page_title: London City Soccer Club
section_title: New ownership (2012–2018)
hierarchical_section_title: London City Soccer Club / History / New ownership (2012–2018)
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the versions of the 2012 starting line-up. Top row, from left to right: Stanislav Zvezdić (head coach), Nenad Begović (captain), Rade Novković, Zvonko Bakula, Ranko Golijanin, Zoran Pušica, Dalibor Mitrović and Jasmin Halkić (ass't coach). Bottom row: Nenad Nikolić, Alseen Mohamed, Gent Miftari, Milan Janikić and Yas Halkić.
context_page_description: London City Soccer Club is a Canadian soccer team founded in 1973. The team is currently a member of the Canadian Academy of Soccer League. The team plays their home games at the Milton Community Sports Park in the town of Milton, Ontario. The team's colours are red, black and white. Formed on Valentine's Day of 1973 by Markus Gauss in order to field a London entry for the National Soccer League after the departure of German Canadian FC. The Gauss family ran and provided the city of London a professional team for 38 years. Under their tutelage the club was most notable for providing an opportunity for young players to develop in a professional environment.
  In 1998, London became a charter member for the Canadian Professional Soccer League. In the initial stages of the new league City managed to compete several times for a postseason berth. Shortly after the club went through a difficult rebuilding stage as a result missed the playoffs for twelve consecutive seasons. Their biggest success came in 2003 when they captured the Open Canada Cup. After the loss of Harry Gauss to cancer and the higher playing standards placed by the league the Gauss family decided to sell the club.
context_section_description: The new ownership brought in significant changes by hiring Manuel Hernandez as the new general manager and Stanislav Zvezdic as the head coach. Due to time constraints because of change of ownership the reserve squad was withdrawn from the Second Division. Zvazdic brought in several imports with CSL experience mainly from the Balkan countries. The imports included Nenad Begović, Vladimir Markotić, Ranko Golijanin, Rade Novković, Nenad Nikolić, Dalibor Mitrović, Boban Stojanović, Nikola Stanojević, Zvonko Bakula, and William Etchu Tabi. Early into the season Zvezdic unexpectedly resigned from his position after visiting Serbia for personal reasons. His temporary replacement was team captain Begovic with Mike Marcoccia assisting him. Begovic took the team from the bottom of the standings and transformed them into a playoff contender. Despite the change in performance London still missed the final playoff berth by five points. The league awarded Ryan Gauss with the Harry Paul Gauss award.
  In 2013 Jasmin Halkic was hired as general manager and was given coaching duties. London's reserve team returned to the Second Division, and transferred their home venue to the Hellenic Community Centre due to scheduling conflicts with Cove Road. Notable acquisitions for the season were Branislav Vukomanović, Haris Fazlagić, Tonci Pirija, and Marin Vučemilović-Grgić. After a mediocre start to the season Halkic transferred his coaching responsibilities to Tomo Dancetovic.  Dancetovic made history as London clinched a postseason berth, thus ending City's 12 year playoff drought. Their reserve team also made history by qualifying for the playoffs for the first time by finishing third in the standings. In the first round of the postseason London faced the York Region Shooters, where they advanced to the next round by winning 4–2 in a penalty shootout. The next round they faced Kingston FC, but were eliminated from the competition by a score of 4–2. For his efforts Yonan Samara was recognized as the Second Division MVP by the league.
  The 2014 season was a disappointment as London fell short by one point to a playoff berth. One notable achievement went to Marin Vučemilović-Grgić as he won his second MVP award. The following season Andrew Crowe sold his share to partner Zoran Kliseric as the new ownership were preparing a move to Hamilton. Other changes included the removal of their reserve team in the Second Division. Under head coach Josip Dzale the team secured the final playoff berth. In the preliminary round of the postseason City faced the Serbian White Eagles, but suffered an early departure after a 1–0 loss. In 2016, team owner Kliseric relocated to Hamilton, but gave the London territory to Jasmin Halkic. Halkic relegated London to the Second Division in order to serve as a reserve team for Milton SC. During the 2016 season London clinched a postseason berth by finishing fifth in the standings. In the first round of the postseason London faced York Region Shooters B where they lost 1–0.
caption: 2012 squad under the new ownership.
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