Lincoln Red Imps F.C.



Lincoln Red Imps Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Gibraltar. They play in the Gibraltar Premier Division, and share the Victoria Stadium with all other clubs in the territory. They are the country's record champion with 22 league titles, the last 14 of which have been consecutive, and in 2014 were the first team to represent Gibraltar in the UEFA Champions League.

History
The football club was first formed in 1976 by Charles Polson and Charles Head, the latter managing the team. A group of players associated to the old Police youth team called the "Blue Batons" and complemented by players that had been released by Glacis United and St Jago's joined forces to form the first Lincoln team that played in the Gibraltar fourth division as a youth team. When this Lincoln team became old enough to play Senior Football, it was decided to enter this young team into the GFA second division. The team started to climb to the top in the second division in the season 1981–82 winning the league, the division cup and gaining promotion to the GFA’s first division after only one season. The next year Lincoln finished in mid table in the first division. In 1983–84 Lincoln won the league and promotion to the Gibraltar Premier Division.

In 1984–85 Lincoln played their first season in the Gibraltar Premier Division in which they were joint champions with Glacis United – the first of seven league titles which were won between 1984 and 1994.

Lincoln won 14 Gibraltar Premier Division titles in a row from 2003 to 2016, bettering the previous record of nine in a row held by Glacis United in the 1960s. They also won the national treble of League, Rock Cup and Senior Cup in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011.

2014
In 2014, after Gibraltar had joined UEFA as the 54th member, Lincoln became the first Gibraltarian team to play in the UEFA Champions League. After claiming a 1–1 draw in the home match, they lost 5–2 at Faroese team HB and were eliminated in the first qualifying round.

2015
Lincoln won both the 2015 Rock Cup with a 4–1 victory over Lynx F.C. and the 2014–15 Gibraltar Premier Division championship by 16 points, again qualifying for UEFA Champions League qualification with their second straight double. In the First Qualifying Round Lincoln were drawn against FC Santa Coloma of Andorra. After a scoreless draw in the first leg in Gibraltar, the club earned a 2–1 victory at the Estadi Comunal d'Andorra la Vella to advance to the Second Qualifying Round with goals coming from Anthony Bardon and Lee Casciaro. With the victory, Lincoln became the first club from Gibraltar to reach the second round of UEFA Champions League qualification, setting up an encounter with 2015 Danish champions FC Midtjylland, which Lincoln Red Imps lost on aggregate 0–3.

2016
In 2016 Lincoln pulled off a surprise victory against Scottish Premiership champions Celtic, with a 1–0 victory at home after a 48th-minute strike from Lee Casciaro in the club's second round match of the UEFA Champions League qualifying stage. The match was Brendan Rodgers' first competitive fixture as manager of Celtic. In the return leg, the Red Imps were defeated 3–0 and so were eliminated in the second qualifying round of the Champions League for 2016–17.

Honours

 * Gibraltar Football League: 22
 * 1984–85, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16


 * Rock Cup: 17
 * 1985–86, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1992–93, 1993–94, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16


 * Gibraltar League Senior Cup: 18
 * 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1999–00, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2013–14

European record
Lincoln's first qualifying round match of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League marked the first match played by a Gibraltarian club in UEFA competition. After converting a penalty, a second half goal was conceded and the game ended in a draw.

Matches

 * Notes
 * 1Q: First qualifying round
 * 2Q: Second qualifying round

Stadium
Like all other Gibraltarian clubs, Lincoln shares the 5,000-seat Victoria Stadium.