Bangkok United F.C.

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Bangkok United

Full name	True Bangkok United Football Club
Nickname(s)	แข้งเทพ (Bangkok Angels)
Short name	BUFC
Founded	1988; 36 years ago (1988) as Bangkok University Football Club[1] 2009; 15 years ago (2009) as Bangkok United
Ground	Thammasat Stadium Pathum Thani, Thailand
Capacity	25,000
Owner	True Corporation
Chairman	Kachorn Chiaravanont
Head coach	Totchtawan Sripan
League	Thai League 1
2023–24	Thai League 1, 2nd of 16
Website	https://www.truebangkokunitedfc.com/
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Active departments of Bangkok United
Football (Men's)	Academy	eSports

True Bangkok United Football Club (Thai: สโมสรฟุตบอลทรู แบงค็อก ยูไนเต็ด) is a professional football club based in Pathum Thani province, Thailand. Known as Bangkok University Football Club until 2009, the club was relegated from the 2010 Thai Premier League only four years after winning their first league title in 2006. In 2012 they were promoted to Thai League 1, after finishing third in the 2012 Thai Division 1 League.^[2][3]

The club has won 1 Thai League 1 title, 1 Thai League 2 title and 1 Thailand Champions Cup in their history.^[4]

The club was originally formed as Bangkok University in 1988 as a team for students at Bangkok University's Rangsit Campus in Pathum Thani province, just north of Bangkok, the club have gone from provincial football, and winning university-level titles, to being a professionally run outfit in the top flight in the Thai Premier League.^[5]

Along the way to the Top flight, they won the Thai Division 1 League in 2003 and even captured the 2006 Thailand Premier League title against the odds, which has also enabled the club to taste life in the AFC Champions League.^[6]

The club appeared in the 2007 AFC Champions League but played their home matches in the group stage away from the club's home. The first match on 7 March 2007 against Korea's Chunnam Dragons was played at the Thai-Japanese Stadium in Bangkok and the second, on 25 April against Indonesia's Arema Malang, was played at the Thai Army Sports Stadium in Bangkok, where tickets cost 50 baht. Both matches ended 0–0. The third, against Japan's Kawasaki Frontale, was played at the Thai Army Sports Stadium. The team has failed to qualify for the next stage.^{[citation needed]}

Bangkok University always used the Bangkok University Stadium for domestic competitions until the end of the 2008 Thailand Premier League season. The stadium was based on the Bangkok University's Rangsit Campus and had a capacity of 5,000, currently used by the club as a training ground.^{[citation needed]}

At the start of the 2009 season, the club changed their club name from Bangkok University to Bangkok United with a partnership with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to be in line with the Football Association of Thailand's (FAT) new regulations that all teams in the top flight must be registered as limited companies. They also changed their club nickname to 'Bangkok Angels', and were officially unveiled on 4 March 2009.^[7]

Also, with this name change, the club relocated to a new stadium, the Thai-Japanese Stadium which was based further center in Greater Bangkok. The stadium is for multi-use, such as athletics and football and holds a capacity of 10,320. The stadium was also shared by Thai Port whilst they waited for their stadium to be upgraded. On 31 May 2009, after 5 home matches, the club returned to using Bangkok University Stadium as a home ground again until the renovations of Thai-Japanese Stadium were finished before the start of 2009 season's second leg in August. Bangkok United narrowly escaped relegation in the 2009 Thai Premier League.^{[citation needed]}

For the 2010 Thai Premier League season, Bangkok United was backed by Thai media company True Corporation. The early season optimism did not last long and the 2010 campaign ended in relegation. The Angels only won two home games all season. Rather surprisingly the two victories were against high-fliers Buriram PEA and Chonburi. Incidentally, both victories were achieved at the Bangkok University Stadium after they switched their home fixtures from the Thai-Japanese Stadium to the university midway through the season.^[8]

In the 2015 season, the club move to the Thammasat Stadium to pass the assignment of AFC Champions League stadium regulation.^[10] Brazilian head coach Alexandré Pölking improved the club during the season before to finish fifth in the Thai Premier League. Since 2015, the club became one of big club in Thailand league. The team under Pölking has been widely praised for instilling an energetic, play with a galivanting style of attacking football reaching levels of intensity that are rarely seen in this league.^[11]

Entering the 2016 season, Bangkok United ended in second place in the Thai League 1 and created history by claiming 75 points – the club's highest points in a single season. The team missed an opportunity to qualify for the 2016 AFC Champions League by failing to beat Malaysian club Johor Darul Ta'zim in the qualifying play-offs match.^[12]

