Gibraltar United F.C.

Gibraltar United F. C.
Founded	1943 (reformed 2014)
Ground	Michel Salgado
President	Adrian Ballestero
Manager	Paco Luna
League	Gibraltar Premier Division
2018–19	Gibraltar Premier Division, 6th
Home colours	Away colours

Gibraltar United F.C. is a football team from

Lions Gibraltar FC

who played in Gibraltar's Premier Division. In 2014 the club announced their reformation as an independent club and played in the Gibraltar Football League's second tier once again in the 2014–15 season, winning promotion as champions.

History

The club was founded by Aurelio Louis Danino a Gibraltarian journalist whose nom de plume was "Lubinox". The team was made up of local Gibraltarians who remained on the rock during the Second World War. As most of the civilian population was evacuated putting a halt to league football in Gibraltar over the war years, Gibraltar United would represent Gibraltarians and play against the UK based regiments and other military units serving in Gibraltar winning the Governor's Cup in their founding year of 1943. Once competitive football resumed on the Rock in 1946, United sealed their first league title. The club would dominate the next 10 years under Danino's presidency before entering a dry spell, winning a few more titles in the early 1960s with their last league title in 2001–02 - the last league title won by a side other than Lincoln Red Imps for 15 years before Europa's triumph in the 2016–17 season.

Despite the triumph in 2002 breaking nearly 50-year without success at the club (aside from 3 consecutive Rock Cup victories from 1999 to 2001), the club quickly began to see a decline in fortunes against the continued dominance of Lincoln, and rumours began to emerge that the historic club was close to ceasing operations, amidst talk of a rumour with lower-level club Lions FC to retain Gibraltar United's Premier Division place and adopt Lions' youth program. After merging with Lions in 2011 to form Lions Gibraltar, the club established itself as a mid-table Gibraltar Premier Division side. However, in 2014, after the Gibraltar Football Association was accepted into UEFA, the club became independent of Lions once again and competed in the Gibraltar Second Division. After a tight race with Angels and Europa Point, the club won the title and promotion to the Gibraltar Premier Division for the 2015–16 season, building a squad with strong focus on Gibraltarian footballers and hiring Manolo Sanchez Nuñez as manager. A difficult first season saw them finish narrowly above the relegation playoff, with an 8th-place finish securing safety.

In April 2017, the club entered partnerships with Turicum Bank and former

Michel Salgado, with the latter becoming one of the new owners of the club along with Dubai-based businessman Pablo Dana. With survival confirmed at the end of the season with a 7th-place finish, it was announced that Salgado would oversee youth trials in June, as well as arranging all transfers in preparation for the next season. United overvalued their squad and did away with their 'local only' policy for the start of the 17/18 season though they still retained around 50% of the squad as local players with a fair number of both full and Under 21 and Under 19 Internationals. Manolo Hierro

also joined the club as director of football soon after the 17/18 season started.

After a 4th-place finish in the

Gibraltar National League.^[5]

Current squad

Squad as of 23 February 2019[6]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
5	DF	GIB	Erin Barnett (vice-captain)
6	MF	ESP	Carlos Carrasco
7	FW	NED	Achraf Nait Brahim
9	FW	ESP	Álvaro Castiella
10	MF	ESP	Dani Ponce
14	FW	GIB	Nathan Santos
16	FW	ESP	Francisco Álvarez
17	MF	ESP	Chico Rubio
22	DF	ESP	Moisés Suárez


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
23	MF	GIB	Julio Bado
24	MF	GIB	Jamie Bosio (vice-captain)
26	FW	ESP	Alberto Zapata
28	DF	URU	Nicolás Márquez
35	GK	ESP	José Miguel González
—	GK	GIB	Christian Lopez
—	GK	GIB	Jordan Perez
—	MF	POR	Marco Meireles
—	FW	POR	Miguel Oliveira

Club staff

Position	Name
Club Management
Manager	Paco Luna
Assistant Manager	Javier Sanchez Alfaro
Physical Trainer	Pablo Domingo Fernandez
Goalkeeping Coach	Antonio Notario
Physiotherapist	Gavin Viñales
Team Delegate	Francis Huart
Intermediate Team Coach	Graham Malcolm
Board
President	Adrian Ballestero
Director of Football	Manolo Hierro
Secretary	TBC
Assistant Secretary	Jonathan McNeice
	David Diez Espagne

Achievements

Gibraltar Premier Division (11)
- 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1954, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 2002
Gibraltar Second Division (2)
- 1999, 2015
Rock Cup (4)
- 1947, 1999, 2000, 2001

References

^ PRESIDENTIAL CHANGE Archived 15 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine Gibraltar United F.C. 5 September 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
^ Cryptocurrency and football: the future or too volatile to be trusted? Archived 15 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
^ Gibraltar United in turmoil Football Gibraltar. 31 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
^ Gibraltar United deny reports Archived 31 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine Gibraltar Chronicle on Twitter. 31 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
^ Pay Up or Leave for United Archived 7 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine Football Gibraltar. 7 August 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
^ "gibraltarunitedfc". gibraltarunitedfc. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2020.

[1] PRESIDENTIAL CHANGE Archived 15 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine Gibraltar United F.C. 5 September 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.

[2] Cryptocurrency and football: the future or too volatile to be trusted? Archived 15 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.

[3] Gibraltar United in turmoil Football Gibraltar. 31 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.

[4] Gibraltar United deny reports Archived 31 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine Gibraltar Chronicle on Twitter. 31 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.

[5] Pay Up or Leave for United Archived 7 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine Football Gibraltar. 7 August 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2019.

[6] "gibraltarunitedfc". gibraltarunitedfc. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2020.

[1]

[5]