History of English football
Encyclopedia
The History of English football
is a long and detailed one, as it is not only the national sport but England was where the game was developed and codified. The modern global game of Football
was first codified in 1863 in London. The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university football games. There is evidence for refereed, team football games being played in English schools since at least 1581. An account of an exclusively kicking football game from Nottinghamshire
in the 15th century bears similarity to football. England can boast the earliest ever documented use of the English word "football" (1409) and the earliest reference to the sport in French (1314). The modern passing game is believed to have been innovated in London and England is home to the oldest football clubs in the world (dating from at least 1857), the world's oldest competition (the FA cup founded in 1871) and the first ever football league (1888). For these reasons England is considered the home of the game of football.
and Normandy
, and could have been brought to England in the Norman Conquest. These games were violent and largely ruleless. As a result, they were often banned.
England is the origin of nearly all first accounts of features of football:
In 1280 comes the first account of a kicking ball game. This happened at Ulgham
, near Ashington
in Northumberland
, in which a player was killed as a result of running against an opposing player's dagger. This confirms that by the 13th century kicking ball games were being played in England.
In 1314, comes the earliest reference to a game called football when Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor of the City of London issued a decree on behalf of King Edward II
banning football. It was written in the French used by the English upper classes at the time. A translation reads: "[f]orasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large foot balls [rageries de grosses pelotes de pee] in the fields of the public from which many evils might arise which God forbid: we command and forbid on behalf of the king, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future."
In 1409 King Henry IV of England
gives us the first documented use of the English word "football" when issued a proclamation forbidding the levying of money for "foteball".
At the end of the 15th century comes the earliest description of a football game. This account in Latin
of a football game contains a number of features of modern football and comes from Cawston, Nottinghamshire
, England. It is included in a manuscript collection of the miracles of King Henry VI of England. Although the precise date is uncertain it certainly comes from between 1481 and 1500. This is the first account of an exclusively "kicking game" and the first description of dribbling
: "[t]he game at which they had met for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball game. It is one in which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air but by striking it and rolling it along the ground, and that not with their hands but with their feet... kicking in opposite directions" The chronicler gives the earliest reference to a football field, stating that: "[t]he boundaries have been marked and the game had started.
In 1526 comes the first record of a pair of football boots occurs when Henry VIII of England
ordered a pair from the Great Wardrobe in 1526. Unfortunately these are no longer in existence.
In 1581 comes the earliest account of football as an organised team sport. Richard Mulcaster
, a student at Eton College
in the early 16th century and later headmaster at other English schools provides the earliest references to teams ("sides" and "parties"), positions ("standings"), a referee ("judge over the parties") and a coach "(trayning maister)". Mulcaster's "footeball" had evolved from the disordered and violent forms of traditional football:
Mulcaster also confirms that in the 16fth century England football was very popular and widespread: it had attained "greatnes. .. [and was] much used ... in all places"
Despite this violence continued to be a problem. For example, the parish archives of North Moreton
, Oxfordshire
for May 1595 state: "Gunter's son and ye Gregorys fell together by ye years at football.
Old Gunter drew his dagger and both broke their heads,
and they died both within a fortnight after."
In 1602 the earliest reference to a game involving passing the ball comes from cornish hurling
. In particular Carew tells us that: "Then must he cast the ball (named Dealing) to some one of his fellowes". In this case, however, the pass is by hand, as in rugby football. Although there are other allusions to ball passing in the 17th century literature, this is the only one which categorically states that the ball was passed to another member of the same team. There are no other explicit references to passing the ball between members of the same team until the 1860s, however, in 1650 English puritan Richard Baxter
alludes to player to player passing of the ball during a football game in his book Everlasting Rest: "like a Football in the midst of a crowd of Boys, tost about in contention from one to another".
The first references to goals come from England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In 1584 and 1602 respectively, John Norden
and Richard Carew referred to "goals" in Cornish hurling
. Carew described how goals were made: "they pitch two bushes in the ground, some eight or ten foote asunder; and directly against them, ten or twelue [twelve] score off, other twayne in like distance, which they terme their Goales". He is also the first to refer to goalkeeping.
The first direct references to scoring a goal come from England in the 17th century. For example, in John Day
's play The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (performed circa 1600; published 1659): "I'll play a gole at camp-ball
" (an extremely violent variety of football, which was popular in East Anglia
). Similarly in a poem in 1613, Michael Drayton
refers to "when the Ball to throw, And drive it to the Gole, in squadrons forth they goe". The concept of football teams is mentioned by English Poet Edmund Waller
in c1624: He mentions a "a sort [i.e. company]of lusty shepherds try their force at football, care of victory...
They ply their feet, and still the restless ball, Toss'd to and fro, is urged by them all". The last line suggests that playing as a team emerged much earlier in English football than previously thought.
Football continued to be outlawed in English cities, for example the Manchester Lete Roll contains a resolution, dated 12 October 1608: "That whereas there hath been heretofore great disorder in our towne of Manchester, and the inhabitants thereof greatly wronged and charged with makinge and amendinge of their glasse windows broken yearlye and spoyled by a companye of lewd and disordered psons vsing that unlawfull exercise of playinge with the ffote-ball in ye streets of ye sd toune breakinge many men's windowes and glasse at their plesures and other great enormyties. Therefore, wee of this jurye doe order that no manner of psons hereafter shall play or use the footeball in any street within the said toune of Manchester, subpœnd to evye one that shall so use the same for evye time xiid".
Although football was frequently outlawed in England, it remained popular even with the ruling classes. For example, during the reign of King James I of England James Howell
mentions how Lord Willoughby and Lord Sunderland enjoyed playing football, for example:"Lord Willoughby, and he, with so many of their servants ... play'd a match at foot- ball against such a number of Countrymen, where my Lord of Sunderland being busy about the ball, got a bruise in the
breast
Football continued to be popular throughout 17th century England. For example in 1634 Davenant is quoted (in Hones Table-Book) as remarking, "I would now make a safe retreat, but methinks Jam stopped by one of your heroic gamea called football; which I conceive (under your favor) not very conveniently civil in the streets, especially in such irregular and narrow roads as Crooked Lane. Yet it argues your courage, much like your military pastime of throwing at cocks, since you have long allowed these two valiant exercises in the streets". Similarly in 1638 Thomas Randolph
suggests this in the following lines from one of his plays: "Madam, you may in time bring down his legs To the just size, now overgrown with playing Too much at foot-ball".
In 1660 comes the first objective study of football, given in Francis Willughby
's Book of Sports, written in about 1660. This account is particularly noteworthy as he refers to football by its correct name and is the first to describe the following: goals and a pitch ("a close that has a gate at either end. The gates are called Goals"), tactics ("leaving some of their best players to guard the goal"), scoring ("they that can strike the ball through their opponents' goal first win") and the way teams were selected ("the players being equally divided according to their strength and nimbleness"). He is the first to describe a law of football: "They often break one another's shins when two meet and strike both together against the ball, and therefore there is a law that they must not strike higher than the ball". His book includes the first (basic) diagram illustrating a modern football pitch.
Football continued to be played in the later 17th century, even in cities such as London. The great diarist Samuel Pepys
, for example, states in 1665 that in a London street "the streete being full of footballs".
, Lancashire
shows how football was popular among English factory workers: "A stranger passing through it at noon time may see a number of young men and boys dressed in Fustian engaged in the favourite sport of football".
England was the first country in the world to develop codified football, coming about from a desire of its various public school
s to compete against each other. Previously, each school had its own rules, which may have dated back to the 15th or 16th centuries. The first attempts to come up with single codes probably began in the 1840s, with various meetings between school representatives attempting to come up with a set of rules with which all would be happy. The first attempt was The Cambridge Rules
, created in 1848; others developed their own sets, most notably Sheffield F.C.
(1855) and J.C. Thring (1862). These were moulded into one set in 1863 when the Football Association
was formed; though some clubs continued to play under the Sheffield Rules
until 1878, and others dissented to form Rugby Union
instead.
The 1863 rules of the Football Association provides the first reference in the English Language to the verb to "pass" a ball.
C. W. Alcock
became the first footballer ever to be ruled off side on 31 March 1866, confirming that players were probing ways of exploiting the new off side rule right from the start. The offside rule was introduced in 1866 into the Football Association rules. It was almost identical to the one that had been part of the Cambridge Rules.
The early Sheffield Rules were particularly important as their offside system allowed poaching or sneaking and thus demonstrated the use of the forward pass: Players known as "kick throughs" were positioned permanently near the opponents goal to receive these balls. According to C.W. Alcock the Sheffield style gave birth to the modern passing game. The Sheffield Rules of 1862 later included both crossbars and half time and free kicks were introduced to their code in 1866.
The oldest existing football trophy in the world the Youdan Cup
(1867).
The English introduced football into France in 1863, founding their first club, as the following newspaper cutting shows:
"A number of English gentlemen living in Paris have lately organised a football club... The football contests take place in the Bois de Boulogne, by permission of the authorities and surprise the French amazingly
strategies started to evolve, which created the modern game as we know it. Teamwork and passing were the innovation of the Royal Engineers AFC By 1869 they were "work[ing] well together", "backing up" and benefiting from "cooperation". By 1870 the Engineers were the first team to use ball passing strategies: "Lieut. Creswell, who having brought the ball
up the side then kicked it into the middle to another of his side, who kicked it through the posts the minute before time was called" Passing was a regular feature of their style and their skills included "turn[ing] the ball" to colleagues and "irreproachable organisation" of forwards and defenders By early 1872 the Engineers were the first football team renowned for "play[ing] beautifully together"
The FA Cup
was the first nationally organized competition. A knockout cup, it began 1871, with the first winners being the Wanderers
. In those days professionalism was banned, and the cup was dominated by service teams or old schoolboys' teams (such as Old Etonians
). The Scottish Football Association
split from the FA in 1873.
In the early 1870s the modern team passing game was invented by the Sheffield FC, Royal Engineers A.F.C.
and Scottish players of the era from Queens Park FC. This was the predecessor to the current passing, defensive game was known as the Combination Game
and was spread around the world by British expatriates.
England was home to the first ever international football match on 5 March 1870. The first match ended in a draw and was one of a series of four matches between representatives of England and Scotland at The Oval
, London. These matches were arranged by the Football Association, at the time the only national football body in the world.
The origin of these games came in 1870 when CW Alcock's challenged homegrown contenders in Scotland against an English eleven. These challenges were issued in Scottish newspapers, including the Glasgow Herald. He received no response to these adverts. One response to Alcock's challenges illustrates that soccer was eclipsed in Scotland by other codes:
Alcock was categorical that although most players were London based, this was due to lack of response from north of the border:
Alcock continued to pursue players from "north of the Tweed
", inviting them in papers such as the Scotsman to contact(for example) A F Kinnaird
". At this time, however, it was unusual for national sides to travel far for matches and even in the 1873 England v Scotland game, the first FIFA recognised match in England, only 3 Scottish players were not from English sides Alcock decided "in order to further the interests of the Association in Scotland, it was decided that during the current season, a team should be sent to Glasgow to play a match v Scotland
The first official (i.e. currently recognised by FIFA) international match would take place between Scotland and England on November 30, 1872. This match was played under the Football Association rules.
