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Europa Point F.C.

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Europa Point
Full nameEuropa Point Football Club
Nickname(s)A Progressive Club
Founded2014; 10 years ago (2014)
GroundVictoria Stadium, Gibraltar
Capacity2,000
ChairmanPär Magnus Roos
Head coachMartin Falkeborn
LeagueGibraltar Football League
2023–24GFL, 4th
Websitehttp://www.europapointfc.com/

Europa Point F.C. is a professional football club from Gibraltar. The club currently plays in the Gibraltar National League, the top tier of football in Gibraltar.[1] They also participate in the Rock Cup, the territory's primary cup competition.

History

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The club formed in 2014 amidst the growing interest in association football on the territory of Gibraltar. The club held trials specifically aimed at bringing in youth team players that had been released by professional sides in England and Spain with the goal of getting them back into competitive football, with club founder John Gontier having formerly worked with such players while working for League Football Education. Before their maiden season, the club also announced a partnership with Chesterfield in League One, where the English side has first option on any Europa Point player.

After a strong start to the season, including a tight promotion challenge against Gibraltar United, the club narrowly missed out on promotion, finishing third in the league despite having the strongest goalscoring record in the Gibraltar Second Division. Despite missing out on promotion on the final day of the season, the club did end the season with silverware as they beat promoted side Angels 5–3 in a thrilling Gibraltar Division 2 Cup final that went to extra time.

After missing out on promotion in 2014–15, Europa Point were crowned champions of the 2015–16 Gibraltar Second Division[2] after an unbeaten league campaign (W17 D5) and completed the double by retaining the Gibraltar Second Division Cup by beating Bruno's Magpies 3–2 A.E.T in the final. In preparation for the new season in the Premier Division they have signed many players including ex-Norwich City players George Jermy and Tom Walters. However, the players failed to impress and despite substantial changes in playing and coaching staff throughout the season, Europa Point finished bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated.

On 1 November 2017, it was announced that an American consortium headed by Peter Grieve and Corey Woolfolk had purchased a controlling stake in Europa Point. Woolfolk took over as chairman of the club, while John Gontier moved to CEO. On 10 November, Joaquin Rodriguez was announced as the new Head of Commercial and Football Operations. As part of the takeover, Europa Point became a partner club to Bantu Rovers in Zimbabwe.[citation needed] Gontier negotiated to re-take control of the club in early 2019, helping the club to a second-place finish in the league.[3]

In the inaugural season newly formed Gibraltar National League, Europa Point started poorly under former Gibraltar national football team manager Allen Bula. However, the appointment of ex-Leyton Orient boss Ian Hendon in late November 2019 saw a significant upturn in results, only for the season to be voided by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In July 2020, Andrew Pritchard purchased a majority stake in the club, while John Gontier stayed on as minority shareholder. Following the end of the 2020–21 season, Gontier sold his remaining stake in the club to focus on Gibraltar Women's Football League side Gibraltar Wave. In November 2021, former Charlton Athletic player and Kemi City chairman Mark Tivey was announced as the club's new co-owner and technical director.[4] However, this ownership was short lived and in July 2022, a Swedish consortium led by Pär Magnus Roos took over the club.

In July 2023, Swedish coach Dalibor Savić was appointed head coach, with player Ryan McCarthy becoming player-assistant manager. In his first season in charge, aided by a number of high-profile Scandinavian signings such as Johan Andersson, Johannes Ström and former Norway international Thomas Drage, Europa Point secured a top 6 finish in the Gibraltar Football League for the first time in their history.

Seasons

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Season Division League record Rock Cup
P W D L GF GA Pts Pos
2014–15 Second 26 20 3 3 124 20 63 3rd Quarter-finals
2015–16 Second 22 17 5 0 76 79 56 1st ↑ First round
2016–17 Premier 27 2 2 23 13 120 8 10th ↓ Quarter-finals
2017–18 Second 14 7 3 4 31 18 24 4th Second round
2018–19 Second 18 13 0 5 50 26 39 2nd Second round
2019–20[a] National 18 7 4 7 35 38 25 8th Quarter-finals
2020–21 National 18 1 0 17 10 73 3 11th First round
2021–22 National 18 4 2 12 17 65 14 10th Quarter-finals
2022–23 GFL 18 1 4 13 12 65 7 11th First Round
2023–24 GFL 25 10 5 10 32 31 35 4th First Round

Current squad

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First team

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Correct as of 31 August 2024.

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Finland FIN Johannes Ström
2 DF Sweden SWE Martin Falkeborn (captain)
3 DF England ENG Tyler Garratt
4 DF England ENG Sam Nicholson
5 DF Gibraltar GIB Antony Moulds
6 MF Netherlands NED Justino Boldewijn
7 MF Norway NOR Thomas Drage
8 MF Poland POL Aleksay Boguslawski
10 MF Sweden SWE Joel Sundström
11 MF Gibraltar GIB Matthew Plumb
12 FW Gibraltar GIB Adam Gracia
13 GK Sweden SWE Albert Holm (on loan from Linense)
14 FW England ENG Alex Taylor
15 DF Republic of Ireland IRL Erik Oboli
No. Pos. Nation Player
16 FW Gibraltar GIB Sachin Gupta
17 MF Sweden SWE Simon Silverholt
18 MF Sweden SWE Vincent Ericson
19 MF Gibraltar GIB Rafi Emrani
20 MF England ENG Peter Alarms
21 DF Germany GER Giuliano Hill
22 DF Gibraltar GIB Leon Avellano
23 DF Gibraltar GIB Evan Busto
24 FW Gibraltar GIB Javier Martinez
77 GK Gibraltar GIB Jesse Gonzalez
— MF Sweden SWE Nils Karlsson
— MF Gibraltar GIB Karim Mitchell
— MF England ENG Stevie Black
— FW Gibraltar GIB Kelvin Morgan

Club staff

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Position Name
Club Management
Player-Head Coach Sweden Martin Falkeborn
Assistant Coach Spain Roberto Carrasco
Assistant Coach Spain Cristopher Jackson
Physio Gibraltar Gabriel Benatar
Board
Chairman Sweden Pär Magnus Roos
Head of Youth Gibraltar Seamus Byrne

Honours

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Season abandoned due to COVID-19 pandemic. Results not officially recognised.

References

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  1. ^ Moitra, Soumalya (4 November 2016). ""I trained with the Argentinian National team, with the likes of Messi, Aguero, Di Maria" says Indian born Uday Arora". sportskeeda.com. Sportskeeda. Archived from the original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  2. ^ "Gibraltar 2015/16". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 2022-08-30. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  3. ^ Julian Lopez impresses as Europa Point finish second Archived 2019-05-28 at the Wayback Machine Football Gibraltar. 26 May 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  4. ^ Official Statement Archived 2021-11-09 at the Wayback Machine Europa Point FC. 8 November 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  5. ^ Europa Point FC see off Angels FC after Extra Time Gibraltar FA. 20 April 2015 [dead link‍].
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