Thailand

Buriram

ThailandFounded: 1970Stadium: Chang Arena, Buriram (32,600 seats)Coach: Raul Caneda

History

Buriram United Football Club (Thai: สโมสรฟุตบอลบุรีรัมย์ ยูไนเต็ด) is a Thai professional football club based in Buriram. The club has played at the top level of Thai football for the majority of their existence and competes in the Thai League 1. The club was founded in 1970 as PEA Football Club (Provincial Electricity Authority Football Club), before being reformed as Buriram PEA and Buriram United in 2010 and 2012 respectively. Their home stadium is Chang Arena which has a capacity of 32,600. Buriram United is considered one of the best football clubs in the Southeast Asia region history.

Buriram United won their first Thai League 1 title in 2008 and the Kor Royal Cup in 1998, as PEA. The club was previously based in Ayutthaya before moving east to Buriram for the 2010 season. In the 2011 season, Buriram became the first team in Thailand football history to win all the domestic trophies, as the treble champions (2011 Thai Premier League, 2011 Thai FA Cup, and 2011 Thai League Cup). Buriram then went on to win five domestic treble in the 2011, 2013, 2015, 2021–22 and 2022–23 season where the club went undefeated in the league during the 2013 and 2015 season.

Buriram United has won a record of 12 Thai League 1 titles, 8 Thai FA Cups and 8 Thai League Cups, 2 Thailand Champions Cup and 3 Kor Royal Cup. Regionally, the club also won 1 ASEAN Club Championship in their inaugural revamp competition.

Buriram United is by far the most popular and successful Thailand football club, with millions of fans from across the country. Polling shows that it is also the third most popular football club in terms of supporters in Thailand overall behind Premier League clubs Liverpool and Manchester United. As of 2024, Buriram United has an estimated market value of €12.83 million.

Read the full history

Origins: "Provincial Electricity Authority" (1970–2009)

The club was founded in 1970, but their first big success came in 1998 by winning the third division of the Kor Royal Cup. The club was then promoted to the Thai Division 1 League. In 2002–03 the club finished third in the second division. They then competed the Thai League 1 Relegation play-off, but lost the final match 0–1 to Thailand Tobacco Monopoly. A year later, they succeeded at the end of season 2003–04 with promotion to the Thai Premier League. PEA surprised everyone by becoming the league runner-up at the end of their first Premier League season. Being the runner-up entitled the club to participate in the AFC Champions League. It was the first participation in an international competition for the club. However, the club was excluded from the competition. In the following two seasons, 2006 and 2007, the PEA finished 10th and 8th.

In 2008 Provincial Electricity Authority relocated to Ayutthaya and played at Ayutthaya Province Stadium, where they gained a bigger fan base. The club played under the nickname of Faifa Ayutthaya (Electric Ayutthaya) from media and its fans. Under the head coach Prapol Pongpanich, PEA eventually won their first league title in Thai League 1. The club qualified for the 2009 AFC Champions League preliminary round.

In 2009, PEA was eliminated from the 2009 AFC Champions League after losing 1–4 to Singapore Armed Forces in extra-time at Rajamangala Stadium. PEA began their title defence campaign of the Thai Premier League with some poor performances. Prapon Pongpanich was sacked in the middle of the season and replaced by former Thailand national team head coach Thongsuk Sampahungsith. The club finished in ninth place out of sixteen in the final standings.

Breath of Buriram (2010–2013)

In December 2009, it was announced that a politician based in Buriram, Newin Chidchob was to take over the club. He had already tried unsuccessfully to take over TOT SC and Royal Thai Army Newin relocated the club to Buriram in Isan and rebranded it to Buriram PEA Football Club. Buriram PEA inherited most of the players from the former PEA club including the stars like Rangsan Viwatchaichok, Apichet Puttan and Theerathon Bunmathan. Pongphan Wongsuwan who was a long-time head coach of TOT SC was instated as a coach. Thailand national team member Suchao Nuchnum of TOT SC also followed his coach to the new team.

Buriram PEA finished their first season after the transition as the runner-up of the 2010 Thai Premier League. The club reached the final of the 2010 Thai League Cup but lost 0–1 to Thai Port at Supachalasai Stadium.

The Greatest in Thailand

In 2011, Buriram PEA under the head coach of Attaphol Buspakom, completed their 2011 season with the domestic treble by winning all three Thai major trophies. Buriram won 2011 Thai Premier League with 85 points, the highest record in the league history. They beat the arch-rival Muangthong United in the 2011 Thai FA Cup final and clinched their first Thai FA Cup title. Following the success in two other competitions, Buriram avenged their previous year League Cup final defeat against the same opponent, Thai Port, and won the 2010 Thai League Cup. Buriram PEA became the first Thai club to win the treble in a season.

Buriram's stadium "The Thunder Castle", was built in 2011 – when it became the first Thailand football stadium without a running track on the side of the field and it was also recorded in the Guinness World Records as the FIFA standard football field with the shortest construction time of 256 days.

At the start of the 2012 season, the club was renamed Buriram United Football Club. In the first match of the group stages of the 2012 AFC Champions League, Buriram beat the 2011 J-League champion, Kashiwa Reysol, 3–2 and became "the first Thai and South East Asian club" to earn a victory against a J-League club in ACL since starting the Champions League system in 2003. In the second match, Buriram was the visiting team against the 2011 CSL Champion, Guangzhou Evergrande. Buriram also became "the first Thai and South East Asian club" to earn a victory against a Chinese club "in China" after beating Guangzhou Evergrande 1–2 in Tianhe Stadium from Suchao Nuchnum and Frank Acheampong's goals. That match was the end of a two-year unbeaten home record for Guangzhou.

2013 & 2015 - Quadruple season

In 2014, under Spanish head coach Alejandro Menéndez, Buriram United became the first Thai club to achieve the quadruple by winning 4 trophies in the calendar year. The campaign included the titles of Kor Royal Cup, Thai League T1, Thai FA Cup and Thai League Cup. The league season was also finished with the first invincible title for the club, the second Thai team to have achieved such a feat, after Muangthong United in 2012.

Alexandre Gama era (2014–2016)

In 2014, Brazilian coach Alexandre Gama was appointed to guide Buriram United and in his first season, he helped the club to retained the 2014 Thai Premier League. The following season, he guided Buriram United to, once again, winning all four of the competitions in the 2015 calendar year : 2015 Kor Royal Cup, 2015 Thai Premier League, 2015 Thai FA Cup, 2015 Thai League Cup and also the 2015 Mekong Club Championship.

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Squad

#GoalkeepersAgeAppsGoals
13Neil Etheridge3630
29Korraphat Nareechan2900
34Chatchai Bootprom3900

Upcoming fixtures

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Ratchaburi
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Shanghai Port
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Rasisalai Utd
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Buriram
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