Gibraltar - A Country On The Rise

Thanks to all the guys who replied to my previous thread which unfortunately ran into an error. However after seeing everyone responding wanting to see me build up a nation. I'm more than happy with this ambitious and ludicrous idea and probably taken on one of, if not, the hardest one going. I'd appreciate your support and kind comments oce again throughout.

"Football in Gibraltar is a popular sport. Football has a strong tradition in Gibraltar, having first been introduced by British military personnel in the 19th century. In 1895 the Gibraltar Football Association was founded, making it one of the ten oldest active football associations in the world."

"In the 13 May 2016, Gibraltar was granted FIFA membership so they can enter for the World Cup. They were placed in Group H along with Belgium, Bosnia, Greece, Estonia, Cyprus. The first game Gibraltar will play is on the 6 September 2016 at home to Greece."

"The Gibraltar national team play their matches, as do most of the clubs in the territory, at the 5,000 capacity FIFA approved and licensed Victoria Stadium."

Within Gibraltar there are two football leagues, the Premier League and the Second Division with nineteen teams split between the two sides. This leaves a ten team Premier Division and a nine team Second Division with one or two clubs able to win promotion/slip to relegation each season.


Here are the two leagues that are playable in Gibraltar. The Premier Division has been dominated by Lincoln (GIB) over the last fourteen years, winning all fourteen league titles. The Premier Division is currently ranked as the two hundred and twenty first 'best league' in the World to date. The long aim of the save is to gain some recognition for the league. The Second Division has no relegation zone but full of Semi Professional and amateur football clubs. The Second Division is ranked twenty six places lower than the Premier Division in two hundred and forty seventh.

Along with the two league divisions, there are three cup competitions within the playable divisions in Gibraltar. The Rock Cup sees all nineteen clubs go head to head with each other in a straight knockout competition, this is ranked one hundred and twelfth in the competition rankings. The Pepe Reyes Cup is the equivalent to the Community Shield etc and is played out over a one legged final between the Premier Division winners and the Rock Cup winners, ranked one hundred and ninety ninth in the world rankings. Whilst finally the Division Two League Cup is as it says, a competition for only Division 2 teams and played out between nine teams. Ranked the lowest in the world at two hundred and first.

Now my aim is to turn a current Second Division side into not only Gibraltar Premier Division champions, but also eventually forcing a way into Europe, making a team to compete with the best. IF I do manage this, I'll eventually resign and rinse and repeat, doing it all over again. Whilst trying to improve the leagues reputation over the years. With the National team also in my future prospects. I'm in this for the long run.



Next Update: Meet The Manager & Club Unveiling

As per usual I'll be following @Dan and I'd be expecting an epic career.

And as always, I thank ye for that @Shedender, not sure why I always set myself such high standards.

Getting straight into it, no messing around about this as it'll be another very tough job to do if I am to get anywhere near my expectations. But you've got to be ambitious to succeed and create a really good story these days. Hopefully I can keep everyone reading this interested. I'll show a quick overview of the database I have loaded and then move into the man taking on such a silly challenge and the first team I plan to take on to glory.


First things first, the database I'm using. I downloaded the Gibraltar league from the Official SI on the Steam Workshop. I'd recommend that one, its the one I always go for each year. Gibraltar is the only playable nation I've loaded and of course I've loaded both tiers in the country. Then there are fifteen countries loaded on view only with every tier from these countries viewable so I can keep a close eye on whats happening around the world and hopefully bring in some bigger reputation players over the years. The database has 8,740 players loaded and will be playable for 1st July 2016, early pre season in Gibraltar.


The manager is the same as always, 'Dan' will take on the challenge at the age of twenty four years old. Born in the South West he some how has become part Gibraltan as well as main nationality as English. Along the way only picking up a Sunday League experience for past football history whilst never starting a coaching course to date, but I'm sure the clubs will eventually fund this. I'm a 'tactical' manager and that shows in my stats, apparently.


'Gib Phoenix' are the first team I have taken over to conquer Gibraltar and with any luck the world, one day. As you can see at the top they are predicted to win the First Division, but I believe its more of a free for all first season and anyone could finish anywhere. They are a 'Semi Professional' football club, something I'd look to change as soon as the board agree, the sooner we can go professional the better. The chairman loves the club which is valued at just three and a half thousand pounds. As stated earlier, we and every other club here play at Victoria Stadium, a two thousand two hundre and twenty six all-seater stadium whilst having poor training facilities and basic youth facilities. Financially the club are probably as expected an overall club balance of one thousand one hundred and seventy four pounds. No transfer budget and a wage budget of two thousand one hundred and sixty seven pounds. Leaving us just two hundred and twenty pounds currently spare.


