Gibraltar Football Club 1895
Given Gibraltar's strong association with the British armed forces it is unsurprising that football developed there. Even though the territory is less than 7 km square, it saw an early and healthy development of the game.
The Gibraltar Civilian Football Association was founded on May 1st, 1895. There was a small number of civilian teams ( Prince of Wales was founded pre 1892 and Gibraltar Football Club in 1893) and military teams were readily available for fixtures, which was handy as they owned the playing fields.
A cup competition - The Merchants Cup- was also instituted in 1895.
The first winners of the Merchants Cup were Gibraltar Football Club. The next champions were the Jubilee Football Club (1896 and 1897), the Albion Football Club (1898), the Exiles Football Club (1899) and the Prince of Wales Football Club (1900).
In about 1902 the military authorities handed over one of its 4 football grounds (North Front) for the use of civilian teams. This meant that local civilian teams could play between themselves on a regular basis.
A league competition was begun in October 1907 (organized by the Gibraltar Civilian Football
Association). It comprised 8 clubs and the first league champions were Prince of Wales FC.
