2019–20 Gibraltar National League

The 2019–20 Gibraltar National League season was the first edition of the Gibraltar National League in Gibraltar, and the 121st edition of football in the territory overall. The league was announced in June 2018 when the Gibraltar Football Association decided to merge the Gibraltar Premier Division and Gibraltar Second Division at the conclusion of the 2018–19 season.^[2]

Gibraltar National League

The Victoria Stadium where each match is played
Season	2019–20
Dates	12 August 2019 – 3 May 2020
Champions	No champion[1]
Champions League	Europa
Europa League	St Joseph's Lincoln Red Imps
Matches played	104
Goals scored	481 (4.63 per match)
Top goalscorer	Juanfri (24 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Jamie Robba Dayle Coleing (7 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Lincoln Red Imps 9–1 College 1975 (19 September 2019)
Biggest away win	College 1975 0–12 Europa (1 November 2019)
Highest scoring	College 1975 0–12 Europa (1 November 2019) Boca Gibraltar 7–5 College 1975 (20 February 2020) Manchester 62 1–11 Mons Calpe (12 March 2020)
← 2018–19 Premier Division 2020–21 → All statistics correct as of 12 March 2020.

On 1 August 2019, confirmation came that 16 teams would compete in the league.^[3] However, this number was revised to 14 teams after two withdrawals, as announced by the GFA eleven days later.^[4] The following day, the number of participants was further reduced to 13 when Leo withdrew from the competition.^[5]

COVID-19 pandemic would cause the season to be suspended in March 2020. The Challenge Group was abandoned, while the Gibraltar FA looked to conclude the Championship Group in some form. On 1 May 2020, the Gibraltar Football Association announced that the domestic football season had been terminated.^[6] After the league had discussions of whether the title would be awarded,^[7] the Gibraltar FA announced on 7 May 2020 the season was declared null and void; the title would remain vacant.^[1]

Format

On 1 August 2019, the GFA confirmed details of the restructure of domestic football in Gibraltar, and the format of the a new 16 team league.^[8] By 12 August, the GFA confirmed two teams would not participate and 14 teams would contest the league.^[4] With Leo's withdrawal the next day, the league was reduced to 13.^[5] Teams will play one round of games as a single league, before splitting into two groups: the Championship Group contested by the top 7 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.

Teams

Victoria Stadium

Location of the stadium where all teams play

16 teams were initially expected to participate in the inaugural National League, with Hound Dogs dropping down to the 2019–20 Gibraltar Intermediate League, having been granted special dispensation by the GFA.

On 9 August, Gibraltar Phoenix withdrew from the league.^[9] Two days before, Gibraltar United were threatened with expulsion if they failed to repay debts by 12 August.^[10]

On 12 August, the GFA confirmed the withdrawal of Gibraltar Phoenix and Gibraltar United.^[4] The day after, Leo withdrew from the league too, after a takeover by King's Lynn Town owner Stephen Cleeve was blocked by the GFA.^[11] On 22 August, it was reported that Olympique 13 were at risk of withdrawing from the league, having forfeited their game against Europa due to a shortage of players.^[12] They were expelled on 11 September.

Teams with a blue background played in the 2018–19 Gibraltar Premier Division. Teams with a red background played in the 2018–19 Gibraltar Second Division.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Club sponsor	2018–19
Boca Gibraltar	Craig Cowell	Julio Bado	ES	Coral Kids Come First	10th
Bruno's Magpies	Juan Maria Sánchez	Brian Perez	Joma	GVC Holdings Chestertons	1st
College 1975	Ángel Espinosa	Nazim Hughes	Joma		5th
Europa	Rafa Escobar	Liam Walker	Jako	La Parrilla Betfred	2nd
Europa Point	Ian Hendon	Antony Moulds	Admiral	Isolas	2nd
Glacis United	Michele Di Piedi	Michele Di Piedi	Nike		8th
Lincoln Red Imps	Germán Crespo	Roy Chipolina	adidas	Mansion.com	1st
Lions Gibraltar	Albert Ferri	Alberto Caravaca	Givova		9th
Lynx	Albert Parody	Mohamed Badr	Givova (home) Zaror (away)	Resolve Salvage & Fire	7th
Manchester 62	David Wilson	Robert Montovio	Joma	CEPSA GIB	4th
Mons Calpe	Luis Manuel Blanco	Kivan Castle	Joma		4th
St Joseph's	Raúl Procopio Baizán	Boro	Joma	M Price	3rd