Englishman C. W. Alcock
was responsible for instigating the world's first official football international in Glasgow on 30 November 1872. This match was played under the Football Association rules and was drawn, however, the following year England became the first team in the world to win an international football match when they beat Scotland in London.
The South Derbyshire Football Association
was established in March 1871
This period in English football was dominated by conflict between those who supported professionalism, and those who wanted the game to remain amateur. Clubs in Scotland and Northern England
generally supported a professional game, as the working class
of these regions could not afford to miss work in order to play football. In Southern England
, the game was more popular with the middle class
, who supported "Corinth
ian" values of amateurism. A number of clubs, such as Blackburn Rovers
and Darwen
were accused of employing professionals, and the FA eventually legalized the practice in 1885, in order to avoid a split.
in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor. This was dominated by those clubs who had supported professionalism, and the twelve founding members consisted of six from Lancashire
(Blackburn Rovers, Burnley
, Bolton Wanderers
, Accrington
, Everton
and Preston North End
) and six from the Midlands
(Aston Villa, Derby County
, Notts County
, Stoke
, West Bromwich Albion
and Wolverhampton Wanderers
). No sides from the South or London initially participated.
Preston North End won the first ever Football League championship without losing any of their 22 fixtures, and won the FA Cup to complete the double. They retained their league title the following year but by the turn of the 20th century they had been eclipsed by Aston Villa, who had emulated Preston's double success in 1897. Other Midlands sides, such as Wolves (1893 FA Cup winners) and West Bromwich Albion (1888 & 1892 FA Cup winners) were also successful during this era, as were Blackburn Rovers, who won five FA Cups in the 1880s and 1890s.
In 1891 Liverpool engineer John Alexander Brodie
invented the football net.
In 1892, a new Division Two
was added, taking in more clubs from around the country; Woolwich Arsenal
became the first League club from the capital in 1893; they were also joined by Liverpool
the same year. By 1898, both divisions had been expanded to eighteen clubs. Other rival leagues on a local basis were being eclipsed by the Football League, though both the Northern League
and the Southern League
- who provided the only ever non-league FA Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur
in 1901 - remained competitors in the pre-World War I era.
At the turn of the 20th century, clubs from Sheffield
were particularly successful, with Sheffield United winning a title and two FA Cups, as well as losing to Tottenham in the 1901 final; meanwhile The Wednesday (later Sheffield Wednesday) won two titles and two FA Cups, despite being relegated in 1899 they were promoted the following year. Clubs in Tyne and Wear
were also at the forefront; Sunderland had won four titles between 1892 and 1902, and in the following decade Newcastle United won the title three titles, in 1905, 1907 and 1909, and reached five FA Cup finals in seven years between 1905 and 1911, winning just the one, however. In addition Bury
managed a 6-0 win over Derby County in the 1903 FA Cup Final, a record scoreline that stands to this day.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Manchester City
looked to be emerging as England's top side after winning the FA Cup for the first time in 1904, but it was soon revealed that the club had been involved in financial irregularities, which included paying £6 or £7 a week in wages to players when the national wage limit was £4 per week. The authorities were furious and rebuked the club, dismissing five of its directors and banning four of its players from ever turning out for the club again.
Instead, it was City's neighbours United
who were the more successful during the early 20th century. They reached the First Division in 1906 and were crowned league champions two years later. The following year, 1909, they won the FA Cup and they added another league championship in 1911. A decline set in, however, and there would be no major trophies for the red half of Manchester for the next 37 years. Further domination of the game by clubs from the north-west came in the shape of Liverpool, who won two league titles in 1901 and 1906, and Everton, who won the FA Cup in 1906. And in the run-up to World War I, Blackburn Rovers recorded two league titles 1912 and 1914, before hostilities meant professional football was suspended.
Clubs from the South fared poorly in comparison, though in 1904 Woolwich Arsenal became the first club from London to be promoted to the First Division, while a slew of clubs from the capital joined the League (including Clapton Orient
, Chelsea
, Fulham
and Tottenham Hotspur
), making it a properly nationwide competition; both Chelsea and Spurs quickly gained promotion to the top flight as well.
On the international scene, the Home Nations
continued to play each other, with Scotland
the slightly more successful of the four. When the countries combined to play as Great Britain in the Olympic Games
they were unbeatable, winning all three pre-World War I football gold medals. England played their first games against teams outside of the British Isles
in 1908.
(expanding quickly to Division Three South
and Division Three North
), with all leagues now containing 22 clubs, making 88 in total. In addition, in 1923 Wembley Stadium
opened, and hosted its first Cup final, between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United, known today as the "White Horse Final"; Bolton won 2-0.
During the interwar years, Arsenal and Everton were the two most dominant sides in English football, although Huddersfield Town did make history in 1926 by becoming the first team to complete a hat-trick of successive league titles. Arsenal would do the same in 1935.
Everton had hit the headlines in 1928 by winning the league championship thanks largely to the record breaking 60 league goals of 21-year-old centre-forward Dixie Dean
. He was helped by the new rules of the 1920s, including the allowing of goals from a corner kick
, and the relaxing of the offside rule. Everton also won the league twice more, in 1932 and 1939, and the FA Cup in 1933. Their neighbours Liverpool had earlier won back-to-back titles in 1922 and 1923, but were unable to sustain this success.
Huddersfield Town and Arsenal's successes were largely down to manager Herbert Chapman
, who first managed Huddersfield in their first two championship seasons in 1923-24 and 1924–25, before accepting the offer to manage Arsenal. With Arsenal, he won the FA Cup once and the League twice in the 1930s, before his sudden death during what would be a third title-winning season in 1933-34. Arsenal went on to win the title twice more during the 1930s, as well as another FA Cup.
Sheffield Wednesday were also successful during the 1930s, winning the 1929-30 title, the FA Cup in 1935 and finishing in the top three in all but one season in the period 1930-36. In addition, it was during this time that a Welsh side won the FA Cup for the only time; Cardiff City
beating Arsenal 1-0 in the 1927 Final.
The national team remained strong, but lost their first game to a non-British Isles country in 1929 (against Spain
in Madrid
) and refused to compete in the initial World Cups.
, who beat Charlton Athletic
4-1 in the final
. The league restarted in the 1946-47 season, with the first title going to Liverpool
.
In the immediate post-war years, Arsenal won another two titles and an FA Cup but after the second title win in 1953, began to fade considerably and would not win another trophy for nearly 20 years. Liverpool won a league title as well, but suffered an even more miserable fate and were relegated to the Second Division in 1954. Portsmouth
were also successful; having won the FA Cup in the last season before the war, they won two titles in a row in 1948-49 and 1949–50, but like Liverpool they were relegated by the time the decade was out.
Manchester United re-emerged as a footballing force under new manager Matt Busby
. They won the FA Cup in 1948 and the league title in 1952, the first in the club's history. The "Busby Babes
", so called as the players were all young, rising through the club's youth system, developed as one of England's finest teams ever, with the likes of Bobby Charlton
, Albert Scanlon
and Duncan Edwards
winning two further titles in 1956 and 1957. But the Munich air disaster
on 6 February 1958 resulted in the deaths of eight players (including Edwards) and ended the careers of two others, while Busby survived with serious injuries. He built a new United side with a mix of young players, Munich survivors and new signings, and five years later his rebuilding programme paid off with FA Cup
glory.
The other dominant team of the era was Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wolves, who had previously spent most of the interwar period in the lower divisions, won two league titles and two FA Cups under manager Stan Cullis
and captain Billy Wright. Other Midlands sides also enjoyed success after a barren period, including West Bromwich Albion's FA Cup win in 1954 (their first trophy in 23 years) and Aston Villa matching them with a Cup win in 1957 (their first in 37 years). In addition, in 1951 Tottenham Hotspur became the first team in English football to win the league title immediately after being promoted, and Chelsea won their first and only league title of the 20th century in 1955.
One of the most memorable matches of the era was when Blackpool
beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3 in the 1953 FA Cup Final, in a match that came to be known as the "Matthews Final", for Blackpool's mercurial winger Stanley Matthews
, even though it was Stan Mortensen
who scored a hat-trick that day; it remains Blackpool's only major honour.
English football as a whole, however, began to suffer at this time, with tactical naivety setting in. The national team were humiliated at their first World Cup in 1950, famously losing to the USA
1-0. This was followed by two defeats in 1953 to Hungary
, who destroyed England 6-3 at home
, the first time England had lost at home to a non-British Isles team, and 7-1 in Budapest
, England's biggest ever defeat. The early European club competitions also went without much English success, with the FA initially unwilling to allow clubs to compete. No English team reached a European Cup
final until 1968, which was the same year that England got their first Fairs Cup success; although English teams Birmingham City (twice) and a London XI
had reached the first three finals of the competition in its formative days.
Great players who rose to prominence during the 1950s include Duncan Edwards
, Tommy Taylor
, Bobby Charlton
, Denis Law
, Bobby Robson
, Norman Deeley
, Peter Sillett
, Danny Blanchflower
, Denis Compton
and Joe Mercer
.
While Edwards and Taylor both lost their lives due to the Munich tragedy, many older players naturally reached the end of their illustrious careers at around the same time. These include Nat Lofthouse
, Tom Finney
, Billy Wright, Stan Mortensen
, Bert Williams
and Johnny Carey
.
Managers who achieved glory in the first 15 years of postwar English football include Matt Busby
, Tom Whittaker
, Stan Cullis
, Ted Drake
and Stan Seymour
.
(with the first winners being Aston Villa), whilst Matt Busby rebuilt his Manchester United team into a second Busby Babes, starring George Best
. Meanwhile, past giants like Wolves started to decline, with relegation eventually coming in 1965.
It was Tottenham Hotspur who became the dominant force in English football in the early 1960s, winning the elusive double of the League and FA Cup in 1961, retaining the cup in 1962 and becoming the first British team to win a European trophy, after their 5-1 victory over Atlético Madrid in the 1963 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
final. Fellow London side West Ham United were also successful, with the England trio of Bobby Moore
, Geoff Hurst
and Martin Peters
helping them win the 1964 FA Cup and the 1965 Cup Winners' Cup.
The English national side showed signs of improving with Alf Ramsey
taking over as head coach following a respectable quarter final appearance at the 1962 FIFA World Cup
. Ramsey confidently predicted that at the next tournament, England would win the trophy, and they did just that.
The 1966 World Cup saw England win the World Cup in a controversial 4-2 victory over West Germany
. The three goals scored by Geoff Hurst
within 120 minutes, of which some are controversial, are the only hat trick
to be achieved in a World Cup final to date. Bobby Moore
was the captain on that day, whilst Munich air crash survivor Bobby Charlton also played. The World Cup as a whole was highly successful, with the successes of the North Korea team, the fouls of the Uruguay team
, the skill of Eusébio
and the famous quote They think it's all over... it is now
entering England's collective memory.
