Ards Football Club

Forged in red and blue, since 1900 - the famous Ards Football Club.

Ards Football play in the top tier of Northern Ireland football, the Danske Bank Premiership. We play home games at Bangor Fuels Arena, a stadium owned by Bangor Football Club.

We have an Under 20 Development team as well as a range of boys and girls teams who compete under the banner of Ards Academy.

The club was founded in 1900 and entered the senior Irish League in 1923, at the same time moving into new grounds at Castlereagh Park. Ards won the Irish League championship in 1957 /58 and went on to represent Northern Ireland in the second European Cup.

Ards have won the Irish Cup on four occasions and the Irish League Cup once. Over the course of our rich history we have also won the All-Ireland Cup, the Gold Cup, the Ulster Cup and the Steel & Sons Cup. The club won the second tier title in 2001, 2013 and 2016, earning promotion to the top flight on each occassions.

Since 2001, Ards have played away from their traditional home of Castlereagh Park, after their ground Castlereagh Park was sold. The club continues to search for a solution to the ground situation.

Famous players for our club have included Northern Ireland internationals Andy Bothwell, Tommy Forde, Billy Humphries and Paul Kee as well as England World Cup winner George Eastham junior. The club's all time top goal-scorer is Billy McAvoy with 301 goals, while Ray Mowat holds the club appearance record of 671 games over 18 seasons.