Full name | Hibernians Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Hibs Raħal Ġdid (Paola) Peacocks |
Founded | 1922 |
Ground |
Hibernians Stadium, Paola, Malta |
Capacity | 2,968 |
Chairman | Tony Bezzina |
Manager | Mark Miller |
League | Maltese Premier League |
2015–16 | Maltese Premier League, 2nd |
Website | www |
Hibernians Football Club is a Maltese association football club based in the town of Paola.
The club played one season in 1922 as Constitutionals FC, representing the pro-British Constitutional Party. They started up again in the 1927–28 season and became a top amateur side, winning the Amateur League in 1930–31. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Party had upset the Catholic Church so much that in May 1930 it was made a mortal sin for Catholics to vote for the party. The football club changed its name a year later to Hibernians Football Club as a nod to Hibernian, the club founded by Irish Catholics in Edinburgh. They won their first match as Hibernians 2–1, against HMS Antelope in October 1931. They had to wait for a place to become available in the professional league, but in January 1933 they joined the league with a 3–1 victory over Sliema Rangers. They have stayed in the top division ever since.
Hibernians faced a long period of decline followed the success of the 1980s to the end of the decade. Hibernians also have a futsal team, which plays in Malta's top futsal league, the Premier Futsal League.
The club's home ground is Hibernians Stadium, a multi-use stadium in Paola, which has a capacity of about 4,000.
Maltese teams are limited to eight players without Maltese citizenship. The squad list includes only the principal nationality of each player; several non-European players on the squad have dual citizenship with an EU country.
As of 11 July 2015.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
A women's team plays in the Women's Maltese First Division. The team is the national record champion with twelve titles. The most recent one was won in 2016.