United City Football Club is a

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club that last competed in the

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League (PFL) is a men's professional association football, football league in the Philippines. Sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and organized by Liga Futbol Inc., it is the country's Football in t ...

, the top-tier league of football in the Philippines. From 2012 to 2020, the club was known as Ceres (founded as Ceres–La Salle; renamed Ceres–Negros in 2017, when it joined the PFL) and was associated with

Ceres Liner Vallacar Transit Incorporated (VTI) is a Philippine transportation service under the umbrella of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies (YGBC), serving as its flagship subsidiary. The bus company is a family-owned and managed business that has grow ...

, a bus company owned by Leo Rey Yanson, the club owner and chairman during that period. As Ceres, its home venue was Panaad Stadium in

Bacolod Bacolod, officially the City of Bacolod (; ; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Negros Island Region in the Philippines. With a total of 600,783 inhabitants as of the 2020 census, it is th ...

Negros Occidental Negros Occidental (; ), officially the Province of Negros Occidental (; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Negros, Negros Island. Its capital is the city of Bacolod, of which it is geographically s ...

. As Ceres–La Salle, their first major success in the United Football League (UFL) was winning the UFL Division 2 title in 2014, earning them promotion to the first division. Since then, they have won the UFL FA League Cup (2014) and the UFL Division 1 title (

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

). The club also won the

PFF National Men's Club Championship The Philippine Football Federation National Men's Club Championship was an annual association football, football competition organized by the Philippine Football Federation and contested by Football in the Philippines, Filipino clubs. It lasted ...

twice (2012–13 and 2013–14). As Ceres–Negros, they won the PFL title in three consecutive seasons: 2017 through 2019, as well as the 2019 Copa Paulino Alcantara. In

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, they completed the domestic double without a single loss. In 2021, The club made their debut in the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

which affected Ceres Liner operations, Yanson was forced to sell the club through the help of Emirati-Philippine sports marketing firm MMC Sportz Asia. MMC negotiated the deal on behalf of the new owners who registered the entity as United City Football Company Inc., retained most of the Ceres players and renamed the club to United City. In February 2023, United City was forced to withdraw from the PFL over financial and legal issues caused by the default of payments by its Singapore investor, Riau Capital Live. United City returned to the PFL in the

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

season. They withdrew yet again in the following season.

History

As Ceres (2012–2020)

Early years

The club was founded by Leo Rey Yanson in 2012 as Ceres–La Salle, with the cooperation of the

University of St. La Salle The University of St. La Salle (USLS) is a Catholic private research university run by the De La Salle Brothers, located in La Salle Avenue, Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Philippines. Established in 1952 as ''La Salle College - Bacolod'', it is t ...

. The club was initially composed of college and some Korean players, becoming primarily led by Philippines national team players. A notable early victory was at the inaugural Negros Men's Open Football Championships in January 2012, an 11–0 win against Bacolod United in the final. United City's first national tournament was the 2012–13 PFF National Men's Club Championship. United City won the championship trophy with a 1–0 victory against

Pasargad Pasargadae (; ) was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC), located just north of the town of Madar-e-Soleyman and about to the northeast of the city of Shiraz. It is one of Iran's World Heritage Site, UNESCO ...

in the final. En route to the championship, they won matches against

Stallion A stallion is an adult male horse that has not been gelded ( castrated). Stallions follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cre ...

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

and

Kaya Kaya may refer to: People *Kaya (given name) * Kaya (surname) Places *Kaya, Burkina Faso, a town in Burkina Faso, capital of the department * Kaya Airport, serving the town * Kaya Department, a department or commune of Sanmatenga Province in cen ...

United Football League

After their victory in the PFF championship, Ceres expressed an intention to join the United Football League (UFL, the top-tier football league in the Philippines at that time). They were not able to play in the 2013 UFL season, however, and joined the league for the

2013 UFL Cup The 2013 United Football League Cup was the fifth edition of the United Football League Cup. The competition started on October 12 and finished on December 5, 2013. Stallion were the defending champions. The UFL Cup opens the new season with t ...

