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The Gibraltar Football League is the only senior tier of association football in Gibraltar, founded in 2019 as the Gibraltar National League after a merger of the Gibraltar Premier Division, which served as the top division of football on the Rock since 1905, and the Gibraltar Second Division, which had existed since 1909. It was announced in August 2019 by the Gibraltar Football Association. The league is supported by the Gibraltar Intermediate League for U23 sides and Hound Dogs.

Format

Rumours of the new league began in 2018, when the Gibraltar FA announced plans for a single tier format in its league constitution for the 2018–19 Gibraltar Premier Division. On 1 August 2019, the GFA confirmed details of the restructure of domestic football in Gibraltar, and the format of the new 16 team league. After 4 teams left the league, the remaining 12 teams are to follow the same league format. For the first 4 editions of the competition, teams played one round of games as a single league, before splitting into two groups: the Championship Group contested by the top 6 sides, and the Challenge Group between the bottom 6 sides. The winners of the Challenge Group will receive the GFA Challenge Trophy and receive a bye to the second round of the next season's Rock Cup. Hound Dogs, who participated in the final season of the Gibraltar Second Division, were granted special dispensation to compete in the Gibraltar Intermediate League.

The first season of the Gibraltar National League had no champion, as the season was declared null and void by the Gibraltar FA as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, the Gibraltar FA announced that every game of the 2021–22 Gibraltar National League season would be streamed online through a broadcasting deal with Footters.

In July 2022, the league rebranded as the Gibraltar Football League, with a new identity and logo. The following year saw a change of format for the league. Instead of a single round-robin before the league split, the league instead returned to a double round robin format, with each team playing each other twice. At the end of the regular season, only the top 6 progressed to the next stage, entering the GFL Championship Group to decide the champion.

Teams

Of the 17 teams that formed the initial league, three founder teams withdrew before the inaugural season started: Gibraltar Phoenix, Gibraltar United, and Leo. Additionally, Olympique 13 were expelled from the league after forfeiting the first two matches of the 2019-20 season. Hound Dogs, while a founding member, opted not to join the National League, instead competing in the Gibraltar Intermediate League for financial reasons. In December 2020, Boca Gibraltar were also expelled from the league. As such, the following 11 teams currently contest the competition.

Current clubs

Team	Formed	Joined	Previous season	Premier Division titles	GFL titles	GFA Challenge Trophies	Head coach
FCB Magpies	2013	2019	3rd	0	0	1	Mason McClelland
College 1975	1975	2019	11th	0	0	0	Óscar León
Europa	1925	2019	8th	7	0	0	Michele Di Piedi
Europa Point	2014	2019	4th	0	0	0	Martin Falkeborn
Glacis United	1965	2019	9th	17	0	0	Michael Bakare
Lincoln Red Imps	1976	2019	1st	24	4	0	David Campaña
Lions Gibraltar	1966	2019	10th	0	0	0	David Wilson
Lynx	2007	2019	7th	0	0	0	Yiyi Pérez
Manchester 62	1962	2019	6th	7	0	1	Jamie McDonough
Mons Calpe	2013	2019	5th	0	0	1	Juan Marí Sánchez
St Joseph's	1912	2019	2nd	1	0	0	Abraham Paz

1. ^ Club folded before start of first season.
2. ^ Club was expelled during the season.

List of winners

Table includes top three of the Championship Group (top half of table) and Challenge Group (bottom half of table)

1. The season was abandoned and declared null and void due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. The GFA Challenge Trophy was discontinued after the 2022–23 season.

See also

• Gibraltar Premier Division

References

1. Restructuring of the Domestic Men's Senior League Archived 1 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine Gibraltar FA. 1 August 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
2. "Senior League Rules" (PDF). GFA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
3. Key changes to the domestic league revealed to clubs Gibraltar Chronicle. 1 August 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
4. "FC Olympique expelled from all GFA competitions". Gibraltar Football Association. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
5. Gibraltar National League to launch with new historic partnerships Gibraltar FA. 15 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
6. Introducing a new identity for the Gibraltar Football League Gibraltar FA. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
7. Mens Domestic Football Season to Kick off on Friday 15th September with the traditional Pepe Reyes Memorial Cup Gibraltar FA. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
8. "FC Olympique expelled from all GFA competitions". Gibraltar Football Association. 11 September 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
9. "Gibraltar National League Season Declared Null and Void". Gibraltar Football Association. 7 May 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2023.

External links

• Gibraltar FA Website
• Gibraltar – List of Champions, RSSSF.com

• Gibraltar
• Association football

v t e Football in Gibraltar
Gibraltar Football Association
National teams	Men Results U-21 U-19 U-17 Women U-19 Futsal Women's futsal
League system	Gibraltar Football League Women's League Gibraltar Intermediate League
Domestic cups	Rock Cup Pepe Reyes Cup Gibraltar Intermediate Cup Women's Rock Cup
Defunct competitions	Gibraltar Premier Division Gibraltar Second Division Gibraltar Premier Cup Gibraltar Division 2 Cup
Futsal	First Division Second Division Third Division Fourth Division Cups Futsal Rock Cup Lousito Bonavia Trophy Women's League
List of clubs Clubs in Europe Victoria Stadium List of international players List of national football team captains

• Gibraltar National League
• Football leagues in Gibraltar
• Top level football leagues in Europe
• 2019 establishments in Gibraltar
• Sports leagues established in 2019