’t often get to play. Brunei was drawn into Saudi Arabia Group B, this means their games would be played here and were to face Vanuatu, who they beat, Bermuda who defeated Brunei, and Guinea who they have not played as only two games per team were scheduled. The record of one loss and one win however did leave Brunei sitting in second place at the conclusion of the friendly tournament, this may not seem like an achievement to many countries, but Brunei is ranked 194th in the FIFA World Rankings and were comfortably the lowest ranked nation in their group. All four nations from different confederations showing how the format is designed to work.
This is just a glimpse of football in Brunei, many haven’t even heard of the place but no matter where you find yourself it is clear to see football is never far away. Who knows, in the future the fortunes of the Sultan may transfer and bring fortune to the nations football team.
Written and Researched by BSc Cavan Campbell