In 2017, Bangkok United started winning 1–0 against Navy on the opening day in the league. Nevertheless, The team managed to end their season on a high note by finishing third in the Thai League 1 and reaching the 2017 Thai FA Cup final, losing 4–2 to Chiangrai United. Despite coming third, The club managed to be the league highest scorers with 97 goals from 34 games, making them the most productive team in the division by far and finishing just one short of breaking a record set by Buriram United themselves in 2015. A big contributing factor to this was the goals from attacking duo Dragan Bošković and Mario Gjurovski who netted 50 goals between them.^[13]

In the 2018 season, Bangkok United ended in second place with 71 points.^[14]

In the 2022–23 season, Bangkok United ended in second place with 62 points and also ended up as the runners-up in the 2022–23 Thai FA Cup.

In 2023, after a long 15 years absent, Bangkok United returns to the AFC Champions League group

Patiwat

Suphan

Everton (C)

Nitipong

Peerapat

Weerathep

Pokklaw

Thossawat

Rungrath

Vander

Soukouna

Bangkok United starting line during the 2023–24 Thai FA Cup final

stage being drawn in Group F with Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Kitchee SC and Lion City Sailors. On 20 September 2023, the club plays its first AFC Champions League match away from home coming back from 1–0 down to eventually winning the game to 1–2 with goals from club captain, Everton and Thitiphan Puangchan at the Jalan Besar Stadium. On 4 October 2023, Bangkok United secured a famous 3–2 home victory against Korean champions, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors taking them to the top of the group with 6 points on matchday 2. Bangkok United went on to become group leaders with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 lost, being 1 point ahead of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors thus seeing the club qualifying to the round of 16. Bangkok United then faced off against 2022 J1 League champions, Yokohama F. Marinos where both team settled for a 2–2 draw in the first leg. While in the second leg, Bangkok United managed to hold on Yokohama F. Marinos until extra-time where they conceded a late penalty in the 120+2th minute. Bangkok United lost 3–2 on aggregate and was knocked out by the eventual runners-up of the tournament.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		UTD	JBH	LCS	KIT
1	Bangkok United	6	4	1	1	11	8	+3	13	Advance to round of 16		—	3–2	1–0	1–1
2	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	6	4	0	2	12	9	+3	12			3–2	—	3–0	2–1
3	Lion City Sailors	6	2	0	4	5	9	−4	6			1–2	2–0	—	0–2
4	Kitchee	6	1	1	4	7	9	−2	4			1–2	1–2	1–2	—

Bangkok United ended up the 2023–24 season in second place with 61 points where the club won the 2023–24 Thai FA Cup in a penalties shootout against Dragon Pathumwan Kanchanaburi. Bangkok United then qualified to the 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite qualifying play-offs facing against Chinese club Shandong Taishan on 13 August 2024. However, Bangkok United failed to qualified to the 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite after losing 4–3 on penalties shootout thus seeing the club entering the 2024–25 AFC Champions League Two being drawn in Group G alongside Singaporean club Tampines Rovers, Hong Kong club Lee Man and Vietnamese club Nam Định. Bangkok United went on to top the group in the AFC Champions League Two with 13 points seeing the team advance to the round of 16.

Bangkok United signed a collaboration agreement with Surasakmontree School^[15] and Bangkok Christian College.^[16] These agreements resulted in the introduction of young players from these schools joining the first team such as Sasalak Haiprakhon, Sarayut Sompim, Jakkit Wachpirom, Anusith Termmee, Nattawut Suksum, Wisarut Imura, and Guntapon Keereeleang.^{[citation needed]}

Bangkok United operate Youth and Junior Youth teams as part of their academy to nurture local talent under a big project "cp-dreams." (Thai lit. ซีพี สานฝัน...ปันโอกาส).^[17] In 2019, 7 youth players of "cp-dreams." project from Bangkok Christian College were call-ups to Thailand U-12 and they helped Thailand U-12 to finish in third place in U-12 Junior Soccer World Challenge football tournament.^[18] – beat Tokyo Verdy Junior, 2–0 beat FC Barcelona, 1-0 and beat JFA Training Center Osaka, 2–1.^[19]

• FC Tokyo (2017–present)^[20]

Bangkok United signed a partnership agreement with J1 League, FC Tokyo in September 2017. There is the deal to work together at developing the academy players, strengthen the bond between two teams in order to improve the over all top team level and creating a new business.^[21]