The period also saw the first English successes in European club football, begun with Manchester United's 4-1 European Cup victory over SL Benfica
, and Leeds United
's Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
victory, both in 1968. Indeed, Leeds' win set off a series of 6 consecutive wins in the competition (which was renamed the UEFA Cup
in 1971) for English clubs, with the 1972 final being held between two of them, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
During this time, a number of different teams competed for league and cup success. Manchester City enjoyed success at the same time as their rivals United, winning the First Division title for only the second time in 1968, and the FA Cup the year after that, and a double of the Cup Winners Cup and League Cup in 1970. Leeds' Fairs Cup success was no isolated effort; Don Revie
's side also won a League Cup in 1968 and the league title the season after. Liverpool under Bill Shankly
had won promotion in 1962 and soon after won the league title in 1964, and again in 1966, with an FA Cup in between; their neighbours Everton meanwhile had similar success but on a smaller scale, taking two league titles in 1963 and 1970, and the FA Cup in 1966.
Players who dominated the English scene during the 1960s include Bobby Moore
, Geoff Hurst
, Bobby Charlton
, George Best
, Denis Law
, Jimmy Greaves
, Francis Lee
, Jeff Astle
, Gordon Banks
and Roger Hunt
.
The decade also saw the illustrious careers of many famous older players drawing to a close. These include Danny Blanchflower
, Harry Gregg
, Dennis Viollet
, Norman Deeley
, Peter McParland
, Noel Cantwell
, Bert Trautmann
, Jimmy Adamson
, Syd Owen
, and the 50-year-old Stanley Matthews
.
Successful managers of the 1960s include Matt Busby
, Bill Nicholson
, Harry Catterick
, Bill Shankly
, Don Revie
, Joe Mercer
and Ron Greenwood.
London clubs were among the success stories of the early 1970s. Bertie Mee
's Arsenal had been in the doldrums for more than 10 years; after suffering two League Cup final defeats in 1968 and 1969 (to Leeds United and Third Division Swindon Town
respectively), they finally won silverware with the Fairs Cup in 1970, followed by the League and Cup Double in 1971, making them only the second team of the 20th century to do so. However, Arsenal's success under Mee soon ran dry; their next major trophy coming in 1979 when they won the FA Cup under Terry Neill
. Chelsea also enjoyed silverware, claiming the FA Cup in 1970 and the Winners Cup a year later. Tottenham were also successful, with a UEFA Cup and League Cup in 1971 and 1973 respectively,
However, the dominant team in England in this period was Liverpool, winning league titles in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983 and 1984. They also collected three European Cups, three FA Cups and four League Cups, under Shankly and his successor Bob Paisley
, who retired as manager in 1983 to be succeeded by veteran coach Joe Fagan
. Players such as Emlyn Hughes
and Alan Hansen
helped Liverpool have a solid and reliable side, whose skill and talent was supported by a strong work ethic and the famous "boot room" identity. Kevin Keegan
was Liverpool's leading striker for much of the 1970s before being sold to HSV Hamburg
in 1977 and being replaced by Kenny Dalglish
. The midfielder was boosted towards the end of the decade by the arrival of Graeme Souness
, and the early 1980s spawned further new stars including high-scoring striker Ian Rush
, talented midfielder Craig Johnston
and skilful defender Steve Nicol
.
The other notably successful teams of the era were Derby County
, Nottingham Forest
, Everton and Aston Villa. Derby, led by Brian Clough and then Dave Mackay, were the only team other than Liverpool to win the league more than once in the 1970s and also reached the semi-final of the European Cup in the 1972-73 season, though they faded rapidly towards the end of the decade. Forest, led by Brian Clough (who had an infamous 44-day stint at Leeds United after resigning at Derby), took over at the City Ground
in January 1975 when Forest were a struggling Second Division side; in 1977 he took them into the First Division and they won the league title a year later, followed by two successive European Cup triumphs and also adding two League Cups. Everton began the 1970s on a high note as league champions in 1970, but rarely featured in the race for the major trophies until they won the FA Cup
under Howard Kendall
in 1985. They added the league title and European Cup Winners' Cup
a year later. Aston Villa had bounced back from relegation to the Third Division in 1970, winning promotion to the top flight in 1975 and a League Cup the same year, and again in 1977. They went on to win the 1981 league title and the year after won the European Cup, becoming the fourth English club to do so, beating Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam
.
Leeds had initially built on their success, winning an FA Cup in 1972 and the league title in 1973-74. However, after Don Revie left for England in 1974, they won no more trophies and were relegated in 1982. Another side successful in the early 70s, Arsenal, had little to shout about until they played a trio of Cup Finals between 1978 and 1980, only winning the one, in 1979, 3-2 against Manchester United. Fellow London side West Ham United beat them in the following year's final, to add to the Cup they won in 1975. After relegation in 1977, Tottenham bounced back and were resurgent in this period, winning the FA Cup twice and the UEFA Cup in 1974.
Other clubs did not fare as well in the 1970s; Manchester United began to decline that eventually saw them relegated in 1974. However, they were promoted back the following season, and reached three cup finals in four years (1976, 1977 and 1979), though they only won the 1977 final. United went on to finish second twice during the 1980s and won another FA Cup in 1983, but the league title continued to elude them - they had not won it since 1967. On the other hand, their neighbours City struggled in the early 1980s; after reaching the 1981 Cup Final, they declined rapidly and were relegated in 1983, in spite of heavy spending on players who rarely lived up to their price tags.
Meanwhile, Chelsea were also going through a turbulent time after winning the FA Cup in 1970 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1971. Financial problems and the loss of key players meant they spent most of 1970s and 1980s bouncing between the First and Second Divisions. In 1983, they only narrowly avoided relegation to the Third Division, but were promoted the following year.
Wolves, who had arguably been the best team of the 1950s and were still a reasonable force in 1980 (when they finished sixth and won the League Cup), suffered a spectacular decline which began in 1984 and ended in 1986 with three successive relegations that saw them in the Fourth Division for the first time. They were not alone in suffering a relegation hat-trick; Bristol City had completed the first such humiliation in 1982, though they were admittedly a far smaller club whose relegation in 1980 came after just four years in the top flight after an absence of 65 years.
Wolves were one of several once-great sides to endure a decline during the 1970s and early 1980s. Huddersfield Town (who complete the first league title hat-trick during the 1920s) were relegated from the First Division in 1971 and fell into the Fourth Division in 1975, not winning promotion until 1980. Portsmouth (league champions in 1949 and 1950) fell into the Fourth Division in 1978 as an almost bankrupt side, but climbed out of it in 1980 and within five years were in the hunt for a First Division comeback. Derby County were league champions in 1972 and 1975, but a rapid decline saw them fall into the Second Division in 1980 and the Third Division in 1984.
The period was also marked by some surprise FA Cup wins by lower-division teams over top-flight sides; these included Sunderland (beating Leeds United in 1973), Southampton (beating Manchester United in 1976) and West Ham United (beating Arsenal in 1980). Bobby Robson
's Ipswich Town
were another successful smaller club, winning the FA Cup in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981. They also came second in the league in 1981 and 1982.
During this period transfer fees began to rise rapidly as more money entered the game; Trevor Francis
became Britain's first million-pound rated footballer in 1979. 1979 also saw the formation of the Football Conference
. This was the first national league to develop below the Football League, and was the beginning of a formalisation of the English football pyramid
. The first seven Conference champions failed to gain election to the Football League, but in 1986 it was decided that the following year's champions would be automatically promoted to the league to replace the Fourth Division's bottom side....
The re-election system saw Cambridge United elected to the league in 1970, Hereford United in 1972, Wimbledon in 1977 and Wigan Athletic in 1978. Cambridge reached the Second Division in 1978 and were a competent side at this level for five seasons before a terrible decline saw them fall back into the Fourth Division in 1985. Hereford reached the Second Division after just four years of league membership, only to endure back-to-back relegations which pushed them back into the Fourth Division in 1978. Wimbledon's first two promotions from the Fourth Division ended in relegation after just one season, but by 1984 they had reached the Second Division and their biggest successes were yet to come.
Players who dominated the English scene during the 1970s and early 1980s include Kevin Keegan
, Kenny Dalglish
, Graeme Souness
, Peter Shilton
, Bryan Robson
, John Wark
, Liam Brady
, Steve Perryman
, Glenn Hoddle
and Alan Hansen
.
Older players whose careers finished during this time include Bobby Moore
, Bobby Charlton
, George Best
, Denis Law
, Jimmy Greaves
, Billy Bremner
, Jack Charlton
, Emlyn Hughes
, Gordon Banks
and Alex Stepney
.
Successful managers of this era include Bill Shankly
, Bob Paisley
, Don Revie
, John Lyall
, Brian Clough
, Ron Saunders
, Ron Atkinson
, Bobby Robson
and Keith Burkinshaw
.
had begun to haunt English football. The Heysel Stadium disaster
was the epitome of this, with English hooligans mixing with poor policing and an old stadium to cause the deaths of 39 Juventus fans during the 1985 European Cup final. This led to English teams being banned from European football for five years, and Liverpool - the club involved - being banned for six.
Even when English teams were re-admitted, it was not until 1995 that they regained all of their lost places. And it took a while for English teams to re-establish themselves in Europe. Although Manchester United
won the European Cup Winners' Cup in the first season after the ban was lifted
, the European Cup
was not won by an English club until 1999 – 15 years after the last triumph.
The Hillsborough disaster
, which also involved Liverpool, though not related to hooliganism but caused by bad policing, an old stadium and anti-hooligan fences led to 94 deaths and more than 300 injuries. The final death toll was 96. These two tragedies led to a modernization of English football and English grounds. Efforts were made to remove hooligans from English football, whilst the Taylor Report
led to the grounds of all top level clubs becoming all-seater.
Match attendances, which had been in decline since the 1970s, was beginning to recover by the turn of the 1990s thanks to the improving image of football as well as the strengthened national economy and falling unemployment after the crises of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
On the field, Liverpool's domination was coming to an end; it also saw the culmination of the phenomenal rise of Wimbledon
, who rose from the Fourth Division to the First in just four seasons, before finishing sixth in their inaugural season in the top flight and beating Liverpool 1-0 in the 1988 FA Cup final, one of the competition's biggest shocks. Another team to make an improbably quick rise from Fourth to First Divisions was Swansea City, who had climbed three divisions between 1977 and 1981. They finished sixth in their first top division campaign, but were relegated the following year and in 1986 fell back into the Fourth Division.
A number of other small clubs achieved success at this time. Charlton Athletic, who were forced to leave The Valley and ground-share with West Ham for safety reasons in 1985, won promotion to the First Division in 1986 after an exile of nearly 30 years. They defied the odds by remaining at this level until their luck finally ran out and they were relegated in 1990. Norwich City went down to the Second Division in 1985 but that blow was cushioned by a League Cup triumph. They returned to the top flight a year later and finished fifth on their comeback, also coming fourth and reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in 1989. They reached another FA Cup semi-final in 1992. Oxford United, who had only joined the Football League in 1962, reached the First Division in 1985 and lifted the League Cup the following season. They went back down again in 1988, the same year that Middlesbrough reached the First Division a mere two seasons after almost going out of business as a Third Division side. Luton Town, who began the latest of several spells as a First Division side in 1982, won the Football League Cup
- their first major trophy - in 1988 at the expense of a much more fancied Arsenal side.
