LEICESTER NIRVANA FC

Leicester Nirvana Football Club

Nirvana History

Leicester Nirvana Football Club (Nirvana) nurtures junior talent from the age of 2 years (Nirvana Nippers) up to Seniors football. Providing a clear pathway for young players to develop in to men’s football. The club has grown tremendously over the years and now has close to 20 teams throughout the ages of under 7’s through to men’s. The club structure also includes Nirvana Nippers ages 2 years to 4 years and Nirvana Development club ages 5 years to 8 years.

Nirvana is known for developing young talented players and strong teams with many of those teams playing at the higher end of the league structures.  Today, Nirvana embodies more than a football club and aims to be a platform that allows young people life changing opportunities via football or other arenas. With a strong community focus, Nirvana will continue to fuse football and the sporting development of individuals, with the wider support of advocacy to influence public policy and the decisions that ultimately affect our members.

Nirvana FC began its activities in Leicester in the mid-1980s growing out of the Red Star youth group in the city. The club has always had a strong BME holding but discriminates against no one and welcomes all. A real local community club for the whole city, especially for parents and their children from multi-racial inner city backgrounds. Nirvana is a true local melting pot around the integrative sport of football.  Starting on Victoria Park in south Leicester in the local Mutual League, Nirvana lacked the resources and the facilities demanded by the local football pyramid. In 1989 the club’s senior adult side moved out of Leicestershire football to join the Central Midlands League. But in the early 1990s, frustrated with a lack of access to resources in adult football in Leicester, club members began to think about developing a very different sort of club focusing on youngsters only. In 1994 Leicester Nirvana was born.  As football for children really took off in Leicester in the 1990s so Nirvana grew, a positive haven for inner city kids, and for Leicester children from wider afield. Because of its enthusiasm and care the club recruited some of the most talented young players in the city.

After establishing as a very successful junior club, the club initiated discussions to re-establish a senior team for the young players to aspire to. This started in 2008 and the club entered a team in the Leicester City Football League. However at the same time the club initiated conversations relating to the possibility merging with Thurnby Rangers to give us a pathway to Step 7, at this point Thurnby Nirvana was born.

Leicester Nirvana FC and Thurnby Rangers FC had both established their own identities at a local football level. Thurnby Rangers being a successful senior side in the early years 2001-03 in which time Leicester Nirvana no longer had a senior side but had an outstanding reputation at mini, junior and youth football levels both locally and nationally. Over the past period they have contributed to the development of players with to date 8 professionals playing at pro clubs and approximately 15 youths at academies across the country, who have been through the clubs youth system, an outstanding return.

In the build up of the 2008/09 season the decision to merge was only reached seven days before the season kicked off which left us scrambling to sign 15 players and get a team ready for the first fixture. Thankfully with the hard work of many individuals and a new merged management committee, we managed to field a team and finish in a very respectable 5th place. Considering our initiation to senior league football and the steep learning curve relating to the entire off field responsibility, as a club we were pleased with our return, although as a club first is always our goal.

Season 2009/10 started with more optimism, we had time to plan and prepare a good pre season programme with many new players being attracted to the club given our total football style of play. Again with both the on and off field learning curves we finished a respectable third in only our second season involved in adult football. We, as a club applied to the East Midland Counties League for promotion and after an extremely eventful summer and an enormous amount of effort and work behind the scenes, secured a place at Step 6 of the National league system.

The 2010/11 season was a new chapter in the club’s history, competing in the East Midlands Counties league at Step 6 for the first time.

The club firmly established themselves at this level with a respectable 9th place finish in the league, which was a good return with a young and somewhat inexperienced squad with an average age of 23. The season also saw defeat in the County Cup final and was topped off with success in the League Cup with a 4-2 victory over Holbrook Sports.

The 2011/2012 season was another learning curve in the history of the club, competing in The FA Cup for the first time. The season looked rather promising at the beginning after an explosive start and a memorable scalp of St Neots Town in the FA Cup, however inconsistency led to a 7th place finish in the league.

The 2012/13 season proved to be another exciting chapter in the short history of the club. Once again The FA Cup brought excitement with great victories over Lincoln Moorlands and Lincoln United in the Preliminary rounds, however we again fell at the First Qualifying round losing to Gresley in the replay. In terms of the league, this season was our best to date, an incredible run from December, which included 19 victories, 1 draw and 2 defeats ensured a third place finish.

