Brothers Union

Brothers Union go into this campaign still finding their way back after a spell that has swung between promotion and relegation inside three seasons, most recently dropping back down in 2023–24 having only just returned to the top flight through the Championship League title of 2022–23.

The Dhaka side traces back to 1949, when a group of local businessmen, K.G. Ahmed among them, put it together, and for much of its life it has been known simply as the Oranges, after the shirt colour paired with blue. The identity that stuck longest, though, came under coach Abdul Gafur Baloch between 1972 and 1986, a period that produced Mohammed Mohsin — a captain both at the club and for the national side — and Khandoker Wasim Iqbal, and that carried Brothers Union to a share of the Aga Khan Gold Cup in 1981–82. That same era had its low point too: a lead surrendered to Abahani in 1985 that the club's older supporters still bring up.

A second peak followed two decades later. Between 2003 and 2005 Brothers Union took the Dhaka Premier Division League, then won the inaugural National Football League in 2004, then added the Federation Cup in 2005.

Dhaka Mohammedan SC has long been the fixture that matters most to the Oranges, even without a name attached to it the way some derbies carry one. Since that mid-2000s run, though, silverware of that weight has not returned.