Non-League and Academy football writer

Founded in 2008, Birmingham based side FC Olympia will be competing in their first ever SBCL final on Sunday in Bristol, when they face previous champions of the Somali British Champions League, in Hilltop. To find out more about FC Olympia and their journey to the final of the 2024/25 SBCL season, I recently got the opportunity to speak to the FC Olympia chairman – Mohamed Hagi, and the manager of FC Olympia – Mohamoud Hagi.

Could you talk me through some of the history of FC Olympia?

Mohamed: FC Olympia was originally started in August of 2008, and they were named after the Beijing Olympics, which took place in August of 2008. The club was founded 17 years ago this Friday, but the club has always has been in and around the West Midlands area, specifically Birmingham. As a club we serve the community of Birmingham (mainly central Birmingham) and the surrounding areas, including Walsall and West Brom. As a club we’ve been participating in amateur and local leagues, and we’ve been involved in the Birmingham AFA for some time. After a little while we parted ways with the league, focusing more on the international side of things, and participating in tournaments.

We’ve been involved in tournaments such as the SBCL, which we are in the final of this Sunday, as well as other tournaments globally. So we’ve been to Holland, Sweden, and Canada as a club. We are also the current reigning champions of a tournament in Australia.

Mohamoud: In terms of us, I think that as a club we want to be the pride of Birmingham, and to really just represent the region. Everybody does their best to really try and represent a city as best as possible, both on and off the pitch. Olympia is not just a football club, but it’s also about being something that the community can get behind, and so we like to be the beacon of the area, and to really have the heritage of Birmingham really engrained within the club.

How did you get first get involved with FC Olympia to begin with?

Mohamed: I used to be a player for the club, and so I thought that once the previous generation had all left the club, that I had to sort of take on the mantle really. Myself and a couple of guys said that we’d help to run the club, and it basically turned in to a long term management of the club. 

Mohamoud: Similarly I was also a player at the club, as well as being a captain for many years as well. So I went on to become an assistant manager to one of the previous managers, and about three years ago I became FC Olympia’s manager for the SBCL.

Could you talk me through FC Olympia’s run to the final of the 2024/25 SBCL season?

Mohamoud: It’s been a really, really good tournament so far for Olympia. We were in a very difficult group containing teams who were previous champions. We walked out of that group as group winners, before going in to the knockouts and doing really well also. We’re now in the final of this competition, and even though Sundays final will be the end of this edition of the competition, it also feels like it’s the beginning. Because we are playing the same team in Hilltop, who we started off the competition against, and who we beat. Of course that is a game of the past, but we are looking forward to playing against them again, and hoping for the same outcome. 

It would also be a great piece of history for Olympia to become the first winners from Birmingham of this competition, and to also keep up the tradition of having a new winner of the competition for every single year since it’s inception.

What are some of your thoughts on this Sundays SBCL final versus Hilltop?

Mohamed: I think that it’s a going to be a really good game, to be honest with you. Hilltop are a very good team who are currently playing non-League football at step 5, and so they are a very established and well known club. They are a very tight knit team that loves playing their style of football, and so we are hopefully coming in to this final as the underdogs, but we relish this competition. We are a team that is fearless, and we are a team who stick together as a unit at the end of the day. A lot of the teams from all over the UK, who compete in this tournament, will always tell you that FC Olympia are always a tough team to play against.

We will try our best to win the final as the rightful winners, and at the same time hopefully put on a show as well.

Mohamoud: Confidence is the most important thing, and we’ve been preparing over the course of several weeks for this final. There is a lot of confidence in the team, going in to the final. We’ve always struggled a little bit getting past the semi-final stage of the competition. But, I think that getting past that stage this season has really given us that extra confidence to go all the way and hopefully be victorious this Sunday. So I would say that confidence is the key, and we will leave everything out there on the day, so that we don’t have any regrets, and hopefully come Sunday evening we’ll be lifting that trophy.