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Boca Gibraltar	Allen Bula	End of contract	20 May 2019	Pre-season	Christian Ressa	24 July 2019
Europa Point	José Ramón Rojas		25 May 2019		Allen Bula	20 June 2019[13]
Glacis United	Jesús Napolitano		25 May 2019		Bennie Brinkman	1 July 2019
College 1975	Nolan Bosio	Resigned	25 May 2019		Jesús Cano	1 June 2019
Mons Calpe	Luis Manuel Blanco		28 May 2019		William	11 June 2019[14]
Leo	Paco Sánchez	Moved to Assistant Manager	15 June 2019		Dani Amaya	15 June 2019[15]
Manchester 62	Jonathan Sodi	Resigned	19 June 2019		Jeff Wood	19 June 2019[16]
Mons Calpe	William		10 July 2019		David Sanz	19 July 2019[17]
	David Sanz		30 July 2019		Lorenzo Morón	1 August 2019[18]
Lynx	Carlos Gobantes	Signed by Mons Calpe U23	1 August 2019		Albert Parody	2 August 2019
Glacis United	Bennie Brinkman	Mutual consent	3 September 2019	11th	Michele Di Piedi	3 September 2019
Bruno's Magpies	David Wilson	Sacked	3 October 2019	5th	Alfonso Cortijo	18 October 2019
Mons Calpe	Lorenzo Morón		11 October 2019	6th	Leonardo Vela	18 October 2019
Boca Gibraltar	Christian Ressa	Moved to Assistant Manager	18 October 2019	11th	Juan Maria Sánchez	18 October 2019
Manchester 62	Jeff Wood	Mutual consent	21 October 2019	8th	David Wilson	5 November 2019[19]
Europa Point	Allen Bula	Resigned	8 November 2019	10th	Ian Hendon	26 November 2019
Boca Gibraltar	Juan Maria Sánchez		8 November 2019	8th	Juan Carlos Camacho	12 November 2019
Lincoln Red Imps	Víctor Afonso	Mutual consent	19 December 2019[20]	3rd	Germán Crespo	4 January 2020
Mons Calpe	Leonardo Vela		1 January 2020	7th	Luis Manuel Blanco	1 January 2020
Bruno's Magpies	Alfonso Cortijo	Resigned	3 January 2020	5th	Juan Maria Sánchez	3 January 2020
Boca Gibraltar	Juan Carlos Camacho	Mutual consent	9 January 2020	9th	Craig Cowell	9 January 2020
College 1975	Jesús Cano	Sacked	1 February 2020	12th	Ángel Espinosa	1 February 2020

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation[a]
1	Europa (C, Q)	17	16	1	0	85	9	+76	49	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round[b]
2	St Joseph's (Q)	17	14	2	1	58	15	+43	44	Qualification to the Europa League preliminary round
3	Lincoln Red Imps (Q)	17	13	0	4	68	15	+53	39
4	Lynx	17	9	2	6	37	30	+7	29
5	Bruno's Magpies	17	7	0	10	29	41	−12	21
6	Lions Gibraltar	17	4	3	10	30	55	−25	15
7	Mons Calpe	18	10	3	5	49	29	+20	33
8	Europa Point	18	7	4	7	35	38	−3	25
9	Manchester 62	18	6	1	11	21	49	−28	19
10	Boca Gibraltar	17	4	4	9	30	45	−15	16
11	Glacis United	17	3	1	13	21	56	−35	10
12	College 1975	18	0	1	17	18	99	−81	1
13	Olympique 13[c] (D, R)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Disqualified before the end of the season
14	Leo[d] (D, R)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Did not start the season
15	Gibraltar United[e] (R, D)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	Gibraltar Phoenix[f] (R)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
17	Hound Dogs[g] (T)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Will play in the 2019–20 Gibraltar Intermediate League since they were granted special permission by the Gibraltar FA to participate as a senior side.

Source: UEFA, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (D) Disqualified; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated; (T) Qualified, but not yet for the particular phase indicated
Notes:

1. Teams play each other once (11 matches), before the league splits into two groups (the top six and the bottom six) for the last 10 matches.
2. Europa were crowned de facto champions after the season ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Gibraltar.
3. On 22 August, it was reported that Olympique 13 were at risk of withdrawing from the league, having forfeited their game against Europa due to a shortage of players.^[21] They were expelled on 11 September after forfeiting their next games.
4. On 13 August 2019, Leo withdrew after a takeover by King's Lynn Town owner Stephen Cleeve was blocked by the GFA.^[22]
5. On 7 August 2019, Gibraltar United were threatened with expulsion if they failed to repay debts by 12 August.^[23] It was revealed that the club had until the following Monday to repay all of their debts or face expulsion. On 12 August 2019, the team were expelled for not repaying their debts.
6. On 9 August, Gibraltar Phoenix withdrew from the league,^[24] with club owners citing heavy losses in recent years and a lack of success in selling the club to potential investors as the main reasons to cease operations.
7. Hound Dogs dropped down to the 2019–20 Gibraltar Intermediate League, having been granted special dispensation by the GFA.

