Brunei national football team

Brunei national football team
The Brunei national football team (recognized as Brunei Darussalam by FIFA), nicknamed Tebuan (The Wasps), is the national team of Brunei, controlled by the Football Association of Brunei Darussalam. 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.
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 and the AFF Championship. So far, Brunei has entered the FIFA World Cup qualifiers only four times, in 1986, 2002, 2018 and 2022. On these occasions, they did not qualify for the competition. They have made five appearances in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, but they have never passed the first qualification round.
History
Early days
The national team's first appearance took place during the 1972 AFC Asian Cup qualification, where they were unable to qualify after all three heavy defeats. The following two championships (1976 and 1977) were no different from the first, with their first and second victory during the 1980 Summer Olympics. In 1979, 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.
Brunei won their first and only Brunei Merdeka Games trophy in 1985. Since then, team was not able to qualify into or win any major tournaments. Coming the closest was the 1993 Philippines International Cup, where they came in third position after a 1–0 victory against the Philippines. Brunei was then invited for the inaugural 2006 AFC Challenge Cup held in Bangladesh being grouped with Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal. Brunei narrowly lost to Sri Lanka 1–0 before bouncing back from their defeat in the second match winning against Nepal 2–1 however with them needing the win in the last fixture, Brunei ended up in a goalless draw crashing out from the cup splitting the same points as Nepal but on goal differences.
Suspension
In September 2009, the Brunei Football Association (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 until it was resolved. DPMM FC has confirmed to Football Association of Singapore (FAS) that they are unable to finish their S.League season because of the issue with its association. FIFA rejected FAS's final request on 17 October 2009 to permit DPMM to compete in the current S.League season while BAFA's suspension persisted.
On 19 March 2010, the FIFA Executive Committee agreed to submit to the next FIFA Congress the expulsion of the association 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 and 10 June in South Africa having met the conditions for reinstatement it would be expelled. Brunei were re-instated on 31 May 2011 and the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) was formed that same year.
Reform
Upon returning to the football action, the Wasps were unable to qualify for both the 2012 and 2014 AFF Championship following several losses. Brunei was again defeated 2–1 in aggregate against the Chinese Taipei during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification in March 2015. The wasps failed to qualify for the 2016 AFF Championship after suffering defeats from Cambodia and Laos. Brunei was then invited to the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup where they finished in fourth place after losing 3–2 to Laos. Despite the disappointment, Shah Razen Said from the Bruneian side managed to become the tournament's top scorer, finishing with a total of 4 goals.
Timor-Leste defeated Brunei in the second leg 2018 AFF Championship qualifying match at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium on 8 September 2018, securing their spot in the 2018 AFF Championship final round group action for the first time in 14 years. Despite having a two-goal advantage from the first leg, Timor-Leste fell 1–0 but still advanced with a 3–2 aggregate score. Brunei defeated Mongolia 2–1 on 11 June 2019, but were unable to advance to the next stage of the preliminary joint qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
AFF Championship
Under new coach Mario Rivera, Brunei managed to qualify to the 2022 AFF Championship for the first time in 26 years since its inaugural edition in 1996, by defeating Timor-Leste 6–3 on aggregate. The Wasps were grouped with Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Cambodia. They finished the group stage without gaining a single point, conceding at least 5 goals in every game with Razimie Ramlli scoring against the Philippines and Nur Ikhwan Othman scoring against Cambodia.
On 17 October 2023, Brunei returned to the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium after four years since their last match against Mongolia in 2019 for their fixture against Indonesia in the first round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification. The Wasps were beaten 0–12 on aggregate, knocking them out of the World Cup in 2026.
Team image
Kit
Brunei had initially worn dark yellow shirts and shorts as their home kit since their inception in 1956 to represent the colours of their flags.
On July 11, 2021, a decade after it was formed, the Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (FABD) aligned itself with the country’s philosophy as part of its rebranding strategy. In fact, FABD, which was earlier established as the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD), dropped the word National from its name including a new logo which was also unveiled consisting of a three-layered crescent combined to represent the lunar stages culminating into a full moon. The three layers of the crescent each represent the colours of the national flag of Brunei. The ‘ripe-lemon’ coloured crescent contains a Jawi inscription of the association’s name in Malay while the black crescent has the association’s name written in English. The logo also features a green football covered with honeycomb pattern, signifying the association’s wish to inject more precise and better growth in the sport. In fact, the honeycomb motif was chosen as it drew inspiration from the national team’s nickname ‘The Wasps’.
Home stadium
Brunei's home stadium is the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium in Bandar Seri Begawan. The stadium capacity is 28,000. Since 2021, Brunei have used the Track & Field Sports Complex as an alternative stadium as their main stadium went for a renovation works for improvement however as the Track & Field Sports Complex does not meet the required standards, Brunei have chosen the Kuala Lumpur Stadium in Malaysia as their home ground for their 2022 AFF Championship matches.
Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
2022
2023
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 (1984)
Oscar Amaro de Silva (1985–86)
Dayem Ali (1987)
Zainuddin Kassim (1988)
Dayem Ali (1989)
Hussein Aljunied (1990–93)
Mick Lyons (1993–95)
Bobby McLachlan (1995)
David Booth (1996–98)
Mick Jones (1998–01)
Zainuddin Kassim (2001)
Mick Lyons (2002)
Karim Bencherifa (2003–04)
Amir Alagić (2005)
Ranko Buketa (2005)
Ali Mustafa (2006)
Kwon Oh-Son (2008)
Vjeran Simunić (2008–09)
Ali Mustafa (2009–11)
Dayem Ali (2011)
Kwon Oh-Son (2012–13)
Vjeran Simunić (2013–14)
Steve Kean (2014)
Mike Wong (2014–16)
Kwon Oh-Son (2016)
Stephen Ng (2017)
Kwon Oh-Son (2018)
Robbie Servais (2019)
Paul Smalley (2019–20)
Ali Mustafa (2020)
Aminuddin Jumat (2020)
Ameer Lani (2020)
K. Rajagobal (2020–22)
Rosanan Samak (2022)
Mario Rivera (2022–)
Players
Current squad
The following 25 players were called up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifications against on 12 & 17 October respectively.
Information correct as of 17 October 2023, 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
Top goalscorers
Competition records
World Cup record
Asian Cup record
Asian Games
AFC Challenge Cup record
AFC Solidarity Cup record
AFF Championship
This competition was formerly known as the Tiger Cup
Head-to-head record
As of 17 October 2023 after match against
Honours
Borneo Cup
Winners (4): 1968, 1981, 1987, 1988
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Cup
Runners-up (1): 1985
Philippines International Cup
Third place (1): 1993
References
Asian national association football teams