Let's learn about obscure teams!

[Sue Denim]

I give you the world's most unpronounceable football team, who play at the world's most unpronounceable stadium...

Zawisza Bydgoszcz (Polish pronunciation: [zaˈviʂa bɨˈdɡɔʂtʂ]) is a military-sponsored sports club from Bydgoszcz, Poland, founded in 1946, which plays at the Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium.

Its name commemorates a legendary Polish 15th century knight, Zawisza Czarny. The club holds many sections: football, track and field athletics, boxing, rowing, canoeing, weightlifting, gymnastics, shooting, and parachuting ones.

Zawisza's football team has achieved some successes, playing for several years in the Polish First Division. For the first time, Zawisza won promotion in 1961. After relegation in the 1993/1994 season, the team has not managed to get back to the First Division. Zawisza's biggest achievement is reaching the semifinals of the Cup of Poland in 1991. Zawisza's youth teams have also won several medals during the national championships - gold (1981), silver (1958, 1986) and bronze (1967, 1979). Zawisza was relegated from Second Level to Fourth Level in the 1997-98 season and promoted to Third Level after finishing 1st Kujawsko-Pomorsko-Wielkopolska (Kujavia-Pomerania and Great Poland) Group of 3rd liga in the 2007-2008 season.

Famous players include Zbigniew Boniek, Stefan Majewski, Andrzej Brończyk, Paweł Kryszałowicz, Piotr Nowak, Sławomir Wojciechowski, Wojciech Łobodziński.

 

[UltraPoland]

"the world's most unpronounceable football team"

can`t agree... "Zawisza Bydgoszcz" is very easy to pronounce
so is "Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak" ;)

thanks Sue Denim, that gave me a laugh :))

 

[Cellarite]

FC Lahti was founded in 1996 when two time-honoured archrival clubs from Lahti - FC Kuusysi and Reipas Lahti (Founded in Viipuri and moved to Lahti due to Viipuri left to USSR in 1947) - decided to end their time in Finnish top-football and create a new club to make people of Lahti proud. Also the reserve club FC Pallo-Lahti was formed, but it was closed down after a couple of seasons due to economic difficulties. Both Reipas and Kuusysi controlled the junior section of the club.

FC Lahti played its first season, 1997, in the southern group of Ykkönen, the second tier of Finnish football. It finished second in the first half of the split league format type league system, but was placed third in the final half behind FC Haka and PK-35 which were promoted to Veikkausliiga. The next season, 1998, was victorious and FC Lahti finally gained promotion to the highest tier until relegating at the end of the season 2010.

In the premier division Lahti hasn't yet achieved as much as Kuusysi and Reipas did. In 2007 Lahti won the Finnish League Cup. In 2008 FC Lahti was third in the Veikkausliiga final table and took a place for Uefa Europa League qualification rounds season 2009.

The reason I'm interested - I played for them

didn't they play liverpool in europe in the '90's?

 

[daveduke67]

Phu Tho Province XI (formed 1956 in Phu Tho - Eastern Province)
Think they were formed by ex British army general Cpt Mike Hocismall after he settled there when the gorilla fighting at Humagwa finished in 1953. He put together a team of "foriegn legion" associates.(see below)

Ground: Chemnitz Arena

Manager: Vasilis Papageorgopoulos

GK - Cibernético
RB - Şebnem Kimyacıoğlu
LB - Artur Pappenheim
CB - Afa
CB - Sika
RM - Giuseppe Pedretti
LM - Urbano Lazzaro
CM - Fabrizio Gollin
CM - Saddam Hussien

ATT - Naitō Toyomasa
ATT - Tim Buzaglo

SUBS
1 - Cristian Sanavia
2 - Dardo Caballero

I remember someone asking for him in the officers mess

'I say old boy, do you know Mike Hocismall'

How we laughed for everyone knew Mike - he was a jolly good chap.

 

[MTAM]

A.S.D. Castel di Sangro Calcio

The village of Castel di Sangro had suffered great damage during World War II. At the end of the war, a priest named Don Arbete organized a football team to help rebuild the community. Materials were scarce, so the players used a ball of socks tied with twine. They won their first match against a neighboring town, thus setting the bar high as far as expectations went. A formal team was organized by 1953, joining the lowest of all leagues in Italy, Terza Categoria (third category).

It took them thirty years to earn a promotion to Seconda Categoria, but they did so in 1983, but the jump up a league meant they needed money for league fees, player stipends, and better equipment, and they had none. Their savior came in the form of Pietro Rezza, a southerner from the region of Puglia who married into one of the town's wealthiest families and left the operation of the team to his niece's husband, Gabriele Gravina.

Their second promotion to Prima Categoria came a scant two years later. At this point, it no longer was possible to remain competitive by fielding a team composed solely of local talent and although they were still not professional, Gravina "hired" players from out of town to work in local jobs and play for the team. As such, they quickly moved up the ranks, and by 1989 they reached the professional ranks of Serie C2.

 

[Cellarite]

A.S.D. Castel di Sangro Calcio

The village of Castel di Sangro had suffered great damage during World War II. At the end of the war, a priest named Don Arbete organized a football team to help rebuild the community. Materials were scarce, so the players used a ball of socks tied with twine. They won their first match against a neighboring town, thus setting the bar high as far as expectations went. A formal team was organized by 1953, joining the lowest of all leagues in Italy, Terza Categoria (third category).

It took them thirty years to earn a promotion to Seconda Categoria, but they did so in 1983, but the jump up a league meant they needed money for league fees, player stipends, and better equipment, and they had none. Their savior came in the form of Pietro Rezza, a southerner from the region of Puglia who married into one of the town's wealthiest families and left the operation of the team to his niece's husband, Gabriele Gravina.