Results

Matches 1–11

Home \ Away	BOC	BRU	COL	EFC	EPO	GLA	LIN	LGI	LYN	MAN	MON	SJO
Boca Gibraltar		1–2			1–1		1–8		1–3		1–1
Bruno's Magpies				0–6			0–3	2–0			1–3	0–3
College 1975	0–4	1–3		0–12				1–6		0–3	1–9
Europa	6–1				1–0	6–2	4–1		2–0			2–2
Europa Point		2–3	6–1			0–3			0–5	1–3
Glacis United	0–2	0–9	4–0					1–3		2–3	0–5
Lincoln Red Imps			9–1		3–0	8–0			4–0	2–0
Lions Gibraltar	6–4			2–5	0–0		1–7		0–0			0–4
Lynx		2–0	4–0			3–2				5–0	5–1
Manchester 62	0–0	0–2		0–7				0–3			1–4
Mons Calpe				0–7	0–2		0–2	1–1				0–6
St Joseph's	2–0		7–0		5–0	8–1	2–1		1–1	3–0

Source: UEFA
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship Group Home \ Away BRU EFC LIN LGI LYN SJO Bruno's Magpies 0–5 1–5 1–2 Europa 5–0 5–0 3–1 Lincoln Red Imps 0–2 7–1 5–0 Lions Gibraltar 2–3 0–7 2–3 Lynx 3–1 1–3 2–3 St Joseph's 3–1 1–0 5–3 Source: GFA Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Challenge Group Home \ Away BOC COL EPO GLA MAN MON Boca Gibraltar 7–5 2–4 0–2 College 1975 2–6 1–2 0–6 Europa Point 2–1 5–5 2–1 3–1 Glacis United 2–2 1–2 0–1 Manchester 62 1–2 5–0 1–0 1–11 Mons Calpe 1–0 1–1 3–0 Source: GFA Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Scoring

As of 12 March 2020^[25]

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Juanfri	St Joseph's	24
2	Liam Walker	Europa	21
3	Kike Gómez	Lincoln Red Imps	15
4	Manu Dimas	Europa	14
5	Germán Cortés	Boca Gibraltar	12
	Juampe	Europa
	Alberto Caravaca	Lions Gibraltar
	Boro	St Joseph's
9	Sergio Molina Rivero	Lincoln Red Imps	9
	Gato	Lincoln Red Imps

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Boro	St Joseph's	College 1975	7–0 (H)	19 August 2019
Leonardo Carboni	Mons Calpe	College 1975	9–1 (A)	24 August 2019
Gato	Lincoln Red Imps	College 1975	9–1 (H)	19 September 2019
Sergio Molina Rivero	Lincoln Red Imps	College 1975	9–1 (H)	19 September 2019
Sergio Molina Rivero	Lincoln Red Imps	Lions Gibraltar	7–1 (A)	29 September 2019
Juanfri4	St Joseph's	Glacis United	8–1 (H)	20 October 2019
Boro4	St Joseph's	Glacis United	8–1 (H)	20 October 2019
Germán Cortés	Boca Gibraltar	College 1975	4–0 (A)	24 October 2019
Juanfri	St Joseph's	Lions Gibraltar	4–0 (A)	26 October 2019
Manu Dimas	Europa	College 1975	12–0 (A)	1 November 2019
Liam Walker	Europa	College 1975	12–0 (A)	1 November 2019
Juanfri	St Joseph's	Mons Calpe	6–0 (A)	24 November 2019
Kike Gómez	Lincoln Red Imps	Boca Gibraltar	8–1 (A)	27 November 2019
Juampe	Europa	Glacis United	6–2 (H)	29 November 2019
Manu Dimas	Europa	Lions Gibraltar	5–0 (H)	17 January 2020
Julian Del Rio	Lincoln Red Imps	Lynx	5–0 (H)	18 January 2020
Dylan Hernández	Lynx	Bruno's Magpies	3–1 (H)	1 February 2020
James Adams	Boca Gibraltar	College 1975	7–5 (H)	20 February 2020
Germán Cortés	Boca Gibraltar	College 1975	7–5 (H)	20 February 2020
José Oncala4	College 1975	Boca Gibraltar	5–7 (A)	20 February 2020
Sunday Emmanuel	Lincoln Red Imps	Lions Gibraltar	7–1 (H)	21 February 2020
Andre Dos Santos	Mons Calpe	Manchester 62	11–1 (A)	12 March 2020
Santiago Pastorini	Mons Calpe	Manchester 62	11–1 (A)	12 March 2020

