St Joseph's Football Club, created in 1912, is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. It currently plays in the

Gibraltar Football League The Gibraltar Football League is the only senior tier of association football in Gibraltar, founded in 2019 as the Gibraltar National League after a merger of the Gibraltar Premier Division, which served as the top division of football on the R ...

. The club also has two Futsal teams and more than 10 youth teams. In 2013, they established links as a feeder club to

Real Balompédica Linense Real Balompédica Linense is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in La Línea de la Concepción, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1912 it plays in Primera División RFEF, Primera División RFEF – ...

. The club was granted an official UEFA licence in 2015.

History

Formed in 1912, St Joseph's are Gibraltar's oldest still existing football club, with the next oldest, Manchester 62, formed 50 years later. They have consistently competed in the

Gibraltar Premier Division The Gibraltar Premier Division was a football league established by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) in 1905, and the top tier of football in Gibraltar. It originally contained eight member clubs, but it has grown over the years. In 19 ...

in that time. However, they have only won the title once: in the 1995–96 season. They have seen considerably better fortunes in the

Rock Cup The Rock Cup is Gibraltar's premier cup association football, football competition, and is organised annually by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA). From 1894/95 Gibraltar's Cup Competition was known as "The Senior Merchant's Cup". In 1935 ...

, however, with 10 titles in their history, including a league and cup double in 1996. Their last Rock Cup triumph came in 2013. Since Gibraltar became a member of

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

, the Saints have seen more mixed fortunes, including narrowly avoiding relegation in the 2013–14 season, ending up in the relegation play-off and narrowly beating

Mons Calpe The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabel-al-Tariq) is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British territory of Gibraltar, near the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and near the entrance to the Mediterr ...

to retain their Premier Division status. Since that near miss, they have consistently finished in the top half of the league, and in 2017 qualified for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

for the first time with a 3rd-place finish, after Gibraltar had been given an additional spot in the competition. However, their maiden campaign would be short-lived as they suffered a resounding 10-0 aggregate defeat to

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λεμεσού, translation=Athletic Union of Limassol) commonly known as AEL, is a Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL also maintain ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

. In August, the club were hit when two players, club captain Esteban Montes and Alberto Montaño, were imposed with five and three year bans from football in Gibraltar, respectively, for breaching rules on betting. Both players were immediately released from the club. The club quickly established themselves at one of the "Big Three" of Gibraltarian football in the UEFA era before running into financial difficulties in early 2022. As a result of this, in June that year, former

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

owner and chairman Mike Garlick purchased the club, with Weymouth owner Mark Palmer also joining the board.

Achievements

: 1 :: 1995–96 * Rock Cup Titles: 10 :: 1956, 1979, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1992, 1996, 2012,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Pepe Reyes Cup The Pepe Reyes Cup is the Gibraltarian football super cup, contested by the winners of the Gibraltar Football League and the Rock Cup at the Victoria Stadium. In the event that a team wins both the GFL and the Rock Cup, the GFL runners up will fa ...

: 1 :: 2013 *

Gibraltar Women's Football League The Gibraltar Women's Football League is the top level amateur women's football championship of Gibraltar. Due to the lack of resources available for women's football, the league has been contested by five teams since 2021, and the league is treat ...

: 1 :: 2007

Current squad

First team

St Joseph's – Squad
UEFA.com. Retrieved 5 July 2022.

Intermediate team

European record

:''Accurate as of match played 28 July 2022'' Legend: GF = Goals For. GA = Goals Against. GD = Goal Difference. ;Notes * PR: Preliminary round * 1Q: First qualifying round

References

External links

* {{Football in Gibraltar Football clubs in Gibraltar Gibraltar National League clubs 1912 establishments in Gibraltar Association football clubs established in 1912