The squad and staff here are limited, very limited shall I say. The squad currently compromises of eighteen players with nationalities varying from Gibraltar and Spain mainly, with Northern Ireland and Columbia both having one player in the squad each too. I can't get reports on how good these players are as of yet, as my staffing room currently is a shed with just myself and the chairman, my boss, Nichoas Gaiviso here. I'll need to recruit through the summer to build that dynasty!

Next Update: Pre Season Round Up -

Looking forward to this career Dan! I'll be following. May try a similar save and my current one has just done the same thing as before :/

I highly doubt David Gallardo is really Northern Irish.


Stay out of Northern Ireland.

I had internet issues all day yesterday so was unable to reply to your questions. I personally liked the Bradford idea, but this one is still just as interesting. Best of luck with Gibraltar Phoenix!

I'm expecting this series a lot.

Ah its a weird bug thats for sure @tongey be interesting to see others try this in different countries.

Oh I'm sure he is @Shedender , no one would lie about coming from there!!

Ah thanks @r96Skinner, for me it was a toss up between the two options but this'll be fun for sure.

We'll see what happens @Hornets26

I think it was fair to say I had taken on another unbelievably hard task for this Football Manager 2017 series but that wasn't going to stop me, I definitely felt it was achieveable should I be able to smash out enough seasons and the good thing is, the seasons are short here in Gibraltar so should fly through. The club. GIB Phoenix also needed a lot of work doing with new players needed, any staff needed and friendlies to be played before the competitive season would begin in just over two months time. Here is the usual, quick round up of how things went this summer.


We'll start the summer round up with any news I feel was important to show you that had popped up. First things first, I was granted permission to go and study my National C Licence, meaning I'm already on the ladder to improving my manager. Secondly I asked the board for a parent club, this didn't happen which annoyed me a little, but I was expecting it. It'll be something I will constantly be asking the board. And thirdly the squad win bonuses this season have stayed at 'low' for both the league and domestic cups, I don't want to be splashing out too much money.


A quick overview of finances and the transfer window for the league over the summer. Whilst our budget has risen, the board have injected money twice, we are losing money monthly due to over spending on wages, however no one will buy any of my players (not even for free) and I try to release them on a free transfer and the board block them, so hard luck at the moment. We bought in seven new faces, which I thought was a lot, until I saw it was the third least of the sides actually making transfers. However big surprise was seeing Cannons bring in twenty two players!!


And that leads nicely onto the squad I have going into my first competitive match in charge here at GIB Phoenix. You can try and spot the new faces for yourself I'm not going to single them out, but we've got twenty five players on our main team books for the season ahead. You can also see their player ratings but don't look too far into this at the moment as neither my assistant or scouts I bought in are the best at judging players potential and current abilities.


My staff room now actually has staff. One of the first things I did was checked how many staff I was allowed per position according to my boardroom and made it happen, filling it to the brim. This saw me hire an assistant manager, Director of Football, Head of Youth Development, one Coach, two Physios, three Scouts and a Reserve Manager. Their stats are as expected at the moment, but hopefully I'll be able to improve this over the years that roll by.


With around two and a half months of free dates until the competitive side of things kicked off I had plenty of time for friendlies so I filled in the calendar with big, medium and small fixtures for a club of our size to try and garner some much needed footballing time for the squad to gel to one another and get comfortable around the tactic(s) I'll be playing, perhaps more on these later. But the summer ended with us playing thirteen friendlies, winning just five of these, drawing five and losing just three.

And finally, before I sign off for half a season....


I've already played the first league game in charge at GIB Phoenix and this is how we got on. What a thrilling game and the neutral fans certainly weren't disappointed, nor were the one hundred and twenty four that came to support us and see us win nine two on our opening game of the season. A you can see from the stats alone, we bossed the game from the first minute with sixty two percent possession and twenty five shots to Colleg '75 two! Lobaton gave us a thirteen minute lead before How made it two in seventeen. College '75 came back level by the twenty sixth minute. However come have time we led four two Howe with his second and Bosio had found the net. Second half the rout came. Lobaton struck twice more to seal his hatrick, Howe also adding a third to his tally for the day. Bosio struck a second and Rodriguez also got on the score sheet. A sign of things to come, perhaps...

