TheBrunei 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 theSoutheast Asian Games and theAFF Championship. So far, Brunei has entered theFIFA World Cup qualifiers only four times, in1986,2002,2018 and2022. On these occasions, they did not qualify for the competition.[5] They have made seven appearances in theAFC Asian Cup qualifiers, entering the third round for the first time via the play-off round in 2024.[6]
Brunei national football team of 18 players and 4 officers posed for a photo together withPengiran Yusuf atBerakas Airport in 1970
The national team's first appearance took place during the1972 AFC Asian Cup qualification, where they were unable to qualify after all three heavy defeats.[7] The following two championships (1976 and 1977) were no different from the first, with their first and second victory during the1980 Summer Olympics.[8] In 1979, Bruneientered a team to compete in the professionalMalaysian league and despite competing against Malaysian clubs, Brunei had previously never made an impact.[9] However, in 1999, they shocked everyone by lifting theMalaysia Cup.[10]
Brunei became the runners-up of theBrunei Merdeka Games trophy in 1985.[11] 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 thePhilippines.[12] Brunei was then invited for the inaugural2006 AFC Challenge Cup held inBangladesh being grouped withSri Lanka,Bhutan andNepal. 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.
In September 2009, theBrunei 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.[13][14] The suspension was applied with immediate effect and meant that the Brunei clubDPMM were no longer permitted to play in the SingaporeS.League until it was resolved.[15] DPMM has confirmed toFootball 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.[16]
On 19 March 2010, theFIFA Executive Committee agreed to submit to the nextFIFA 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 inSouth Africa having met the conditions for reinstatement it would be expelled.[17] Brunei were re-instated on 31 May 2011 and theNational Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) was formed that same year.[18]
On 17 October 2023, Brunei returned to theHassanal Bolkiah National Stadium after four years since their last match against Mongolia in 2019 for their fixture against Indonesia in the first round of the2026 FIFA World Cup qualification.[28] The Wasps were beaten 0–12 on aggregate, knocking them out of the qualification in the first round.[29]
In 2024, FIFA invited Brunei to the2024 FIFA Series held in March inJeddah,Saudi Arabia where they would face their first ever opponents outside of their confederation.[30] On 22 March, Brunei faced off againstCONCACAF opponentBermuda but conceded two late goals, losing 2–0.[31] Four days later, Brunei came againstVanuatu and won the match 3–2, when three minutes into stoppage timeHakeme Yazid Said's direct free kick sealed the victory against their opponents fromOceania.[32]
Later in June of that year, Brunei invited theSri Lanka national team to two friendly matches in the country in conjunction with theFIFA calendar.[33] Headed by interim coachRui Capela Batista, Brunei extended their winning form to three which is the first time in their history after captainAzwan Ali Rahman scored the only goal in both games held at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium on 8 and 11 June respectively.[34]
Brunei had initially worn a predominantly yellow pattern as their home kit adorned with white or black since their inception in 1956 to represent the colours of their flags. The current kit manufacturer isPuma which was incorporated since 2024.
This sectionis missing information about matches before 1993. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(April 2021)
^"FIFA SUSPEND BAFA".AFF - The Official Website Of The Asean Football Federation. 1 October 2009.Archived from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved28 December 2022.
^"sleague Portal : S.League". 23 October 2009. Archived from the original on 23 October 2009. Retrieved28 December 2022.
^"sleague Portal : S.League". 23 October 2009. Archived from the original on 23 October 2009. Retrieved28 December 2022.