Sporting Khalsa Football Club are a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club, formed in 1991, members of the , who play their home games at Noose Lane in

Willenhall Willenhall is a market town situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands, England, with a population taken at the 2011 census of 28,480. It is situated between Wolverhampton and Walsall, historically in the county of St ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. Being founded by the local

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

community, they are the first British Asian club to own their own ground, which they bought from Willenhall Town in 2010 after moving from Abbey Park, the former home of Bloxwich Town.

History

The team was founded in 1991 and began playing in the Walsall & District Sunday leagues. They played one season in the

West Midlands (Regional) League The West Midlands (Regional) League is an English association football competition for semi-professional and amateur teams based in the West Midlands county, Shropshire, Worcestershire, southern Staffordshire and northern Herefordshire. It has tw ...

in 1996–97 before leaving after finishing bottom of the league. They later returned in 2004–05 and were promoted after finishing 5th.Sporting Khalsa football history database
/ref> In 2011, Sporting Khalsa were promoted to the Premier Division of the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division. Following this success, they formed an U21s team, which plays in the Midland Combination U2ls league. In terms of their youth setup they have a couple of teams in the Midland Junior Premier League as well. Altogether they have 15 teams from U21s to u7s. The majority of their junior teams play in the Walsall minor league. The links between the first team and junior Khalsa teams are very strong with many junior team players being involved during the first team's games. At the end of the 2012–13 season, Sporting Khalsa redeveloped their ground, changing the size of the pitch, building a new stand, creating new changing rooms and renovating the outside of the pitch and clubhouse. In addition, as part of an ongoing programme of investment at the Aspray Arena, the Black Country Performance Hub was opened, providing state-of-the-art five-a-side facilities and a gymnasium and martial arts space. Following this, in the 2013–14 season guided under the management of Mark Holdcroft, Sporting Khalsa finished in sixth position, their highest finish to date. After this, Holdcroft and Sporting Khalsa decided to part company by mutual consent. Ian Rowe, who had guided Gornal Athletic to the Midland Alliance in the 2011–12 season, was appointed as manager. The 2014–15 season was very successful with Khalsa winning the West Midlands (Regional) League title by 27 points, finishing on a record 117 points and securing promotion to the

Midland Football League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History Th ...

Premier Division in the process. In 2015-16 they reached the fourth qualifying round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

where they lost 3–1 at home to

F.C. United of Manchester Football Club United of Manchester is a semi-professional football club based in Moston, Manchester, England, that competes in the , the seventh tier of the English football league system, and plays home matches at Broadhurst Park. Found ...

, secured third place in their first season in the Midland Football League and won the

JW Hunt Cup The JW Hunt Cup is an annual charity football competition for teams based in the West Midlands area of England. The defending champions are Lye Town, who defeated Boldmere St. Michaels 2–1 in the 2021–22 final. History The JW Hunt Cup w ...

, beating Wolverhampton Sporting C.F.C. in the final at

Molineux Stadium Molineux Stadium ( ) in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, has been the home ground of Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers since 1889. The first stadium built for use by a Football League club, it was one of the first British grounds ...

. Third spot was to be the prize the following season as well, this time behind champions Alvechurch and runners up Coleshill Town. However, there was good news in the FA Vase where Khalsa made it to the quarter-finals before bowing out to fellow Midland Football League side Coleshill. The 2017-18 campaign can perhaps best be described as challenging. With a £1m redevelopment of the Aspray Arena taking place, Khalsa relocated to their neighbours AFC Wulfrunians for six months coinciding with them slipping from top of the league to their final fifth-placed finish. In July 2018, the club officially reopened their Noose Lane ground following a £1m revamp which included the building of new spectator facilities, changing rooms and the installation of a new 5g pitch with a preseason friendly against Hereford FC.

Current squad

Records

: Fourth Qualifying Round 2015–16Midlands Express & Star article
/ref> *

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

: Quarter finals 2016-17 *Record attendance: 2,252 v

, 24 October 2015.

References

External links

* {{coord, 52, 35, 30.804, N, 2, 3, 57.247, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England West Midlands (Regional) League Football clubs in the West Midlands (county) Sport in Walsall 1991 establishments in England Association football clubs established in 1991 Willenhall Diaspora sports clubs in the United Kingdom Northern Premier League clubs Diaspora association football clubs in England