🇰🇭 Khemara Keila FC (Cambodia)

Khemara Keila FC (Cambodia)

Khemara Keila FC (also known as Khemara Keila Football Club) was a professional football club based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that operated from 1997 until its dissolution in 2011.

The name combines “Khemara” (a formal term for Khmer) and “keila” (meaning sports). It played home matches at the Olympic Stadium (Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium), which has a capacity of around 50,000.

The club was one of the stronger sides in the early years of Cambodia’s modern top flight (the Metfone C-League / Cambodian League). It won consecutive league titles in 2005 and 2006, and claimed the Hun Sen Cup in 2007.

These results earned it places in the AFC President’s Cup (a continental competition for developing Asian nations):

In 2006 they reached the semi-finals (eliminated by Kyrgyzstan’s Dordoi-Dynamo). In 2007 they had a group-stage exit.

It was also a runners-up or strong contender in other seasons around that period and had links to political sponsorship (including from Prince Norodom Ranariddh in its earlier years).

By the late 2000s the club struggled financially. Key players left, results declined (it finished 7th in 2010), and it withdrew from the 2011 Hun Sen Cup and then the league. It was formally defunct by 2011.

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