Nickname(s) The Lions Ground Capacity 1,500 (200 seated) Manager Andrew Landesberg | Ground Rowley Lane, Arkley Chairman Andrew Landesberg Founded 1995 | |
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Full name London Lions Football Club League Spartan South Midlands Football League | ||
London Lions Football Club are a football club from Barnet, London, England, who are the Saturday team representing the Maccabi London Lions football club currently playing in the Herts Senior County League Premier Division.
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They won the Herts Senior County League Premier Division in 2010, earning them promotion to the Spartan South Midlands League Division One. In 2013 they won the Spartan South Midlands Division One title. The club is affiliated to the Hertfordshire County Football Association, and is a FA Charter Standard club
History
In 1995 the players and officials of Sunday league side Maccabi Association London (MAL) decided to join the Hertfordshire Senior County League with the Club making its debut in the 1995–96 season and was renamed MALEX. They remained an all-Jewish team, the squad in the first four years based on MAL players who were generally playing in the Hendon and District Sunday League and the Maccabi Southern Football League. The club was initially managed by Paul Wise and Malcolm Newman. They were joined by former Brentford striker Francis Joseph, sometimes assisted by Chris Ramsay in one of his first coaching roles.
During the 1999 close season, the club revised its management structure, and decided to change its name to London Maccabi Lions, whilst retaining its all-Jewish status. This brought in an influx of new players, from a number of Maccabi League Clubs and under the management team of Bobby Fisher and Adam Solomons the club lost only three league games as they won the Division 1 title by 4 points.
The club lifted more silverware in 2007 when they defeated Metropolitan Police to lift the Herts Centenary Trophy. In the 2009–10 season the team under the stewardship of Tony Gold and Steve Grenfell won the Herts Senior County League Premier Division, winning promotion to the Spartan South Midlands League Division One.
This promotion was made possible by a ground share with St Albans at Clarence Park, in order to meet the higher league requirements - and the team's nomadic existence continued for a few seasons as Lions also played at Hemel Hempstead and Broxbourne Borough V. & E. F.C.. In the 2010–11 season they added a second Herts Centenary Trophy beating Letchworth Garden City Eagles 3–2.
On 11 August 2012 London Lions became the first Jewish team to win a competitive match in the FA Cup since Wingate beat Acton Town 8-1 in 1948/49 season. The 2012-13 season also saw the club win Division One of the Spartan South Midlands League, and gain promotion to the Premier Division for one season.
They were relegated the following season, and in 2015 resigned from the SSML and re-joined the Herts Senior County League but with hope for a fresh resurgence now the team could return home to Rowley Lane's newly upgraded facilities and a new generation of players committing to the team.
Ground and Club
London Lions moved to Rowley Lane, Arkley in 2002.
In order to avoid the need to continue to play home games elsewhere due to league requirements, the facilities at the Alpha Stadium were upgraded with a new 200-seat stand named the Alan Mattey Stand along with floodlights in 2015; this now gives the club the ability to play at Step 5 as well as FA Vase and FA Cup games where required at Rowley Lane.
The wider Maccabi London Lions club has over 40 Adult, Masters and Junior teams playing in regional Sunday leagues based out of the Rowley Lane facilities.
Prior to 2002 home grounds included The American University in Bushey, Copthall Stadium (now Allianz Park), and Gosling Stadium in Welwyn.