Next Update: Mid Season Round Up - 1st January 2017

Decent enough preseason @Dan and then a fantastic start to the league season.

Incredible start to the campaign, super result to say the least!

Good luck in Gibraltar Dan. It's a shame that your last game was cut short but hopefully this will go all the way and result in Gibraltar at a World Cup.

Are you thinking about managing the national team?

Good luck knocking Red Imps off their perch

It was a superb start @Shedender couldn't believe that scoreline!

Thanks @r96Skinner it sure was!

Cheers @Ice Man I do indeed aim to take over the national team when I can.

Thanks @Sean_ its going to be hard I'm sure.

Following that busy summer and equally busy start to the season, smashing a nine two victory to kick off the year, it was fair to say my expectations for the season had risen, I expected promotion and with any luck we could of taken the cup as well. With half the season already gone (only play sixteen league games per season) it was time to update on how things got on already.


Well, cup football wasn't for us this season. There are only two seasonal cups in Gibraltar and the one we had a fair chance of winning would of been the 'Division 2 League Cup' but we went out in the Quarter Finals. Cannons beat us with a goal in the first minute, seeing us crash out just before Christmas. We have drawn fellow Division 2 side Leo FC in the Rock Cup first Round.


Here is our league form for the season to date. As we've already seen we beat Colege 75' nine two to kick off the league season, a thrilling start. We have gone on to win four games since then, drawing one and losing just the once. Goals haven't been an issue, with us finding the net twenty four goals in just seven games and conceding eight, holding out for just the two clean sheets to date. We had another big win with a six two victory against struggling Hound Dogs. Cannons went two nil up against us in the league a couple days after knocking us out the cup. They however finished with nine men on the pitch due to poor disciplinary and this allowed us to sneak two goals in injury time to snatch a draw. What does that mean for the league table though.


Well we're currently occupying second place after seven of sixteen league games this season. Magpies sit top the pile, three points ahead of us and unbeaten to date, we are yet to play them so hopefully can change that. We do have a better goal difference, infact the best in the league to date. Leo FC are currently third behind us, however trail us by just a single point.

Next Update: End Of Season Round Up - 31st May 2017

Magpies are flying.

If only you had beaten Angles, you would've been top albeit on goal difference but still a solid start pal.

Nice beginning to the season, let's hope you can catch Magpies who you'll no doubt be facing soon!

I like what you did there @VP. and they are indeed, or were...

We would of indeed @Shedender however you can't win them all.

Thanks against @r96Skinner it'll surely be a tight affair, but lets see what happens.

A short season has flown by and I've already finished season one, only another hundred or so more to go or something like that I'd imagine. It'll be interesting to see how things go over the seasons money wise especially. We've managed to get through all sixteen league games for the season and finished the Rock Cup, now lets see how it all went and if I'd even be in the job for a second season.


First things first, as soon as I finished my first coaching badge and the board pumped a little bit more money into the club, I went forward and asked them to pay for my second qualification to get on the board and they went ahead and paid for it, meaning I'm slowly making my way up the qualification list. With any luck I'll soon be the most qualified here.


Cup football really wasn't for us this season. The last update had already seen Cannons knock us out the Division 2 League Cup, the competition I and the board wanted to win this year. The Rock Cup saw us only feature in two games, we beat Leo FC four one to progress. However when facing First Division side Europa Point we fell just short, losing out two one. Lets hope our league form was better...


Magpies were the only unbeaten side in the league going into the New Year but we were yet to play them. When we did, we didn't only break their unbeaten run, but completely smashed them, as we ran riot to an eight nil victory. Howe, Nito and Garcia netting two each whilst Larouia and Lupi also added goals. We then went on to keep three more clean sheets, making it four on the bounce as we beat College '75 two nil, Olympique two nil and Hound Dogs three nil. Our winning run continued as we went on to beat Angels and Boca Juniors (GIB) as well as Magpies for the second time in seven games. However our form slipped come the final two games with Leo FC beating us four three, a thrilling seven goal game which saw us drop the lead from two nil and three two. Cannons ended their season with a second win over us, winning one nil thanks to an early goal. Were the final two slips costly for us...


It wasn't costly at all as we went on to win the league (on the left) by five points over second place Magpies. Its my first trophy in Gibraltar and with any luck it won't be my last. However hopefully it'll be my last Second Division title for many years as we'll now try to make a name for ourselves in the top tier of Gibraltar. As you can see on the right, Man 62 were relegated as Lincoln (GIB) once again ran to an easy title. Mons Calpe beat Magpies in the playoff to save themselves from relegation.


