Crewe United are synonymous within football in Northern Ireland. Having started from a humble but proud beginning the name of Crewe United is now widely recognised at home and abroad.

Crewe Park itself has been the source of football since the 1920's and play only stopped due to the war. Local organised football matches started off as an idea sometime in the fifties and by word of mouth people came from far and near, on a nightly basis, to kick ball.

Everyone played - there could have been 20 playing on each side aged six to sixty. Club matches however were played with eleven players picked on each side. There were also challenge matches played once a week.
All the club members were locals, mostly farmers sons. So haymaking and harvesting always caused a problem, indeed it was common for tools to be downed in favour of football.

Crewe United has progressed considerably due to a lot of hard work and commitment from members and club officials and are widely recognised as one of Ireland's most progressive football clubs. This progression has been constant with the facilities from a playing and corporate point of view absolutely first class.

Crewe United Football Club was formed in County Antrim in 1963. Within a short space of time the club acquired its own ground in Glenavy, fifteen miles outside the City of Lisburn and twenty-five miles from Belfast. Over the years Crewe worked its way up the football structures and currently play in Northern Ireland's Mid Ulster Intermediate League. We have been affiliated to the Irish Football Association for over 30 years.

The club has developed its facilities over the past several years to make it a football venue for all the community. It provides segregated showers and changing facilities for both males and females, and includes full disabled access. The club installed UEFA standard floodlights in 1989, which enable the pitch to be used in the evenings and throughout the winter.

Like any other club Crewe has had success and failure on the pitch, but there is something that sets our club apart. We aim to bring all sides of the community together through the medium of football. Crewe has sought to develop understanding and respect and to be tolerant of differences, whilst acknowledging common characteristics and interests. Throughout the troubled history of Northern Ireland Crewe has been a leading light in showing that football can bring a commonality and shared interest that no other medium, and very few other clubs could provide.

The importance the role the club plays in the local area cannot be over emphasised. The nearest similar facility is located twenty-five miles away, to far for many local schools, youth teams, coaches and charities to use as a venue to play and coach football. The pitch is used constantly by our senior teams and four youth teams (Templepatrick Alexandra) and by other youth teams that require the use of a pitch within their catchment area.

The club also participates in fund raising events throughout the year. The pitch is used for charity matches, raising funds to help those disadvantaged in health or by circumstances. Tens of thousands of pounds have been raised by the club over the past forty years and testament to this effort, several major football stars have graced the Crewe pitch to help the causes championed by our club. Crewe have brought the hero’s of young and old alike to Glenavy. George Best, Denis Law, Jock Stein, Alan Kennedy, Jan Molby, Neil Webb and Mark Chamberlain and many more have been brought to the club for charity football matches to support good causes. This has helped to feed the local community with an interest and desire to play football, and follow in the footsteps of the icons they can see on their doorstep as a result of our clubs efforts.

Crewe have also played host to many English League clubs in the name of charity. Brentford, Luton Town and Norwich City have obliged in the past to generate an unparalleled interest in football in the locality and indeed province wide. This year £10,000 was raised for the Cromwell Road Hospital to aid research into the effects of alcohol on the liver.

As the club has expanded it has been selfless in trying to cultivate a wider interest in the game locally as well as supporting good causes. Crewe has had a reputation of building bridges in the community and this is integral to the fabric and ethics of the club. The facilities we provide to the community are a necessity not a luxury, and our club is constantly seeking support to enable the continuation of the contribution we make in Northern Ireland community. Crewe also has close links to a local initiative, Crewe Community Support Group. In tandem we have sought to use our clubs facilities to provide for the whole community and raise money for good causes while promoting the personal development of those involved in our projects. The most significant of our projects was the ‘Torch of Hope’ project initiated after the Warrington bomb. We our proud of our connections in Warrington and continue to build on these to promote mutual understanding.