Almere City FC

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.

Almere City
Full nameAlmere City Football Club
Nickname(s)De Zwarte Schapen ( The Black Sheep), ALLY
Founded14 September 2001 (2001-09-14) (as FC Omniworld)
GroundYanmar Stadion,
Almere
Capacity4,501
ManagerOle Tobiasen
LeagueEerste Divisie
2018–19Eerste Divisie, 7th
WebsiteClub website

History

Almere City can trace its history back to 1976, with the merger of DWS, Volewijckers and Blauw-Wit into FC Amsterdam. Disgruntled DWS supporters founded their own club, 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 (KNVB), 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 the 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 KNVB 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 12 August 2005 against BV Veendam. However, the referee postponed the match shortly before the kick-off because 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, a 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. Omniworld's first league point was achieved a week later, on 29 August against Go Ahead Eagles (2–2). The club's first victory came on 16 September, when Fortuna Sittard were defeated 3–2. In its first season, Omniworld finished in 19th place with 29 points from 38 matches. Forward Sjoerd Ars ended in fifth place in the top goalscorer 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 FC, as the "AFC" prefix was deemed to be too reminiscent of the club's partners AFC Ajax. In their second match 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 a Jupiler League record eight goals on his debut.[6]

In August 2019, the club announced plans of building a new grandstand and a club office building.[7] The grandstand was completed during the 2020 winter break and has increased the capacity of the stadium from around 3,000 to 4,501 spectators.[8]

Results
Eerste Divisie

Club Name
  • De Zwarte Schapen (1959–1978)
  • Argonaut-Zwarte Schapen (1978–1988)
  • FC De Sloterplas (1988–1992)
  • Sporting Flevoland (1996–2001)
  • FC Omniworld (2001–2010)
  • AFC Almere City (2010)
  • Almere City FC (2010–present)

Current squad
As of 8 January 2020

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

No. Position Player
1 GK Agil Etemadi
2 DF Bram van Vlerken
3 DF Joedrick Pupe
4 DF Radinio Balker
5 DF Delvechio Blackson
6 MF Tim Receveur (captain)
7 MF Anass Ahannach
8 MF Niek Vossebelt
9 FW Thomas Verheydt
10 MF Ricardo Kip
11 FW Jergé Hoefdraad
12 DF Ruggero Mannes
13 DF Bart Meijers
14 DF Damon Mirani
15 DF Dico Koppers
No. Position Player
16 DF Nicky van Hilten
17 FW Anwar Bensabouh
18 FW Ilias Alhaft
19 FW Torino Hunte
20 FW Kenneth Aninkora
21 GK Timo Plattel
23 MF Sam Krant
24 MF Mees Kaandorp
25 FW Nick Venema (on loan from FC Utrecht)
26 MF Jelle Goselink
27 MF Youri Loen
28 FW Shayon Harrison
29 FW Ruud Boymans
30 FW James Efmorfidis
39 DF Amir Absalem (on loan from FC Groningen)

References
  1. TOF-begroting: middenmoot Jupiler League Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Jupiler League teampagina Archived 2010-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
  3. FC Omniworld verder als AFC Almere City – Sport Regionaal Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "FC Omniworld gaat verder als Almere City (in Dutch)". VoetbalPrimeur. 19 March 2010.
  5. Sparta evenaart record Ajax en Heracles – De Telegraaf (in Dutch)
  6. Acht treffers bij debuut – De Telegraaf (in Dutch)
  7. "Eerste impressie van vernieuwd Yanmar Stadion". Almerecity.nl. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  8. "No place like home: Stadium Warming Party!". Almerecity.nl. Retrieved 17 January 2020.

Former players

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