Meet Our Opponents: Sporting Fingal FC

(first published in the August 2009 Sporting Fingal match programme)

Sporting Fingal Football Club was founded in 2007 and officially launched on 11 February 2008. They currently play at the Morton Stadium, Santry, but plan on moving to a state of the art new development at Lusk, with indoor and outdoor facilities, it is hoped by Summer 2011. Originally the club was expected to play its first full season in the new FAI A League, however circumstances saw them offered the place of Kilkenny City in the First Division, with the Cats moving instead to provincial league competition.

Fingal began their first ever season away to the previous year’s FAI Cup finalists Longford Town, and ended it away to Wexford Youths – another newly formed Eircom League side – and they managed a creditable third place finish, pipping the Blues on the last day. They went out in the first round of the eircom League Cup to  Shelbourne on penalties, but had a decent tilt at the FAI Ford Cup, eventually losing out to St Pat’s at the quarter final stage.

The concept for the club was effectively created by Fingal County Council as part of a long-term development plan for soccer in the area. Placing a team in the League of Ireland was always the ultimate goal, while in the early years a concentration on the grassroots and the building of a soccer academy to the north of Swords would be the first steps. However, the plan was accelerated by at least a couple of years with the sad demise of Kilkenny City from league status giving Sporting Fingal the opportunity to apply for membership.

While there are 60-odd soccer clubs in the Fingal area, the progression of players to higher levels tends to be outside the area and the potential for a locally based semi-professional team is stronger than many other towns in Ireland because Fingal’s current population is around one-quarter of a million. The Council sought commercial backers for the club, however they had to be willing to accept that the club would be run on a non-profit basis for a number of years while it establishes itself. The consortium of backers are Twinlite Developments (a property development company), Keelings (a fruit and vegetable distributor), and Anglo Irish Bank Corporation PLC.

This season, Fingal again are at the sharp end of the table, vying for promotion with oursleves, Shelbourne and UCD. In addition they have had good runs in both Cup competitions this year. In the EA Sports Cup they beat Monaghan United and Drogheda United away before losing at home to Sligo Rovers in the quarter finals, and, like the Blues, they are still in the FAI Ford Cup at the quarter final stage.

Club Honours:
FAI Ford Cup: Quarter-Finals 2008, 2009
EA Sports Cup: Quarter-Finals 2009
League of Ireland Div 1: 3rd place in 1st season 2008