maltafootball.com - Floriana FC

Football in Floriana saw its birth in the last decade of the 19th century. Youths from Floriana used to watch teams from the Army and the Navy playing at the Floriana Parade Ground. They decided to form a team and they bought a set of green and red shirts and held a number official matches. It was on the 13th May 1900 that a young team from Floriana faced St. Georges of Cospicua in a challenge match at the Marsa Recreational Ground. In 1905, the Greens adopted the Green and White stripes.

In 1909, another challenge match was played against St. Georges of Cospicua at the Mtarfa Parade Ground for the Mtarfa Cup. Over 10,000 persons travelled to Mtarfa to watch the game. The match ended 1-1.

When the Malta Football Association organised the first leagues, Floriana managed to win the first three league championships in 1909/10, 1911/12 and 1912/13. A remarkable record was the fact that during these three campaigns, Floriana won all games, not suffering a single goal at all. Between 1920 and 1937, Floriana won the First Division league title nine times, including three consecutive championships between 1926 and 1929.

In 1944, Frankie Tabone, a former Floriana player founded a team of youngsters called Floriana Ajax. This youths' team was in a class of its own winning 88 out of 104 matches over three years. Disappointing results by Floriana FC in season 1948/49 prompted the Floriana committee to install the Floriana Ajax players in the senior team. The team was immediately a hit as the young Floriana side managed to obtain one of the best results in the history of the club defeating Sliema Wanderers 5-1 in the FA Trophy final. In four years between 1949 and 1953, Floriana won four consecutive championships, a record which the Greens still hold. They managed to win the FA Trophy again in 1949/50 and 1952/53. The Greens were again declared champions in 1954/55. In season 1957/58, they won the Triple Crown for the third time.

History repeated itself in the 1961/62 season when Floriana F.C. won the League Championship title without conceding one single point 28 points from 14 matches in a tough league campaign. However in the next two decades, Floriana could only win three championships and four FA Trophies. As football moved from the Gzira Stadium to Ta' Qali, other clubs climbed to the top with Floriana and Sliema, the teams that had dominated football, tasting relegation for the first time. Sliema were relegated in 1982/83 and a year later, Floriana were relegated for the first time. Back in the Premier League, the Greens failed to win any major honour until 1992/93 when they managed to win the Triple Crown. A year later, they won the FA Trophy, Lowenbrau Cup and Super 5 Tournament. Since then, they only managed to win the Super 5 Competition in 1997/98. In 2006, they reached the final of the FA Trophy, losing to Hibernians 0-1.

Floriana became the first Maltese team, together with Hibernians, to take part in the UEFA competitions in 1961/62. Floriana took part in the Cup Winners' Cup when they met the strong Ujpest Dosza of Hungary. Among the most prestigious results obtained by the Greens in Europe is the 1-0 win over Ferencvaros of Hungary thanks to a fine Louis Arpa goal in the Cup Winners Cup 1972, the 0-0 draws with Dundee United in 1988, Neuchatel Xamax in 1991 and Porto in 1993. Floriana managed to reach a further round in UEFA competitions twice. In 1993, they managed to eliminate Ekranas of Lithuania in the Champions Cup with two 1-0 wins while in the Intertoto Cup 1999, they beat Aberystwyth Town of Wales with an aggregate 4-3 score.

Floriana FC

Floriana FC History

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