FC Midtjylland

FC Midtjylland

Full name	Football Club Midtjylland
Nickname(s)	Ulvene (The Wolves)
Short name	FCM
Founded	2 February 1999 (2 February 1999)
Ground	MCH Arena, Herning
Ground Capacity	11,800
Owner	FC Midtjylland A/S and Matthew Benham
Chairman	Johnny Rune
Manager	Jess Thorup
League	Danish Superliga
2014–15	Danish Superliga, 1st
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours European away colours

FC Midtjylland (Danish: [ˈmid̥ɕɛlɑnˀ], "Central Jutland") is a professional Danish football team from Herning and Ikast in the Western part of Jutland. The team was a result of a merger between Ikast FS (which also includes tennis, badminton and handball clubs) and Herning Fremad. FC Midtjylland plays in the Danish Superliga, and won the national league for the first time in 2015.

Club history

Stadium of FC Midtjylland. MCH Arena

FC Midtjylland was founded by Johnny Rune, a carpenter and owner of a private business in the wood-supply industry, and Steen Hessel, an authorized Mercedes Benz dealer.

The two men wanted to unite the football clubs Ikast FS (founded 1935) and Herning Fremad (founded 1918) – clubs that for decades had been strong rivals, but had never played any significant role in Danish football. Ikast FS had some success in the late 70s and 80s, but that was about it. At least 10 years had passed with the two clubs being unable to agree on a merger, but on 6 April 1999, a deal was finalized and announced at a press conference the next day.

In 2000 FC Midtjylland were promoted to the Danish Superliga, after a season in which the team had gathered more points than any other team in the history of the 1st division.

In July 2014, Matthew Benham (owner of English Championship side Brentford) became the majority shareholder of FC Midtjylland's parent company FCM Holding.^[1] In the season 2014–15 they won the Championship in the Danish Superliga.

Scouting and developing

FC Midtjylland have generally built a reputation of finding and developing promising talents.

In July 2004, FC Midtjylland was the first Danish club to have its own football academy, similar to that of French side FC Nantes Atlantique. The academy attracts players from throughout Denmark, as well as players from a partnering club in Nigeria – F.C. Ebedei. The club has developed a network of over 100 clubs located in the western part of Jutland.

In 2008 Simon Kjær, a talent of the academy, was sold to U.S. Città di Palermo in Italy. The transfer fee was approximately DKK 30 million, equal to 4 million €.^[2] In 2010 Sune Kiilerich, another talent of the academy, was sold to U.C. Sampdoria and Winston Reid, an academy product and New Zealand international, was sold to West Ham United F.C. for DKK 32 million, equal to 4.26 million € ^[3][4]

Achievements

In the 2014–2015 season of the Danish Superliga, FC Midtjylland were able to win their first major trophy as they took home the Danish Championship. During the season FC Midtjylland achieved an impressive 15 straight home ground victories on MCH Arena.

Prior to the 2014–2015 season, the club had two 2nd-place finishes and four 3rd-place finishes in the Superliga and had been runner-up four times in the Danish Cup final. The club's best international result was in the 2002–03 season when the team reached the 2nd round of the UEFA cup, losing to RSC Anderlecht of Belgium.

In the 2008–09 season they reached the second qualifying round of the competition, beating Manchester City 1–0 in Manchester in the first leg of the tie, with Danny Olsen scoring a first half goal.^[5] It was Manchester City's first ever loss at home to a foreign team, having only ever lost at home in European Competition to Chelsea. Manchester City won the return leg in Denmark 1–0 after Danny Califf scored a last minute own-goal. Neither team was able to score in extra time and Midtjylland eventually lost the tie on penalties.^[6]

Stadium

In 2004 the team moved to a new stadium in Herning with a capacity of approximately 12,000 spectators. FC Midtjylland was the first Danish club to sell the stadium name to a sponsor, resulting in the name MCH Arena.

The opening match on 27 March proved to be a success with FC Midtjylland beating AB 6–0. Five of the goals were scored by Egyptian striker, former AB player Mohamed Zidan and the stadium has been nicknamed the Zidan arena.

Supporters

Black Wolves is the official fanclub of FC Midtjylland.^[7] It was founded in the beginning in August 1999, as the official fanclub of Ikast FS 1993 "Yellow Flames" changed their name at an extraordinary general meeting. Ultra Boys Midtjylland is the first ultra firm in Midtjylland. It was established in 2007 and later renamed to Ultras Midtjylland.