. Ceres debuted in the UFL in the 2014 season in Division 2. The club dominated the division, and was promoted to Division 1 the following season. Ceres were considered serious contenders for the 2015 UFL Division 1 title in their first year, and clinched the championship with several regular-season games to play. They were unable to replicate their success in the 2016 season, and finished second.

First three seasons in the Philippines Football League

When the

supplanted the UFL as the Philippines' top-tier football league, Ceres was among the pioneer clubs of the 2017 inaugural season. Ceres renamed themselves the Ceres–Negros, designating the Panaad Stadium in

as their home venue. Ceres-Negros won the championship in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and the 2019 Copa Paulino Alcantara title. Issues at Vallacar Transit affected Ceres–Negros operations during the 2019 season, when the team's status was uncertain due to a Yanson family dispute about Vallacar's management. Although Ceres chairman Leo Rey Yanson lost control of Vallacar after four of his siblings staged a

boardroom coup A boardroom coup is a sudden and often unexpected takeover or transfer of power of an organisation or company. The coup is usually performed by an individual or a small group usually from within the corporation in order to seize power. A boardroom ...

in July, he regained control of the company in August. Despite the turmoil, Ceres clinched the league title.

As United City (2020–2023)

Amidst the

and after the 2020 PFL season was postponed, rumors of Ceres–Negros' departure from the league (or disbanding) have circulated. The pandemic triggered a ''

force majeure In contract law, force majeure ( ; ) is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, ...

'' which terminated the contracts of all the club's players. In July 2020, Ceres-Negros announced that club owner and chairman Leo Rey Yanson would step down and the club would negotiate with potential investors. Emirati-Philippine sports marketing firm MMC Sportz Asia was announced as the negotiator on behalf of the new group of owners of Ceres–Negros, and renamed the club as United City. The new owners said that the core of the original club (16 of its 21 players) would remain. MMC Sportz Asia had been involved in Philippine football as appointed marketing arm of

Global F.C. Global Football Club was a professional football club that last played in the Philippines Football League (PFL), the top flight of Philippines' club football. The club has won four league titles, two UFL Cups, one UFL FA Cup, and one PFF Nat ...

in 2019, but terminated their agreement during the season due to non payment by the club. United City's, (owned by United City Football Company Inc.) new management re-signed Ceres' former players, intending to retain the core of its previous owner. They include team captain

Stephan Schröck Stephan Markus Cabizares Schröck (; born 21 August 1986) is a football coach and professional player who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger. Born in Germany to a German father and Filipino mother, Schröck was a youth international f ...

, who was appointed a player-coach. They went on to clinch the league title of the shortened 2020 season which was held in a

bubble Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to: Common uses * Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid ** Soap bubble * Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying fundame ...

due to the pandemic. The league title was their first as United City, and their fourth overall.

AFC Champions League debut

United City are also the first Filipino Club to qualify in the

group stage. On 8 July 2021, the club beat Chinese side,

Beijing Guoan Beijing Guoan Football Club (), known in AFC competitions as Beijing FC, is a Chinese professional football club based in Beijing, that competes in . Beijing Guoan plays its home matches at the Workers' Stadium, located within Chaoyang Distr ...

to become the first-ever Filipino club to win an AFC Champions League group stage match. In June 2021, in a lead up to the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, United City announced that it has adopted

New Clark City New Clark City is a planned community currently undergoing development, owned and managed by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA). It is located within the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in the municipalities of Bamb ...

Capas, Tarlac Capas, officially the Municipality of Capas (; ), is a municipality in the province of Tarlac, Philippines, and one of the richest towns in the province. The town also consists of numerous subdivisions and exclusive villages. Capas is knon a ...

as its home locality. It also has entered a partnership with the local government of

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga (; ; ), is a province in Central Luzon in the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac to the north, Nueva Ecija to the northeast, Bulacan to the east, ...

. The club with intentions to have its home stadium also announced that it would be temporarily using the New Clark City Stadium as its home venue. It also said that it would be changing its name to United Clark after the 2021 season however, the name change did not happen as planned. United City was not able to play in their home venue either for the 2021 season since most games were still held at the PFF National Training Center. They are finally set to play their first home game at the NCC Athletics Stadium on October 22, 2022, as part of the 2022–23 PFL season.