Many fallen giants fell on hard times during the later part of the 1980s. Burnley and Preston North End (both Football League founders with five league titles between them), were relegated to the Fourth Division in 1985. Preston were promoted back to the Third Division in 1987, but that year saw Burnley narrowly avoid becoming the first team to suffer automatic relegation to the Conference (that humiliation was endured by Lincoln City instead) and it was not until 1992 that Burnley won promotion from the basement division.
One fallen giant to enjoy something of a resurgence in this era was Derby County. They had been relegated to the Third Division in 1984, just nine years after being league champions, but back-to-back promotions saw them back in the First Division in 1987. They emerged as surprise title contenders in 1988-89 and finished fifth, only missing out on a UEFA Cup place due to the ban on English clubs in European competition. But Derby were unable to sustain their run of success, and went down to the Second Division in 1991.
In 1986, Wolverhampton Wanderers fell into the Fourth Division for the first time in their history, and became only the second English team to endure three successive relegations. By 1989, they had won promotion to the Second Division almost single-handedly thanks to the goalscoring exploits of striker Steve Bull
, who became the first English footballer to score 50 or more competitive goals in successive seasons. Local businessman Jack Hayward
took the club over in 1990, and declared his ambition to restore Wolves as a major footballing force.
Bolton Wanderers, four times FA Cup winners, were relegated to the Fourth Division in 1987, the same year that Sunderland fell into the Third Division for the first time in their history. Both teams, however, won promotion at the first attempt.
With Liverpool's fortunes waning, George Graham's
Arsenal started to win trophies again, with a League Cup in 1987 and two league titles, in 1989 and 1991, the former being won in the final minute of the final game of the season
against title rivals Liverpool, with young midfielder Michael Thomas scoring the crucial goal. Arsenal would go on to be the first side to pick up the Cup Double in 1993, and followed it with a Cup Winners' Cup the year after.
Arsenal's neighbours Tottenham were also successful, winning the FA Cup in 1990-91, with midfielder Paul Gascoigne
proving the hero in the semi-finals against Arsenal before injuring himself in the final against Nottingham Forest. Tottenham bought Barcelona
's high-scoring England
striker Gary Lineker
in 1989, and he continued his excellent form over three years at the club before leaving to finish his career in Japan.
Leeds had finally won promotion back to the top flight in 1990 and under Howard Wilkinson
they won the 1991-92 league title. Wilkinson is still the most recent English manager to win the league championship. However, the departure of Eric Cantona
to Manchester United, amongst other factors, meant they were unable to make a regular challenge for the title following the creation of the Premier League.
Manchester United's six-year trophyless run had ended in 1983 when manager Ron Atkinson
(appointed in 1981) guided them to FA Cup glory. They achieved another triumph two years later, but had still gone without a league title since 1967. 10 successive league wins at the start of the 1985-86 season suggested that the title was on its way back to Old Trafford
, but United's form fell away as they finished fourth and Liverpool sealed the title. A terrible start to the 1986-87 season cost Atkinson his job in early November, when Alex Ferguson
was recruited from Aberdeen
. Ferguson strengthened the squad in the 1987 close season and the first stages of the new season and things were looking good as Ferguson's first full season as manager saw United finished second behind runaway champions Liverpool. Further signings after this improvement suggested that the title was even closer for United, but a series of injuries blighted the side and they finished 11th in 1989. United's wait for silverware ended in 1990 when they won their 7th FA Cup, and a year later they won the European Cup Winners' Cup, but it had now been well over 20 years since the league title had been United's.
Despite failure to qualify for Euro 1984 (the first major tournament since the appointment of Bobby Robson
as manager), England continued to improve as the 1980s wore on, losing controversially to Argentina
in the 1986 World Cup and unluckily on penalties to Germany
in the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup, eventually finishing fourth. This success for the national team, and the gradually improving grounds, helped to reinvigorate football's popularity. Attendances rose from the late 1980s and continued to do so as football moved into the business era.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the emergence of numerous young players who went on to reach great heights in the game. These include Paul Gascoigne
, David Platt, Matt Le Tissier, Lee Sharpe
, Ryan Giggs
and Paul Merson
.
Established great players who were still playing the top in the early 1990s include Ian Rush
, Peter Beardsley
, Bryan Robson
, Steve Bruce
, Neville Southall
and Ray Wilkins
.
This era also saw many famous names hanging up their boots after long and illustrious careers. These include Ray Clemence
, Gary Bailey
, Alan Hansen
, Craig Johnston
, Norman Whiteside
, Andy Gray and Billy Bonds
.
Successful managers of this era include Kenny Dalglish
, George Graham
, Howard Kendall
, Howard Wilkinson
, Alex Ferguson
, Bobby Gould
, John Lyall
, Jim Smith
, Maurice Evans
and Dave Bassett
.
) fell to the second level.
Manchester United were the first Premiership winners, their first title in 26 years, and under Alex Ferguson
, they dominated English football during the 1990s, winning five league titles (including two doubles), one League Cup, one Cup Winners' Cup and, in 1999, a unique treble: the FA Cup, League and Champions League all in one season. Their success was made even more remarkable by the high number of players who came up simultaneously through their youth system, including brothers Gary
and Philip Neville
, Paul Scholes
and David Beckham
. This success continued in the new millennium.
United's main challengers for the title in the Premier League's first few years were Blackburn Rovers, led by star striker Alan Shearer
, also won their first league title since World War I in 1994-95, and Newcastle United, who famously conceded a 10-point lead at Christmas to lose the title to United in 1995-96. Newcastle had reached the Premiership in 1993 as Division One champions, and in their first Premiership campaign finished third to qualify for the UEFA Cup. They finished second in 1996 and again in 1997, but by the end of the decade had wallowed away to mid table.
Blackburn failed to sustain their success after the 1995 title triumph, and in 1999 they were relegated to Division One.
A number of other teams challenged for the title in the early Premiership years. Aston Villa finished second in 1993, but declined over the next two seasons (despite a League Cup victory in 1994). They enjoyed a revival in 1996, winning the League Cup and finishing fourth in the Premiership, and by 1999 had qualified for the UEFA Cup five times in seven seasons, though their continental form had been unconvincing. Norwich City were surprise title contenders in 1992-93 under new manager Mike Walker, leading the table at several stages before finishing third - and doing so entered the UEFA Cup for the first time in their history. They achieved a shock win over Bayern Munich before being eliminated by Inter Milan, but were unable to keep up their good progress and in 1995 fell into Division One. By the end of the decade, they had yet to make a Premiership comeback.
Many teams that had succeed in the 1970s and 1980s did not fare as well in the Premiership. Liverpool were unable to dominate the decade as they had done in the 1970s and 1980s; after their 1990 title win, their only other trophies of the decade were the FA Cup in 1992 and the League Cup in 1995; they finished as low as 8th in 1994 and although they did finish sixth in the first season of the Premier League, they had spent much of that season in the bottom half of the table. Everton fared no better, although they won the FA Cup in 1995, beating Manchester United, they were involved in no less than three relegation battles during the decade (once staying up only on goal difference) and never finished higher than sixth in the league. After a promising start to the decade which included two fifth place finish, Manchester City also fought relegation, but lost, slipping into the Division One in 1996 and Division Two in 1998. But two successive promotions saw them back in the Premiership for the 2000-01 season. Nottingham Forest were relegated from the Premier League three times, in 1993, 1997 and 1999, and unlike City have yet to return.
Arsenal began the Premier League with moderate league form (a shortage of goals restricting them to 10th place) but excellent form in the cups, as they became the first English team to win both domestic cups in the same season - beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in both finals. They won the Cup Winners' Cup a year later, but manager George Graham
was sacked the following February after admitting to receiving a "bung" when signing Danish midfielder John Jensen
in 1992. They reached the Cup Winners' Cup final for the second year running under temporary manager Stewart Houston
, but finished 12th in the Premiership. They reached fifth the following season under new manager Bruce Rioch
, who was sacked for a dispute with the directors soon afterwards and replaced by Frenchman
Arsène Wenger
. Under Wenger, they won the double in 1998 to become only the second team in English football to repeat this triumph - though, unlike Manchester United two years earlier, with an entirely different set of players.
English football grew wealthier and more popular than ever before, with clubs spending tens of millions of pounds on players and on their wages, which rose to over £100,000 a week for the top stars. This also made it harder for promoted clubs to establish themselves at the top flight. In 1993, newly promoted Middlesbrough lost their top flight status after just one season, while Blackburn finished fourth and Ipswich finished 16th (having occupied fourth place in February). In 1994, newly-promoted Swindon went down after winning just five games all season and conceding 100 goals. Newcastle, meanwhile, qualified for the UEFA Cup in third place and West Ham achieved a respectable 13th place finish. In 1995, newly-promoted Nottingham Forest matched Newcastle's success by coming third and qualifying for the UEFA Cup, while Crystal Palace and Leicester City went straight back down. In 1996, newly-promoted Bolton Wanderers went straight back down, while Middlesbrough attained a secure 12th place (they would have finished even higher had it not been for a dismal mid-season run of form which saw them endure 10 defeats from 11 games). In 1997, newly-promoted Leicester City finished ninth and won the League Cup, while Derby County finished 12th, but Sunderland went straight back down. In 1998, all three newly-promoted teams - Bolton Wanderers, Barnsley and Crystal Palace - were relegated straight back to Division One. In 1999, Middlesbrough attained an impressive ninth place finish, but Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forest were relegated.
The Premier League was decreased from 22 to 20 clubs in 1995.
The national team over this period varied in their success, failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup but reaching the semi-finals in Euro 96, losing on penalties to Germany at the semi-final stage. They also achieved automatic qualification for the 1998 World Cup, losing to Argentina on penalties in the Second Round. Manager Graham Taylor had quit in November 1993 after failing to attain a World Cup place, and his successor Terry Venables
left after the encouraging Euro 96 campaign due to off-the-field disputes. His successor Glenn Hoddle
took England to the World Cup, but was fired the following February after a controversial newspaper interview in which he suggested that disabled people were being punished for sins in a previous life. His successor Kevin Keegan
achieved the task of attaining qualification for Euro 2000.
The trend for clubs to relocate to new stadiums accelerated throughout the 1990s. By the end of the decade, Walsall
, Chester City
, Milwall
, Huddersfield Town
, Northampton Town
, Middlesbrough
, Derby County
, Sunderland
, Bolton Wanderers
, Stoke City
, Reading
and Wigan Athletic
had all moved to new stadiums, and several other clubs were planning to relocate. This was due to the requirement that all Premier League and Division One
stadiums had to have all-seater stadiums by the start of the 1994-95 season
, although standing accommodation was still permitted at Division Two and Three stadiums, as well as non-league venues.
Prominent footballers who emerged during the 1990s include Ryan Giggs
, David Beckham
, Michael Owen
, Sol Campbell
, Chris Sutton
, Robbie Fowler
, Gary Neville
and Rio Ferdinand
.
As well as British and Irish talent, there were numerous foreign imports to the English game during the decade who went on to achieve stardom with English clubs. These include Eric Cantona
, Jurgen Klinsmann
, Dennis Bergkamp
, Gianfranco Zola
, Patrick Vieira
and Peter Schmeichel
.
Many experienced players whose careers began during the 1980s were still playing at the highest level as the 1990s drew to a close. These include David Seaman
, Tony Adams
, Gary Pallister
, Colin Hendry
, Paul Ince
, Alan Shearer
and Mark Hughes
.
