Contributed by Yeo Kar Teck

So, after years of playing in the M-League, Bruneian side DPMM FC have joined the S.League to become the twelfth side in the competition for 2009.

Of course, foreign sides have been a fixture in the local football scene for a while now, since Albirex Niigata joined the league back in 2004. What puts DPMM FC apart from the other foreign sides is that fact that this Bruneian club is not formed specifically for the S.League, nor is it a satellite team of a bigger football club. Furthermore, DPMM FC will play all their home games in their home stadium, instead of being a tenant in a stadium in Singapore.

Some may see it as a rarity, but the concept of clubs playing in a domestic league of another country is not foreign as it seems.

Since its inauguration in 2004, the A-League in Australia had always consisted of a team from their neighbours New Zealand. New Zealand Knights, a side based in Auckland, played two seasons in the A-League before they were replaced by Wellington Phoenix.

In the United States, the domestic football (soccer) league had always consisted of non-American teams. Canadian side Toronto FC is one of the 15 teams that will kick off the MLS in March later this year.

Fellow Canadian teams Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact join Puerto Rican side Puerto Rico Islanders in the USL First Division, the second tier of the football pyramid in the US.

Across Europe, this phenomenon is common as well.

In England, Welsh sides Cardiff City and Swansea City are both in the English League Championship this season. Cardiff City is by far the more successful of the duo, having won the FA Cup in 1927 and were runners-up just last season. Another Welsh side, Wrexham FC, played 87 years in the English Football League system, before suffering relegation to non-league football last year.

Interestingly enough, there is one English side playing in the Scottish Football League. Berwick Rangers FC, a team from the English border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, have played club football in Scotland since 1955.

When some sovereign states are too small geographically, their clubs have tendencies to participate in neighbouring leagues.

AS Monaco is one of the best examples around. As a country, Monaco has about 35,000 residents. A domestic football league would never have taken off. As a football club by itself, Monaco have become one of the most successful teams in French club football. They have won the league title seven times and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2004.

Like Monaco, FC Vaduz is a football club from the tiny nation of Liechtenstein, which has a population of 35,000. Since 1933, the club has played in Switzerland. After decades in various tiers of the Swiss football ladder, FC Vaduz finally won promotion to the top flight last summer.

S-League, like other more established football leagues across the globe, should do their best to welcome DPMM FC into the family this coming year. It may be still early days, but let us all hope that DPMM FC can leave a positive legacy to our S.League, unlike controversial foreign sides like Sinchi FC and Sporting Afrique.