Almere City FC

Almere City
Full name Almere City Football Club
Nickname(s) Schapenkoppen (Sheepheads), Zwarte Schapen (Black Sheep), Bucks Barmy Army
Founded September 14, 2001 (2001-09-14) (as FC Omniworld)
Ground Yanmar Stadion,
Almere
Ground Capacity 3,200
League Eerste Divisie
2014–15 Eerste Divisie, 10th

Almere City Football Club is a Dutch football club. The club was founded in 2001, and is an expression of the ambitions of the city council of Almere to play an active role in top sports. To that end, a sports club (Omniworld) was formed, which now comprises a volleyball branch, a basketball branch and a football branch. Before the 2010–11 season the club was called FC Omniworld.

History

Almere City can trace its history back to 1972, with the merger of DWS, Volewijckers and Blauw-Wit into FC Amsterdam. Disgruntled DWS supporters founded their own club, called De Zwarte Schapen, named after their nickname, which translates as Black Sheep. The club quickly rose through the ranks of Dutch amateur football, eventually reaching the Hoofdklasse. After several violent incidents on the pitch and a six-month suspension by the Royal Dutch Football Association, the club moved from Amsterdam to nearby Almere and changed its name to Sporting Flevoland.

Club's logo from 2001 to 2010

That name was changed to FC Omniworld in 2001, as a result of the efforts of a consortium (in which the city of Almere was a participant) to bring professional sports to Almere. These plans included a basketball club (BC Omniworld, now defunct), a volleyball club (VC Omniworld, now defunct) and a football club (FC Omniworld). However, when the Leefbaar Almere party became the largest party in the city council in 2002, the community withdrew from the project. This caused the club to fail the criteria for admission to the professional league in 2004.[1]

Private investors were found, and the club managed to meet the first two criteria for admission (among which is a balanced budget) in late 2004 and early 2005. After FC Omniworld's stadium (the 3,000 seater Yanmar Stadion) and pitch were approved by the Royal Dutch Football Association as well, the club met all criteria for admission, and joined the 19 clubs already in the Eerste Divisie. The club's first official match would have been held on August 12, 2005, against BV Veendam. However, the referee postponed the match shortly before the kick-off was due. Heavy rain had made the artificial turf pitch unplayable. The club's professional debut came a week later, in an away match against FC Eindhoven (2–0 defeat). FC Omniworld registered its first official goal a few days later, in a 2–3 home defeat against FC Den Bosch, as Juan Viedma Schenkhuizen scored to make the score 1–2 in the 37th minute. FC Omniworld's first league point was achieved a week later, on August 29, 2005, against Go Ahead Eagles (2–2). The club's first victory came on September 16, when Fortuna Sittard was beaten 3–2. In its first season, FC Omniworld finished in 19th place, with 29 points from 38 matches. Forward Sjoerd Ars ended in fifth place of the top scorer ranking, with 17 goals.[2]

Ars was transferred to Go Ahead Eagles for the 2006–07 season, but the results for Omniworld improved. The club achieved 41 points from 38 matches, finishing the season in 16th place.[3] The 2–7 home match defeat FC Zwolle on the 16th of March 2007 resulted in the then worst defeat in clubs short history.

In March 2010 the club was renamed AFC Almere City[4] before being changed again a few weeks later to Almere City F.C., as the AFC prefix was deemed to be too reminiscent of the club's partners AFC Ajax. In their second game of the 2010–11 season they were defeated 12–1 by Sparta Rotterdam, who equalled Ajax's Dutch league record win,[5] with Johan Voskamp scoring an Jupiler League record 8 goals on his debut.[6]

Results

Eerste Divisie

Current squad

As of 1 September 2015

For recent transfers, see List of Dutch football transfers summer 2015

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

No. Position Player
1 Iran GK Agil Etemadi
2 Netherlands DF Kaj Ramsteijn
3 Bosnia and Herzegovina DF Abdel Metalsi
4 Netherlands DF Lars Nieuwpoort
5 Netherlands DF Paul Quasten
6 Netherlands MF Gilberto da Silva
7 Armenia FW Norair Aslanyan
8 Netherlands MF Ricardo Kip
9 Netherlands FW Sven Braken
10 Netherlands FW Jason Oost (Captain)
11 Netherlands FW Jasper Waalkens
12 Netherlands MF Mitchell Burgzorg
13 Netherlands MF Safan Garden
14 Netherlands DF Dyllan Lanser
15 Netherlands FW Khalid Tadmine
16 Netherlands MF Soufyan Ahannach
No. Position Player
17 Netherlands MF Maarten Davids
18 Netherlands MF Javier Vet
19 Netherlands FW Enzio Boldewijn
20 Netherlands DF Gaston Salasiwa
21 Netherlands GK Roy Pistoor
22 Netherlands GK Mike Grim
23 Netherlands MF Pablo Rosario
24 United States DF Travis Brent
25 Netherlands FW Pelle van Amersfoort (on loan from SC Heerenveen)
26 Netherlands FW Sylvester van der Water
27 Netherlands DF Kees van Buuren
28 Netherlands DF Jorni Camps
29 Netherlands DF Timothy van der Meulen
30 Netherlands FW Ravelino Junte
31 Netherlands DF Bryan Zwart
33 Netherlands FW Daan Ibrahim

References

External links

Coordinates: 52°23′40″N 5°14′26″E / 52.39444°N 5.24056°E / 52.39444; 5.24056

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