South Georgia - Football History

This island is now uninhabited but until 1964 there were a number of settlements of whalers, including some football pitches. At the time it was a dependency of the Falkland Islands.

Football/soccer matches continued to take place on the weekends of February. The Uruguayan, Eduardo Triunfo worked on a whaling factory in Grytviken, on the island of South Georgia, in the 1940s. He reports that he played "picados" as football/soccer was called, starting at 10:00 p.m. when it was daytime in Grytviken. He was the captain of his team. The opposing teams were formed by the Norwegian whale hunting crew as “Don Miles”, “Foca”, “Horca”, “Walrus” and “Narval”. Eduardo Triunfo said that he won all the matches and only lost to the Queen of Bermuda (UK) that had just arrived at the place.

Palmares

Sports Meeting

Ed Season   Winners
 1  1928    Grytviken
 2  1929      not known
 3  1930    Leith Harbour     
 4  1931      not known
 5  1932    Leith Harbour     
NB: no information on later editions

South Georgia Inter Whaling Station Football Championship

Ed  Season     Winners
 1  1958/59 Leith Harbour     
 2  1959/60 Leith Harbour     
 3  1960/61 Leith Harbour 

NB: played on three occasions; later in the sixties, whaling was forbidden and
    the whaling stations were deserted.

1914

First ever football matches on the island:

[Jan ?, New Fortuna Bay (now called Ocean Harbour)]
A/S Ocean Whaling Co.        9-2 Grytviken Whaling Station
 
[Feb/Mar ?]
Grytviken Whaling Station    lt  A/S Ocean Whaling Co.

1928

On Feb 23 the first sports meeting was held in Prince Olav Harbour, where the
first sports club was founded.  In the football match, Grytviken beat the hosts
(both sports clubs founded 1928, shortly before the match).

1929

Second sports meeting; no results available.

1930

Third sports meeting

Round 1 [Feb 22]
Grytviken                    bt  Stromness
 
Final [Feb 23]
Leith Harbour                4-1 Grytviken

1931

Fourth sports meeting, on Feb 14 and 15 (largest ever tournament on the island,
with teams from 5 stations (Grytviken, Leith Harbour, Husvik, Stromness and 
Prince Olav Harbour).

One of the competitions was for the Falkland Islands Government Cup.

1932
 
Fifth sports meeting; 3 participants: Leith Harbour, Grytviken and Husvik/Stromness
combined; the latter did not enter the football tournamwent, which thus consisted 
of a single match:

Final [Feb 14]
Leith Harbour                4-3 Grytviken

1933-1957

No information

1958/59

South Georgia Inter Whaling Station Football Championship 

Final
Leith Harbour                4-1 Grytviken

1959/60

South Georgia Inter Whaling Station Football Championship 

Final
Leith Harbour                3-1 Husvik

1960/61

South Georgia Inter Whaling Station Football Championship 

Final
Leith Harbour                7-4 Stromness

2016 

[Feb 16]
South Georgia Island         3-0 Antarctic Endurance  

NB: Antarctic Endurance formed by the mixed team Royal Navy and Royal Marines

2023 

[Jan 25?]
Grytviken Workins            2-1 HMS Protector

About this document

Sources: http://patmcguinness.blogspot.co.at, Tønnessen, J. N. and A. O. Johnsen: The History of Modern Whaling (1982), page 289.

Prepared and maintained by Carlos Santos and Hans Schöggl for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Authors: Carlos Santos and Hans Schöggl
Last updated: 30 Jan 2023