The Union Football Club Manila or Union Internacional Manila F.C. is a Filipino

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 based in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. It was established in 1996 as a recreational football club associated with Spanish firm

Unión Fenosa ''Unión Fenosa, S.A.'' was, until its acquisition by ''Gas Natural'' in 2009, a large Spanish company dedicated to the production and distribution of gas and electricity. It installed capacity of 11,120 megawatts of power and 8.9 million custome ...

. The club played at the United Football League (UFL). The club made its first appearance in the first season of the UFL in 2010 in the first division. The club played in the second division from the 2011 to 2013 seasons.

History

Union International Manila was established in 1996. Its foundation is associated with the Spanish company

which brought in consultants from Spain and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

to he Philippines. Initially, the club's players held informal football matches at the Jolly Field, a baseball venue inside

Meralco The Manila Electric Company (), also known as Meralco (, ), is an electric power distribution company in the Philippines. It is Metro Manila's only electric power distributor and holds the power distribution franchise for 22 cities and 89 munic ...

's compound. The first "official" match of the club under the "Unión Fenosa" name was in 1997 against the Philippine women's national team. The club was led by head coach Venezuelan Jose Lupo in that match. Unión Fenosa continued to organize games at the Jolly Field and joined various football tournaments including futsal, 7-a-side, a beach soccer competitions. The club renamed themselves as Union F.C. by September 2000 when it joined the Ateneo Football Tournament due to most of its players not being affiliated with Unión Fenosa by that time. Lupo left for Spain in 2003 with Uruguayan Esteban Alonso succeeding him as head coach and manager. Alonso left in December 2005 who was succeeded by Dominic Samson, who became Union's first Filipino coach. Under Samson's watch, the club was reinforced by several Filipino players and led Union in the UFL Championships in 2006 and 2007. In 2009, Rafael Rodriguez took over as coach. Union joined the semi-professional United Football League in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

finishing third in the league table. Despite their finish, they self relegated to the second division for the 2011 season. They played in the UFL Division 2 until the 2013 season.

Records

;Key *Tms. = Number of teams *Pos. = Position in league *TBD = To be determined *DNQ = Did not qualify Note: Performances of the club indicated here was after the UFL Division 1 created (as a semi-pro league) in 2009.

Honors

*Terry Razon Copa Filipina :''Winners (1):'' 2006 * UFL Division 1 :''Champions (2):'' 2006, 2007 :''Third Place (1):''

UFL Division 2 The United Football League Division 2, often referred to as UFL Division 2 or UFL 2, was the second-tier association football league in the Philippines. During its existence, it is the second-highest division of football in the Philippines after ...

:''Runners-up (1):''

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 ...

References

{{Filipino Premier League Association football clubs established in 1996 Football clubs in the Philippines 1996 establishments in the Philippines Sports teams in Metro Manila es:Union FC