Almere City
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| Full name | Almere City Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Schapenkoppen (Sheepheads), Zwarte Schapen (Black Sheep), Bucks Barmy Army |
| Founded | September 14, 2001 (as FC Omniworld) |
| Ground |
Yanmar Stadion, Almere |
| Capacity | 3,200 |
| Manager | Jack de Gier |
| League | Eerste Divisie |
| 2016–17 | Eerste Divisie, 8th |
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 can trace its history back to 1972, with the merger of DWS, Volewijckers and Blauw-Wit into FC Amsterdam. Disgruntled DWS supporters founded their own club, called 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, the club moved from Amsterdam to nearby Almere and changed its name to Sporting Flevoland.
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 a 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.
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 Royal Dutch Football Association 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 August 12, 2005, against BV Veendam. However, the referee postponed the match shortly before the kick-off was due. 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 (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. FC Omniworld's first league point was achieved a week later, on August 29, 2005, against Go Ahead Eagles (2–2). The club's first victory came on September 16, when Fortuna Sittard was beaten 3–2. In its first season, FC Omniworld finished in 19th place, with 29 points from 38 matches. Forward Sjoerd Ars ended in fifth place of the top scorer ranking, with 17 goals.
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