Hibernians F.C.

Hibernians

Full name	Hibernians Football Club
Nickname(s)	Hibs Raħal Ġdid (Paola) The Peacocks
Founded	1922
Ground	Hibernians Stadium, Paola, Malta
Capacity	2,968
Chairman	Tony Bezzina
Manager	Stefano Sanderra
League	Maltese Premier League
2018–19	Maltese Premier League, 2nd
Home colours Away colours

Hibernians Football Club is a Maltese professional association football club based in the town of Paola.

History

The club played one season in 1922 as Constitutionals FC, representing the pro-British Constitutional Party.^[1] They started up again in the 1927–28 season and became a top amateur side, winning the Amateur League in 1930–31.^[1]

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Party had upset the Catholic Church so much that, in May 1930, Catholics were told not to vote for the party. The football club changed its name a year later to Hibernians Football Club^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[1]

Hibernians faced a long period of decline followed the success of the 1980s to the end of the decade.^[1] Hibernians have a futsal team, which plays in Malta's top futsal league, the Premier Futsal League.

Stadium

The club's home ground is Hibernians Stadium, a multi-use stadium in Paola, which has a capacity of about 3,000.

Honours

^[2]

• Maltese Premier League

Winners (12): 1960–61, 1966–67, 1968–69, 1978–79, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2001–02, 2008–09, 2014–15, 2016–17

• Maltese FA Trophy

Winners (10): 1961–62, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1997–98, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2011–12, 2012–13

• Maltese Super Cup

Winners (3): 1994, 2007, 2015

Cassar Cup: (2) 1961–1962, 1962–1963

Testaferrata Cup: (3) 1977–1978, 1978–1979, 1980–1981

Independence Cup: (3) 1967–1968, 1968–1969, 1970–1971

Sons of Malta Cup: (3) 1969–1970, 1970–1971, 1971–1972

Olympic Cup: (1) 1962–1963

Schembri Shield: (1) 1961–1962

European Record

Accurate as of 27 August 2020

Legend: GF = Goals For. GA = Goals Against. GD = Goal Difference.

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1961–62	European Cup	Prelim	Servette FC	1–2	0–5	1–7
1967–68	European Cup	1R	Manchester United F.C.	0–0	0–4	0–4
1968–69	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1R	Aris Thessaloniki F.C.	0–6	0–1	0–7
1969–70	European Cup	1R	FC Spartak Trnava	2–2	0–4	2–6
1970–71	European Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Real Madrid C.F.	0–0	0–5	0–5
1971–72	European Cup Winners' Cup	Prelim	FK Austria Wien	4–2	0–2	4–4 (a)
1979–80	European Cup	1R	Dundalk F.C.	1–0	0–2	1–2
1981–82	European Cup	1R	Red Star Belgrade	1–2	1–8	2–10
1982–83	European Cup	1R	Widzew Łódź	1–4	1–3	2–7
1994–95	UEFA Cup	Prelim	FC Dinamo Minsk	4–3 (a.e.t.)	1–3	5–6
1995–96	UEFA Cup	Prelim	FC Chornomorets Odessa	2–5	0–2	2–7
2001	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R	Zagłębie Lubin	1–0	0–4	1–4
2002–03	UEFA Champions League	1Q	Shelbourne F.C.	2–2	1–0	3–2
		2Q	Boavista F.C.	3–3	0–4	3–7
2003	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R	AC Allianssi	1–1	0–1	1–2
2004	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R	NK Slaven Belupo	2–1	0–3	2–4
2005–06	UEFA Cup	1Q	AC Omonia	0–3	0–3	0–6
2006–07	UEFA Cup	1Q	FC Dinamo București	0–4	1–5	1–9
2007–08	UEFA Cup	1Q	FK Vojvodina	0–2	1–5	1–7
2008	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R	ND Gorica	0–3	0–0	0–3
2009–10	UEFA Champions League	1Q	FK Mogren	0–2	0–4	0–6
2012–13	UEFA Europa League	1Q	FK Sarajevo	4–4	2–5	6–9
2013–14	UEFA Europa League	1Q	FK Vojvodina	1–4	2–3	3–7
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	1Q	FC Spartak Trnava	2–4	0–5	2–9
2015–16	UEFA Champions League	2Q	Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C.	2–1	1–5	3–6
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	1Q	FC Spartak Trnava	0–3	0–3	0–6
2017–18	UEFA Champions League	1Q	FCI Tallinn	2–0	1–0	3–0
		2Q	FC Red Bull Salzburg	0–3	0–3	0–6
2019–20	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Shakhtyor Soligorsk	0–1	0–1	0–2
2020–21	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Vaduz	N/A	2–0	N/A
		2Q	Fehérvár	0–1	N/A	N/A

Players

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.

Current squad

As of 26 August 2020

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK MLT Matthew Calleja 2 DF MLT Timothy Desira 3 DF MLT Ferdinando Apap 4 DF BRA Leandro Almeida 5 DF MLT Matthew Ellul 6 MF NGA Edafe Uzeh 7 MF MLT Ayrton Attard 8 MF MLT Jake Grech 9 FW TRI Rundell Winchester 10 FW MLT Jurgen Degabriele 11 MF MLT Bjorn Kristensen 12 MF MLT Dunstan Vella

No. Pos. Nation Player 13 DF MLT Zachary Grech 14 DF MLT Connor Zammit 15 MF MLT Rudy Cassar Jeffries 17 MF MLT Kane Bonello 18 DF ESP Gabri Izquier 19 FW NGA Shola Shodiya 20 DF MLT Andrei Agius 23 FW BRA Wilkson 24 GK MLT Rudi Briffa 30 MF MLT David Xuereb 61 GK MLT Ryan Vella 77 MF MLT Matthew Farrugia

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Managers

• Robert Gatt (30 June 1998 – 8 July 2007)
• Edmond Lufi (2007 – 8 September 2008)
• Mark Miller (1 July 2008 – 2012)
• Michael Woods (13 June 2012 – 2013)
• Branko Nišević (30 May 2013 – 2016)
• Mark Miller (2016 – 5 March 2018)
• Mario Muscat (5 March 2018 – 4 July 2018)
• Stefano Sanderra (4 July 2018 –)

Women's team

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 being won in 2016.^[3]

See also

• Hibernians Basketball Club

References

External links

• Official website