Bangor City Football Club () was a Welsh football club from the City of Bangor, Gwynedd.
Founded in 1876, Bangor City have been founder members of the North Wales Coast League, the Welsh National League, the North Wales Combination, the Welsh National League (North), the Northern Premier League, the Alliance Premier League and the League of Wales, as well as playing in the inaugural Welsh Cup. The team won the Welsh Cup eight times and the Welsh Premier League three times, as well as taking part in European competitions.
The club's home colours were traditionally royal blue shirts, royal blue shorts and royal blue socks, although over the years home colours were varied to include royal blue and yellow and scarlet and royal blue.
The club last played during the 2021–22 season in the Cymru North the second level of the Welsh football league system. On 30 November 2021 they were suspended from any football activity due to non-payment of staff wages. On 18 February 2022 the club announced they had withdrawn from the league and the Football Association of Wales confirmed the club's results from the league that season have been expunged. The club subsequently failed to apply for tier 2 or tier 3 licences, leaving them unable to play in any Football Association of Wales league for the 2022–23 season.
History
Pre-League of Wales era (1876–1992) Bangor City F.C. was one of Wales' older football clubs, and has played in European football, the English pyramid system and the Cymru Premier.
The club was a founding member of the North Wales Coast League in 1893, the Welsh National League in 1921, the North Wales Combination in 1930, the Welsh League North in 1935, the Northern Premier League in 1968, the Alliance Premier League (now National League) in 1979, and in 1992 the League of Wales.
In 1947 and 1950 Bangor challenged for election to the football leagues Third Division North yet failed on each occasion. In the 1961–62 season, they won the Welsh Cup, and consequently entered in the European Cup Winners' Cup for the first time. In the first round, they were drawn against the Italian Cup winners, Napoli. In the first leg, played at Farrar Road, Bangor won 2–0; three weeks later, in front of a crowd of 80,000 in Naples, the result was 3–1 in Napoli's favour. A playoff had to be played, at Arsenal's Highbury Stadium, in London and AS Napoli won 2–1.
At the end of 1977–78 when Southport was relegated from the English Football League Fourth Division, Bangor City, Boston United and Wigan Athletic were considered for promotion in its place. Due to Wigan Athletic having installed crush barriers, they were elected ahead of Bangor and Boston in the same year Bangor was invited to the 1977–78 Anglo-Italian Cup.
In 1979–80 Bangor City was invited to compete in the Alliance Premier League, which would become the English game's de facto fifth division.
On 12 May 1984 they became the first Welsh club to play at Wembley since Cardiff in 1927, when reaching the FA Trophy final against Northwich Victoria. The match finished 1–1. The replay was played in Stoke's Victoria Ground and Bangor lost 2–1.
In 1985 the club returned to European football in the European Cup Winners' Cup, in the first round drawn against the Norwegian Football Cup winners, Fredrikstad. The first leg in Norway was a 1–1 draw, while the return leg in Bangor was a 0–0 draw, resulting in Bangor progressing to the second round on the "away goals rule", where the club was drawn against the Spanish side Atlético Madrid. The first leg in Bangor was won 2–0 by Atlético. In the return leg in Madrid, Bangor lost 1–0.
The captain of the club during that season was midfielder Mark Palios, who later became chief executive of the English Football Association during 2004–05.
Early League of Wales years (1992–2007) In 1992 the club left the English football pyramid to join the new national League of Wales. In the second season the club were league champions and as champions, entered the UEFA Cup. They were drawn against the Icelandic champions, IA Akranes. Akranes won the tie 4–1.
In 1995 the club retained the League of Wales championship and this time drew the Polish runners-up Widzew Łódź in the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup. Łódź triumphed over City, winning 4–0 in Bangor and 1–0 in Łódź.
In 1998 the club were back in the Cup Winners' Cup, having won the Welsh Cup under the management of Graeme Sharp. Between winning the Welsh Cup and playing their opponents, FC Haka, the manager and most of the team had left, so new manager John King had to put together a completely new side, a week before the start of the Welsh football season (and three-quarters of the way through the Finnish football season). Bangor were beaten 3–0 on aggregate. Bangor city qualified for the 1997–98 FAW Premier Cup but were knocked out by Newtown in the quarter finals
In 2006 the club made it to the Welsh Cup final where they were beaten by Rhyl 2–0 at Wrexham's Racecourse Ground.
Powell years (2007–2016) The club won back the Welsh Cup in 2008 defeating Llanelli 4–2 after extra time at Latham Park, Newtown. Victory in the Welsh Cup meant that Bangor had again qualified for Europe and in the following season's UEFA Cup they were drawn to face FC Midtjylland of Denmark. The tie saw Bangor beaten 10–1 on aggregate.