The 2013/14 season once again looked promising for manager Damion Quailey who had managed to add some good depth to his squad while keeping together the majority of the players from the previous season. There had also been additions to the coaching team behind the scenes which again improved our young squad. Hannah Dingley was appointed Assistant Manager with Chris Gowan and Brain Quailey making up the coaching staff.  This paid off for the club by winning the East Midland Counties League.

The 2014-15 season saw us playing at Level 5 in the United Counties Premier Division. A new venture for the club at this level which was again a memorable year in the history of the club. After securing the majority of the squad and again adding the few quality additions we made our mark on the UCL by finishing runners up in our first attempt. The season was also memorable as we embarked on our best run in The FA Vase by reaching the last 32, only to go out in ET during a thrilling encounter with Holbeach United.

Season 2015/16 once again has seen tremendous change in the club. The club had to move from the site in Thurnby to Gleneagles Avenue and has also reverted back to its original name of ‘Leicester Nirvana. On the playing side, while a few players have progressed up the Non league ladder, Manager Damion Quailey has re-signed the whole squad from the previous season and in addition made some good signings. This, with the promotion of some very talented youngsters from the youth, gave the players the appetite to improve on last year’s achievements.  Once again we finished runners up only missing out on the title by Goal Difference. However, there was a sweet ending to the campaign as for the first time in the club’s history we were crowned Champions of the Leicestershire Challenge Cup by beating Barwell 3-0 at the King Power Stadium, the home of the Premier League Champions.

Season 2016/17 once again threw up new challenges for the club after manager Damion Qualiey and his coaching staff moved on and the club found itself in a transition period.  Many of the senior players followed suit and moved on to play at a higher level. This presented a number of talented young players with the opportunity to compete at this level. Martin Sockett, who has a vast amount of managerial experience in Non League football, was given the task to develop the youngsters in order to compete, however this was short lived as Martin also moved to coach at a higher level. The club appointed Scott Goodwin as Manager, with Cheddi Gore as his assistant to stabilise the club and provide guidance to the very young squad. They were excited to work with the talent and the imminent development of moving to our very own ground. Friday 23^rdDecember was an historic occasion when we played our first ever game at our own home of Hamilton Park, Oadby were the visitors and unfortunately for us the result went in the favour of Oadby, an entertaining 3-2 defeat in our first game at ‘Home.’

The season was once again a steep learning curve for the club and its young players. At times some of the football played was incredible, however we lacked that consistency over a stretch of games. A very inexperienced and young squad competed well given the circumstances and eventually finished 17^thin the league.

This season the club have appointed Nick Anderson, who has plenty of experience in Non-League football and in particular the UCL. This will allow Nick to build on the players’ experience from last season and bring more consistency to our play. Winning the League Knock Out Cup against a strong Yaxley side was the highlight of the 2017-18 season.

During the summer Nick Andersen stood down as manager. So we go into the 2018-19 season with a new management team of Dave Clay and Graham Chambers.

The club in football history terms is still very immature but with a great thirst and desire to keep moving onwards and upwards. The club is also proud to represent a very diverse population from across all cultures within the city. We have created a club that represents the communities in which we live today. A great achievement whilst striving for football success.

Looking forward, the club is hopeful we can continue to grow at the current pace and who knows? In a short period of time we may be plying our trade at the very top of the national league system knocking on the door of the football league.

The beauty of football and the reason we all love it is,

you never know!

Admission Prices:

Directions: From M1 – Exit at Junction 21A (Braunstone Firth/Kirby Muxloe/B5380) – Follow signs for A46/Leicester North/Newark (7.5miles) – At Honny Horse Roundabout take 2nd exit onto A607, continue on the A607 (Thurmuston) until you reach Sainsbury’s, then immediately left onto Troon Way (A563) continue straight over roundabout to KFC. At this roundabout take 2nd exit to Sandhills Avenue, Ground is situated on left at the second mini roundabout.

Leicester Nirvana Honours List

2010-11 – East Midlands Counties League Cup winners

2013-14 – East Midlands Counties League Champions

2015-16 – LRCFA Challenge Cup Winners

2017-18 – United Counties League Cup Winners