Thammasat Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the city of Rangsit, Pathum Thani, Thailand. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 25,000. It is on Thammasat University's Rangsit campus. It is located close to Bangkok.^[22]

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2007	AFC Champions League	Group F	Chunnam Dragons	0–0	2–3	4th out of 4
			Kawasaki Frontale	1–2	1–1
			Arema Malang	0–0	0–1
2017	AFC Champions League	Preliminary round 2	Johor Darul Ta'zim	1–1 (a.e.t.) (4–5 p)
2019	AFC Champions League	Preliminary round 2	Hanoi	0–1
2023–24	AFC Champions League	Group F	Lion City Sailors	1–0	2–1	1st out of 4
			Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	3–2	2–3
			Kitchee	1–1	2–1
		Round of 16	Yokohama F. Marinos	2–2	0–1 (a.e.t.)	2–3
2024–25	AFC Champions League Elite	Play-off round	Shandong Taishan	1–1 (a.e.t.) (3–4 p)
	AFC Champions League Two	Group G	Thép Xanh Nam Định	3–2	0–0	1st out of 4
			Lee Man	4–1	1–0
			Tampines Rovers	4–2	0–1
		Round of 16	Sydney FC

Season	League[23]										FA Cup	League Cup	ACL	ACL2	Top scorer
	Division	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Pos.					Name	Goals
2002–03	↑ Division 1 (2)	22	13	8	1	42	10	32	47	1st			—	—	—
2003–04	Premier League (1)	18	9	4	5	26	22	4	31	4th					—	—
2004–05		18	5	7	6	16	21	−5	22	7th					—	—
2006		22	11	6	5	25	17	8	39	1st					Ubon Kaikaew	7
2007		30	14	5	11	39	36	3	47	4th			Group stage	—	Kittisak Siriwan	8
2008		30	9	8	13	28	36	−8	35	10th			—	—	Suriya Domtaisong	8
2009		30	5	15	10	24	34	−10	30	13th	Quarter-finals				Ubon Kaikaew	4
2010	↓ Premier League (1)	30	5	9	16	25	52	−27	24	15th	Fourth round	Quarter-finals			Sarif Sainui	5
2011	Division 1 (2)	34	15	6	13	54	49	5	51	6th	Second round	First round			Romain Gasmi	13
2012	↑ Division 1 (2)	34	23	5	6	57	29	28	74	3rd	Third round	First round				17
2013	Premier League (1)	32	8	7	17	38	61	−23	31	13th	Fourth round	First round			Sompong Soleb	9
2014		38	15	9	14	55	56	−1	54	8th	Quarter-finals	First round			Romain Gasmi	12
2015		34	16	9	9	59	47	12	57	5th	First round	Second round			Dragan Bošković	13
2016		31	26	2	3	72	36	36	75	2nd	First round	Quarter-finals				20
2017	Thai League (1)	34	21	3	10	97	57	40	66	3rd	Runners-up	Second round	Preliminary Round 2	—		38
2018		34	21	8	5	68	36	32	71	2nd	First round	Second round	—	—	Robson	14
2019		30	13	11	6	55	32	23	50	4th	Semi-finals	Quarter-finals	Preliminary Round 2	—	Nelson Bonilla	16
2020–21		30	15	6	9	57	39	18	51	5th	Semi-finals	—	—	—	Nattawut Suksum	12
2021–22		30	15	8	7	53	30	23	53	3rd	Third round	Quarter-finals			Heberty	15
2022–23		30	19	5	6	55	22	33	62	2nd	Runners-up	Quarter-finals			Willen Mota	11
2023–24		30	17	10	3	58	24	34	61	2nd	Champions	Second round	Round of 16	—		20
2024–25

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  THA Patiwat Khammai 2 DF  THA Peerapat Notchaiya 3 DF  BRA Everton (Captain) 4 DF  THA Manuel Bihr 5 DF  THA Putthinan Wannasri 6 DF  THA Nitipong Selanon 7 MF  THA Anon Amornlerdsak 8 MF  THA Wisarut Imura 10 MF  LBN Bassel Jradi 11 MF  THA Rungrath Poomchantuek 16 FW  OMA Muhsen Al-Ghassani 18 MF  THA Thitiphan Puangchan 19 FW  THA Chayawat Srinawong 20 FW  THA Guntapon Keereeleang 24 DF  THA Wanchai Jarunongkran 25 GK  THA Supanut Suadsong 26 DF  THA Suphan Thongsong

