Kirkenes FC
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| Full name | Kirkenes Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | Red Firm | ||
| Ground | Exhibition Place, Kirkenes | ||
| Capacity | 38,600 | ||
| Manager |  Margerie Pax | ||
| League | Kelssek Championship | ||
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Kirkenes F.C. is a professional football club playing in the Kelssek Football League Championship. Their home stadium Exhibition Place is located on the shores of the Inner Harbour of Kirkenes, Kelssek's largest city. Known colloquially as the Red Firm or by their initials KFC, they have won the league title five times along with one IFCF Champions League title, only the second club in Kelssek to have won the world championship. It is also the football club in Kelssek with the most subscribing members. Kirkenes has also set the record for an incoming transfer fee twice in a row, first for Catheline Matthias and prior to the KFL79 season for Banijan forward Yob Yeyeh Aan, who joined from FK Arsika for a fee of ϑ3 million.
Under manager Natalia Rossi, who was appointed ahead of KFL season 66, Kirkenes won its first Patriotes Cup and became the second Kelssek team to win an international tournament by beating Strathcona Internationals in the final of the 12th Vilitan Cove Invitational. Kirkenes also reached the Champions League round of 16, its best result in the IFCF tournaments. Rossi's tenure was fraught with an inability to progress towards challenging for the league title however, and a series of losses late in the KFL 71 season capped by a humiliating Anglian Derby loss to Burnaby led her to be dismissed after almost six years in charge.
Daniel Archer's tenure didn't immediately deliver success, but the signing of Catheline Matthias for a transfer fee that set a new league record eventually paid off with the first league championship in 33 years. The following year they went on to win the 16th IFCF Champions League at the Stadium Konueira, the home ground of their major domestic rivals. This was the first of three consective IFCF finals the club reached, although they lost both of them and a decline in league form led to the decision to replace Archer at the end of his contract.
Fan culture
The words of the club's iconic supporter song are: Kirkenes, between the valleys / That is where I want to be / At the Ex, with the Red Firm / They're the greatest team in history. You'd think a Girl Guides campfire song is a strange choice for people heavily into performative masculinity, but there you go.
Rivalries
Kirkenes's most important rivalries are the Anglian Derby against Burnaby SC and the War of the Crowns against CF Outineau. These matches against two of Kelssek's other big clubs often carry key implications for league position and championship chances. A major cultural element exists with both rivalries too, against Burnaby is a match between the two biggest Anglian cities in Kelssek, with Burnaby's stereotypical free-thinking, mountain-climbing, progressive culture pit as a contrast to business-oriented, straight-laced, suit-wearing Kirkenes. Alternative names for this rivalry include "long black/flat white" in reference to alleged coffee preferences in the respective cities and "freshy-salty" to the type of water body the respective cities are located by.
In the War of the Crowns against CF Outineau, animosity is rooted in that historical conflict but also involving linguistic and religious differences, and in which incidents of racism and sectarian abuse are sadly common.
Kirkenes also has an intra-city rivalry with Passerine, which was known as North York prior to its insolvency and merger with Dungeaf during the KFL 66 season. Passerine is seen as representing the working class and northern districts of the city, and historically was associated with the republican movement during the Kelssek Revolution. As a result, and despite the club's efforts to distance itself and ban members of such groups from its stadium, right-wing ultras have gravitated to Kirkenes FC and form a significant part of its fanbase. The smaller clubs in Noua Cymru including Hamiltonian Cambria, St. David Wanderers, Saintsport Heath, and Wynleth Flyers all also fancy taking the big boys down a peg, if they can.
Honours
- Kelssek Championship (5): 9, 18, 37, 42, 75
- Runners-up: 60, 61, 70
- Patriotes Cup (1): 16[a]
- International
- IFCF Champions League (1): 16
- Runners-up: 17
- IFCF Associations Trophy
- Runners-up: 8
- Vilitan Cove Invitational (1): 12[a]
Players
Current squad
- As of KFL season 79
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under World Cup Committee eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WCC nationality.