The decade also saw the illustrious careers of numerous legendary players draw to a close. These include Bryan Robson
, Gordon Strachan
, Ian Rush
, Peter Beardsley
, Steve Bruce
, John Barnes
and Peter Shilton
.
Successful managers of this era include Alex Ferguson
, Kenny Dalglish
, Arsène Wenger
, Ruud Gullit
, Gianluca Vialli
, George Graham
, Joe Royle
, Frank Clark, Brian Little
and Martin O'Neill
.
in May 2002 leaving a hole in the pockets of the Football League clubs who had relied on their television money to maintain high wages. Although no football league teams collapsed (no team has done so since Maidstone United in 1992), many entered administration, including Leicester City
and Bradford City
. From the 2004-05
, administration for any Premier League or Football League club would mean a 10-point deduction. Most of the non-league divisions adopted a similar penalty.
Another club that faced financial ruin was Leeds United; having reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2000-01 they looked set for dominance on the domestic and European scene, but after failing to qualify for the competition the following season, they were unable to cover the loans they had taken out to fund their spending. They were forced to sell their ground (and lease it back) and many of their best players. They were relegated at the end of the 2003-04 season and three years later slipped into the league's third tier for the first time in their history, although their debts have since been substantially reduced.
At the same time, the country's richest clubs continued to grow, with the wages of top players increasing further.
Manchester United's outstanding success has continued, though to a slightly lesser degree than the success they had previously enjoyed. Arsenal won a third Double in 2002 and clinched the title in 2004 without losing a single league game all season. In 2003 and 2005, when they missed out on the title, they had the FA Cup as compensation. United still managed to win another FA Cup in 2004 and the League Cup in 2006, as well as league titles in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2007. Chelsea's success continued to grow, with Roman Abramovich - a Russian oligarch - purchasing Chelsea in a £150m takeover in 2003. Abramovich, whose move to England made him the country's richest man (he has since been overtaken), made substantial transfer funds available to manager Claudio Ranieri
. After finishing second in 2004, Chelsea won the League Cup and league title under Ranieri's replacement José Mourinho
in 2005, and another title in 2006.
While unable to challenge for the league title, Liverpool achieved success in other competitions, including a treble of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001. Another League Cup followed in 2003, but the biggest triumph of the decade so far was a Champions League win in 2005, with a memorable comeback
from 3-0 down against AC Milan in the final; Liverpool became the second club since the Heysel ban to take the trophy. The season after Liverpool won the FA Cup, winning on penalties after drawing 3-3 with newly-promoted West Ham United. Tottenham Hotspur have also resurged under new manager Martin Jol
, narrowly missing out on a Champions League place in 2006 after finishing fifth.
The England national team during this time became managed by a non-English national for the first time in their history when Sven-Göran Eriksson
took charge. He achieved respectable results in international tournaments, going out to eventual winners Brazil
in the 2002 World Cup
, hosts Portugal
in Euro 2004, and Portugal once again on penalties in the 2006 World Cup
having reached the quarter-finals. Arguably due to pressure over the lack of actual victories in major tournaments, Eriksson announced his resignation prior to the 2006 World Cup. Steve McClaren
was selected by the FA as his replacement, and took over as manager on 1 August 2006, on a 4-year contract. England's failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championships led to McClaren being sacked on 22 November 2007, after only 16 months in charge. He was replaced by Italian Fabio Capello
.
The 2006-07 season saw Manchester United win the Premier League title for the first time in four years, with Chelsea finishing second (their failure to win a third successive title compensated for in the shape of success in both domestic cups), Liverpool finishing third and Arsenal fourth, while Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Bolton Wanderers achieved UEFA Cup qualification. The gulf between the Premier League and Football League Championship was highlighted once again as two of the newly promoted teams (Watford and Sheffield United) were relegated, although Reading - the other newly promoted team, and playing their first top flight campaign ever - finished 8th and narrowly missed out on European qualification. The race for promotion to the Premier League had a predictable finish as the two automatic promotion places were both taken by teams relegated a year earlier - Sunderland and Birmingham City. Derby County took the third and final promotion places with a playoff victory at the expensive of newly relegated West Bromwich Albion, while Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton (who had both been in the Premier League a couple of years earlier) were the losing semi finalists. Narrowly missing out on a playoff place were Colchester United
, who finished 10th in their very first season at this level and had been among the pre-season relegation favourites.
Going down to League One were Southend United and Luton Town
, along with a Leeds United
who just five years earlier had been one of the Premier League's top clubs, only for a string of financial crises to drag them down the league. Scunthorpe United were among the clubs to reach the Championship in 2007, sealing the League One title after more than 40 years in the league's lower reaches, while Blackpool returned to the second tier for the first time since the 1970s with a playoff victory.
2007-08 brought a familiar pattern in the Premier League as Manchester United retained the Premier League title and Chelsea finished second, with Arsenal third and Liverpool fourth. Everton and Aston Villa completed the top six to seal UEFA Cup qualification, while Tottenham Hotspur lifted the Football League Cup
to end their nine-year trophy drought. The most remarkable success story of the season, however, belonged to Harry Redknapp
, who brought Portsmouth
their first major honour for nearly 60 years in the shape of the FA Cup
. When Redknapp had first taken over as manager of Portsmouth in March 2002, the South Coast
club hadn't played in the top flight for more than 40 years with the excpetion of one unsuccessful campaign in the late 1980s. A year later they sealed promotion to the Premier League and slowly established themselves back among the elite. Redknapp had been reviled by Portsmouth fans when defecting to their local rivals Southampton
in November 2004, only to return a year later after failing to save Southampton from relegation. After saving Portsmouth from relegation on his return, he spent heavily and attracted top class players including David James
, Sol Campbell
and Kanu
to the club and his heavy spending paid off as Portsmouth managed a top half finish for the first time since the 1950s, and at Wembley Stadium
on 17 May 2008 the long wait for glory ended as a Kanu goal gave Portsmouth victory over Cardiff City
in the FA Cup final. "Second season syndrome" kicked in at Reading, whose two-year spell in the top flight ended with relegation on the final day of the season one year after almost qualifying for Europe.
West Bromwich Albion returned to the Premier League as Championship champions at the end of the 2007-08 season, but the big news in this division came with Stoke City's return to the top flight after 23 years away, and Hull City
's promotion to the top flight for the very first time as they defeated a Bristol City side (without top division football since 1980) in the playoff final, just five years after they had been in the league's basement division and barely a decade since they had been bankrupt and on the verge of losing their Football League status. A fallen giant at this level was Leicester City, who fell into the third tier of English football for the very first time having started the decade as League Cup winners and UEFA Cup competitors.
In the first all-English European Cup final, Manchester United defeated Chelsea on penalties in Moscow after a 1-1 draw in open play.
Promisement in the lower reaches of the league during 2007-08 came from Milton Keynes Dons
, who under the management of former England captain Paul Ince
sealed their first honours in the shape of the Football League Trophy
and League Two
title - four years after their name had appeared on fixture lists following the controversial relocation of the old Wimbledon
club from South London
to the new town of Milton Keynes
some 70 miles away. Darren Ferguson
, son of Sir Alex Ferguson, was also heralded as a "manager of the future" after guiding Peterborough United
to promotion, while Aldershot Town
returned to the Football League under the management of Gary Waddock
, 16 years after the old Aldershot club
had been declared bankrupt and forced out of the league.
The 2008-09 season began with the two biggest transfer fees in English football - Manchester City's
£32.4million move for the Brazil
ian winger Robinho
and Manchester United's £30.75million capture of Bulgaria
n striker Dimitar Berbatov
from Tottenham Hotspur. The season had a familiar ending, as Manchester United sealed their third successive Premier League title by a four-point margin over a Liverpool side who came their closest yet to achieving the league title which has eluded them since 1990; ironically United's latest title win saw the match Liverpool's record of 18 English top division titles. Chelsea finished outside the top two for the first time since 2003 as they finished third but still managed to win the FA Cup. Arsenal sealed the last Champions League place with a fourth place finish. Everton's progress under David Moyes
continued as they finished fifth in the league and reached their first cup final for 14 years, taking an early lead in the FA Cup final before losing 2-1 to Chelsea. In the Football League Cup, Manchester United sealed the trophy for the third time, but endured disappointment on the continental stage when losing the European Cup final to FC Barcelona
. Aston Villa, enjoying something of a revival under manager Martin O'Neill
after a decade of underachievement, qualified for the newly named UEFA Europa League along with Everton and a rejuvenated Fulham side who had narrowly avoided relegation the previous season.
Midland rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City returned to the Premier League and five years and one year away respectively. Burnley's playoff win saw them return to the top flight as well, after 33 years away, to join rejuventated Lancashire
"old powers" Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers among the elite. Preston North End, another of the great old Lancashire clubs, were left looking at the Premier League door after their fourth playoff failure in nine seasons. Hopes of a Welsh presence in the Premier League were put on hold for at least another season at Cardiff City and Swansea City narrowly missed out on the playoffs.
In League One, Leicester City made a quick return to the second tier as champions, accompanied by Darren Ferguson's thriving Peterborough United and a Scunthorpe United side whose manager Nigel Adkins
had rewarded the club's faith in him by regaining the second tier place that had been lost two years earlier.
Luton Town, a top flight club as recently as 1992, suffered a third successive relegation and fell out of the Football League due to a 30-point deduction for financial irregularities which rooted them to the bottom of League Two; without it they would have finished mid table and comfortably avoided a rare third successive relegation.
Manchester United became the receipts of the world's biggest transfer fee during the 2009 close season when they sold Cristiano Ronaldo
, widely regarded as the best footballer in the world, to Real Madrid
of Spain for £80million.
Star players rising to prominence this era have included Wayne Rooney
(Everton
, Manchester United
and England
), Thierry Henry
(Arsenal
and France), Frank Lampard
(Chelsea
and England), Steven Gerrard
(Liverpool
and England) and Joe Cole
(West Ham United
, Chelsea and England).
Michael Owen
, Rio Ferdinand
, Ryan Giggs
, David Beckham
and Sol Campbell
are some of the prominent players still active in the game during the first decade of the 21st century after rising to fame during the 1990s, though Beckham has not played in England since 2003.
Legendary players whose illustrious careers have come to an end during this decade include Alan Shearer
, Dennis Bergkamp
, Denis Irwin
, Paul Ince
and Roy Keane
.
Successful managers of this era include Alex Ferguson
, Jose Mourinho
, Arsène Wenger
, Gerard Houllier
, and Rafael Benítez
.
Football in England
Association football is a national sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game...
is a long and detailed one, as it is not only the national sport but England was where the game was developed and codified. The modern global game of Football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
was first codified in 1863 in London. The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university football games. There is evidence for refereed, team football games being played in English schools since at least 1581. An account of an exclusively kicking football game from Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
in the 15th century bears similarity to football. England can boast the earliest ever documented use of the English word "football" (1409) and the earliest reference to the sport in French (1314). The modern passing game is believed to have been innovated in London and England is home to the oldest football clubs in the world (dating from at least 1857), the world's oldest competition (the FA cup founded in 1871) and the first ever football league (1888). For these reasons England is considered the home of the game of football.
