‘The Oranje’ Liverpool football club that’s raised over £25,000 for local charities

A Liverpool football club known as ‘The Oranje’ for its bright orange kit has raised over £25,000 for local charities and is celebrating its most successful season – with a cup final still to come.

Sefton Park Rangers FC was started in 2019 by Jake Nolan after getting together with a few friends who were all keen to get back into playing.

Influenced by Dutch teams and players like the legendary Johan Cruyff, Jake chose The Netherlands national colours for what he describes as a ‘new wave community football club’.

And, carrying on that ethos, he set out three main goals: total football, total commitment, total community.

Now seven years on, Sefton Park Rangers has grown from one men’s team to two, and three years ago it added a further two women’s teams.

The men’s second team has recently won in the league and it’s currently preparing for a cup final at Southport FC on May 16 against Kingsford Larkin.

Ian Duke, who captains the 2s, says the idea of SPR is to promote inclusivity, wellbeing and community through sport.

He explains: “There’s a really strong community between all the men’s and women’s teams; they’re friends outside of the club and spend a lot of time together. For a lot of players including me that’s been really positive, not only physically spurring each other on, but mentally looking out for one another as well.

“There are lads from all different backgrounds and not everyone’s from Liverpool, we have a few Irish lads who’ve been in Liverpool for years and from other parts of the country, so there’s a real sense of inclusion. Everyone’s welcome but at the same time it’s a football team so it’s competitive as well.

“We’ve now got close to 100 members with a really good mix, from early 20s to mid-late 30s. Everyone’s playing together, everyone’s got different skills and it’s great for us to see the younger lads come on and develop.”

Sefton Park Rangers’ second team play on Saturday afternoons in the Liverpool Football League, and the men’s first team play in the West Cheshire League. 

An 11-a-side women’s team plays in Liverpool Women’s & Youth Football League on Sundays and there’s also a six-a-side women’s.

All the teams train on Wednesdays at Tiber Football Centre on Lodge Lane, not far from the park, with the women from 6-7pm and men from 7-8pm.

Ian says although it’s been their biggest season to date, with a first league title and cup final on the way, SPR are just as proud of their achievements off the pitch as on.

He said: “Over the last 7 years we’ve done quite a few significant things to support the local community. In Covid, again following the Dutch inspiration, collectively everyone ran the distance from here to Amsterdam and raised a lot of money for The Florrie.

“We’ve also done things for Alder Hey, and supported other community projects including helping out with litter picks in Sefton Park too.

“The club motto is ‘fall we may, sail we must’, borrowed from Andrew Weatherall, and those three core values Jake set down from the start are what we try and align everything to. 

“The club has grown pretty much every year and hopefully there are many more years of success, on and off the field, still left to come.”

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