Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and in this video, we’re talking about the history of Futbol Club de Roast. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.
FC Roast is a soccer club based in London, with Irish Roots. For the 2019 season, it will begin playing in West London though it played in north London previously. London is located in the southern-central part of England in the United Kingdom.
The club currently play in the Middlesex County Football League Division One, which is the 12th division in the English football pyramid. FC Roast’s home ground is called Holland Park and holds about 500 spectators.
Origin
The club started as a five a side team back in 2015, made up of seven players all coming from the West of Ireland. After some successful performances and title wins on the 5 a side pitch, and very successful post game pints, the players decided to step it up and enter a competitive 11 a side league.
Once the now famous club crest was conceptualized and designed, they knew they had no choice but to enter a team. Helped by the worrying amount of West Ireland immigrants into London, the club got together a squad of 16 players, which included an Italian, Nigerian and a couple of English born players. The one prerequisite to joining the club was that, they all had to drink like Irishmen.
The Roasts had a clear playing philosphy, modelled on the Pep Guardiola approach, with their initial management style inspired by Socrates and his democratic ideals of managing a football team at Corinthians.
As expected, the performances on the pitch were mixed in the 2018-2019 season, with it being its first season as a true club. But it provided some great moments, as FC Roast got to play in front of 1,500 fans, gathered 2,500 instagram followers, 100s of thousands of tweet impressions and sold close to 100 jerseys on the back of our unique club crest.
Nickname
The club’s nickname is the Roasts. A Roast is an Irish slang word, used as a pejorative against people from the countryside. It’s basically like a “redneck” in American lingo. As the club’s original players all came from the countryside in Ireland, the club’s name & nickname is meant as self-deprecating humor.
Crest
The crest idea was inspired by AS Roma which represents the myth of the founding of Rome. Similarly, the Roast crest represents the ideas and culture of the founding of FC Roast, except it’s anything but a myth.
The Cow is a symbol of the club’s Irish roots, more so their countryside background. And the cow produces Guinness, instead of milk, which the club assures me is a dream of many Irish men.
The ‘O’ in Roast is a Roast potato, with obvious connotations to the Irish stereotype of potato lovers.
And the final element of intrigue is the long narrow thing coming out of the cows mouth, Some say it’s a spliff, but for legal reasons the Roasts insists it’s a piece of straw ;).
Important Events
With the club being relatively new, I only want to highlight 1 event in the club’s history.
On May 11, 2019, FC Roast was scheduled to play Clapton CFC in the second to last match of the season. The match was scheduled as an FC Roast home fixture and Clapton needed to win to secure the league title. Due to Clapton’s massive fanbase, FC Roast actually decided to give up home field advantage in return for a split of the gate receipts.
Over 1,200 supporters showed up for the match, which was the most people many of the players had ever played in front of.
Though FC Roast lost the match 3-0, the money received greatly boosted the club’s then bare bank balance. The injection of funds helped FC Roast get a new jersey designed and manufactured, which I am sporting right here. Icarus FC did a great job manufacturing the kit and you can purchase one of these beauties on the FC Roast website, which we have linked in the video description.
The funds, coupled with the reception of the jersey on social media has given FC Roast a massive platform for the 2019-2020 season. A lot of the credit for all of this can be traced back to the decision to play the May 11 match on the road.
Supporters
One of FC Roast’s hardcore fans named “Hanza” has come up with a huge catalogue of famous club chants. The best and most sung is about a player called Stephen “Boo” Hargadon. The chant is sung to the tune of “Who let the dogs out”, the timeless classic by the Baha Men – special side note, I actually own the Baha Men’s CD with this song.
The chant goes “Who put the ball out…Boo boo boo boo…Who put the ball out…etc etc”
Noteworthy Players
If every club need a hero, then the Roasts need an anti-hero. And in the cult club figure Stephen “Boo” Hargadon, the Roasts have just that. Boo came to prominence in the 2018-2019 season through his social media antics, and frankly nihilistic and abusive behavior towards himself and the opposition, Boo has become that man people love to hate. He averages a yellow card every other game, and his disdain for referees shows no sign of slowing down with his old age.
Rivals
Strangely enough, FC Roast’s biggest rivals are a club based in the West of Ireland, the club’s spiritual homeland. The rivals are called Boyle Celtic, and FC Roast travels back West to play them once a year. The once friendly rivalry was turned sour by the unceremonious depature of FC Roast club founder Ciaran Harrington. With little warning, Harrington left the Roasts only to be seen wearing the green and white hoops of Boyle Celtic in that same season. The rivalry match is played around Christmas time, and for one night only, all rivalry is put aside and the both sides get together in Lavins Pub in Boyle to drink the best Guinness in the West!
Stats & Records
The stats and records we’re about to discuss are as of September 2019, which is when we are recording this video.
The Roasts have had 2 seasons as an FA affiliated club, so it is entering its second season in the 12th division.
The club has no titles yet but hopes to add silverware soon.
The Roast’s record first team appearance holder is Stephen “Boo” Hargadon. Boo somehow managed to avoid any bans last season and played every single game.
The club’s record goal scorer is Bradley Barraclough, who is a journeyman English striker and scored 30 goals from only 25 games.
The club’s attacking, pass it from the back philosophy doesn’t tend to lead to too many clean sheets, so no clean sheet record holder to highlight here.
The club doesn’t really have record transfers in or out, but FC Roast’s first ever foreign import, “Maxi”, was signed after impressing at a trial 7-a-side match. Maxi bought the club members a round of Guinness on signing, so the club actually made a profit on his signing.
And one last interesting fact about the club: the founders of FC Roast come from two small towns in the west of Ireland. The towns are Boyle and Sligo, with a combined population of 25,000, 5,000 of which are in Boyle. At time of recording, there have been over 20 players who have played for the Roasts that have come just from that small corner of Ireland. It’s Probably not the best sign from an Irish perspective, but The Roasts have taken full advantage of this connection!
So there you have it… a bit of history on Futbol Club de Roast. Let’s continue the discussion in the comments section below the video.
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