Phnom Penh Crown is a useful case study in how Cambodian club records can become misleading when competitions and team categories are merged. A league profile, a domestic cup announcement and an Asian match report answer different questions. This dossier shows how to assemble them into a usable club record, then tests the method against documented Crown results. It is intended for readers writing previews, maintaining a football database or checking a claim before sharing it.
Define the club record before counting results
The CPL identifies Phnom Penh Crown FC as a Phnom Penh club. Use that official name as the organisation field, then add a separate team-category field for each result. A club can operate several teams under one badge. A women’s continental result belongs in the organisation’s wider history, but must not enter the men’s first-team win percentage or goal difference. The same principle applies to youth football and development competitions.
An informative database record therefore needs more than a club name. Start with organisation, team category, competition, edition and match date. Keep the original source spelling alongside any shortened display name. “Crown” works in readable prose after the full name, but it is too ambiguous for joining records from different countries or competitions.
A trophy must keep its competition label
The AFC’s report published on 31 July 2023 records Crown beating Visakha 2–1 after extra time to retain the Cambodian Super Cup. It describes a second consecutive Super Cup success and identifies Visakha as the 2022 Hun Sen Cup winner. These are two different honours. Crown’s victory in that match cannot be entered as a Hun Sen Cup title, even though the opponent qualified through that cup.
This distinction matters when a short social post says only “cup champions”. Read the full competition name and the context of qualification. A Super Cup is a separate event involving qualified clubs; its participants are not necessarily the finalists from the same domestic cup edition. Preserve the event label instead of simplifying every knockout trophy to “national cup”.
Locate the documented Hun Sen Cup championship
The CPL’s announcement for the 2025 Cambodian Super Cup identifies Crown as the 2024/25 Hun Sen Cup champion and Svay Rieng as the 2024/25 league champion. That is direct evidence for Crown’s title in the named cup edition. The announcement is useful even if the reader’s research concerns the previous competition rather than the advertised Super Cup.
Record the season exactly as the source gives it. Replacing 2024/25 with 2025 may make a table shorter but can create duplicate rows when another source uses the full season. Do not add a final score, scorer or final venue unless a match report establishes it. A verified champion field does not automatically verify every detail of the deciding game.
Keep a two-leg tie in two layers
An AFC report on 13 March 2026 records Svay Rieng defeating Crown 2–1 in the second leg of their AFC Challenge League quarter-final and advancing 6–2 on aggregate. A research record should contain a second-leg result and a separate tie result. They describe different units of competition. Counting the aggregate as an additional match would invent a third fixture and inflate both teams’ goals.
For a preview, the aggregate explains elimination; the individual leg explains what happened on that particular date. If the first leg is absent from the dataset, flag it for retrieval rather than creating a synthetic match row from subtraction alone. Arithmetic can identify an inconsistency, but the original first-leg report remains the proper source for its date, venue and match events.
Include the women’s team without mixing datasets
The AFC’s 28 August 2025 preliminary-stage report records Kitchee and Phnom Penh Crown drawing 3–3 in the AFC Women’s Champions League. It places the match at Cambodia’s National Sports Complex. This is substantive club history and should be visible in an organisation-level dossier. It is also clearly a women’s competition, which makes the team-category distinction essential.
A helpful presentation gives the women’s team its own subsection and links the original report. Keep opponent, competition stage and venue together. Do not use the result as evidence for the men’s squad, the men’s continental qualification route or the men’s current home stadium. Shared branding does not make those facts interchangeable.
Treat stadium evidence as a dated relationship
The CPL club profile contains fixture rows naming Phnom Penh Crown Stadium, while its generic stadium summary may show a value still to be confirmed. This is not a reason to replace the club’s venue with whichever stadium appears first in an old article. Record the venue named for the specific match you are documenting, and keep the profile’s uncertainty visible when discussing a permanent home-ground field.
