Staff Reporter
ONE of England’s greatest ever football players is launching the season’s new kit for a Gibraltar football club.
Sir Geoff Hurst has launched a new black for Lions Gibraltar FC – the professional club he helped inspire to be formed in 1966.
Lions Gibraltar FC, who sport the famous Three Lions on their club badge, contacted the Football Association back in the year England won their first – and only – World Cup to request to use it.
Since then the club have proudly worn the iconic Three Lions on their shirt for the past 58 years, which are incorporated into its own unique club badge, alongside the club’s name, 1966 – the year of it’s foundation and the Latin words cede nulli – ‘yield to none’.
Now, for the first time ever, legendary striker Hurst has donned the kit of the club he helped come into being.
The striking new black and orange away strip includes lions and references to 1966 across the jersey and forms part of the new range of kits released by the Gibraltar Football League club.
Hurst said: “I honestly never knew anything about this club being formed because of what we achieved – it’s fantastic that it happened and that it is still going now.
“I think it is great that anything that we have done at the national level has an impact throughout the country, and even further.
“The club has an ambition to get into Europe, and that would be absolutely fantastic, what an achievement that would be.
“Unbelievable. For a club like Lions Gibraltar being able to qualify, why shouldn’t they?
“It is a great ambition, they have a great manager and owner putting a structure in place, there is no reason they can’t achieve that, it wouldn’t be a surprise if a team like the Lions qualified for Europe.
“Seeing the Three Lions on the crest brought back a few great memories, for sure. It means so much. It is the only time we have done it (won the World Cup) and it’s fantastic, it makes you realise how big an achievement it was at the time and also now, people stop me in the street and still want to talk to me about it, 58 years on.
“You fully understand how big it was and still is and even more so now as we haven’t won it since. Had we won it more recently then our bit would have disappeared into the memory but it hasn’t so we’re still there.
“A lot of my work is, to an extent, down to that one game. Also, the fact that I am, sadly, the only player still around.
“If they want someone from England who has played in a World Cup final then there is only one of us left!”
Lions Gibraltar FC are embarking on a new era of their own having been acquired & taken over by English football industry professional Mark Palmer, who is also a board member of a professional club in England.
Palmer takes over the Lions Gibraltar with an ambition to deliver an exciting new era for the club in a league where qualifying spots for UEFA Champions League & Europa Conference League competition are up for grabs each season.
Palmer said: “I’m honoured and delighted that Sir Geoff Hurst, one of English football’s greatest legends, is a part of this new era in the club’s history, as the man who’s hat-trick not only helped secure England’s World Cup trophy in 1966, but also inspired a group of people to start up a football club, that would ultimately complete in a professional league that qualifies for UEFA European competition.
“Many thanks to Sir Geoff and our principal club partners OLBG for making this possible”.
The club begin their new season on August 18 against current Europa Conference League qualifiers, FCB Magpies, in a league where all residents of Gibraltar are allowed to watch professional matches for free.
Manufactured by VX3, the home kit will see Lions Gibraltar FC wearing orange shirts with white trim, while the goalkeeper will wear a green jersey.
The club’s principal sponsors are Online Betting Guide (OLBG), and the new kit takes inspiration from their colour palette.
