The Brunei national football team (; recognized as Brunei Darussalam by FIFA), nicknamed ''Tebuan'' (The Wasps), is the national team of

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

, controlled by the

Football Association of Brunei Darussalam The Football Association of Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Persatuan Bolasepak Brunei Darussalam; abbrev: FABD) is the governing body of football in Brunei, controlling the Brunei national football team. History FABD is the successor organisatio ...

. The team was founded in 1959 and joined FIFA in 1969. In the past, they have also frequently featured in the Malaysian league and cup competitions as one of the state representative sides.

History

The Brunei State Football Amateur Association was formed on 15 March 1956. In 1993, the word "Amateur" was dropped, and they were known as the Brunei Football Association. Brunei's experience of international football has been more or less restricted to regional Asian competitions, such as the

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...

and the

Tiger Cup The ASEAN Football Federation Championship (less formally the AFF Championship or AFF Cup), currently known as the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup for sponsorship reason, is the primary association football tournament organized by the ASEAN Footbal ...

. So far, Brunei has entered the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

qualifiers only four times, in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

, 2002,

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

. On these occasions, they did not qualify for the competition. They have made five appearances in the Asian Cup qualifiers, but they have never passed the first qualification round. Back then, Brunei entered a team to compete in the professional Malaysian league and despite competing against Malaysian clubs, Brunei had previously never made an impact. However, in 1999, they shocked everyone by lifting the Malaysia Cup. Today there are approximately 2,500 footballers playing with Brunei's registered clubs. Footballers are mostly amateurs or semi professionals.

Suspension

In September 2009, the

Brunei Football Association The Brunei Football Association ( ms, Persatuan Bolasepak Brunei; abbrev: BAFA) was the governing body of football in Brunei until 2008. History Early days The Brunei State Amateur Football Association was formed in 1952 in Seria, Brunei. It ...

(BAFA) was suspended due to governmental interference in its affairs, which started with a decision by the Brunei authorities to dissolve BAFA and to replace it with a new federation in December 2008. The suspension was applied with immediate effect and meant that the Brunei club DPMM were no longer permitted to play in the Singapore

S-League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which ...

until it was resolved. On 19 March 2010, the

FIFA Executive Committee The FIFA Council (formerly the FIFA Executive Committee) is an institution of FIFA (the governing body of association football, futsal and beach football). It is the main decision-making body of the organization in the intervals of FIFA Congress. ...

agreed to submit to the next

FIFA Congress The FIFA Congress is the supreme legislative body of the International Association Football Federation (French: Fédération Internationale de Football Association), commonly known by the acronym FIFA . FIFA is the international governing body of ...

the expulsion of the Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (BAFA) if the BAFA has not been reinstated by then, after noting that no major progress had been made since the BAFA was suspended in September 2009. FIFA warned that unless BAFA came to FIFA's Congress on 9 June and 10 in South Africa having met the conditions for reinstatement it would be expelled. Brunei were re-instated on 31 May 2011.

2022

Under new coach Mario Rivera, Brunei managed to qualify to the

2022 AFF Championship The 2022 AFF Championship (officially AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 due to sponsorship reasons) was the 14th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and was the 1 ...

for the first time in 26 years since its inaugural edition, by defeating

Timor-Leste East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

6–3 on aggregate.

Results and fixtures

2022

Coaching staff

Coaching history

* John Then (1959–71) * Abdul Karim Pukul & Ibrahim Yahya (1971) * Duncan McDowell (1976–81) * Ibrahim Damit (1982) * Idris Damit (1983) *

Danny Bergara Daniel Alberto Bergara de Medina (24 July 1942 – 25 July 2007) was a Uruguayan footballer and manager. Playing career Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Bergara began his playing career at the age of 16, playing for Racing Club in the Uruguaya ...

(1984) * Oscar Amaro de Silva (1985–87) * Zainuddin Kassim (1988) * Dayem Ali (1989) * Hussein Aljunied (1990–93) * Mick Lyons (1993–96) * David Booth (1996–98) * Mick Jones (1998–01) * Zainuddin Kassim (2001) * Mick Lyons (2002) *

Karim Bencherifa Karim Bencherifa (born 15 February 1968) is a former Moroccan football player and head coach, who currently manages Botola 2 side IZK Khemisset. Bencherifa has been a head coach in six countries which include his home nation Morocco, as well ...

(2003–04) *

Amir Alagić Amir Alagić (born 5 March 1960) is a Bosnian-Australian professional football manager. He is most recently the manager and the head coach of the Sri Lanka national team. Managerial career Alagić started his coaching career in 1996 and managed ...

(2005) * Ranko Buketa (2005) * Ali Mustafa (2006) * Kwon Oh-Son (2008) *

Vjeran Simunić Vjeran Simunić (born 26 April 1953) is Croatian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Treća HNL club NK Vodice. He holds the Croatian record for number of managed teams. Vodice is Simunić's 37th club. Playing ...

(2008–09) * Ali Mustafa (2009–11) * Dayem Ali (2011) * Kwon Oh-Son (2012–13) *

(2013–14) * Steve Kean (2014) * Mike Wong (2014–2016) * Kwon Oh-Son (2016) * Stephen Ng (2017) * Kwon Oh-Son (2018) * Robbie Servais (2019) *

Paul Smalley Paul Thomas Smalley (born 17 November 1966) is a former English footballer and coach. In July 2020 he was reappointed as the technical director of the Bangladesh Football Federation. Club career Born in Nottingham, Smalley began his career i ...

(2019–2020) * Ali Mustafa (2020) * Aminuddin Jumat (2020) * Ameer Lani (2020) * K. Rajagobal (2020–2022) *

Rosanan Samak Haji Mohammad Rosanan bin Abdullah Samak (born 18 July 1965) is a Bruneian football coach and former player, who played as a striker most notably with the Brunei team that played in the Malaysian league in the 1990s. He was a member of the ...

(2022) * Mario Rivera (2022–)

Current squad

The following 23 players were called up for the

. :''Information correct as of 23 December 2022, after the

match against .''

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Brunei squad in the last twelve months. ;Notes * = On standby * = Preliminary squad * = Retired from international duty

Player records

:''Players in bold are still active with Brunei.''

Most capped players

DPMM-Kota Ranger 27 November 2022 (Players) 15

DPMM-Kota Ranger 27 November 2022 (Players) 52

Top goalscorers

Competition records

World Cup record

Asian Cup record

Asian Games

:''Football at the Asian Games has been an under-23 tournament since 2002.''

AFC Challenge Cup record

AFC Solidarity Cup record

ASEAN Championship

''This competition was formerly known as the

Head-to-head record

Honours

Borneo Cup Borneo Cup ( Malay: Piala Borneo) is a football tournament held in East Malaysia and Brunei. It was founded in 1950s and abolished in 1989. The tournament was played in Borneo since the 1950s, perhaps earlier. Before the establishment of Malays ...

** Winner (4): 1968, 1981, 1987, 1988 * Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Cup ** Runners-up (1):

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

* Philippines International Cup ** Third Place (1): 1993

References

{{National sports teams of Brunei Asian national association football teams