Another blow to youth football as Calpe City will cease to exist

Gibraltar sports on Thursday woke up to the sad news of the demise of youth development club Calpe City. The club which had been formed following the demise of Gibraltar United in order to safeguard the latter’s youth players and provide a platform for players to continue with their development had played under an exemption provided by the Gibraltar FA in the youth league up until last season. Following the continued blocking of their membership by Gibraltar football clubs from entering as a member into the Gibraltar FA membership ranks the club was forced to enter into an agreement with Europa Point at the start of this season to continue its work. However, this Thursday morning the club founders were forced to announce the closure of its club at the end of the season following a dispute over the agreed terms.
In a statement issued by the club it alleged, “It is with great sadness that we announce that Calpe City will close its doors at the end of next month.
“We applied for Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) Membership, which was rejected by all members except Lincoln Red Imps and Mons Calpe FC on the 8th February 2022. We were promised a youth license as agreed at the 2022 General Assembly, but this was never forthcoming.
“5.2 of the GFA Youth Rules allows for the ‘GFA Youth Development Team, in exceptional circumstances, accept an independent Team not registered under any Club, to participate in a GFA Youth Competition if its participation is considered to be of a development nature.’ Unfortunately, this rule, together with the approved youth license, was not forthcoming either for Season 23/24, as GFA members (except Lincoln Red Imps) did not accept us playing football as Calpe City.
“In the summer of 2023, we received correspondence from the GFA which confirmed we would not be provided with a youth licence, and we had to integrate with another Club. Hence, at the end of August 2023 we had no alternative but to join Europa Point FC who did not have any youth teams. We subsequently signed a Head of terms and frustratingly, the obligations under these Head of Terms have not been met by Europa Point. For that reason, we have had to terminate such agreement. Regrettably, this now leaves us with no viable alternative and the very hard decision to close our doors at the end of the season.
“Not allowing us to play as Calpe City in our right, goes against FIFA and UEFA policy. It goes against the GFA’s Strategy (2021-2025) of participation, inclusion, and growth. After all, wasn’t FIFA and UEFA membership supposed to ENHANCE, ENCOURAGE, AND SUPPORT? Not the opposite.
“The one to lose out will be the circa 100 young people that form part of our football academy, because what we have done for the last 5 years, is to provide an outstanding and exemplary development programme for our youth. From international tournaments including Manchester Cup, Youth Super Cup, Boni Cups both in Algarve and Almeria, professional nutrition courses, a development tour to FC Barcelona, professional football camps, tournaments throughout the Cadiz and Malaga provinces, involving young people in charity and community work, amongst many other projects. In less than 5 years, we have done this very successfully, and at NO EXPENSE to the GFA. Our voluntary work speaks for itself, and we are very proud of it.
“As we close our doors in the next coming weeks, we take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors, anonymous doners, parents, players, voluntary committee, voluntary coaches, family, and friends, who have believed in this project and supported us every step of the way since its inception.
“We wish the GFA all the very best, in its endeavours.”
The letter announcing the closure signed by Calpe City president Seamus Byrne and Secretary Jonathan Golding.
The announcement was to receive immediate reaction across some sectors of Gibraltar sport including comments in social media supporting the club and calling on action from the Gibraltar FA to intervene from former Gibraltar FA Integrity Officer Louis Wink and Gibraltar FA goalkeeper coach Daniel Wink. There was also public reaction from Gibraltar Cricket via its official Facebook page “Gibraltar Cricket stands behind Calpe City SC and hopes that the GFA change their minds and allow the club and its members to continue the good work they have done over the last 5 years. Having youth in sport is not only important for our youth but for the future development of any sport.
Should any of the Calpe City players want to take up cricket we will welcome with open arms into our family.”
The announcement of the closure comes at a time when Gibraltar football observers have cast doubts over the present voting system which provides clubs with a defacto way of blocking any other entities from joining. This including any potential request by any of the clubs whose sanctions will expire this year and who might wish to resume participating in Gibraltar football.
The present constitution providing the present eleven football clubs playing in the Gibraltar National League what some have described as a “monopoly” whilst they hold the main stakeholders voting rights on new members joining. Whilst proposals to change the constitution have been discussed in recent years this have yet to materialise, with concerns that even these new proposals could be rejected due to the present structure.
Calpe City’s closure also effectively closes the doors at the end of the season for Europa Point who would need to recruit players into its own club to continue having youth teams. Participation in European competitions requires clubs to have a youth development programme with youth teams within its ranks in order to firstly fulfil Gibraltar FA licencing criteria and also UEFA requirements for licencing.