1200–1800: Pre-codification
Football's roots in England can be found in Medieval football, which was played annually on Shrovetide. It is suggested that this game was derived from those played in BrittanyBrittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
and Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, and could have been brought to England in the Norman Conquest. These games were violent and largely ruleless. As a result, they were often banned.
England is the origin of nearly all first accounts of features of football:
In 1280 comes the first account of a kicking ball game. This happened at Ulgham
Ulgham
Ulgham is a small village in Northumberland, England. The name Ulgham is pronounced 'uffham', and the village is also known as the 'village of the owls'.- History :Ulgham is notable for a reference to football being played there in 1280....
, near Ashington
Ashington
Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England with a population of around 27,000 people; it was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is located some north of Newcastle upon Tyne off the A189. The south of the town is bordered by the River Wansbeck...
in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, in which a player was killed as a result of running against an opposing player's dagger. This confirms that by the 13th century kicking ball games were being played in England.
In 1314, comes the earliest reference to a game called football when Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor of the City of London issued a decree on behalf of King Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
banning football. It was written in the French used by the English upper classes at the time. A translation reads: "[f]orasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large foot balls [rageries de grosses pelotes de pee] in the fields of the public from which many evils might arise which God forbid: we command and forbid on behalf of the king, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future."
In 1409 King Henry IV of England
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
gives us the first documented use of the English word "football" when issued a proclamation forbidding the levying of money for "foteball".
At the end of the 15th century comes the earliest description of a football game. This account in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
of a football game contains a number of features of modern football and comes from Cawston, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
, England. It is included in a manuscript collection of the miracles of King Henry VI of England. Although the precise date is uncertain it certainly comes from between 1481 and 1500. This is the first account of an exclusively "kicking game" and the first description of dribbling
Dribbling
In sports, dribbling refers to the maneuvering of a ball around a defender through short skillful taps or kicks with either the legs , hands , stick or swimming strokes...
: "[t]he game at which they had met for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball game. It is one in which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air but by striking it and rolling it along the ground, and that not with their hands but with their feet... kicking in opposite directions" The chronicler gives the earliest reference to a football field, stating that: "[t]he boundaries have been marked and the game had started.
In 1526 comes the first record of a pair of football boots occurs when Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
ordered a pair from the Great Wardrobe in 1526. Unfortunately these are no longer in existence.
In 1581 comes the earliest account of football as an organised team sport. Richard Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster , is known best for his headmasterships and pedagogic writings. He is often regarded as the founder of English language lexicography.-Educational achievements:...
, a student at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
in the early 16th century and later headmaster at other English schools provides the earliest references to teams ("sides" and "parties"), positions ("standings"), a referee ("judge over the parties") and a coach "(trayning maister)". Mulcaster's "footeball" had evolved from the disordered and violent forms of traditional football:
- [s]ome smaller number with such overlooking, sorted into sides and standings, not meeting with their bodies so boisterously to trie their strength: nor shouldring or shuffing one an other so barbarously ... may use footeball for as much good to the body, by the chiefe use of the legges.
Mulcaster also confirms that in the 16fth century England football was very popular and widespread: it had attained "greatnes. .. [and was] much used ... in all places"
Despite this violence continued to be a problem. For example, the parish archives of North Moreton
North Moreton
North Moreton is a village and civil parish about east of Didcot. It was part of Wallingford Rural District in Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to the new South Oxfordshire District of Oxfordshire....
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
for May 1595 state: "Gunter's son and ye Gregorys fell together by ye years at football.
Old Gunter drew his dagger and both broke their heads,
and they died both within a fortnight after."
In 1602 the earliest reference to a game involving passing the ball comes from cornish hurling
Cornish Hurling
Cornish Hurling or Hurling the Silver Ball , is an outdoor team game of Celtic origin played only in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is played with a small silver ball...
. In particular Carew tells us that: "Then must he cast the ball (named Dealing) to some one of his fellowes". In this case, however, the pass is by hand, as in rugby football. Although there are other allusions to ball passing in the 17th century literature, this is the only one which categorically states that the ball was passed to another member of the same team. There are no other explicit references to passing the ball between members of the same team until the 1860s, however, in 1650 English puritan Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...
alludes to player to player passing of the ball during a football game in his book Everlasting Rest: "like a Football in the midst of a crowd of Boys, tost about in contention from one to another".
The first references to goals come from England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In 1584 and 1602 respectively, John Norden
John Norden
John Norden was an English cartographer, chorographer and antiquary. He planned a series of county maps and accompanying county histories of England, the Speculum Britanniae...
and Richard Carew referred to "goals" in Cornish hurling
Cornish Hurling
Cornish Hurling or Hurling the Silver Ball , is an outdoor team game of Celtic origin played only in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is played with a small silver ball...
. Carew described how goals were made: "they pitch two bushes in the ground, some eight or ten foote asunder; and directly against them, ten or twelue [twelve] score off, other twayne in like distance, which they terme their Goales". He is also the first to refer to goalkeeping.
The first direct references to scoring a goal come from England in the 17th century. For example, in John Day
John Day (dramatist)
John Day was an English dramatist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.-Life:He was born at Cawston, Norfolk, and educated at Ely. He became a sizar of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1592, but was expelled in the next year for stealing a book...
's play The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (performed circa 1600; published 1659): "I'll play a gole at camp-ball
Camping (game)
Camping, also known as campyon, campan, or campball was a Medieval football game played in England. It appears to have been popular in Norfolk and other parts of East Anglia. Of all the traditional forms of football played in Europe, it appears to have been one of the toughest and most dangerous...
" (an extremely violent variety of football, which was popular in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
). Similarly in a poem in 1613, Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...
refers to "when the Ball to throw, And drive it to the Gole, in squadrons forth they goe". The concept of football teams is mentioned by English Poet Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller, FRS was an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1679.- Early life :...
in c1624: He mentions a "a sort [i.e. company]of lusty shepherds try their force at football, care of victory...
They ply their feet, and still the restless ball, Toss'd to and fro, is urged by them all". The last line suggests that playing as a team emerged much earlier in English football than previously thought.
Football continued to be outlawed in English cities, for example the Manchester Lete Roll contains a resolution, dated 12 October 1608: "That whereas there hath been heretofore great disorder in our towne of Manchester, and the inhabitants thereof greatly wronged and charged with makinge and amendinge of their glasse windows broken yearlye and spoyled by a companye of lewd and disordered psons vsing that unlawfull exercise of playinge with the ffote-ball in ye streets of ye sd toune breakinge many men's windowes and glasse at their plesures and other great enormyties. Therefore, wee of this jurye doe order that no manner of psons hereafter shall play or use the footeball in any street within the said toune of Manchester, subpœnd to evye one that shall so use the same for evye time xiid".
Although football was frequently outlawed in England, it remained popular even with the ruling classes. For example, during the reign of King James I of England James Howell
James Howell
James Howell was a 17th-century Anglo-Welsh historian and writer who is in many ways a representative figure of his age. The son of a Welsh clergyman, he was for much of his life in the shadow of his elder brother Thomas Howell, who became Lord Bishop of Bristol.-Education:In 1613 he gained his B.A...
mentions how Lord Willoughby and Lord Sunderland enjoyed playing football, for example:"Lord Willoughby, and he, with so many of their servants ... play'd a match at foot- ball against such a number of Countrymen, where my Lord of Sunderland being busy about the ball, got a bruise in the
breast
Football continued to be popular throughout 17th century England. For example in 1634 Davenant is quoted (in Hones Table-Book) as remarking, "I would now make a safe retreat, but methinks Jam stopped by one of your heroic gamea called football; which I conceive (under your favor) not very conveniently civil in the streets, especially in such irregular and narrow roads as Crooked Lane. Yet it argues your courage, much like your military pastime of throwing at cocks, since you have long allowed these two valiant exercises in the streets". Similarly in 1638 Thomas Randolph
Thomas Randolph (poet)
Thomas Randolph was an English poet and dramatist. He was baptized on 18 June 1605 and was the uncle of American colonist William Randolph.-Education:...
suggests this in the following lines from one of his plays: "Madam, you may in time bring down his legs To the just size, now overgrown with playing Too much at foot-ball".
In 1660 comes the first objective study of football, given in Francis Willughby
Francis Willughby
thumbnail|200px|right|A page from the Ornithologia, showing [[Jackdaw]], [[Chough]], [[European Magpie|Magpie]] and [[Eurasian Jay|Jay]], all [[Corvidae|crows]]....
's Book of Sports, written in about 1660. This account is particularly noteworthy as he refers to football by its correct name and is the first to describe the following: goals and a pitch ("a close that has a gate at either end. The gates are called Goals"), tactics ("leaving some of their best players to guard the goal"), scoring ("they that can strike the ball through their opponents' goal first win") and the way teams were selected ("the players being equally divided according to their strength and nimbleness"). He is the first to describe a law of football: "They often break one another's shins when two meet and strike both together against the ball, and therefore there is a law that they must not strike higher than the ball". His book includes the first (basic) diagram illustrating a modern football pitch.
Football continued to be played in the later 17th century, even in cities such as London. The great diarist Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
, for example, states in 1665 that in a London street "the streete being full of footballs".
1800–1870: Early rules
Football continued to be played in England throughout the 19th century. For example, in 1838 a thirteen year old boy James Mills of Hamer Bottom near Rochdale "had his leg broken in three places while playing at football" His leg had to be amputated. In 1844 football was evidently still popular in London. An advertisement in the Guardian newspaper for 14 December states: "Wanted immediately a field for football in the neighbourhood of London Road or Oxford Street". In 1845 an interesting reference from DarwenDarwen
Darwen is a market town and civil parish located within Lancashire, England. Along with its northerly neighbour, Blackburn, it forms the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen — a unitary authority area...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
shows how football was popular among English factory workers: "A stranger passing through it at noon time may see a number of young men and boys dressed in Fustian engaged in the favourite sport of football".
England was the first country in the world to develop codified football, coming about from a desire of its various public school
Public School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
s to compete against each other. Previously, each school had its own rules, which may have dated back to the 15th or 16th centuries. The first attempts to come up with single codes probably began in the 1840s, with various meetings between school representatives attempting to come up with a set of rules with which all would be happy. The first attempt was The Cambridge Rules
The Cambridge Rules
The Cambridge Rules were a code of football rules first drawn up at Cambridge University, England, in 1848, by a committee that included H. de Winton and J. C. Thring. They are also notable for allowing goal kicks, throw-ins, and forward passes and for preventing running whilst holding the ball...
, created in 1848; others developed their own sets, most notably Sheffield F.C.
Sheffield F.C.
Sheffield Football Club is an English football club from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The club is most noted for the fact that they are the world's oldest club now playing Association football, founded in 1857...
(1855) and J.C. Thring (1862). These were moulded into one set in 1863 when the Football Association
The Football Association
The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...
was formed; though some clubs continued to play under the Sheffield Rules
Sheffield Rules
The Sheffield Rules were a code of football devised and played in the English city of Sheffield between 1857 and 1877. They were devised by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest for use by the newly founded Sheffield Football Club. The rules were subsequently adopted as the official rules of...
until 1878, and others dissented to form Rugby Union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
instead.
