Full name | Royal Institute of Health and Sciences Football Club |
---|---|
Ground | Changlimithang Thimpu, Bhutan |
Capacity | 45,000 |
League | Bhutan A-Division |
2007 | 7th [1] |
RIHS Football Club is a football club from Bhutan, [1] based at Changlimithang, who played in the Bhutan A-Division, then the top level of football in Bhutan, but since replaced by a full national league. [2] They spent two seasons in the top flight of Bhutanese football before being relegated following a season that included the record defeat for a football team in Bhutan.
The first recorded instance of RIHS playing in the top flight of Bhutanese football was in 2006. [3] Details are lacking for this season and their final position is not known. [3] The only result that is known is a 4–1 loss to Yeedzin. [3] It is also not known how they came to be in the A-Division for that season. They were not involved in the final of the B-Division for 2005, which was contested between Choden and Rookies, [4] so were presumably not involved in the promotion playoffs that followed. They finished seventh in the 2007 season and were relegated. [1] The league table for the 2007 season is incomplete and only a handful of results are known. However, there are a number of results which are notable due to their high scores, both involving very heavy defeats for the Royal Institute of Health and Sciences team:
Note: RIHS only fielded 9 players.
In the game between Transport United and RIHS FC, Passang Tshering scored seventeen goals. Sources indicate that the most goals scored by a single player in a game was 16, scored by Panagiotis Pontikos of Olympos Xylofagou against SEK Ayios Athanasios in May 2007 and by Stephane Stanis for RC Strasbourg in the 1940s. [5] It would appear therefore, that Pontikos, having equalled a record that had stood for over 60 years, saw it broken only a few days later.
It is not known whether they competed again, and there is no record of them competing in any future season for which records exist. [6]
Transport United Football Club is a Bhutanese professional football club based in Thimphu that competes in the Bhutan Premier League, the top level of Bhutanese football. The club was founded in 2001 and plays at the Changlimithang Stadium. Transport United has won five national championships, and was a dominant force in Bhutanese football throughout much of the first decade of the 21st century.
The 2001 season of the Bhutanese A-Division was the seventh recorded season of top-flight football in Bhutan. The league was won by Druk Star, their first title and the first time a Bhutanese team other than Druk Pol had won in the last six years. The league was preceded by a qualifying tournament known as the Thimpu League. Qualifiers from this league joined other teams in a round robin group stage to determine the four teams who would proceed to the knock out stage.
The 2002 season of the Bhutanese A-Division was the eighth recorded season of top-flight football in Bhutan and started on 28 July 2002. The league was won by Druk Pol, their sixth title. Eleven teams took part, four from Phuentsholing and seven from Thimpu.
The 2003 season of the Bhutanese A-Division was the ninth recorded season of top-flight football in Bhutan. 10 teams competed, and the championship was won by Druk Pol, their second title in a row and seventh in the last eight seasons. It is assumed that Veterans were promoted having won the final of the B-Division.
The 2005 season of the Bhutanese A-Division was the eleventh recorded season of top-flight football in Bhutan. The league was won by Transport United, their second title in a row. As a result, they qualified as Bhutan's representatives in the 2006 AFC President's Cup.
The 2007 season of the Bhutanese A-Division was the thirteenth recorded season of top-flight football in Bhutan. The league was won by Transport United, their fourth title in a row and only the second time a team had achieved such a feat since Druk Pol won their fourth title in a row in 1999.
The 2009 season of the Bhutanese A-Division was the fifteenth recorded season of top-flight football in Bhutan. The league was won by Druk Star FC, their second title. They qualified as Bhutan's representatives in the 2010 AFC President's Cup.
The 2010 season of the Bhutanese A-Division was the sixteenth recorded season of top-flight football in Bhutan. The league was won by Yeedzin, their second title.
Football is a sport with a comparatively brief history in Bhutan, having had an initial period of favour in the mid-twentieth century, when it was first introduced to the country by visiting teachers from India and Europe. It has only achieved significantly renewed popularity in the early 2000s, following the advent of satellite television broadcasting, with historically national sport being archery. Consequently, the domestic game was underdeveloped. After the establishment of an initial league in the late 1980s, little in the way of recorded competition took place until the mid-1990s when a formal championship, the A-Division, was created. Football became the most popular sport in Bhutan.
Chencho Nio is a Bhutanese international footballer, who last played for High Quality United in the Bhutan Premier League. He has experience playing in the I-League 2nd Division, the second tier of football in India. Having played in Bhutan for a number of years, he became the first Bhutanese player to become a full-time player when he moved to Royal Wahingdoh in 2010. He made his first appearance for the Bhutan national football team in 2009.
The 2011 season of the Bhutanese A-Division was the seventeenth recorded season of top-flight football in Bhutan. The league was won by Yeedzin, their third title and second in a row. The league was played as a single round-robin series of matches in anticipation of the commencement of a full National League; however, this was delayed by a season.
Dzongree Football Club is a professional football club from Thimphu, Bhutan. They finished as the runners-up of the A-Division in 2003, but have spent most of their history either in mid-table in the A-Division or playing in the B-Division.
Nangpa Football Club was a football club from Thimphu, Bhutan, who played in the A Division between 2010 and 2012. They are one of the least successful teams to have played top-flight football in Bhutan, finishing last in each of the three seasons in which they competed.
Royal Bhutan Army Football Club was a Bhutanese professional football club based in Thimphu, that competed in the A Division. They won the inaugural season of top-flight football in Bhutan and competed regularly in the A-Division between 2002 and 2009 when they withdrew halfway through the season. They were, as the name suggests, the football team of the Royal Bhutan Army, which later joined Tensung FC.
Phuentsholing City Football Club is a professional football club from Phuentsholing, Bhutan, based at the PSA Phuentsholing Stadium. It finished fifth in the inaugural season of the Bhutan National League. The club has been sponsored by the Penden Group of Companies.
Motithang College Football Club was a football club from Bhutan, based at Changlimithang, who played in the inaugural Bhutan A-Division, then the top level of football in Bhutan, but since replaced by a full national league.
Ranjung United Football Club was a football club from Bhutan, based at Changlimithang, that played in the Bhutan A-Division, then the top level of football in Bhutan, but since replaced by a full national league.
Rigzhung Football Club was a football club from Thimphu, Bhutan, based at Changlimithang. Having won the B-Division in 2002, they spent a number of seasons struggling in the A-Division and regularly finished bottom or second from bottom only to gain a reprieve whether through relegation playoffs or because there was no relegation that season. After several years, they were finally sent down to the B-Division, where they were last recorded playing in 2013.
Choden Football Club was a football club from Bhutan, based at Changlimithang, consisting of players from the U-19 Bhutan national team, who played in the Bhutan A-Division, then the top level of football in Bhutan, but since replaced by a full national league. They finished fifth in the 2011 season, the last season where the A-Division was the top flight. Although they were not formally relegated at the end of the 2011 season, they do not appear to have taken part either in the 2012 A-Division, nor consequently the 2012–13 Bhutan National League.
Druk Athletic Football Club was a football club from Thimphu, Bhutan, that competed in the A-Division, the highest level of football in Bhutan. They originally competed in the second tier of football, but eventually won promotion to the A-Division, there they remained for a number of seasons, although they almost perennially struggled against relegation, before finally succumbing in 2011.