History

Nicos AFC

Sporto A.F.C. is an ethnically diverse amateur football club based in the North West of Glasgow. The club was formed in 2001 by Asanga Wijinatre and Stephen McGurn as a college project when the team then was known as Nicos AFC and managed by Kal Ahmed. The club joined the Burnside Sunday Amateur football league that year, starting off in Division 2, and enjoyed a successful year finishing 2nd in the league, narrowly missing out on the championship to Scottish Cup finalists Barrhead, but still gaining promotion to the 1st division.

Bar Sporto AFC

The following year the club changed its name to Bar Sporto AFC and was sponsored by the pub in Waterloo St. A stable first season in the top flight resulted and the team enjoying a decent run in the Scottish Cup which saw them eventually knocked out of the competition in the 5th round.

The following season (2003/2004) saw the club lift its first piece of silverware. After a disappointing league season which saw the team finish 6th in the league the club made up for it in the cup competitions. Bar Sporto played in three cup competitions that season and, following an early exit in the Scottish, the team went on a cup run in the Burnside League Cup getting all the way to final where they were beaten by 5-3 by league champions Centaur.

A month later the team were back in another cup final, this time in the Bronze Cup, beating Forgewood 4-2 on penalties, after a thrilling 2-2 extra-time draw, to lift the cup. The 2004/2005 season saw the team end it's association with Bar Sporto but many of the players liked the name Sporto so it was decided to keep that part of the name. The team however endured it's rockiest spell, losing many of its regular players and struggled to it’s worst finish in the league of 7th. However the team did manage to get the League Cup semi-final, where the team narrowly lost to current Sunday Scottish Cup holders Finnart, and then the semi-final of the Burnside Bronze Cup.

A new era

The end of the 2004/2005 season saw changes at the top as Kal Ahmed stepped down as team manager, becoming the clubs first Honorary President, with senior players Jamie Wilson, taking over as Team Manager, and Raymond McDonald as the Assistant Manager for the season ahead. The team then resigned from the Burnside Sunday AFL and joined the Glasgow District Sunday AFL. The management quickly went to work trying to rebuild the team and were able to attract some former players back to the team as they began season 2005/06 in the 3rd Division of the Glasgow Sunday. Following an up and down season eventually finished 3rd in the league and gained promotion to Division 2.

The following season Sporto AFC strengthened further and enjoyed a terrific start to the season winning their first 5 games and notching up and impressive 42 goals and only conceding 4. This was to be another exciting season as Sporto were in the hunt for the Division Two championship right up until the last week of the season. But due to a fixture back log and a series of awarded points to our nearest rivals, Sporto finished 3rd in the league gaining promotion into Division 1.

From Sunday to Saturday

It was change again for the club as the players indicated a desire to play Saturday football instead of Sunday. The management and committee applied successfully for entry into the Scottish Amateur Football League and have started season 2007/08 in Division 2 of Scotland's oldest amateur football league. This has been a transitional period for the club with some up and down results but with Kal Ahmed is back involved with the management of the club, and the several new appointments to the committee, the club will continue to grow and improve.

The club's debut season in the Scottish Amateur League by all accounts was successful with the club winning promotion again making it 3 promotion season's in a row under the stewardship of Jamie Wilson.

The club now faces the difficult task of winning Division 1 to make it 4 in a row.