Non-League and Academy football writer

Ahmed Suleiman is an experienced player for Birmingham-based side FC Olympia, who will be competing for the prestigious SBCL (Somali British Champions League) title in this Sunday evening’s final against Hilltop at Hendon FC. Ahead of the final, Ahmed kindly took the time to speak about FC Olympia’s run to the final in the 2025/26 edition of the competition.

Could you talk me through a bit about your role at FC Olympia, as a player for them over the years?

Ahmed: I’ve been a player for Olympia since 2014. I’m a full-back and a senior player within the team now. A lot of players have joined the club over recent years, especially in the last three years, so it has been a challenge with the transition. But credit to the younger players—they’ve taken on responsibility and made it easier for the team. We’ve also travelled for competitions all over the world—Sweden, Holland, Canada, Australia—and that has helped build the cohesion we have today.

Could you please talk me through FC Olympia’s run up to the final of this season’s SBCL?

Ahmed: We had Leicester (Showtime Mash) and Manchester Powerhouse in our group, after the other side had pulled out of the competition. We played Leicester first, and they came out strong, beating us 2-1 in our first group game. They’re very well known to us, and four or five days after that game, some of their players were flying out to Australia with us to compete in an international tournament with Olympia. So it was an interesting matchup and an interesting journey. But it was the first game of the season, so it was alright. We slipped up in the last minute of that game, before playing Manchester Powerhouse in our other group-stage fixture, which ended 2-2. We ended the group stages with four points, because all three teams were awarded three points for the withdrawal of Tuusale FC.

I would say we had a bit of a shaky start to this season’s competition—a draw, a loss and a win. There was a bit of low morale following the season before, after going all the way to the final without any real problems. However, everyone is now beginning to appreciate again all the hard work that has gone into reaching the final. And if there was anyone we wanted to play in this season’s final, it was Hilltop, because we know the challenge they bring.

I can see the hunger in the team from the friendlies we’ve been playing and the preparation for the final. Last season, the younger players needed a bit of encouragement—that you’ve got to be serious, do your own training and really lock in for this competition. But this season, those players have really matured into leaders and are doing their own thing.

Moving on to the quarter-finals, in the first leg we faced Tawfiiq at home. It was a pretty controlled game, which ended in a 2-0 win. They were a very good team, but we were at home, took our chances early and then closed the game out. We felt we managed it well and earned the result. But our issue with overconfidence set in again, and in the second leg in London we went 1-0 up early on. We thought Tawfiiq might sit back, but we were mistaken. They soon made it 1-1, 2-1 and then 3-1. After it was 3-2, we were winning on aggregate, before they then made it 4-2. They almost scored again late on, and in an end-to-end game it was, in all honesty, the most difficult game of the season.

Tawfiiq had good attackers, but we managed to keep them at bay. After the game went to penalties, both our first players missed. So it went to the ninth or tenth penalty, which our goalkeeper saved. We were all thinking, “Wow, what has just happened?” That was a bit of a wake-up call not to underestimate anyone.

Going on to the semi-finals against OIR, we have a lot of history against them, and in four meetings we’d never lost to them. We knew they had lost some players from the previous season, so I think they’d done well to reach the semi-finals this season. OIR had automatically been awarded the win in the quarter-finals despite losing heavily to Manchester Powerhouse, and we’re still unsure of the reason why. It was 1-0 against OIR for much of that semi-final, until we made some changes and scored three late goals to really finish off the game. We expected them to be ready for the second leg. We were out on the pitch warming up when we got a call from them saying they wouldn’t be coming to the game.

So that’s our journey to this year’s final. After a long time setting the date and venue for the final, we were told we are playing at Hilltop’s home ground, Silver Jubilee Park. We are not fussed in the slightest, to be honest. There’s a job to be done regardless of location and we know it will be a big crowd in London, so it would be a special achievement to win the final at their ground rather than at a neutral venue. But we also know it won’t be easy but what big opportunity ever is.

Losing last year’s final has made us approach this year’s final in a different manner. I think a lot of our players feel the sourness of losing that final and are using it as fuel. It was the first time many of us experienced the heartache of working all year to compete on such a big stage, only to fall short in the final. This year, we hope it will be different. We respect Hilltop and know they will be ready, but we also believe in our group and in our preparation. More importantly, we’re focused on showing everyone the best version of Olympia and hopefully bringing home the trophy. It would be the first time winning the SBCL, so it would mean a lot—but we know we have to earn it.