Rock's 11 teams get League qualifying chance – including its own Man United
GIBRALTAR has been given Champions League qualifying status following its acceptance into the UEFA in May this year.
And the Rock's national team will be able to try out for the Euro Cup 2016 as well as each of the Champions Leagues.
Gibraltar, an outpost of Britain on the southernmost tip of Spain right next to La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz), has around 30,000 inhabitants ranging from native Gibraltarians who are mostly a British-Spanish descendent mix, as well as UK nationals and Spaniards – and thousands more who live in the Cádiz province work on the Rock.
It also has eight teams in its Premier Division including Lincoln, a side which has won 11 consecutive titles, St Joseph's, Lynx, Lions Gibraltar, Glacis College Cosmo, Gibraltar Phoenix and – surprisingly – Manchester United.
Captain of the Gibraltar-based Man U, Matthew Reoch, believes it would be 'rather ambitious' to believe one of the Rock's teams could make the Euro Cup match in three years' time, but says 'maybe in 40 years' they might achieve it.
He says the Club's name comes from a group of Man United supporters living in Gibraltar in 1962 who set up a team in the league amongst themselves.
And a player from the 'original' Manchester United, Danny Higginbotham, 34, has offered to sign up for the Gib-based version of the Club.
Unlike Reoch, however, the Gibraltarian national team captain and skipper for the seemingly perpetual Lincoln side, Roy Chipolina, has no doubt the Rock can join the 'big boys' sooner or later.
He says the 11 teams are all playing better now that they have a chance of competing at world level.
Now they have such a huge goal to aim for, they are 'excited' about the opportunity and are working harder, Chipolina reveals.
Players and people are starting to look at Gibraltar's football teams in a new light, he says.
