Bhayangkara F.C.

Persebaya offspring (2010–2016)

Bhayangkara FC was a by-product of internal conflict in one of Indonesia's oldest clubs, Persebaya Surabaya. As the conflict was peaking in 2010, a rebel faction acquired Persikubar West Kutai, a second-tier club based in West Kutai on East Kalimantan, following the decision of the main faction to pull Persebaya out of the Indonesian Super League (ISL) and register it for the inaugural season of the Indonesian Premier League (IPL). The rebel faction renamed Persikubar into Persebaya and moved its base to Surabaya, so that the latter could still have a representation in the 2011 season of ISL, albeit in its second-tier. When the Persebaya DU team managed to win promotion into the top-tier of ISL in 2013, the naming issue became a legal battle as another Persebaya was playing in the top-tier of IPL. In a span of a year (August 2015 to September 2016), this team changed names four times in order to circumvent legal challenges from different parties, including the notorious Persebaya supporters known as Bonek. In April 2016, the team known at that time as Surabaya United, merged with PS Polri, the amateur club of the Indonesian National Police, to obtain legal backing and create Bhayangkara Surabaya United.

A police team (2016–present)

On 10 September 2016, the Indonesian National Police became the main operator of the club and renamed it into its current identification, Bhayangkara FC. Bhayangkara itself is a nickname for the…