No.
In two days' time, on 28 June, a little-known side from Gibraltar will face Flora Tallinn, the Estonian champions, in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. We've often asked ourselves if there’s a link between Lincoln City, who play in the English fifth tier, and the (undoubtedly more successful) Gibraltarian club.
Ever since we heard there were two clubs with such a similar, unique name—and of course, an almost identical club crest featuring a red imp standing on one leg—we started digging into the connection between them. We were absolutely certain we'd uncover a historical gem, much like the famous link between Exeter City and the Brazilian national team but we found nothing of the sort. We even tried tracing the founders: Charles Polson and Charles Head (who sound terribly English). Perhaps they were supporters of the original English Lincoln and, upon founding the Gibraltarian club, named it after their beloved team? Unfortunately, we couldn’t find such a romantic tale anywhere...
But listen to this anyway, it's quite interesting:
We visited the English Lincoln City—both the club and the imp—in 2015. It is fondly remembered as one of the clubs that hosted us most generously and extensively. About two hours before kick-off, senior club officials dropped everything to take us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Sincil Bank, their home ground. More than anything, we were blown away by the view from the hospitality suites, with the windswept cathedral taking centre stage—the very place where the legend that gave the club its imp crest was born.
Now, a bit about the Gibraltarian side:
This pastoral tax haven in southern Spain, which is actually a British Overseas Territory, is, as we know, hardly one of Europe's footballing giants. Until 2014, this territory, situated right where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea, didn't even participate in European football competitions. The peninsula boasts a semi-professional football league, where all the clubs share a single 5,000-capacity ground called the Victoria Stadium. The stadium sits right at the foot of the famous Rock of Gibraltar, which in ancient times was considered the very edge of the known world.
As mentioned, the Gibraltarian league is dominated by our semi-pro friends, Lincoln Red Imps, who have racked up 21 league titles, including 13 in a row. Since the club first set foot in European competition, the Imps have managed to:
Lose in the first qualifying round in 2014 to HB Tórshavn from the Faroe Islands.
Beat FC Santa Coloma from Andorra in 2015, only to be knocked out by Danish side FC Midtjylland in the second round.
An absolutely respectable achievement, considering their squad—made up of Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, and locals—are actually employed as firemen, teachers, and police officers during the day.
Interestingly, ahead of the Gibraltarian club's historic first Champions League qualifier in 2014, British journalists at the Lincolnshire Echo—the local paper in England’s Lincoln—managed to have a cheeky dig at their own local side with the headline: "How Lincoln made it to the Champions League".
It was a typically cynical English hint that there’s a Lincoln out there vastly more successful than their own...
We, of course, wish the best of luck to both sides!