Bangor ended the 2008–09 season with yet more silverware as they retained the Welsh Cup by defeating Aberystwyth Town 2–0 in a match held at Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli.
The 2008–09 Welsh Cup success meant that Bangor participated in the inaugural Europa League competition at the start of the 2009–10 season. They were drawn to face Honka Espoo in the second qualifying round and were eliminated at the first hurdle losing 3–0 on aggregate.
Bangor made it three Welsh Cup wins in a row in 2009–10 with a 3–2 success against Port Talbot in the Welsh Cup Final, again held at Llanelli.
In the 2010–11 Europa League campaign, Bangor City were drawn against Honka Espoo. They overcame the Finnish side in the Europa League second qualifying round with a 3–2 aggregate scoreline. Bangor succumbed to Portuguese side Marítimo in the third qualifying round. Marítimo won 10–3 on aggregate.
The 2010–11 season marked a significant change in the set-up of the Welsh Premiership, with Bangor one of the 12 sides (down from 18) contesting the championship. They won their opening 15 games of the season, eventually winning their first league title in 16 years on the final day of the season. This was achieved by beating TNS, 1–0.
By winning their competitive league, they were involved in the 2011–12 Champions League campaign. Bangor City were against HJK Helsinki in the second qualifying round but lost 3–0 at home. In the away fixture, Bangor City were beaten 10–0 in the game and 13–0 on aggregate. Bangor finished second in 2011–12's Welsh Premiership, keeping in contention for the title until the final game of the season, a decider against TNS who won the league.
In July 2012 Bangor City forward Les Davies made the 32-man longlist for UEFA's best player in Europe award.
2012–13 began with a 0–0 home draw against Moldovan side FC Zimbru Chisnau in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League, first qualifying round. The Citizens lost the away leg 2–1 to bow out. City finishing third in the league, losing the Welsh Cup Final 3–1 after extra time to Prestatyn Town and then being defeated days later in the European playoffs by Bala Town.
Bangor finished fourth in 2013–14. The team did qualify for 2014–15 Europa League but lost 8–0 on aggregate to Icelandic side Stjarnan. It heralded a slide during which the side was in real danger of relegation for much of the season. The team stayed up in tenth position. 2015–16 was another struggle for the blues, who ended up in ninth place.
In June 2016 it was announced that a Cheshire-based consortium was to take over, promising large investment in the team, plus ground improvements.
On 25 July 2016 Powell was sacked, according to a statement released by the club.
The Vaughan era (2016–2019) In August 2016 Andy Legg was appointed manager of the club. His departure in November 2016 due to his inability to commit to a full-time contract paved the way for Ian Dawes. However, with Welsh Premiership licensing rules stating that every club's head coach/manager must have, or be in the process of attaining, the UEFA Pro Coaching Licence and in the absence of such a qualification, Dawes was gone by March 2017. Gary Taylor-Fletcher then became player-manager. The club qualified via the playoffs for the Europa League under Fletcher's guidance with a 1–0 win at Nantporth against Cardiff Met.
In May 2017, Kevin Nicholson was named as manager with Gary Taylor-Fletcher as assistant. Nicholson holds the UEFA Pro licence. The club qualified automatically for the Europa League for the second successive season, finishing second under Nicholson's guidance as well as being beaten in the semi-final of the Welsh Cup.
In 2016 a company called VSM (Vaughan Sports Management), which became the main shirt sponsors of the club, took over the club. Although convicted criminal Stephen Vaughan Sr. was present at the launch of the new ownership, the new chairman Ivor Jenkins insisted that Vaughan – who is banned from being a company director – was not involved with running the club. Fellow criminal and ex-professional, Stephen Vaughan Jr., was later appointed as Director of Football and a coach at the club.
On 26 April 2018 the FAW Club Licensing Appeals Body decided to revoke the club's Tier 1 and UEFA license due to not meeting financial criteria meaning that they would automatically drop down to the second level of Welsh football the next season, despite a second-placed finish in the Welsh Premier League, and would not be able to compete for a place in the following season's Europa League.
In June 2018 Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs issued up a second winding up petition against the club. This was later dismissed as the tax owed had been paid, albeit late.
In October 2018 the club' auditors, the accountancy firm Salisbury resigned, with a public letter citing 11 points of concern in relation to how the club's owners were managing the club's financial affairs. These concerns included gaps in the clubs' accounts, missing financial documents and around a lack adequate documentation received in relation to cash shares totalling £258,000. The BBC reported that "Those concerns relate to the transfer of 25,800 shares to the company Vaughan Sports Management Ltd, a move which gave the firm significant control of the club".
In March 2019, Vaughan Jnr returned to the club as chairman, having formerly been both Director of Football and interim Manager at the club.