Calpe City Release Statement Following Decision To Close Next Month
Below follows a statement from Calpe City that was made public earlier today:
It is with great sadness that we announce that Calpe City will close its doors at the end of next month.
We applied for Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) membership, which was rejected by all members except Lincoln Red Imps and Mons Calpe FC on the 8th February 2022. We were promised a youth license as agreed at the 2022 General Assembly, but this was never forthcoming.
5.2 of the GFA Youth Rules, allows for the 'GFA Youth Development Team, in exceptional circumstances, accept an independent Team not registered under any Club, to participate in a GFA Youth Competition if its participation is considered to be of a development nature.' Unfortunately, this rule, together with the approved youth license, was not forthcoming either for Season 23/24, as GFA members (except Lincoln Red Imps) did not accept us playing football as Calpe City.
In the summer of 2023, we received correspondence from the GFA which confirmed we would not be provided with a youth license, and we had to integrate with another Club. Hence, at the end of August 2023 we had no alternative but to join Europa Point FC who did not have any youth teams. We subsequently signed a Head of Terms and frustratingly, the obligations under these Head of Terms have not been met by Europa Point. For that reason, we have had to terminate such agreement.
Regretabbly, this now leaves us with no viable alternative and the very hard decision to close our doors at the end of the season.
Not allowing us to play as Calpe City in our right, goes against FIFA and UEFA policy. It goes against the GFA's Strategy (2021-2025) of participation, inclusion, and growth. After all, wasn't FIFA and UEFA membership supposed to ENHANCE, ENCOURAGE, AND SUPPORT? Not the opposite.
The ones to lose out, will be the circa 100 young people that form part of our football academy, because what we have done for the last 5 years, is to provide an outstanding and exemplary development programme for our youth.
From international tournaments including Manchester Cup, Youth Super Cup, Boni Cups both in Algarve and Almeria, professional nutrition courses, a development tour to FC Barcelona, professional football camps, tournaments throughout the Cadiz and Malaga provinces, involving young people in charity and community work, amongst many other projects. In less than 5 years, we have done this very successfully, and at NO EXPENSE to the GFA.
Our voluntary work speaks for itself, and we are very proud of it.
As we close our doors in the next coming weeks, we take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors, anonymous doners, parents, players, voluntary committee, voluntary coaches, family, and friends, who have believed in this project and supported us every step of the way since its inception.
We wish the GFA all the very best, in its endeavours.
