Racing guantanamo

Racing Guantanamo AFC is a football club based in Broome, Western Australia. Founded in 2007 and playing in the B-Liga, the club have built their reputation as one that plays with a solid foundation of youth and have been recognised by the league as one of the fairest in the competition.

Sporting Myanmar
Originally known as Sporting Myanmar AFC, the club began life in the competitive Broomedesliga, the 5-a-side competition run by the Broome Soccer Association. The team finished last in the second division, but the attitude and tenacity shown by the players, as well as their mix of young and old, garnered a lot of praise for the fledgling outfit.

Name Change and the B-Liga
As interest grew in the small club, preparations were made to enter the newly created B-Liga, an outdoor competition that would consist of 5 teams. Captain Ryan Platten, who had formed Sporting Myanmar only 6 months earlier, decided that in order to move into the new league, the club would need a new name.

After much discussion, it was decided to take on a politically charged name, and one that would gather even more interest in the club. With the news at the time focused on the goings on at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, it was decided that the name Guantanamo coupled with the traditional footballing prefix Racing would be a suitably original name for the upstart club.

In June 2007, the club played its first match in the B-Liga, going down 9-0 against the much more experienced Broome City. Despite the result, the club put a positive spin on the match by looking at the performance of its vastly inexperienced squad. The season ended with Guantanamo sitting firmly at the bottom of the table with the final match ending 8-1, again against Broome City.

In spite of the defeats, the club also saw some positive signs in individual performances, with goalkeeper Francois Kruger picking up the ABC Player of the Year award for his outstanding form throughout the season. The South African became known as The Rock for his solid displays in the Guantanamo goal.

2008 and beyond
With the year before firmly behind them, the Guantanamo outfit went into a period of rebuilding after losing almost half of their team due to transfers etc.

Vice captain Tim Gray was instrumental in recruiting some big names for the 2008 season, with Englishmen Ben Walker and Greg Blackmore coming into the midfield, and Cape Verde Islander Jorge Pereira coming in to the attack.

2008 also saw the emergence of Luke Turner, with the young gun showing promising signs in his appearances for the club.

With the B-Liga currently halfway through the season, it remains to be seen whether Guantanamo can make the move to become a force in the competition

Media
Racing Guantanamo have been covered comprehensively in the local media, with the Broome Advertiser newspaper publishing weekly reports
, as well as Australian Broadcasting Corporation Kimberley radio station having a weekly show on Saturday mornings dedicated to the B-Liga. Indeed, the host of the show Pat Hagan is a supporter of the B-Liga and has a team named after him. .

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