Welcome To Sliema Wanderers football Club official website

In 1902, two teams were founded in the town of Sliema - Sliema Rovers and Sliema Amateurs. A year later, another two teams were formed Sliema Union and Sliema Eagles. Henry J. Miller and Mr Portelli called a meeting for players with the aim of forming another team, Sliema FC. The club's colours consisted of yellow shirts and black shorts.

Sliema Wanderers were officially founded in 1909 although the first game by the Wanderers was played on the 3rd October 1908 against St George's in the Boys Junior football league for Under 21 teams. Sliema had a number of English players and supporters since Sliema was one of the main harbours for the English fleet in the Mediterranean.

It seems that most of these Englishmen supported Bolton Wanderers or Wolverhampton Wanderers and from there, Sliema got the name Sliema Wanderers.

What led to the change of colours was a friendly match against rivals Floriana. Sliema had yellow and green shirts, Floriana red and green.

Sliema decided to change their colours and opted for blue which is the colour of the sea which surrounds Sliema and light blue which represents the colour of Our Lady of the Sea which was the first parish in Sliema.

The first match between Sliema and Floriana was played at the Lyceum ground. The referee abandoned this match with Floriana leading 1-0 after he had given Sliema a goal and then annulled it. The game was replayed two months later with Floriana winning again 1-0. From this match onwards, a keen rivalry was established between the two clubs.

Sliema won their first honour in 1917/18 when they won the Cousis Shield - one of the first Knock-Out competitions. The first league title arrived two years later. Their first championship win was in 1919/20. Since then, for almost 50 years, Sliema and Floriana dominated the local scene.

On four occasions, they managed to win the Quadruple Crown. The first time was during season 1923/24. They repeated this success in 1955/56 and 1964/65. As football moved from the Gzira Stadium to Ta' Qali, other clubs climbed to the top with Sliema and Floriana tasting relegation for the first time.

Sliema were relegated in season 1982/83.Strangely enough, at the end of the first round, they were in the runner-up position but finally were relegated together with Zebbug Rangers.

After winning the First Division championship, they were back among the elite of Maltese football. Sliema Wanderers won two Premier League titles in 1988/89 and 1995/96, before claiming three successive titles between seasons 2002/2003 and 2004/2005. In season 2003/2004, they also secured the double for the first time in almost four decades.

Sliema first took part in European Competitions in 1963/64 when they took part in the Cup Winners Cup.

They tied 0-0 at home to Borough United of Wales, losing 2-0 in Wales. They managed to qualify for a further round in season 1968-69 when they eliminated Rumelange of Luxembourg 2-2 on the away-goals rule in the Cup Winners Cup.

Recently, in season 1996-97 Sliema eliminated Margveti Zestaphoni of Georgia with an aggregate of 4-3 following an incredible 3-0 win in Georgia

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