Visiting team Village FC are from Birmingham UK.
The Club History
The Saturday Afternoon team was formed in 1974 the club attained (Kings Norton) league status in 1975. Their successes include the winning of the V.C.s Shield in 1977, the W.H. Gardner Trophy in 1986 and the Senior Cup in the same year. Village joined the Birmingham A.F.A. (the top level of amateur football in the region) in 1986 and built slowly, reaching the First Division in 1991 and the Premier Division in 1994. Before 2007/8 when the Premier Division was won, in 2000 the club won the Premier Division title in a season that saw only 2 defeats. They have achieved good results against clubs from the semi-professional leagues in both the Birmingham County Junior Cup and the J.W.Hunt Cup (the region’s premier Charity Cup).
The club now has teams also competing in Divisions 1, 2, 4 and 7 of the same league.
Their experience of this better standard of football culminated in the runners-up spot in the Taurus international tournament in 1989, beating Boca Juniors in the semi-finals.
The Sunday team was formed in 1978 and joined the South Birmingham League in 1979. After a slow start, in 1984/5 they were runners-up in the Roy Ashford Shield. They were placed second in the first division in both 1988 and 1989 and were also losing finalists in the Senior Challenge Shield in the 88 season. Success was finally achieved in 1989 when they were convincing winners of the same trophy. In 1991 the Sunday team moved to the more prestigious Festival League.
Throughout its history the club has been renowned for its flamboyant, short-passing style. This has been reinforced by the influence of overseas players. Over the years Village has had players from Algeria, Tunisia, France, Italy, Lesotho, Jamaica, Portugal, Switzerland, New Zealand, Morocco, and Belgium regularly turning out. The current squad features stars from Italy, Holland, Botswana and Uganda as well as all four home countries.
Village F.C. undertook their first European tour in 1983 taking a small squad of 12 to Bonn, West Germany. Despite numerous organisational difficulties, they have toured in each successive year. The number of players joining them has increased on each trip and they confidently expect to take 20-25 players on tour every year.
They have previously visited Denmark (twice), France (four times), Ireland (twice), Spain (three times), Belgium (five times because we love Pierre), Portugal (twice), Italy (four times), the Netherlands, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia. Particular highlights were in Portugal, when they beat a second division side on their beautifully maintained ground, and in Italy where they were privileged to play in a 60,000 seater stadium that had held one leg of the previous years UEFA Cup final. They only attracted 49!
