Est. 1953 — Blueberry Park
The story of the Blueberries
Iballa Football Club was formed in 1953 by a group of dockworkers who wanted a side of their own. They played their first fixtures on a rented field with borrowed posts, in shirts dyed a deep blue-purple that gave the club the nickname it still carries today: the Blueberries.
For half a century, Iballa were a lower-league club in the truest sense. There were promotions and there were relegations, a cup run or two that people still talk about, and long stretches of mid-table anonymity. What never changed was the crowd. Blueberry Park was rarely full, but it was never quiet.
Blueberry Park on a matchday. Placeholder image.
Then came the early 2000s, and a season nobody who was there has ever quite been able to explain. A squad assembled on almost nothing went on a run that lasted from August to May, and Iballa were promoted to the first division for the first time in the club’s history. The word most often used at the time was miraculous, and it has stuck.
The club could easily have gone straight back down. Instead it stayed, then it grew. Iballa invested in the academy before it was fashionable, built a recruitment model around players other clubs had overlooked, and expanded Blueberry Park in stages rather than all at once.
Under the floodlights. Placeholder image.
Three first division titles have followed since promotion, along with four league cups and two community cups. In one unforgettable European campaign, Iballa went the whole way and brought home the continental trophy — still the night most often described by supporters as the best of their lives.
Today the club is a permanent part of the English top flight, with men’s, women’s and Under-21 sides all training at the same ground, and a community programme that reaches thousands of local children every year. The shirts are still that deep blue-purple. The crowd is still never quiet.
The expanded south stand. Placeholder image.