Clean Sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Jamie Robba	St Joseph's	7
	Dayle Coleing	Europa
2	Christian Fraiz	Mons Calpe	6
4	Javi Muñoz	Europa	5
	Kyle Goldwin	Lincoln Red Imps
6	Bradley Banda	Lynx	4
7	Francisco Pérez	Lions Gibraltar	3
	Matt Cafer	Bruno's Magpies
	Frank Warwick	Manchester 62
10	Jordan Perez	Boca Gibraltar	2
	Conor O'Keefe[a]	Bruno's Magpies
	Ivan Moreno	Glacis United
	Manuel Soler	Lincoln Red Imps

1. Includes 2 clean sheets for Europa Point.

Awards

Player of the week

Week Player Club Reference 1 Liam Walker Europa [26] 2 Marko Marcius Lynx [27] 3 Jaron Vinet Mons Calpe [28] 4 Michael Ruiz Glacis United [29] 5 Sergio Molina Rivero Lincoln Red Imps [30] 6 Boro St Joseph's [31] 7 Idé Gomes Lincoln Red Imps [32] 8 Luisma Lions Gibraltar [33] 9 Juanfri St Joseph's [34]

Week Player Club Reference 10 Juampe Europa [35] 11 Juampe Europa [36] 12 Jamie Robba St Joseph's [37] 13 Julian Del Rio Lincoln Red Imps [38] 14 Kike Gómez Lincoln Red Imps [39] 15 Dylan Hernández Lynx [40] 16 Willy Europa [41] 17 Sunday Emmanuel Lincoln Red Imps [42] 18 Liam Walker Europa [43]

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Reference
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Albert Parody	Lynx	Alberto Valdivia	Lynx	[44]
September	Víctor Afonso	Lincoln Red Imps	Sergio Molina Rivero	Lincoln Red Imps	[45]
October	Víctor Afonso	Lincoln Red Imps	Juanfri	St Joseph's	[46]
November	Rafa Escobar	Europa	Liam Walker	Europa	[47]
December	Albert Ferri	Lions Gibraltar	Alberto Caravaca	Lions Gibraltar	[48]
January	Rafa Escobar	Europa	Julian Del Rio	Lincoln Red Imps	[49]
February	Rafa Escobar	Europa	Dayle Coleing	Europa	[50]

End-of-season awards

End of season awards were handed out by Football Gibraltar, the Gibraltar Football Association's official UEFA correspondents, on 28 May and 2 June 2020.^[51][52][53]

Award	Winner	Club	Nominees
			Rank	Player	Club
Manager of the Season	Rafa Escobar	Europa	2	Raúl Procopio Baizán	St Joseph's
			3	Albert Ferri	Lions Gibraltar
			4	Albert Parody	Lynx
Goalkeeper of the Season	Dayle Coleing	Europa	2	Jamie Robba	St Joseph's
			3	Kyle Goldwin	Lincoln Red Imps
			4	Bradley Banda	Lynx
Defender of the Season	Olmo González	Europa	2	Sergio Sánchez	Europa
			3	Ezequiel Rojas	St Joseph's
			4	Bernardo Lopes	Lincoln Red Imps
Midfielder of the Season	Liam Walker	Europa	2	Christian Pecci	St Joseph's
			3	Alejandro Avilés	Europa
			4	Dan Bent	Bruno's Magpies
Striker of the Season	Juanfri	St Joseph's	2	Juampe	Europa
			3	Kike Gómez	Lincoln Red Imps
			4	Alberto Caravaca	Lions Gibraltar
Player of the Season	Liam Walker	Europa	2	Juanfri	St Joseph's
			3	Juampe	Europa
Young Player of the Season	Jayce Olivero	Europa	2	Ethan Britto	Lincoln Red Imps
			3	Jaron Vinet	Bruno's Magpies
Challenge Group Player of the Season	Andre dos Santos	Mons Calpe	N/A
Challenge Group Young Player of the Season	Ayoub El Hmidi	Mons Calpe	N/A
Fans' Player of the Season	Liam Walker	Europa	2	Dayle Coleing	Europa
			3	Kike Gómez	Lincoln Red Imps
Fans' Young Player of the Season	Ayoub El Hmidi	Mons Calpe	2	Jayce Olivero	Europa
			3	Ethan Britto	Lincoln Red Imps

Fans' Team of the Season

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Dayle Coleing	Jack Sergeant Bernardo Lopes Olmo González Jayce Olivero	Lee Casciaro Nacho Fernández Aymen Mouelhi Liam Walker	Juanfri Kike Gómez