Withdrawal from the Philippines Football League

Following the conclusion of the first half of the 2022–23 season, United City released its players and staff. The PFL and the PFF would confirm the withdrawal of the club from the league in February 2023. This is due to the financial issues arising from the club's deal with investor Riau Capital Live (RCL) which is based in Singapore. The RCL entered into a major agreement in United City in mid-2021 but later defaulted in October 2022. The non-fulfillment of RCL's final settlement with United City led to the withdrawal of the club while the results of a legal dispute is pending.

Return to the Philippines Football League

United City announced its return to the PFL in the 2024 season, a hybrid tournament that showcases professional and amateur teams. However United City withdrew again for the next season reportedly due to financial issues.

Crest and colors

As Ceres, the club crest was derived from the

emblem. It was encircled in green to represent the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod, which is known for its football team. The center is the oval logo of the Yanson company: Vallacar Transit, which owned the club at that time. The team wore yellow home shirts. After the renaming of Ceres-Negros to United City, a contest to design a new club crest was announced. The new crest, a circle with a football in the center, was unveiled on July 29, 2020. It was designed by Gerard Endaya, creative director of Grit Sports. Some of the crest's elements note United City's past as Ceres; its shape was carried over from its predecessor, and the two stars symbolize United City's incarnations as Ceres–La Salle and Ceres–Negros.

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

Stadium

United City uses the

New Clark City Athletics Stadium The New Clark City Athletics Stadium, also referred to as the New Clark Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium located at the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines. It is the primary venue of the New Clark City Sports Hub, which is part of ...

since 2021 as their temporary home venue. They plan to build their own stadium beside

Clark International Airport Clark International Airport , known as Diosdado Macapagal International Airport from 2003 to 2014, is an international airport covering portions of the cities of Angeles and Mabalacat within the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in ...

in the nearby province of

. The club has previously announced plans to construct a 7,500 to 10,000-seat capacity stadium. As Ceres, the club had the Panaad Stadium in

as its home venue.

Technical staff

Other divisions

Youth club

United City FC sponsored a youth club with the same name, which competed in the

7's Football League The 7's Football League (7s FL) is a seven-a-side football league in the Philippines. Established in 2018, the league already had four seasons. It has a two-tiered men's division, a women's division, and youth divisions. The league is an open to ...

Esports club

UCFC Esports, serves as the

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

division of United City. A joint venture with BrenPro, Inc., its formation was announced in June 2021 by the club. It intends to compete in ''

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

'', '' League of Legends: Wild Rift'', '' Mobile Legends: Bang Bang'', and ''

Valorant ''Valorant'' is a 2020 First-person shooter, first-person tactical shooter, tactical hero shooter video game developed and published by Riot Games. A free-to-play game, ''Valorant'' takes inspiration from the ''Counter-Strike'' series, borrow ...

'' competitions. UCFC Esports will compete in the 2021 Southeast Asia in the Champions eFootball (CeF), a regional ''

eFootball ''eFootball'' is a free-to-play online association football video game developed and published by Konami. It has been completely rebranded from the original ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' series (known as ''Winning Eleven'' in Japan). The game's fi ...

'' (''PES'') tournament.

Head coaches

Honors

League

**Winners:

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

* United Football League Division 1 **Winners:

**''Runners-up:''

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

* United Football League Division 2 **Winners:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Cups

* Copa Paulino Alcantara ** Winners:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

**Winners:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2013–14 *

UFL Cup The United Football League Cup, commonly known as UFL Cup, was a Filipino association football competition. It was played on a multistage format that culminated in a knockout stage (single elimination). Clubs eligible to compete for the cup wer ...

**''Runners-up:''

* UFL FA League Cup **Winners:

Records

Continental record

Overall record

:''Accurate as of February 11, 2020.''

Invitational tournaments

AFC Club ranking

Notes

References

{{Central Luzon Sports Philippines Football League clubs Football clubs in the Philippines 2012 establishments in the Philippines Association football clubs established in 2012 Sports in Negros Occidental