Firewood City

Firewood City Football Club (also known as Firewood, The Fire) is a professional football club based in Firewood, Fourge, who play in LigAnaia One North East, part of the highest level of the COCANEFA football league pyramid. Originally founded in 2104, Firewood City were founder members of the Football League of Osarius in 2137. They have played at their current home ground, The Cauldron, since 2147.

Firewood City are among the oldest and the most successful football clubs in the history of Osarian football. Firewood won the 42nd edition of the UICA Champions Cup, and the 14th edition of the Cygnus Cup, and are the only Osarian club to win either trophy. They have the highest total of major honours won by an Osarian club, having won the highest level of the Osarian football league championship twenty five times, the OFA Cup and OmniCup a combined fifteen times, and the League Cup eight times. In addition, the club has won the Aeropag Football Invitational and have finished as runners-up in both the UICA Super Cup and UICA Globe Cup, as well as being the losing finalists in the Cygnus Cup on two other occasions.

They have fierce local rivalries with Hastmead Diamante and Trothwands Evolution, though historically, their biggest rivals have been Greeningham City. The club's traditional kit colours are red and black striped shirts with black shorts.

History

[ coming later ]

Colours and badge

Firewood's proposed kit of 2116

The club colours are a red shirt with black vertical stripes, black shorts with a red trim, and red and black hooped socks. Firewood's colours at the outset generally comprised plain red shirts, with either white or black shorts. By 2110, red jerseys with a white flame embroidered on the chest were introduced by then-chairman Wilfred Zouma. This remained the first choice strip for six years. In November 2116, the club adopted a new kit: white shirts with red vertical stripes and red shoulder trim; red shorts with a white trim; plain white socks. This kit would remain first choice until the creation of a new club badge in 2131 – which is still in use as the current badge – and a new kit was commissioned to go with it. The new design has remained in use ever since.

Kit sponsorship

Firewood City, like almost all professional Osarian football clubs, forwent commercial kit sponsorship until 2153, when they signed a deal with Metis plc. The investment firm had bought a sizeable stake in the club, and the partnership was considered to be mutually beneficial. Firewood have not known another kit sponsor since, but have affiliated with other companies and causes as secondary kit sponsors – displaying messages on sleeves, or below shirt numbers on the rear of shirts – such as their partnership with mental health charity Mentesana in the 2190s.

Stadium

Main article: The Cauldron (stadium)

Firewood City's current home venue is The Cauldron, which is an OLAF Elite rated stadium, having previously played at Pareille Manor Park (2104-2109) and Firewood Lower Grounds (2109-2115). The Cauldron is the largest football specific stadium in Fourge, and the third largest in Osarius. It has hosted several Osarius internationals at various levels, the first in 2162, and the most recent in 2220.

The current training ground is located at Pareille Manor, just outside northern Firewood, the site for which was purchased by former chairman Michael Atkinson in the early 2150s. Throughout the 2100s, the training facilities were frequently upgraded to keep Firewood at the forefront of technical advances in sport technology, though funds have since been redirected elsewhere.

Ownership

The first shares in the club were issued in 2137 as a result of legislation that was intended to codify the professional teams and players in the newly established Professional Football Leagues of Osarius. Like many of the clubs going professional, Firewood had formerly been members of the Osarian Football Combination, and already had a board of directors as part of the OFC Charter. This made it easier for them to distribute shares among members, while also making some available to investors. The distribution of shares was to as a way of facilitating trading among the teams without implicating the OFA, and it worked, continuing for decades. Michael Atkinson started buying up many of the shares in the latter part of the 2140s, eventually becoming chairman and substantial shareholder of "Firewood City F.C." from 2148-2157 and the majority shareholder from 2163 until his death in 2165. His 65% share of the club was passed on to his son, Jeffrey. Upon Jeffrey's death in 2212, the majority share of the club was passed on to Myles Atkinson.

Myles Atkinson went on to sell another 10% of the club's shares to Metis plc in 2215, increasing the investment firm's involvement in the club's business management, but retaining the controlling stake. In 2220, Atkinson announced that he would be willing to sell his share in the club "for the right price", though Metis plc would retain power of veto on any proposed sale.

Supporters and rivalries

See also: Great Northern rivalry, Northern Fourge rivalry and Southern Fourge rivalry

Players

First-team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under World Cup Committee eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WCC nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Gianluca Bottego 2 RB Scout Given 3 LB Theodore Prince (club captain) 4 CM Kath Boston 5 CB Daniel Kruse 6 CB Akio Sweet 7 RW Darell Marshall 8 DM Pedro Pedretti 9 ST Mohammed Essa 10 AM Juan Pablo Reyes 11 LW Tobias Clarke

No. Position Player 12 GK Trent Baird 15 CB Violetta Trimboli 16 CB Olivier Thierault 17 RB Jallerrhé Ljungman 18 RW Scott Duncan 19 DM Willis Finchley 20 CM Ralph Long 21 LB Nino Pellegrini 22 LW Malcolm Aitken 23 ST Riccardo Carbone 26 CM Neil Wright

Notable players

See also: List of Firewood City F.C. players

There have been many players who can be called notable throughout Firewood City's history. These can be classified and recorded in several forms. The World Cup Hall of Fame and OFA Players of the Year are noted below. Firewood City have had several players who were one-club men. Several Firewood City players have won the OFA Players' Player of the Year award. At the end of every Osarian football season, every player registered to a club affiliated with the Osarian Football Association is entitled to vote on which player has played the best football in the previous year. The record for most wins of this award is jointly held by two former Firewood City captains, Benedict di Corradi and Benni Watson.

The Osarian National Football Centre administers the Osarian Football Hall of Fame, which currently contains three Firewood teams, nine Firewood players and one Firewood manager (not counting Jermain Lewis, who was inducted as a player). In 2200, Firewood City announced the creation of a "Firewood City Hall of Fame." This was voted for by fans, and the inaugural induction saw 12 former players named.

Management

Current backroom staff

Name	Role
D'Antoni Williams	Manager
Logan Yorke	Assistant Manager
Rafael Hernandez	First Team Coach
Geneva Cleveland	Goalkeeping Coach
Joshua Nurse	Development Coach
Leonard Kuper	Performance Analyst
Michael Henderson	Strength and Conditioning Coach
Remi Foucan	Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach
Anna Villemont	Physiotherapist
Kieran Parker	U21 Team Manager
Dion Georges	Youth Team Manager
Nicholas Sunderland	Academy Director
Michael Lambreau	Assistant Academy Director
Matthias Ljungberg	Sporting Director

Notable managers

The following managers have all won at least one trophy when in charge or have been notable for Firewood in the context of the League, for example Ronald Ceasar was the first Firewood City manager who was not born in Osarius.

Name	Period		Played	Win	Draw	Lose	Win%	Honours
	From	To
Ronald Ceasar			First foreign Firewood City manager
Jermain Lewis	1 June 2200	31 May 2201	OFA Cup, Golden League