Recent history

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Notes
2008–09	SL	4	33	16	7	10	55	46	55	3rd Round
2009–10	SL	6	33	14	5	14	41	41	47	Finalist
2010–11	SL	4	33	13	10	10	50	42	49	Finalist
2011–12	SL	3	33	17	7	9	50	40	58	1/16 Finals
2012–13	SL	6	33	12	11	10	51	47	47	quarter-final
2013–14	SL	3	33	16	7	10	61	38	55	Fourth round
2014–15	SL	1	33	22	5	6	64	34	71	Fourth round

Players

Current squad

As of 1 January 2016^[8][9]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Kian Hansen 3 MF Tim Sparv 4 DF Nikolay Bodurov (on loan from Fulham) 5 MF Harmeet Singh 6 DF Jim Larsen 7 MF Jakob Poulsen 8 MF Petter Andersson 10 FW Martin Pušić 11 FW Marco Ureña 14 FW Václav Kadlec 15 DF Bödvar Bödvarsson (on loan from FH Hafnarfjarðar) 16 GK Johan Dahlin 17 MF Kristoffer Olsson 22 MF Mikkel Duelund

No. Position Player 26 DF Patrick Banggaard 27 MF Pione Sisto 28 DF André Rømer 31 GK Mikkel Andersen 32 DF Kristian Bach Bak (captain) 33 FW Paul Onuachu 36 MF Rilwan Hassan 38 GK Patryk Wolański 45 MF Awer Mabil 70 DF Filip Novák 77 MF Daniel Royer — DF Daniel O'Shaughnessy (on loan from Brentford) — MF Kaan Kairinen

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player — FW Marco Larsen (on loan to Vejle BK until 30 June 2016) — MF Jonas Gemmer (on loan to AC Horsens until 30 June 2016)

No. Position Player — MF Babajide David (on loan to Thisted FC until 30 June 2016) — MF Musefiu Ashiru (at Skive IK until 30 June 2016)

Youth team

See: FC Midtjylland Academy

Managers

• Ove Pedersen (1 July 1999 – 30 June 2002)
• Troels Bech (1 July 2002 – 31 Dec 2003)
• Erik Rasmussen (1 Jan 2004 – 30 June 2008)
• Thomas Thomasberg (1 July 2008 – 11 Aug 2009)
• Allan Kuhn (12 Aug 2009 – 15 April 2011)
• Glen Riddersholm (16 April 2011– 25 June 2015)
• Jess Thorup (12 July 2015 –

FCM in Europe

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2001–02	UEFA Cup	QR	Glentoran	1–1	4–0	5–1
		1R	Sporting Lisbon	0–3	2–3	2–6
2002–03	UEFA Cup	QR	FK Pobeda	3–0	0–2	3–2
		1R	NK Varaždin	1–0	1–1	2–1
		2R	RSC Anderlecht	0–3	1–3	1–6
2005–06	UEFA Cup	1Q	B36 Tórshavn	2–1	2–2	4–3
		1R	CSKA Moscow	1–3	1–3	2–6
2007–08	UEFA Cup	1Q	Keflavík ÍF	2–1	2–3	4–4
		2Q	FC Haka	5–2	2–1	7–3
		1R	Lokomotiv Moscow	1–3	0–2	1–5
2008–09	UEFA Cup	1Q	Bangor City	4–0	6–1	10–1
		2Q	Manchester City	0–1	1–0	2–4(p)
2011–12	UEFA Europa League	2Q	The New Saints	5–2	3–1	8–3
		3Q	Vitória S.C.	0–0	1–2	1–2
2012–13	UEFA Europa League	PO	Young Boys Bern	0–3	2–0	2–3
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	PO	Panathinaikos	1–2	1–4	2–6
2015–16	UEFA Champions League	2Q	Lincoln Red Imps	1–0	2–0	3–0
		3Q	APOEL	1–2	1–0	2–2(a)
	UEFA Europa League	PO	Southampton	1–0	1–1	2–1
		Group D	Napoli	1–4	0–5	2nd
			Club Brugge	1–1	3–1
			Legia Warsaw	1–0	0–1
		R32	Manchester United	–	–	–

Honours

• Danish Football Championship
  • Winner: 2014–15
  • Runner-up: 2006–07, 2007–08
• 1st Division
  • Winner: 1999–2000
• Danish Cup
  • Runner-up: 2002–03, 2004–05, 2009–10, 2010–11

Achievements

• 12 seasons in the Highest Danish League
• 1 season in the Second Highest Danish League

Superleague Formula

FC Midtjylland has a team in the Superleague Formula race car series where football teams lend their name to cars. They made their debut in the 2009 season. Hitech Racing has operated the car and Kasper Andersen is the driver. FC Midtjylland and Andersen have been plagued by reliability problems and accidents. They have had 1 pole position, pipping Rangers F.C. to the honour at Circuit Zolder.

In spring 2010 FC Midtjylland closed FCM Racing, due to lack of sponsors.^[10]

References

External links

• Official website
• Ikast FS's website
• Herning Fremad's website
• Black Wolves – Official fanclub
• Messecenter Herning's website