Bendigo City FC
 | This article needs to be updated. (February 2015) |
 | |
| Full name | Bendigo City Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Towners, B-Town, City |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Ground | Epsom Soccer Complex |
| Captain | Ronaldo Yousef |
| Chairman | Brock Rogers |
| Coach | Jose Montana Santamarta |
| League | NPL2 |
| Website | Club website |
Bendigo City FC is a semi-professional football club based in Bendigo, Australia.
History
The Club was established as FC Bendigo in 2014[1] as part of the newly formed National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL) competition, and then reformed as Bendigo City FC the following year.[2] FC Bendigo's licence was held by Bendigo Amateur Soccer League (BASL) while the new entity is backed by Bendigo Bank and the Bendigo City Council.
On the pitch, Bendigo had a solid first season in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 1. The Club finished 11th in the 14 team competition with 9 wins, 4 draws and 13 losses. Bendigo grabbed a memorable win against the eventually promoted North Geelong Warriors FC on the 3rd of May, 2014, when the Towners beat the Lara-based outfit by three goals to two at Elcho Park.
In July 2015, Bendigo City FC's committee resigned after disagreements with parents and members regarding a re-structure of the Club's finances, including the change of technical director Fob Soncin's role from full time to part time.[3] The committee was then reinstated 48 hours later at an Extraordinary General Meeting.[4]
The reformed Bendigo City FC, a more community-focused club than the previous FC Bendigo consortium, based their senior squad on local players rather than bringing in established players from Melbourne. Unfortunately for Bendigo, this resulted in a largely difficult campaign in the 2015 National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 West season, managing only six wins and seven draws from 28 games to finish second bottom of the league.[5]
One round into the 2016 NPL2 season, City head coach Esteban Quintas quit his post to return to his native home of Spain.[6] Bendigo's season slumped, earning just one win in the opening eight rounds and enduring heavy 2-7 and 1-7 defeats to North Geelong Warriors FC and Moreland Zebras FC respectively in Rounds 7 and 8 of the season, the latter their greatest ever defeat in their short life as a club.[7] After another heavy loss, this time a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Ballarat Red Devils, Bendigo City FC announced that Jose Montana Santamarta had been appointed as the club's new senior head coach, assisted by conditioning coach Alenjandro Montano Garcia.
Current squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
|
References
- ^ "FC Bendigo is born". Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^ Moran, Shaun. "Bendigo NPL Licence transfer finalised". MFootball. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
- ^ Bourke, Adam. "Bendigo City FC committee quits". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
- ^ Bourke, Adam. "Bendigo City backflip". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
- ^ http://www.foxsportspulse.com/comp_info.cgi?a=LADDER&compID=337121&c=1-10178-0-0-0
- ^ "Bendigo City FC coach quits after one game". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
- ^ "Zebras' masterclass sinks Bendigo City". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
External links
- http://www.fcbendigo.com.au/ FC Bendigo Official Site