At the end of season awards we made our mark as we claimed three of the main awards for the league season. Summer signing, Shane Howe, went on to be named player of the year and was runner up in the Golden Boot competition by two goals for the Second Division. We also rounded up the other two places in the player of the year award. Lobaton won the young player of the year award, another one of our players whilst I was named manager of the year.


Finally heading into what will surely be another busy summer, I can confirm the board are continuing to inject small amounts of money into the club regularly to pull us out the red and into the black, so they're keeping our financial situation very good. They've also upped the wage budget for the season ahead, moving from two and a half thousand pounds per week to five thousands. I've now got just short of two thousand pounds to spend on new players wages. However I'm feeling a mass exodus in the summer.

Next Update: End Of Pre Season Round Up - September 2017

Well, you certainly caught Magpies! Shame about the cups but hey-ho. Good first season of the challenge!

We sure did @r96Skinner Got many of seasons to go.

My second summer in charge has come and gone and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I wanted a busy transfer window and to improve the squad massively. Unfortuantely its not quite been that busy. However we have bought in some new faces and along the lines of that, had to have a busy pre season on the pitch to ensure the team began to gel with each other ad tactics.


Any important news that came up this season. The pre season expectations saw the board want us to attempt to avoid relegation whilst they expect us to reach the Quarter Finals of the Rock Cup. If we get a good draw, it'l happen. I also penned a new deal, didn't realise I only had seven days left on my existing contract, that nearly went horribly wrong. When I got my new contract, I also got the board to send me on my third coaching course. Finally once again just low bonuses for the squad on the competition front this season.


We were the busiest team in the First Division transfer window and that was probably expected with us needing to try and strengthen the side enough to compete with the teams in this league. However I'm hoping the quality of sides won't be too different. Lincoln (GIB) are the only side who spent any money on players this summer.


Here is the squad that'l start the season for us, hopefully the January transfer window will allow us to strengthen a little bit more. Once again, don't look into the report side of things too much, I've not bought in anymore staff so their ratings are still a rough guess really. We've got a good side here with many of the players from last season staying and we performed very well there.


A very good summer on the pitch for us, seeing us lose just one of our ten friendlies we played which has given me a lot more confidence heading into the competitive season. Three draws and six wins was perfect for us.

Once again, here is how we have started the league season...

We've started the league season, our first ever in the First Division, with a one nil victory over Lions at home. It was a very even game with us sharing possession and sharing shots as well. However it was William Cross on his debut that gave us the three points with a goal two minutes before the interval.

Next Update: Mid Season Round Up - January 2018

Superb pre season a decent start to the First Division season. KIU pal.

Thanks @Shedender this'll be a hard season though

Our first ever season in the top division of Gibraltar has now started and we've now got to fight it out with the big boys of the division. With me bagging the league title last season along with plenty of coaching badges it was time to begin to look towards the top places of the top divisions in the league. First part of the update, a bit of news and then our league form to date with cup football not starting yet.


Straight back to it, once again completed a course and the board then pumped money into the club to get us back into the black. I made the most of it by asking to go onto my next coaching course and they accepted. I will be knowledgable soon!


Well yeah, our league form isn't great at all to date this season. We picked up two wins from our opening three league games, but its gone downhill ever since with us now eight games on the bounce without a win. Lincoln (GIB) were the side to make the most out of our misfortunate run, beating us seven four, at one point we were drawing four a piece with them until we collapsed, it could be a long season.


Yep, struggling down in eighth place, not bottom of the table yet but only out of the relegation playoff spot on goal difference as well as three points outside the relegation spot at the bottom of the stable. It'll be very hard for us to climb away from the drop zone but with a little bit of luck and beating the bottom two teams, we may just survive this season! We need to survive.

Next Update: End Of Season Round Up - 31st May 2018

Although I'm sure it won't happen in the end, relegation wouldn't be the be all and end all - you'd just rebuild and get back up. Good luck pal.

Difficult start, hopefully you survive which I believe you will but @Shedender is right, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Its going to be a dog fight till the end @Shedender just hope we have what it takes to survive!

Its been a difficult season indeed @r96Skinner I had imagined it'd be easier.

