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FC Isle of Man


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That's right, I'm actually doing this.

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From the start of next season, my home, the Isle of Man will enter a club side into the English football pyramid. This is quite exciting for me as someone who has never had a "local team". Of course, as an Everton fan of many years, I'm not just going to fall out of club with "my" team and hop onto this new bandwagon, but I will become at the very least a casual follower of FC Isle of Man.

The island has always had their "international" team made up of the best squad of local Sunday League players, who return to their club sides during the regular season. This is separate to that, and while the club's initial playing staff will be made up of pretty much the same players who will transfer properly to FC Isle of Man, in the long term they could sign players from anywhere in the world like any other club.

The club will start next season in the 10th tier of the English football pyramid, joining the "phoenix" club Bury AFC in the First Division North section of the North West Counties Football League. This thread may become, at best, a poorly-maintained chronicle of their progress through the divisions that is only really interesting to me, or I might never post in it again, but I would like to keep it updated as a case study in what it's like for a brand new football club to enter the pyramid. I personally think they'll be pretty competitive during their first few seasons with the best players from a population of 80,000 to pick from.

If nothing else, it's a good idea for a Football Manager save next time I get an updated version of the game.

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Where will they play their home games? As in, do they have a ground?

Good luck to them. You never know, they may get lucky in the Cup sooner than you think, have a little run and get a well known League club.

I think it's refreshing to see Football at that level. I used to watch Eastleigh a lot and it was basically a patch of grass with boards all round and one tiny stand. Now they are in the conference, flirted with promotion a few times and have a lovely ground too.

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25 minutes ago, Lucas said:

Where will they play their home games? As in, do they have a ground?

Good luck to them. You never know, they may get lucky in the Cup sooner than you think, have a little run and get a well known League club.

I think it's refreshing to see Football at that level. I used to watch Eastleigh a lot and it was basically a patch of grass with boards all round and one tiny stand. Now they are in the conference, flirted with promotion a few times and have a lovely ground too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bowl_(Douglas)

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7 hours ago, Smiley Culture said:

I take it, that it’s a local millionaire financing them and quite possibly the clubs who are in their league to fly to the Isle of Man? 

No it's all grassroots stuff, lads playing as amateurs, all locals to start with. I don't know whether they're getting some financial support for the travel over to England every 2 weeks but no millionaires involved to my knowledge. 

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On 15/08/2020 at 13:36, RandoEFC said:

The team play their first friendly tonight against Guernsey FC. Tickets are sold out for The Bowl which has a capacity of 3000. That's not a bad turnout for a friendly match for a 10th tier club!

As in there was actually a full crowd inside the ground?

That's very refreshing if nothing else, although has COVID ever actually made it to the Isle of Man?

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6 hours ago, Dan said:

As in there was actually a full crowd inside the ground?

That's very refreshing if nothing else, although has COVID ever actually made it to the Isle of Man?

We had it for a while, but closed the borders completely. Things went back to normal, schools reopened and everything about 2 months ago.

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FC Isle of Man visited Guernsey at the weekend for the Skipton Cup which is supposed to become an annual event between the two sides to celebrate the relationship between the two islands, having eliminated Covid 19 and created an air bridge to allow residents to get away for a summer holiday without quarantining on return.

The game ended 1-1 and Guernsey won on penalties.

Sadly, a couple of days later, Guernsey announced that due to the ongoing border restrictions, they would be unable to fulfil their place in the English football pyramid this season, I think they're in tier 8 or so.

FC Isle of Man has already had to forfeit their FA Vase tie against AFC Liverpool due to our border restrictions making it impossible to fulfil the fixture. Unfortunately the Manx government was not willing to make an exception for the team to travel to and from the island for sporting events. Sadly, this means that FC Isle of Man will almost certainly have to make a similar announcement to Guernsey and forfeit their place in the Northern Counties league for 2020-21. Horrible timing with the pandemic coinciding with the creation of the club, it looks like the dream is probably on hold until next season, but no confirmation yet.

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In all seriousness that is pretty shit, for both yourselves and Guernsey. Especially when other teams are travelling abroad for European games and you can't even complete league games :( 

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It's been coming for months but FC Isle of Man have now suspended their membership of the North West Counties League for this season, with the guarantee they'll be readmitted for the next one. 

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Been meaning to update this thread for a while.

FC IOM ended up having to defer their entry to the NWC Division due to ongoing border restrictions on the island. The team entered the league this season but have had to play exclusively away from home while the Manx government continued to relax border rules regarding testing, proof of vaccination, etc. making it unfeasible for a team from England to visit for a football match.

UNTIL TONIGHT,  when the Isle of Man's stadium "The Bowl" hosted the first association football match on the island. FC Isle of Man came from behind to beat Brocton 2-1 in their first ever home league game.

The table isn't looking too bad for the team's first season considering there are 18 home games and 5 away games left to play. A mixed start to the season was followed up with a run of 8 unbeaten games including 7 wins, all away from home, which was only ended by Cheadle Town on Wednesday. Could have a decent run at the top few spots if the home form is strong as well. I haven't bothered figuring out yet what the promotion/playoffs situation is like but there has always been cautious optimism locally that the team can do quite well and climb a few rungs of the ladder in the first few years.

 

I didn't actually go tonight but the match had an attendance of just over 2000 which isn't too far off the lower end of some of the attendances you get in League Two and is even higher than the attendance at Salford vs Exeter this afternoon.

Anyway, thought some of you would appreciate the update.

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