A quick history of DBKL’s sports club

THE Kelab Sukan Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur or DBKL Sports Club (KSDBKL) was originally known as the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Club (KLMC).

It was established on Oct 27, 1952 and was based at the Kuala Lumpur Sanitary Board (now Panggung Bandaraya) building in Jalan Raja, Kuala Lumpur.

It was created for the staff of KLMC (now DBKL) to indulge in sports and social activities.

In the early 1960s it was decided that the club needed a proper venue to carry out its activities and that a club with sporting facilities and a football field was required.

A plot of land in Brickfields was identified for the project, and construction started with work completing in April of 1970.

On April 17, the building was officiated by Tan Sri Lokman Yusof, who was the former Federal Capital commissioner. Lokman was later appointed the first mayor of Kuala Lumpur.

Back then, many of the Kuala Lumpur football teams were Kuala Lumpur municipal staff and the field was used as a training ground for tournaments.

On March 6, 1973, KLMC’s name was officially changed to KSDBKL.

The club’s facilities and football field were used as a training ground for various tournaments and was particularly active during the 1980s under the patronage of the then mayor Tan Sri Elyas Omar.

Elyas was the president of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and during his tenure, Malaysia won the Thomas Cup in 1992.

Elyas was president of Kuala Lumpur FA when it won the Malaysia Cup three consecutive years from 1987 to 1989.