Limavady United F.C.
Limavady United Football Club is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club playing in the NIFL Championship.
The club comes from Limavady, County Londonderry, and plays home matches at the Showgrounds. Club colours are royal blue shirts with white trim, blue socks and royal blue shorts. Away colours are all yellow. The current manager is Paul Owens, with assistant manager and ex player Charlie Moore.
History
There have been many football clubs in Limavady, dating back to 1880, when Alexander, a founding member of the Irish Football Association was formed by the Alexander Cricket Club. Alexander merged with another local club, Wanderers, in 1884 to form Limavady F.C. Club historian David Brewster, however, dates the current Limavady club's formation to 1955.After a long time as a junior team, the club joined the senior Irish Football League in 1997β98, and reached its first Irish Cup semi-final in over a century in 2003β04. In 2008, the club lost its senior status when it failed to gain admission to the new IFA Premiership.
In April 2013, three players received suspensions after being found guilty of breaching IFA betting rules on one of the club's league matches.
The club won the NIFL Championship 2 in the 2015β2016 season but were denied promotion to NIFL Championship 1 as they were unsuccessful in applying for a licence. However they were promoted as winners of the Premier Intermediate League in 2016β2017. They would be relegated at the end of the 2018/19 season.
Following a stay in the PIL, the club would make their NIFL Championship return following a 3β0 win away to Lisburn Distillery, also securing the league trophy.
Carlos Tevez loan
In September 2011, the club vice chairman David Brewster issued a fax to Manchester City, offering to take Argentinian International Carlos Tevez on loan after the player had refused to go on as a substitute in a UEFA Champions League fixture. The club offer suggested that they would ensure Tevez stayed match fit and would avoid being cup tied, but asked that City continued to pay his reported Β£200,000 per week wages, a figure higher than Limavady's entire turnover for a year.The offer, although meant as tongue in cheek became global headline news with some news agencies believing the offer to be a serious one. The story gained the club brief worldwide recognition although Manchester City themselves did not respond.
Honours
Senior honours
- County Londonderry Cup/North West Senior Cup: 7
- *1993β94, 1998β99, 2003β04, 2005β06, 2015β16, 2018β19, 2023β24
Intermediate honours
- Irish League B Division: 2
- *1983β84, 1992β93
- NIFL Championship 2: 1
- *2015β16
- NIFL Premier Intermediate League: 2
- *2016β17, 2023β24
- Irish Intermediate Cup: 3
- *1973β74, 1995β96, 2016β17
- George Wilson Cup: 1
- *1975β76
- Craig Memorial Cup: 10
- * 1992β93, 1993β94, 1994β95, 2008β09, 2010β11, 2012β13, 2014β15, 2015β16, 2016β17, 2023β24
- B Division Knock-out Cup: 2
- *1992β93, 1995β96
Junior honours
- Irish Junior Cup: 1
- *1963β64
- North West City Cup: 2
- *1960β61, 1966β67
- North West Junior League: 1
- *1968β69