 | |||
| Full name | Derry City Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Red and White Army, The Candystripes | ||
| Founded | 1928 | ||
| Ground | Brandywell Stadium Derry, Northern Ireland | ||
| Capacity | 3,700 | ||
| Owner | Supporter owned | ||
| Chairman | Philip O'Doherty | ||
| Manager | Ruaidhrí Higgins | ||
| League | League of Ireland Premier Division | ||
| 2024 | 4th of 10 | ||
| Website | http://www.derrycityfc.net | ||
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Derry City Football Club is a professional football club based in Derry, Northern Ireland. They play in the League of Ireland Premier Division, the top tier of league football in the Republic of Ireland, and are the League of Ireland's only participant from Northern Ireland.[1] The club's home ground is the Brandywell Stadium and the players wear red and white striped shirts from which their nickname, the Candystripes, derives.[2] The club are also known as the Red and White Army, Derry or City.[3]
The club, founded in 1928, initially played in the Irish League, the domestic league in Northern Ireland, and won a title in 1964–65. In 1971, security concerns related to the Troubles meant matches could not be played at the Brandywell. The team played home fixtures 30 miles (48 km) away in Coleraine. The security forces withdrew their objections to the use of the Brandywell the following year, but in the face of insistence from the Irish League that the unsustainable arrangement continue, the club withdrew from the league. After 13 years in junior football, it joined the League of Ireland's new First Division for 1985–86. Derry won the First Division title and achieved promotion to the Premier Division in 1987, and remained there until an administrative relegation in 2009. The club won a domestic treble in 1988–89, the only League of Ireland club so far to do so.[4]
After spending the majority of its time in the League of Ireland in the Premier Division, the club was expelled in November 2009 when it was discovered there were secondary, unofficial contracts with players. It was reinstated a few weeks later but demoted to the First Division, the second tier, from where it made its way back to the Premier Division.[5]
- ^ Willis, Craig; Hughes, Will; Bober, Sergiusz. "ECMI Minorities Blog. National and Linguistic Minorities in the Context of Professional Football across Europe: Five Examples from Kin-State Situations". ECMI. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
- ^ Conor Collins Derry City Archived 7 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Albion Road, 21 November 2007; Retrieved 8 June 2007
- ^ "Derry City 4–0 Sligo Rovers". GetTogether.at. 17 October 2006. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2007.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Collins, Simon (7 February 2019). "Treble winner Liam Coyle reflects on Jim McLaughlin's Derry City legacy". News Letter.
- ^ "Derry City invited back to league". BBC Sport. 12 November 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2010.