DPMM FC Brunei

Beginnings in Brunei (1994–2004)

DPMM started out as a college team in 1994, before being officially established as a professional club in 2000. After being the most successful team in college-level football in Brunei, most of the team's talented players joined DPMM when it became a professional.

The club enjoyed considerable success in Brunei's domestic competitions in the early-2000s, winning the Brunei Premier League in 2002 and 2004, the Brunei FA Cup in 2004, and the Brunei Super Cup in 2002 and 2004.

Joining the Malaysian league (2005–2008)

In 2005, DPMM stopped playing in Brunei's domestic league and joined the Malaysia Premier League (the second tier of Malaysian football) as a foreign-based team, replacing the Brunei representative team. The club was then promoted to the top tier of Malaysian football, Malaysia Super League via the play-offs after a 2–1 aggregate victory over Pahang. They then remarkably finished in 3rd place in their first season in the top tier (2006–07). In the following season (2007–08), they finished in 10th place. They then had to leave the Malaysia Super League due to the deregistration of the Brunei Football Association by the Registrar of Societies.

Since 2004, DPMM had also competed annually in the Singapore Cup (a knock-out tournament which the Football Association of Singapore invites a number of teams from other countries to take part in alongside Singaporean clubs). The team had participated in every edition of the cup from 2004 to 2019, and 2023 to 2025.

Joining the Singapore league, and suspension (2009)

After leaving the Malaysia Super League, DPMM joined Singapore's S.League for the 2009 season, becoming the first team in the league to play their home matches outside Singapore at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium. The club quickly made an impact on the Singapore football scene by winning the Singapore League Cup in June 2009. They defeated the SAFFC in the final on penalties after the match had ended in a 1–1 draw. However, on 30 September that year, FIFA suspended the Brunei Football Association for government interference in its affairs. This meant that teams from Brunei were no longer allowed to compete in tournaments run by other national member associations. The Football Association of Singapore appealed to FIFA to allow DPMM to finish the S.League season, but the appeal was rejected. The results of all DPMM's league matches for 2009 were therefore expunged.

Lifting of suspension, success in Singapore (2012–2015)

After 20 months of being suspended, FIFA has decided to lift the suspension off Brunei Darussalam. This means that the national team as well as the football teams from Brunei Darussalam are allowed to join any football competitions under FIFA. DPMM re-entered the S.League in the 2012 season, and became dominant after the arrival of former English Premier League manager Steve Kean in 2014. They won their first S.League title in 2015, a year after losing ground in the final fixture of the 2014 season.

Intention to pull out from the S.League (2016–2020)

Since the 2016 season, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has been reducing the number of imports allowed per the S.League team. This has affected the Bruneian-based outfit greatly, with a lesser pool of local players against Singapore's (or Japan's in the case of Albirex Niigata (S)).

Towards the conclusion of the 2017 S.League in November, DPMM announced their intention on their website to possibly move to the Malaysian league, which they last appeared in 2008. This intention was later "dashed" by the FAM and in particular by the Football Malaysia LLP, which stipulated that DPMM have to play their home games in Malaysia and to have a squad full of Malaysians with Bruneians regarded as import players. DPMM called these rulings "unprofessional" and "insane".

In late December, DPMM stated their intentions to join the Indonesian league for the 2018 season instead. This was made after a meeting between S.League clubs whereby new rules were set to restrict foreign imports to two, and the implementation of a youth-focused roster. However, the move would be "technically impossible" to happen according to PSSI's secretary general a few days after the announcement was made.

Further talks with the FAS made at the turn of the year resulted in a compromise that was reached on 10 January 2018, where the S.League competition organisers would allow them to sign up to 3 foreign players instead of 2 with no age restrictions, and DPMM will also not be subject to the age restrictions. Each local S.League team, apart from the Young Lions, will be required to have at least six under-23 players and eight under-30 players in the squad, with the remaining players to be of any age.

Although they participated in the newly revamped Singapore Premier League in 2018, finishing in third place below champions Albirex Niigata (S) and Home United, DPMM considered joining another league in the Southeast Asia region. Reports by Singapore press in October 2018 revealed that DPMM have submitted an official enquiry to join Thai League 1 for the 2019 season. The club would later announced that they would be competing in the 2019 Singapore Premier League, but afterwards expressed an interest to join Indonesia's Liga 1 in 2020.