Kirkenes FC

Kirkenes F.C. is a professional football club playing in the Kelssek Football League Championship. Their home stadium Exhibition Place is located on the shores of the Inner Harbour of Kirkenes, Kelssek's largest city. Known colloquially as the Red Firm or by their initials KFC, they have won the league title four times, the most recent win coming over 30 years ago. It is also the football club in Kelssek with the most subscribing members.

Under manager Natalia Rossi, who was appointed ahead of KFL season 66, Kirkenes won its first Patriotes Cup and became the second Kelssek team to win an international tournament by beating Strathcona Internationals in the final of the 12th Vilitan Cove Invitational. Kirkenes also reached the Champions League round of 16, its best result in the IFCF tournaments. Rossi's tenure was fraught with an inability to progress towards challenging for the league title however, and a series of losses late in the KFL 71 season capped by a humiliating Anglian Derby loss to Burnaby led her to be dismissed after almost six years in charge.

Fan culture
The words of the club's iconic supporter song are: Kirkenes, between the valleys / That is where I want to be / At the Ex, with the Red Firm / They're the greatest team in history. You'd think a Girl Guides campfire song is a strange choice for people heavily into performative masculinity, but there you go.

Rivalries
Kirkenes's most important rivalries are the Anglian Derby against Burnaby SC and the War of the Crowns against CF Outineau. These matches against two of Kelssek's other big clubs often carry key implications for league position and championship chances. A major cultural element exists with both rivalries too, against Burnaby is a match between the two biggest Anglian cities in Kelssek, with Burnaby's stereotypical free-thinking, mountain-climbing, progressive culture pit as a contrast to business-oriented, straight-laced, suit-wearing Kirkenes. Alternative names for this rivalry include "long black/flat white" in reference to alleged coffee preferences in the respective cities and "freshy-salty" to the type of water body the respective cities are located by.

In the War of the Crowns against CF Outineau, animosity is rooted in that historical conflict but also involving linguistic and religious differences, and in which incidents of racism and sectarian abuse are sadly common.

Kirkenes also has an intra-city rivalry with Passerine, which was known as North York prior to its insolvency and merger with Dungeaf during the KFL 66 season. Passerine is seen as representing the working class and northern districts of the city, and historically was associated with the republican movement during the Kelssek Revolution. As a result, and despite the club's efforts to distance itself and ban members of such groups from its stadium, right-wing ultras have gravitated to Kirkenes FC and form a significant part of its fanbase. The smaller clubs in Noua Cymru including Hamiltonian Cambria, St. David Wanderers, Saintsport Heath, and Wynleth Flyers all also fancy taking the big boys down a peg, if they can.

Honours

 * Kelssek Football League Championship
 * Winners (4): 9, 18, 37, 42
 * Runners-up: 60, 70


 * Patriotes Cup
 * Winners (1): 16


 * Vilitan Cove Invitational
 * Winners (1): 12

Current squad

 * As of KFL season 75

Notable players

 * Played in major international tournaments while at the club
 * Petr Zherdek (WC48)
 * Simon Avant (WC48)
 * Darach Salthill (WC48)
 * Marcus Chin (WC48)
 * Denis Couture (WC48)
 * Ceferino Audiol (WC93)

Managers

 * Natalia Rossi (66-71)
 * Daniel Archer (72-)