C. W. Alcock
C. W. Alcock
Charles William Alcock was an influential English sportsman and administrator. He was a major instigator in the development of both international football and cricket, as well as being the creator of the FA Cup....
became the first footballer ever to be ruled off side on 31 March 1866, confirming that players were probing ways of exploiting the new off side rule right from the start. The offside rule was introduced in 1866 into the Football Association rules. It was almost identical to the one that had been part of the Cambridge Rules.
The early Sheffield Rules were particularly important as their offside system allowed poaching or sneaking and thus demonstrated the use of the forward pass: Players known as "kick throughs" were positioned permanently near the opponents goal to receive these balls. According to C.W. Alcock the Sheffield style gave birth to the modern passing game. The Sheffield Rules of 1862 later included both crossbars and half time and free kicks were introduced to their code in 1866.
The oldest existing football trophy in the world the Youdan Cup
Youdan Cup
The Youdan Cup was an association football competition played in Sheffield, England. A local theatre owner Thomas Youdan sponsored the competition and provided the trophy...
(1867).
The English introduced football into France in 1863, founding their first club, as the following newspaper cutting shows:
"A number of English gentlemen living in Paris have lately organised a football club... The football contests take place in the Bois de Boulogne, by permission of the authorities and surprise the French amazingly
1870–1888: The FA Cup and professionalism
An offside rule had not been included in the 1863 FA rules. In 1867 a "loose" offside rule based on the Cambridge rules was introduced, permitting forward passing Consequently, in the late 1860s "scientific" team play and ball passingCombination Game
The Combination Game was a style of association football based around team work and cooperation. It would gradually favour the passing of the ball between players over individual dribbling skills which had been a notable feature of early Association games. It developed from "scientific" football...
strategies started to evolve, which created the modern game as we know it. Teamwork and passing were the innovation of the Royal Engineers AFC By 1869 they were "work[ing] well together", "backing up" and benefiting from "cooperation". By 1870 the Engineers were the first team to use ball passing strategies: "Lieut. Creswell, who having brought the ball
The Ball
The Ball is a Caroline comedy by James Shirley, first performed in 1632 and first published in 1639.The Ball was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on November 16, 1632...
up the side then kicked it into the middle to another of his side, who kicked it through the posts the minute before time was called" Passing was a regular feature of their style and their skills included "turn[ing] the ball" to colleagues and "irreproachable organisation" of forwards and defenders By early 1872 the Engineers were the first football team renowned for "play[ing] beautifully together"
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
was the first nationally organized competition. A knockout cup, it began 1871, with the first winners being the Wanderers
Wanderers F.C.
Wanderers Football Club is an English amateur football club, based in London, that plays in the Surrey South Eastern Combination. Founded as Forest Football Club in 1859, the club changed its name to Wanderers in 1864....
. In those days professionalism was banned, and the cup was dominated by service teams or old schoolboys' teams (such as Old Etonians
Old Etonians F.C.
The Old Etonians Football Club is an English football club whose players are taken from previous attendees of Eton College, in Eton, Berkshire.-History:...
). The Scottish Football Association
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA include clubs in Scotland, affiliated national associations as well as local associations...
split from the FA in 1873.
In the early 1870s the modern team passing game was invented by the Sheffield FC, Royal Engineers A.F.C.
Royal Engineers A.F.C.
The Royal Engineers Association Football Club is an association football team representing the Corps of Royal Engineers, the "Sappers", of the British Army. In the 1870s it was one of the strongest sides in English football, winning the FA Cup in 1875 and being Cup Finalists in four of the first...
and Scottish players of the era from Queens Park FC. This was the predecessor to the current passing, defensive game was known as the Combination Game
Combination Game
The Combination Game was a style of association football based around team work and cooperation. It would gradually favour the passing of the ball between players over individual dribbling skills which had been a notable feature of early Association games. It developed from "scientific" football...
and was spread around the world by British expatriates.
England was home to the first ever international football match on 5 March 1870. The first match ended in a draw and was one of a series of four matches between representatives of England and Scotland at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, London. These matches were arranged by the Football Association, at the time the only national football body in the world.
The origin of these games came in 1870 when CW Alcock's challenged homegrown contenders in Scotland against an English eleven. These challenges were issued in Scottish newspapers, including the Glasgow Herald. He received no response to these adverts. One response to Alcock's challenges illustrates that soccer was eclipsed in Scotland by other codes:
"Mr Alcock's challenge to meet a Scotch eleven on the borders sounds very well and is doubtless well meant. But it may not be generally well known that Mr Alcock is a very leading supporter of what is called the "association game"... devotees of the "association" rules will find no foemen worthy of their steel in Scotland".As a result he was forced to draw upon London-based players with Scottish origins. One notable Scottish player of the 1870 and 1871 games was Smith, a player of Queens Park FC. This suggests that southern teams were not so isolated from Glasgow players and style of play as originally thought.
Alcock was categorical that although most players were London based, this was due to lack of response from north of the border:
"I must join issue with your correspondent in some instances. First, I assert that of whatever the Scotch eleven may have been composed the right to play was open to every Scotchman [Alcock's italics] whether his lines were cast North or South of the Tweed and that if in the face of the invitations publicly given through the columns of leading journals of Scotland the representative eleven consisted chiefly of Anglo-Scotians ... the fault lies on the heads of the players of the north, not on the management who sought the services of all alike impartially. To call the team London Scotchmen contributes nothing. The match was, as announced, to all intents and purposes between England and Scotland".The 1870 and 1871 matches are not currently recognised by FIFA as official, however the Scotsman newspaper certainly identified them as "international [The Scotsman's italics]"
Alcock continued to pursue players from "north of the Tweed
River Tweed
The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is long and flows primarily through the Borders region of Great Britain. It rises on Tweedsmuir at Tweed's Well near where the Clyde, draining northwest, and the Annan draining south also rise. "Annan, Tweed and Clyde rise oot the ae hillside" as the Border saying...
", inviting them in papers such as the Scotsman to contact(for example) A F Kinnaird
Arthur Kinnaird, 11th Lord Kinnaird
Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird, 11th Lord Kinnaird KT was a principal of The Football Association and a leading footballer....
". At this time, however, it was unusual for national sides to travel far for matches and even in the 1873 England v Scotland game, the first FIFA recognised match in England, only 3 Scottish players were not from English sides Alcock decided "in order to further the interests of the Association in Scotland, it was decided that during the current season, a team should be sent to Glasgow to play a match v Scotland
The first official (i.e. currently recognised by FIFA) international match would take place between Scotland and England on November 30, 1872. This match was played under the Football Association rules.
Englishman C. W. Alcock
C. W. Alcock
Charles William Alcock was an influential English sportsman and administrator. He was a major instigator in the development of both international football and cricket, as well as being the creator of the FA Cup....
was responsible for instigating the world's first official football international in Glasgow on 30 November 1872. This match was played under the Football Association rules and was drawn, however, the following year England became the first team in the world to win an international football match when they beat Scotland in London.
The South Derbyshire Football Association
South Derbyshire Football Association
The South Derbyshire Football Association was the third oldest football association in the world, after the FA and Sheffield FA. In 1871 it consisted of eleven clubs and used the Sheffield Rules...
was established in March 1871
This period in English football was dominated by conflict between those who supported professionalism, and those who wanted the game to remain amateur. Clubs in Scotland and Northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
generally supported a professional game, as the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
of these regions could not afford to miss work in order to play football. In Southern England
Southern England
Southern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...
, the game was more popular with the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, who supported "Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
ian" values of amateurism. A number of clubs, such as Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers F.C.
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team currently competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football....
and Darwen
Darwen F.C.
A.F.C. Darwen is a football club from Darwen in Lancashire, North West England. The team, formed in 1870 as Darwen F.C., currently play in the Division One of the North West Counties League. They play their home games at the Anchor Ground.-History:...
were accused of employing professionals, and the FA eventually legalized the practice in 1885, in order to avoid a split.
1888–1915: Creation of the Football League
The new professionals needed more regular competitive football in which they could compete, which led to the creation of the Football LeagueThe Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...
in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor. This was dominated by those clubs who had supported professionalism, and the twelve founding members consisted of six from Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
(Blackburn Rovers, Burnley
Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
, Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers F.C.
Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....
, Accrington
Accrington F.C.
Accrington Football Club were an English football club from Accrington, Lancashire, who were one of the founder members of The Football League. Accrington F.C. was formed following a meeting at a local public house in 1876...
, Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
and Preston North End
Preston North End F.C.
Preston North End Football Club is an English professional football club located in the Deepdale area of the city of Preston, Lancashire, currently playing in the third tier of English league football, League One...
) and six from the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
(Aston Villa, Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
, Notts County
Notts County F.C.
Notts County Football Club are an English professional football club based in Nottingham. They are the oldest of all the clubs in the world that are now professional, having been formed in 1862. They currently play in League One of The Football League, the third tier of the English football system...
, Stoke
Stoke City F.C.
Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...
, West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion F.C.
West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...
and Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...
). No sides from the South or London initially participated.
Preston North End won the first ever Football League championship without losing any of their 22 fixtures, and won the FA Cup to complete the double. They retained their league title the following year but by the turn of the 20th century they had been eclipsed by Aston Villa, who had emulated Preston's double success in 1897. Other Midlands sides, such as Wolves (1893 FA Cup winners) and West Bromwich Albion (1888 & 1892 FA Cup winners) were also successful during this era, as were Blackburn Rovers, who won five FA Cups in the 1880s and 1890s.
In 1891 Liverpool engineer John Alexander Brodie
John Alexander Brodie
John Alexander Brodie was a British civil engineer.Brodie began his professional career in 1875 working in the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board engineering department under Chief Engineer George Fosbery Lyster, following this he set up a private consultancy and spent some time working in Spain...
invented the football net.
In 1892, a new Division Two
Football League Second Division
From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...
was added, taking in more clubs from around the country; Woolwich Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
became the first League club from the capital in 1893; they were also joined by Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
the same year. By 1898, both divisions had been expanded to eighteen clubs. Other rival leagues on a local basis were being eclipsed by the Football League, though both the Northern League
Northern League (football)
The Northern League is a football league in North East England for semi-professional and amateur teams. Having been founded in 1889, it is the oldest surviving football league in the world after the Football League....
and the Southern League
Southern Football League
The Southern League is an English football competition featuring semi-professional and amateur clubs from the South West, South Central and Midlands of England and South Wales...
- who provided the only ever non-league FA Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....
in 1901 - remained competitors in the pre-World War I era.
At the turn of the 20th century, clubs from Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
were particularly successful, with Sheffield United winning a title and two FA Cups, as well as losing to Tottenham in the 1901 final; meanwhile The Wednesday (later Sheffield Wednesday) won two titles and two FA Cups, despite being relegated in 1899 they were promoted the following year. Clubs in Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
were also at the forefront; Sunderland had won four titles between 1892 and 1902, and in the following decade Newcastle United won the title three titles, in 1905, 1907 and 1909, and reached five FA Cup finals in seven years between 1905 and 1911, winning just the one, however. In addition Bury
Bury F.C.