No. Pos. Nation Player 27 MF  THA Weerathep Pomphan 28 MF  THA Thossawat Limwannasathian 30 FW  CUW Richairo Zivkovic 34 GK  THA Warut Mekmusik 39 MF  THA Pokklaw Anan 44 MF  THA Natcha Promsomboon 51 DF  THA Kritsada Nontharat 52 DF  THA Wichan Inaram 54 MF  THA Suntha Hasegawa 58 DF  THA Warakorn Huatwiset 59 FW  THA Chukid Wanpraphao 72 DF  THA Surachai Boonchare 77 FW  SRB Luka Adžić 88 GK  THA Supanut Sudathip 93 FW  PLE Mahmoud Eid 96 DF  THA Boontawee Theppawong

True Bangkok United U-23 Squad For PEA U23 Youngster League 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  THA Supanut Sudathip U21 2 DF  THA Kittisak Dangsakul U21 3 DF  THA Anaphat Nakngam U21 4 DF  THA Wichan Inaram U21 5 DF  THA Warakorn Huatwiset U21 6 MF  THA Sirayos Dansakul U21 7 MF  THA Chonlachart Tongjinda U21 8 MF  THA Natcha Promsomboon U23 9 FW  THA Guntapon Keereeleang U23 10 FW  THA Chukid Wanpraphao U23 11 FW  THA Nopparat Promiem U21 12 GK  THA Naphol Wongboon U21

No. Pos. Nation Player 13 FW  THA Napat Kuttanan U21 14 MF  THA Shunta Hasegawa U21 15 DF  THA Nontapat Ploymee U21 16 MF  THA Philip Bijawat Frey U21 17 DF  THA Surachai Booncharee U21 18 MF  THA Aekkarat Sansuwan U21 19 FW  THA Krit Klangpan U21 20 DF  THA Kongpop Sodsong U21 21 FW  THA Putharapol Sanprasit U21 22 MF  THA Pichaiya Kongsri U21 23 MF  THA Patchara Wangsawat U21 24 FW  THA Thanawat Deeloed U21 25 GK  THA Phattharaphon Kaewwongthong U21

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 MF  THA Chayathorn Tapsuvanavon (at Ayutthaya United) — GK  THA Phuwadol Pholsongkram (at Ayutthaya United)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  THA Pasakorn Biawtungnoi (at Ayutthaya United) — DF  THA Pakkapol Maimard (at Ayutthaya United) — DF  THA Bhumchanok Kamkla (at Ayutthaya United)

Position	Staff
Team Manager	Suradej Anandapong
Head coach	Totchtawan Sripan
Assistant coach	Panupong Wongsa
	Sarif Sainui
Goalkeeping coach	Peerasit Mahothon
Assistant goalkeeper coach	Kittinan Chockcharoenlarp
Physical & Fitness coaches	Watcharachai Rajphaetyakhom
	Tosaphon Doungjai
Head of Medicine	Janilson Quadros da silva
Physiotherapist	Mongkhon Saethao
Interpreter	Nuttapat Lertchanapisit
Team's Staff	Chatchai Phuengthong
	Ayuwat Duangin
Director of academy	Danny Invincibile
Under-23s lead coach	Jirawat Lainananukul

Managerial history (2001–present)

Name	Period	Honours
Somchai Subpherm	2001–2009	1 Division 1 1 Premier League
Worakorn Wichanarong	2010
Prapol Pongpanich	2010 – October 2011
Suwaroch Apiwatwarachai	October 2011 – January 2012
Sasom Pobprasert	January 2012 – January 2014
Rui Bento	January 2014 – April 2014
Thawatchai Damrong-Ongtrakul	April 2014 – June 2014
Alexandré Pölking	June 2014 – October 2020
Danny Invincibile (interim)	October 2020 – November 2020
Totchtawan Sripan	November 2020 – March 2022
Aurelio Vidmar	March 2022 – December 2022
Totchtawan Sripan	December 2022 – present	1 Champions Cup 1 FA Cup

• Thai League 1
  • Winners (1) : 2006
  • Runners-up (4): 2016, 2018, 2022–23, 2023–24
• Thai League 2
  • Winners (1) : 2002–03

• FA Cup
  • Winners (1): 2023–24
  • Runners-up (2): 2017, 2022–23
• Thailand Champions Cup
  • Winners (1): 2023

• Official website