Underdog Stories / Football history

Why does Brunei's DPMM FC play in Singapore and Malaysia?

Why does Brunei's DPMM play in Singapore and Malaysia leagues? A royal club from a tiny country needed more room, and a border kept picking its fixtures.

By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · August 24, 2026

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In September 2009, Brunei DPMM had five league matches left in Singapore. Then they had none. The club dropped off the table without kicking another ball, and every result it had earned that season went with it.

Why does Brunei DPMM play in the Singapore and Malaysia league? Start with size. Brunei has fewer than half a million people. A royal-backed club that keeps winning at home needs tougher opposition than home can supply, so DPMM went looking. It joined Malaysia's second tier in 2005 as a foreign-based team, moved to Singapore for 2009, and returned to the Malaysia Super League for 2025-26.

That's the short version. Chris Horwedel tells the long one on Why We Love This Club, in the episode "Brunei DPMM FC — The Club That Needed Three Countries to Find a League". It's worth a listen if you like your football history with a few border checks.

Why doesn't DPMM just stay in Brunei's league?

It did, for a while, and it won. The full name is Duli Pengiran Muda Mahkota Football Club, which Chris renders as roughly Crown Prince Football Club. It began as a college team in 1994 and turned professional in 2000. Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah, son of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, played in goal and is still chairman. Chris points out that if you're both the goalkeeper and the chairman, every defender turns up early.

DPMM won the Brunei Premier League in 2002 and 2004, and the Brunei FA Cup in 2004. Chris's point is what came next. Winning in Brunei answered one question and raised another. How good could they get if they only ever played there?

The habit is older than the club. Brunei's FA had sent a team of mostly national-team players into the Malaysia Cup in 1979. That side won the cup in 1999, beating Sarawak 2-1 in Kuala Lumpur. Looking outward has been Brunei's way for a long time.

What happened when DPMM first joined Malaysia's league?

They did better than anyone had a right to expect. DPMM won promotion to the top tier through a play-off, beating Pahang 2-1 on aggregate. Their first season in the top flight, 2006-07, ended with them in third place. That made them look less like an invited curiosity and more like a regional power, as the episode puts it.

The next season ended tenth. Then the Registrar of Societies deregistered the Brunei Football Association, and DPMM had to leave. A replacement body appeared, but the episode says FIFA saw the change as government interference. That matters in a minute.

Why were DPMM's 2009 results wiped out in Singapore?

Singapore offered the next door. In 2009 DPMM became the first club in the S.League to play home matches outside Singapore. Every away game now meant a flight across the South China Sea, and so did every visit to Brunei.

It started well. In June 2009 DPMM won the Singapore League Cup. The final against SAFFC finished 1-1, and DPMM won on penalties. The episode credits coach Vjeran Šimunić and says it was the first trophy a foreign club had won in that competition.

Then came the paperwork. On 30 September FIFA suspended the Brunei FA for government interference. Brunei teams could no longer play in other countries' competitions. Singapore appealed, FIFA said no, and all of DPMM's 2009 league results were expunged. The Singapore Premier League's own history page carries a footnote saying the season isn't calculated because of the annulled DPMM results.

The League Cup stayed in the cabinet. Chris calls that one way to sum up the club: the table disappeared and the silverware stayed put. I'd go further. The players had fixed nothing and broken no rule. They lost a season because adults at home argued over who ran football. DPMM then sat out 2010 and 2011.

“The border was the fixture. Once travel stopped, so did their place in the league.”
— Chris Horwedel, on Why We Love This Club

How did DPMM win the Singapore league twice?

By coming back and getting annoyed. They re-entered the league in 2012. The episode says they finished second straight away and won another League Cup. In 2014 they started the last night top, lost to Tampines Rovers and watched Warriors FC take the title.

One year later, per the episode, Steve Kean built a side around a Bruneian core and a few chosen imports. DPMM won the 2015 title, ending four points clear of Tampines. Most of the squad were Bruneian. Chris's argument is that a weekly diet of better opponents did more for those players than a short national-team camp could.

They won again in 2019. Champions were confirmed on 15 September, when Hougang could only draw 4-4 with Geylang. The episode says coach Adrian Pennock's side lost just four of 24. That second title mattered, because it showed the first wasn't one coach finding the right group in the right year.

There is a catch. Foreign clubs can't represent Singapore in Asian competitions. If one wins a qualifying competition, the slot goes to the next best local club. So DPMM won the league twice and never earned the continental trip a champion normally gets.

What happened to DPMM during the pandemic?

The border became the opponent. DPMM played one league match in 2020. It was a 2-0 win over Tampines Rovers at Bandar Seri Begawan on 6 March, and Singapore later voided it. That's a second erased result, this time with no FIFA involved.

The reason was plain. DPMM told the Football Association of Singapore that no provisions in Brunei let them travel to Singapore. They withdrew on 26 October 2020. They withdrew from 2021 as well, for the same travel reasons.

Chris notes that Singapore's local clubs could at least imagine playing behind closed doors. DPMM couldn't lock the gates and test everyone, because the problem was leaving the country. So the club went home. The episode says it won the 2022 Brunei FA Cup and returned to the Singapore league in 2023.

Why does Brunei DPMM play in the Singapore and Malaysia league, and why Malaysia now?

The Singapore chapter ended by agreement. The FAS said on 22 May 2025 that DPMM would leave after 2024-25. The Malaysian Football League confirmed the same day that DPMM would join the 2025-26 Super League as a guest team. DPMM had finished that Singapore season fifth, on 44 points.

The Malaysian deal comes with an odd clause. DPMM bear the cost of travel and accommodation for every visiting team. The MFL's acting chief executive said it was part of the main agreement to ensure the club's smooth participation. Footboom's report of the same briefing says Brunei requested to handle this aspect. The episode says the arrangement runs from 2025 through 2028. The MFL's public comments I found only cover 2025-26, so treat the later years as the episode's word.

Chris's reading is hard to argue with. The club has to help pay for its opponents to arrive before it can try to beat them. Geography became a line in a contract.

Guest status has limits. DPMM aren't eligible to represent Malaysia in the AFC Cup or AFF tournaments. The first season was rough. On 25 October 2025 they lost 10-0 at Johor Darul Ta'zim, their worst defeat ever. They ended the season tenth of 13.

The royal backing didn't prevent that, and Chris is clear it can't solve everything. A royal club can still be removed by a foreign league, stopped by FIFA or locked out by a closed border.

Still, visitors get a lot for their trip. The Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium holds 28,000. The scoreboard, per the episode, uses both Latin letters and Jawi. The club pays for the flight and the hotel. The scoreboard comes free.