DPMM FC is a club from the tiny country of Brunei, a microstate on the Malaysian coast, similar to Monaco and France. DPMM FC stands for Duli Pengiran Muda Mahkota FC which translates to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Brunei Football Club.
As the name suggests the club was founded in 2000 and is owned and run by the prince of Brunei's royal family. Until 2004 it competed and dominated in the local league, to the point where DPMM felt the need find a new challenge. In 2005 the Bruneian club entered the Malaysian second division and slowly had success beyond it's boarders. It achieved promotion in its first season, and immediately finished 3rd in its debut season in the Malaysian top tier the following year.
Interestingly enough, while playing the Malaysian league DPMM also competed in the Singaporean Cup, and this went on until 2009. That year, due to a FIFA suspension, DPMM FC was forced out of Malaysia and joined the Singapore S-League, where it competed until 2020, lifting the trophy twice.
In 2018, the Singaporean federation decided to implement rules to force clubs to focus on developing youth, restricting the number of foreign players and putting an age limit on the roster. DPMM was outraged, arguing that Brunei was a country of 500k people and that was too small of a pool to find talent from. The discussion reached a point where DPMM officially announced it would join the Indonesian Liga 1, what would be the clubs 4th country in just 18 years of existence. The Indonesian federation was quick to deny the claim, and eventually the Singaporean League agreed to make an exception for DPMM and implement more lenient rules for the club.
In 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore applied restrictions that made it impossible for a team from outside the country to participate, so DPMM FC returned to Brunei for the first time in 16 years. Since last year, 2023, the club has returned to Singapore where it continues it's international adventures.
Having played in 3 (almost 4) different counties, and sometimes in more than 1 country simultaneously, in just 24 years since its founding, only time will tell where His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Brunei Football Club will end up next.