Heartland FC

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Heartland FC
Template: Infobox Football Club / Maintenance / No picture
Basic data
Surname Heartland Football Club
Seat Owerri , Nigeria
founding 4th August 1976
Website heartland-fc.com
First soccer team
Venue Dan Anyiam Stadium
Places 10,000
league Nigerian Premier League
2009/10 8th place
home
Away

Heartland FC is a Nigerian football club from Owerri . Until it was renamed in 2006, the club was called Iwuanyanwu Nationale . The club plays its home games at the Dan Anyiam Stadium . So far, Heartland has won the Nigerian Premier League five times and the Nigerian Football Cup once.

General

Heartland FC plays in all-red shirts. Pants and socks are also in the same color. The club does not currently have a shirt sponsor.

history

Season* space
1985 ?
1986 3
1987 1
1988 1
1989 1
1990 1
1991 10
1992 3
1993 1
1994 13
1995 12
1996 9
1997 7th
1998 9
1999 2 (1)
2000 8 nq
2001 12 nq
2002 4th
2003 5
2004 5
2005 3
2006 4 (group B) nq
2007 3 (group A) nq
2007/08 2
2008/09 2
2009/10 8th
* All seasons in the
Nigerian Premier League .
* nq = not qualified for the final round
* The placement
before the start of the final round are in brackets .

The club was founded on August 4, 1976 as Spartans FC.

In November 1985 the club was renamed from Spartans FC to Iwuanyanwu Nationale FC. The reason for the renaming was the change of ownership of the association. The new owner was the politician and businessman Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu . After a training tour in Brazil , the club achieved its greatest success at the national level to date. In January 1986 the runner-up championship was won. In the following year the second place was achieved again. Only Leventis United had to give way. As Leventis broke up shortly afterwards, Iwuanyanwu Nationale got the chance to represent Nigeria in the African Cup of Champions Clubs , the African Champions League. They were also awarded the title. In the African Cup of Champions Clubs you could reach the final. The first leg was won 1-0. However, they had to admit defeat 4-0 against ES Sétif ( Algeria ) in the second leg . It went a little better nationally. In the final of the cup, they won 3-0 against Flash Flamingoes of Benin . The championship was also won and thus the double was perfect. In 1989 the league title was defended. The team was also back in the cup final, where they had to bow 0: 1 to the BCC Lions .

In 1990 the title was defended for the third time. In the African Cup of Champions Clubs Iwuanyanwu Nationale reached the semi-finals. A year later you could advance to the semi-finals again. However, the championship title was not defended. After a two-year dry spell, the title was brought back to Owerri in 1993. With a 2-0 away win against the El-Kanemi Warriors , the success on the final day was made perfect. As a result, after two years of abstinence, they were back in the African Cup of Champions Clubs. In the quarter-final first leg on September 18, 1993 they lost 3-0 to Espérance Sportive de Tunis . On the same day as the team was on the way home with a charter plane, the plane was propped up in the south of Algeria , near Tamaransett . Two players, defender Aimola Omale and goalkeeper Uche Ikeogu , died. The second leg was then postponed from October 3rd to October 10th. The end result was 1: 1, which meant that Nationale was eliminated.

Since that disaster, the club has become quiet. Titles are largely absent. In 1999 they won the league, but had to admit defeat in the Super League playoff against the Lobi Stars of Makurdi. In 2003 the team finished third in the Premier League, which gave them the right to start in the CAF Champions League .

On February 7, 2006, the state government stripped the owner Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu of all rights to the club and renamed him Heartland FC.

In 2007 they just missed out on participation in the Super 4 playoffs in Group A of the Globacom Premier League. With 29 points they had one less than the Enugu Rangers International , which was in second place . What was particularly annoying for Heartland was that only three games were lost. That is two fewer than the first-placed Wikki Tourists . However, there are eight draws. The 2007/08 season had some changes compared to the previous game mode. Instead of two groups and a subsequent play-off phase, the leagues were merged and based on European standards. The new season started with 20 teams. In the end, Heartland came second behind the Kano Pillars . Only one point was missing from the championship. In the following year it was only enough for the runner-up title. This time you had to give way to Bayelsa United , even though you could win the first leg against the eventual title holder. On the last day of the match, the Bayelsa team were only two points ahead. With their 1-1 draw against Warri Wolves , it was still possible to reach first place in the table. However, the Heartland team lost to the Niger Tornadoes and had to admit defeat in the competition.

History of the name

  • 1976–1985: Spartans FC
  • 1985-2006: Iwuanyanwu National FC
  • Since 2006: Heartland FC

successes

Well-known former players

(Selection)

Heartlands trainer

(incomplete)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Profile on nigeriafootballleague.org ( Memento of the original from July 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nigeriafootballleague.org
  2. ↑ Table of the 2007 Nigerian Premier League
  3. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com/tablesn/nig08.html Table of the Nigerian Premier League 2007/08
  4. ↑ Nigeria 2008/09 on rsssr.com
  5. ↑ Heartland FC sack Bulgarian coach from January 20, 2009 on news.bbc.co.uk (English)