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Notable players
Catheline Matthias - Striker who set league record for most expensive incoming transfer. KFL75 Player of the Year; captained team to Champions League win and three straight IFCF finals.
Quinten van der Ven - KFL 73 Young Player of the Year and Championship winner before leaving for Ridgewell Rovers.
Bastian Wolff - Legend status for his dedication to the club through the lean years before winning the Championship and Champions League at the end of his career.
Victor Nyquist - Club captain for over five seasons with his career culminating in the KFL75 league title, played nine years at the club, nominated for Kelssek Player of the Year once.
Ceferino Audiol - Juvencus wonderkid. Bags goals, wins league title. Does not elaborate, leaves.
- Played in major international tournaments while at the club
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Recent seasons
- Key
- nQR–nth qualifying round; nR–nth round; PO–Playoff round; GS–Group stage; R16–Round of 16; R32–Round of 32; QF–Quarterfinals; SF–Semifinals; F–Finalist; W–Winner
- CL Champions League; ChC Challengers Cup; AT Associations Trophy; CWC Cup Winners' Cup
| Season | League | Cup | IFCF/UICA | Other | ||||||||
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| Division | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Rank | ||||
| 60 | Champ | 38 | 16 | 14 | 8 | 60 | 41 | 62 | 2nd | 3R | ||
| 61 | Champ | 38 | 22 | 9 | 7 | 82 | 65 | 75 | 2nd | 4R | ChC 1PR | |
| 62 | Champ | 38 | 22 | 7 | 9 | 79 | 49 | 73 | 3rd | 3R | ChC 3PR | |
| 63 | Champ | 38 | 20 | 6 | 12 | 54 | 47 | 66 | 6th | 4R | ChC QR | |
| 64 | Champ | 38 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 41 | 29 | 69 | 3rd | 3R | ||
| 65 | Champ | 38 | 18 | 5 | 15 | 63 | 56 | 59 | 7th | 3R | ChC R16 | |
| 66 | Champ | 38 | 16 | 11 | 11 | 41 | 27 | 59 | 10th | 3R | ||
| 67 | Champ | 38 | 22 | 7 | 9 | 86 | 63 | 73 | 4th | W | VCI W | |
| 68 | Champ | 38 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 61 | 44 | 55 | 8th | QF | ChC PO | CWC R16 |
| 69 | Champ | 38 | 16 | 10 | 12 | 65 | 54 | 58 | 9th | SF | ||
| 70 | Champ | 38 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 84 | 42 | 82 | 2nd | 4R | ||
| 71 | Champ | 38 | 23 | 5 | 10 | 81 | 44 | 74 | 5th | QF | CL R16 | |
| 72 | Champ | 38 | 22 | 8 | 8 | 67 | 36 | 74 | 4th | QF | ChC 4QR | |
| 73 | Champ | 38 | 22 | 4 | 12 | 73 | 49 | 70 | 6th | QF | ChC GS | |
| 74 | Champ | 38 | 21 | 5 | 12 | 80 | 44 | 68 | 5th | 4R | ChC 2QR | |
| 75 | Champ | 38 | 24 | 9 | 5 | 81 | 34 | 81 | 1st | QF | ChC 2QR | |
| 76 | Champ | 38 | 21 | 7 | 10 | 83 | 49 | 70 | 4th | 3R | CL W | |
| 77 | Champ | 38 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 70 | 47 | 63 | 5th | SF | CL F | |
| 78 | Champ | 38 | 20 | 8 | 10 | 61 | 38 | 68 | 5th | QF | AT F | |
Coaching staff
- Manager: Margerie Pax
- Assistant manager:
Nigella Daywell - Coaches: Irène Fekete, Brad Brunelle
Managerial history
Natalia Rossi (66-71)- Daniel Archer (72-78)