Their second promotion to Prima Categoria came a scant two years later. At this point, it no longer was possible to remain competitive by fielding a team composed solely of local talent and although they were still not professional, Gravina "hired" players from out of town to work in local jobs and play for the team. As such, they quickly moved up the ranks, and by 1989 they reached the professional ranks of Serie C2.

no mention of them reaching serie b for two seasons nor the book that this inspired?

 

[Ducado]

FC Honka is a Finnish football club, based in Tapiola, Espoo. It was promoted into the Finnish premier division (Veikkausliiga), for the first time in its history, at the end of the 2005 season. The club's manager is Mika Lehkosuo, and it plays its home matches at Tapiolan urheilupuisto. Originally founded in 1953 as Tapion Honka it changed its name to FC Honka in 1975. FC Honka is largely renowned in Finland for its extensive youth scheme with over 1000 youth players playing in various age groups.

Until the year 2005 FC Honka was thought of as a "nearly, but not quite" team, always underachieving in the Finnish First Division (Ykkönen). In the late 1990s the objective was promotion but year after year they failed. In the beginning of the 21st century FC Honka almost went bankrupt but was saved at the last moment. In early 2005 the club was taken over by Jouko Pakarinen and Jouko Harjunpää, who had a plan to turn FC Honka from underachievers to a UEFA Champions League candidate.

In the first year of their take-over of FC Honka, the management succeeded in assembling a squad which won the First Division (Ykkönen) with ease and also made the semi-finals of the Finnish Cup where they eventually lost 1–0 to FC Haka.

FC Honka was able to fight for top positions instantly, but narrowly missed the top three in their first two seasons. However, in 2007 team lost Finnish Cup final to Tampere United on penalties. As Tampere United also won league title, FC Honka qualified for the 2008-09 UEFA Cup. In 2008, FC Honka achieved its first medal by finishing 2nd in the league.

 

[Gary James]

Manchester Central.
Manchester Central were a short lived professional football club based in Manchester.

The team was formed in 1928 by Manchester City FC Director, John Ayrton and the owner of Belle Vue, John Iles. Ayrton created Manchester Central because he felt East Manchester needed a League side. City had moved out of the area in 1923, but had initially considered moving to Belle Vue.

The club played at the Belle Vue Athletics stadium, more commonly known as the Speedway Stadium. One of the coaches was Billy Meredith, the Welsh international and former Manchester City and Manchester United player. Their manager was James McMahon.

The club joined the Lancashire Combination in its first year finishing seventh in the twenty team competition. This led to an immediate application to join the Football League for the 1929–30 season; this bid failed.

The 1929–30 season, the club finished as runners up in the Combination and the reserves played in the Cheshire County League, the only other reserve teams in that league being from Football League clubs. After a successful season another application for League status was made and failed again.

The 1930–31 season was less successful finishing seventh in the Combination and the reserves bottom. A further application for League status failed with Chester gaining membership. This led to withdrawal from the Combination and focus solely on the Cheshire County League. After Wigan Borough had to resign from the Football League in October 1931, Central applied to take their place. This was initially accepted by the leaders of Division Three (North), but a formal complaint was made jointly by First Division Manchester City and Second Division Manchester United.[4] They believed that a third Manchester side would seriously damage Manchester United, who were struggling for support and finance. The Football League backed the existing Manchester League sides and Central were denied. The Manchester clubs, in particular United, received significantly bad media coverage as a result and this act damaged their image and support further.

At the end of the season Central resigned from the Cheshire County League and became defunct, realising their ambitions would be unfulfilled.

Central were an ambitious side and attracted many significant crowds, such as 8,500 for the visit of Wrexham during 1929–30.[6] They also signed international players, such as Welsh international Bert Gray.

It is widely believed that Manchester Central was considered as a new name for Newton Heath in 1902 but there is no factual evidence from the period to suggest this is true – all comments come from later histories while detailed records and media reports from the period make no reference whatsoever to this idea. In fact it seems highly improbable as Manchester Central was already the name of another soccer side competing in the Manchester region during the 1890s. This first Manchester Central played at Alexandra Park and ceased to exist around the turn of the century. The directors of Newton Heath would not have selected that name for fear of confusion.

Due to this myth about the Central name being almost chosen by Newton Heath when they reformed as Manchester United, the name Manchester Central was considered as a name for F.C. United of Manchester.
How sad is that,that's wiki but possibly all of that is Gary James's work.

It is - and there's more in "Manchester A Football History" - a remarkable story!

 

[the--dud]

Kolstad Football is my local Norwegian team in the Norwegian Third Division. They're based in the south side of Trondheim, Norway.
They've never won anything or did anything of note. Even though they have a senior team it's really all about youth football.
Kolstad has youth teams for each age level from 7 to 19 years old for both girls and boys.

Their most successful players is Harald Martin Brattbakk - with 166 goals he is the highest-scoring player in the history of the Norwegian Premier League. Most of his career was spent at Rosenborg, some of you might know this team. He also had a quite unsuccessful spell with Celtic.
Their most successful players is Alexander Tettey, currently playing for Rennes in Ligue 1 he's recently become one of their most important players. Rennes is enjoying one of their most successful and exciting season in a very long time.

Kolstad does a lot of good work in the community of south Trondheim, which traditionally has been one of the rougher areas of the city (relatively speaking of course).
Kolstad's motto is "We Care" and "Honour to Kolstad".

Here's their "stadium":

 

[MCFC BOB]

Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish sports club from Soria. The club is named after the ancient Celtiberian town of Numantia, near present-day Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at Nuevo Estadio Los Pajaritos, with a 10,200-seat capacity.