Crown’s 2023 Super Cup at National Olympic Stadium is a separate historical location. A neutral or special-event venue does not establish a permanent move. For mapping, store the match venue independently of the club’s city and training base; those three places answer different questions.
What an AFC licence establishes
The CPL’s June 2026 licensing announcement names Crown among five Cambodian clubs receiving AFC club licences for 2026/27. That establishes a season-specific licensing outcome. The accompanying FFC policy on Cambodian representatives explains that entry also depends on sporting selection and AFC requirements. Neither document should be paraphrased as an unconditional place in every Asian competition.
When building an eligibility timeline, keep the licence decision, domestic finishing position and confirmed competition entry as separate records. A reader can then understand why a licensed club may not appear in a particular draw. The same separation prevents a past continental appearance from being treated as proof that a club currently holds all required approvals.
Evidence table for a clean Crown dossier
| Record | Primary evidence | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 Super Cup | AFC: 2–1 win over Visakha after extra time | A Hun Sen Cup title |
| 2024/25 Hun Sen Cup | CPL: Crown identified as champion | The final’s score or scorers |
| 2025 women’s continental match | AFC: 3–3 with Kitchee | A men’s first-team result |
| 2026 quarter-final | AFC: 2–1 second-leg defeat; 6–2 aggregate | An extra match with a 6–2 score |
| 2026/27 AFC licence | CPL licensing announcement | Automatic qualification for every AFC event |
Research checklist before publishing
- Write the full club name once and identify the relevant team category.
- Use the competition’s own edition label, including a split-year season where supplied.
- Separate match score, extra-time outcome, shootout score and aggregate total.
- Attach every stadium assertion to the match or period it describes.
- Save the primary report URL and its publication date beside the extracted fact.
- Mark missing details as unverified instead of filling gaps from a different competition.
- Review licensing and entry documents again when discussing a new season.
Turn the record into a readable preview
A good preview starts with the competition and upcoming fixture, then chooses only historical facts relevant to that context. A Super Cup milestone can explain a domestic rivalry, while the 2026 continental quarter-final can illustrate recent meetings in Asia. The women’s result deserves its own context rather than being used as decorative evidence for a men’s match.
Readers should be able to trace each significant statement without navigating an entire archive. Place the official link close to the claim, retain a short note about edition and team category, and update the time-sensitive fixture fields separately. That structure keeps the historical dossier useful even when players, kick-off times and the current league table change.
Official sources: Cambodian Premier League — Phnom Penh Crown FC — CPL club profile; Asian Football Confederation — Phnom Penh retain Super Cup; Cambodian Premier League — Cambodian Super Cup 2025 participants; Asian Football Confederation — Svay Rieng power past Phnom Penh.
Frequently asked questions
Did Crown win the 2024/25 Hun Sen Cup?
Yes. The CPL’s 2025 Super Cup announcement identifies Phnom Penh Crown as the 2024/25 Hun Sen Cup champion. The season label is retained here exactly.
Can the 3–3 Kitchee match be added to the men’s record?
No. The AFC report concerns the women’s team in the AFC Women’s Champions League preliminary stage.
Does a licence prove qualification?
A licence is one requirement. Sporting selection and the applicable AFC entry conditions must also be checked for the named season.
Sources and verification
- Phnom Penh Crown FC — CPL club profile — Cambodian Premier League — 2026-10-23
- Phnom Penh retain Super Cup — Asian Football Confederation — 2026-10-23
- Cambodian Super Cup 2025 participants — Cambodian Premier League — 2026-10-23
- Svay Rieng power past Phnom Penh — Asian Football Confederation — 2026-10-23
- Kitchee 3–3 Phnom Penh Crown — AFC Women’s Champions League 2025/26 — Asian Football Confederation — 2026-10-23
- Five Cambodian clubs receive AFC club licences for 2026/27 — Cambodian Premier League — 2026-10-23
- Determination of Cambodian representative clubs for AFC 2026/27 — Football Federation of Cambodia via CPL — 2026-10-23