Welcome to Horwich RMI AFC Football Club

Founded in 1996 by John and Paul Sumner.

The main aim of our club is to Grow the Game; making use of our great facilities to cement a long term structure that will continue to flourish for years to come. With over 20 years experience competing in the Lancashire Amateur League, we now also offer development football at Under 21 level - who currently compete in the Bolton & Bury District Football League (BBDFL). 

The committee have worked tirelessly to ensure the next step of our long term future will be as successful as possible with the introduction of youth football since April 2020, open to EVERYONE within our local community. 

Following the completion of the 2022/23 season, we now have 22 teams supporting over 250 players.

Our coaches have a variety of different FA Qualifications, ranging from FA Level 1 in Coaching Football to the UEFA B License. We work in partnership with Lancashire FA to recruit, support and develop our coaches - giving them all the advice, skills, tools and experiences necessary for them to create fun and encouraging football sessions for players of all ages and ability. 

Horwich RMI Football Club was formed in 1896 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company and for many years were regarded as one of the more important non-league clubs in the area. Their home ground was at Grundy Hill, Horwich, where they played until 1994 when the ground was sold for redevelopment and the club moved to Hilton Park, Leigh, changing their name to Leigh RMI.

In 1996 John Sumner and his son, Paul joined forces with Horwich RMI Social and Recreation Club and decided to reform the Football Club and as a result the new Horwich RMI Amateur Football Club played its first season in 1997/98, firstly in the Bolton Combination, before moving to the Lancashire Amateur League 1998.

After a couple of seasons playing away from Horwich and following several years of planning, negotiating and fund-raising the Club were able to move back to Horwich and our home ground at Hilton Community Centre. 

In the summer of 2001, we provided an initial start-up fund to establish a junior Horwich RMI football section/club,  with the objective of establishing a pathway from junior through to open age football, with Horwich RMI Amateur Football Club. Over the years numerous Horwich RMI junior teams have benefitted from the use our excellent facilities at Hilton Community Centre. Unfortunately, at the end of the 2018-2019 the junior section/club decided to establish their own open age team, a decision that ultimately led to the relationship between the two parties being unworkable and subsequently changing their name in October 2019. 

Although this came as a huge disappointment, we have decided to rebuild our pathway from junior to adult football. Learning from our mistakes, we intend to build a better and more sustainable Junior Club. This has been started with great enthusiasm and vigour by Mike Fish, who has quickly established an affiliation with Bolton Wanderers Community Trust and also formed a partnership with Premier Education - who will help us to plan, deliver and evaluate our youth projects going forward. 

We are now looking forward to a bright future with the goal of providing football for boys and girls from U6’s right through to open age, being coached by qualified coaches whilst playing on quality football pitches.