Well my second full season in Gibraltar has come and gone and as you could tell by the first half of the season, we were in a relegation dog fight to save our skins from going back to where we started. I wanted to be taking steps forward this year, definitely not backwards. We'd have to improve in the second half of the season if we were to beat the drop. We also entered the cup window, meaning more fixtures and potentially a lapse in concentration.


As always news first, another new course for me to head on, really moving with these qualifications now. The latest is me gaining my Continental B Licence which will take me around six months to study if I'm successful. And obviously the board are paying for the course, covering the one thousand, two hundred pound fee.


Rock Cup Quarter Finalist, we weren't in this cup to win it this year and the early'ish' exit could of helped us. We beat First Division side Angels in the Second Round, our first round of entering with a one nil home win, Garcia netting the goal. Lions then beat us at home by the same scoreline, one nil, in the Quarter Finals.


Yeah, our form never really improved over the season, we did however go on a five match unbeaten which helped us a little bit, however in this run we managed just two wins and three draws. We then went on to lose five on the bounce and go without a win in seven to end the season, things certainly couldn't be safe for us with that run of form, could it?


We've survived straight relegation easily as Lions fall out of the top tier with just sixteen points from twenty seven games. We will however face the relegation playoffs which will be a tough ask for us to beat the drop. We finished a point behind Gibraltar United, with a better goal difference, had we beat them at the penultimate game of the season, we could of survived the playoff situation. Surprisingly Lincoln (GIB) have been knocked off their perch with Europa FC taking the top spot by two points.


Pressure of relegation hanging on our shoulders, what pressure!? We faced First Division side Cannons and didn't hold back. We played out our skins to ensure we stayed top flight side as we romped to a four one win in the relegation Playoffs. Garcia fired us infront before a hectic sixty seconds saw Cannons initially draw back level then Howe firing us back ahead before the break. Second half we came out with the intentions to finish them off, Budhrani and Payas netting within six minutes of each other to wrap up the game.


Finance update, we'll be back in the red soon but hopefully the board continue to pump the money back into the club to keep us climbing back into the black. They haven't changed anything for the season ahead, perhaps a bit more of a transfer budget but if I can sign enough quality this summer I'd turn it into the wage budget to allow us to spend more and get more quality in.

Next Update: End Of Pre Season Round Up - September 2018

Not the best form obviously but at least you survived relegation. Onto the next season!

Well done on surviving relegation @Dan, we all believed.

Its hard at the moment @r96Skinner but we battled to the end!

Thanks @Shedender I'm not so sure! Haha

Somehow we managed to beat the odds and go on to beat the drop last season, we had to battle all the way to the end of the season and even fight through the relegation playoff Final and we managed to survive. The season came to an end, I still had a job and a team in the First Division. Now moving through the summer I once again got to work with the small finances we got here.


Any relevant news I found throughout the summer. Firstly the bonuses on offer to the squad for the season ahead, I gave them low budgets as per usual, its about trying to hold on to money at this stage not get rid of it everywhere. Secondly the expectations for the season ahead. Exactly the same as last season, Rock Cup Quarter Finalist and attempting to avoid relegation in the league. For a third time I asked the board for a Senior Affiliate club, and for a third time the board failed to find a suitable club.


A quick transfer window round up as always. We were the busiest side in the summer, bringing in eight players whilst we didn't see many go. A couple players left at the end of the summer due to contracts expiring or even retirement. There were four teams that didn't make a single move in the summer in or out of the respective clubs but we'll see how that goes this season for them.


Well going into this season we have by far the biggest squad we've had of any season and I'm hoping this will help with squad rotations and stop our players running short in so many games. It'll be important to continue to develop the squad over the years, we've had a couple of younger players come into the squad from our reserves over the last couple of seasons so will continue to use these. Some players don't cut it here, but its the best I can do to date. One issue we have is currently we only have one out and out striker at the club.


Summer on the pitch really wasn't that bad at all. We won our opening three games in the summer all against lower opposition. We also picked up three draws and another win as we opened the year with seven games unbeaten to please the fans in non competitive league fixtures. Two defeats against slightly higher reputation sides including Lincoln (GIB) before ending with At.Zabal.


And so for a third season running we've kicked off the league season with a victory and all three points. A very even game against Mons Calpe, the side that finished two places above us in seventh so it feel progressive for us to be off on the right note here. It was a William Cross goal, nine minutes before the end of the game that secured the three points for us.

Next Update: Mid Pre Season Round Up - January 2019

Doing well so far, KIU