Bury Football Club is an association football team based in Bury, Greater Manchester. The team currently play in League One. The club's nickname is The Shakers which was bestowed upon them by club chairman JT Ingham, an industrialist and ironmonger of the late 1890s.-Formation of the club and the...
managed a 6-0 win over Derby County in the 1903 FA Cup Final, a record scoreline that stands to this day.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
looked to be emerging as England's top side after winning the FA Cup for the first time in 1904, but it was soon revealed that the club had been involved in financial irregularities, which included paying £6 or £7 a week in wages to players when the national wage limit was £4 per week. The authorities were furious and rebuked the club, dismissing five of its directors and banning four of its players from ever turning out for the club again.
Instead, it was City's neighbours United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
who were the more successful during the early 20th century. They reached the First Division in 1906 and were crowned league champions two years later. The following year, 1909, they won the FA Cup and they added another league championship in 1911. A decline set in, however, and there would be no major trophies for the red half of Manchester for the next 37 years. Further domination of the game by clubs from the north-west came in the shape of Liverpool, who won two league titles in 1901 and 1906, and Everton, who won the FA Cup in 1906. And in the run-up to World War I, Blackburn Rovers recorded two league titles 1912 and 1914, before hostilities meant professional football was suspended.
Clubs from the South fared poorly in comparison, though in 1904 Woolwich Arsenal became the first club from London to be promoted to the First Division, while a slew of clubs from the capital joined the League (including Clapton Orient
Leyton Orient F.C.
Leyton Orient F.C. are an English professional football club in East London. They currently play in Football League One and are known to their fans as the O's.Leyton Orient have spent one season in the top flight of English football, in 1962–63...
, Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
, Fulham
Fulham F.C.
Fulham Football Club is a professional English Premier League club based in southwest London Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Founded in 1879, they play in the Premier League, their 11th current season...
and Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....
), making it a properly nationwide competition; both Chelsea and Spurs quickly gained promotion to the top flight as well.
On the international scene, the Home Nations
Home Nations
Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on the context. Politically, it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom...
continued to play each other, with Scotland
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
the slightly more successful of the four. When the countries combined to play as Great Britain in the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
they were unbeatable, winning all three pre-World War I football gold medals. England played their first games against teams outside of the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
in 1908.
1919–1939: Inter-war years
From 1920 to 1923 the Football League expanded further, gaining a new Third DivisionFootball League Third Division
The Football League Third Division was the 3 tier of English Football from 1920 until 1992 when after the formation of the Football Association Premier League saw the league renamed The Football League Division Two...
(expanding quickly to Division Three South
Football League Third Division South
The Football League Third Division South was a level of English professional football which ran in parallel to Third Division North from 1921 to 1958....
and Division Three North
Football League Third Division North
The Third Division North of The Football League was a tier in the English association football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran parallel to Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to one or the other according to geographical position...
), with all leagues now containing 22 clubs, making 88 in total. In addition, in 1923 Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
opened, and hosted its first Cup final, between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United, known today as the "White Horse Final"; Bolton won 2-0.
During the interwar years, Arsenal and Everton were the two most dominant sides in English football, although Huddersfield Town did make history in 1926 by becoming the first team to complete a hat-trick of successive league titles. Arsenal would do the same in 1935.
Everton had hit the headlines in 1928 by winning the league championship thanks largely to the record breaking 60 league goals of 21-year-old centre-forward Dixie Dean
Dixie Dean
William Ralph Dean , better known as Dixie Dean, was an English football player. Dean originally started his career with Birkenhead based Tranmere Rovers before moving on to Everton, the club he had supported as a child, where he became one of the most prolific goal-scorers in English football...
. He was helped by the new rules of the 1920s, including the allowing of goals from a corner kick
Corner kick
A corner kick is a method of restarting play in a game of association football. It was first devised in Sheffield under the Sheffield Rules 1867...
, and the relaxing of the offside rule. Everton also won the league twice more, in 1932 and 1939, and the FA Cup in 1933. Their neighbours Liverpool had earlier won back-to-back titles in 1922 and 1923, but were unable to sustain this success.
Huddersfield Town and Arsenal's successes were largely down to manager Herbert Chapman
Herbert Chapman
Herbert Chapman was an English association football player and manager. Though he had an undistinguished playing career, he went on to become one of the most successful and influential managers in early 20th century English football, before his sudden death in 1934.As a player, Chapman played for...
, who first managed Huddersfield in their first two championship seasons in 1923-24 and 1924–25, before accepting the offer to manage Arsenal. With Arsenal, he won the FA Cup once and the League twice in the 1930s, before his sudden death during what would be a third title-winning season in 1933-34. Arsenal went on to win the title twice more during the 1930s, as well as another FA Cup.
Sheffield Wednesday were also successful during the 1930s, winning the 1929-30 title, the FA Cup in 1935 and finishing in the top three in all but one season in the period 1930-36. In addition, it was during this time that a Welsh side won the FA Cup for the only time; Cardiff City
Cardiff City F.C.
Cardiff City Football Club are a Welsh professional football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club competes in the English football pyramid and is currently playing in the Football League Championship. Cardiff City is the best supported football club in Wales, averaging approximately 22,500 for...
beating Arsenal 1-0 in the 1927 Final.
The national team remained strong, but lost their first game to a non-British Isles country in 1929 (against Spain
Spain national football team
The Spain national football team represents Spain in international association football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. The current head coach is Vicente del Bosque...
in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
) and refused to compete in the initial World Cups.
1945–1961: The end of English dominance
English football reconvened in the years following the end of World War II, when most clubs had closed down for a period, with the 1945-46 FA Cup, which saw the competition played over two legs to make up for a lack of league competition that season. The first post-war trophy went to Derby CountyDerby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
, who beat Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic F.C.
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...
4-1 in the final
1946 FA Cup Final
The 1946 FA Cup Final, the first since the start of the Second World War, was contested by Derby County and Charlton Athletic at Wembley. Derby won 4–1 after extra time, with goals from Bert Turner , Peter Doherty and a double from Jackie Stamps.-Match summary:The game was goalless until the...
. The league restarted in the 1946-47 season, with the first title going to Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
.
In the immediate post-war years, Arsenal won another two titles and an FA Cup but after the second title win in 1953, began to fade considerably and would not win another trophy for nearly 20 years. Liverpool won a league title as well, but suffered an even more miserable fate and were relegated to the Second Division in 1954. Portsmouth
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
were also successful; having won the FA Cup in the last season before the war, they won two titles in a row in 1948-49 and 1949–50, but like Liverpool they were relegated by the time the decade was out.
Manchester United re-emerged as a footballing force under new manager Matt Busby
Matt Busby
Sir Alexander Matthew "Matt" Busby, CBE, KCSG was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–1971 season...
. They won the FA Cup in 1948 and the league title in 1952, the first in the club's history. The "Busby Babes
Busby Babes
The Busby Babes were a group of Manchester United players, recruited and trained by the club's chief scout Joe Armstrong and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, who progressed from the club's youth team into the first team under the management of the eponymous Matt Busby.The Busby Babes were notable...
", so called as the players were all young, rising through the club's youth system, developed as one of England's finest teams ever, with the likes of Bobby Charlton
Bobby Charlton
Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton CBE is an English former professional football player, a member of the England team who won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or for European Footballer of the Year in 1966...
, Albert Scanlon
Albert Scanlon
Albert Joseph Scanlon was an English football player. He began his career with Manchester United and was one of the "Busby Babes" who survived the Munich air disaster of 1958. Although he sustained severe injuries, he recovered and continued to play league football for Newcastle United, Lincoln...
and Duncan Edwards
Duncan Edwards
Duncan Edwards was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and the England national team. He was one of the Busby Babes, the young United team formed under manager Matt Busby in the mid 1950s, and one of eight players who died as a result of the Munich air disaster.Born in Dudley,...
winning two further titles in 1956 and 1957. But the Munich air disaster
Munich air disaster
The Munich air disaster occurred on 6 February 1958, when British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. On board the plane was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the "Busby Babes",...
on 6 February 1958 resulted in the deaths of eight players (including Edwards) and ended the careers of two others, while Busby survived with serious injuries. He built a new United side with a mix of young players, Munich survivors and new signings, and five years later his rebuilding programme paid off with FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
glory.
The other dominant team of the era was Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wolves, who had previously spent most of the interwar period in the lower divisions, won two league titles and two FA Cups under manager Stan Cullis
Stan Cullis
Stanley Cullis was a professional footballer and manager, most notably for Wolverhampton Wanderers. During his term as manager between 1948 and 1964 Wolves became one of the strongest teams in the British game, winning the league title on three occasions, and playing a series of high-profile...
and captain Billy Wright. Other Midlands sides also enjoyed success after a barren period, including West Bromwich Albion's FA Cup win in 1954 (their first trophy in 23 years) and Aston Villa matching them with a Cup win in 1957 (their first in 37 years). In addition, in 1951 Tottenham Hotspur became the first team in English football to win the league title immediately after being promoted, and Chelsea won their first and only league title of the 20th century in 1955.
One of the most memorable matches of the era was when Blackpool
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3 in the 1953 FA Cup Final, in a match that came to be known as the "Matthews Final", for Blackpool's mercurial winger Stanley Matthews
Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE was an English footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers'...
, even though it was Stan Mortensen
Stan Mortensen
Stanley Harding "Stan" Mortensen was an English professional footballer, most famous for his part in the 1953 FA Cup Final , in which he became the only player ever to score a hat-trick in a Wembley FA Cup Final...
who scored a hat-trick that day; it remains Blackpool's only major honour.
English football as a whole, however, began to suffer at this time, with tactical naivety setting in. The national team were humiliated at their first World Cup in 1950, famously losing to the USA
United States men's national soccer team
The United States men's national soccer team represents the United States in international association football competitions. It is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF...
1-0. This was followed by two defeats in 1953 to Hungary
Hungary national football team
The Hungary national football team represents Hungary in international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation....
, who destroyed England 6-3 at home
England v Hungary (1953)
England v Hungary was an international football game played on November 25, 1953. The game was played between Hungary - then the world's number one ranked team, the Olympic champions and on a run of 24 unbeaten games - and England, then the world's number three ranked team, the inventors of the...
, the first time England had lost at home to a non-British Isles team, and 7-1 in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, England's biggest ever defeat. The early European club competitions also went without much English success, with the FA initially unwilling to allow clubs to compete. No English team reached a European Cup
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
final until 1968, which was the same year that England got their first Fairs Cup success; although English teams Birmingham City (twice) and a London XI
London XI
The London XI was an association football representative team, specially created to take part in the 1955-58 edition of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the precursor of today's UEFA Europa League although not recognized by UEFA....
had reached the first three finals of the competition in its formative days.
Great players who rose to prominence during the 1950s include Duncan Edwards
Duncan Edwards
Duncan Edwards was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and the England national team. He was one of the Busby Babes, the young United team formed under manager Matt Busby in the mid 1950s, and one of eight players who died as a result of the Munich air disaster.Born in Dudley,...
, Tommy Taylor
Tommy Taylor
Thomas "Tommy" Taylor was an English footballer, who was known for his aerial ability. He was one of the eight Manchester United players who lost their lives in the Munich air disaster....
, Bobby Charlton
Bobby Charlton
Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton CBE is an English former professional football player, a member of the England team who won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or for European Footballer of the Year in 1966...
, Denis Law
Denis Law
Denis Law is a retired Scottish football player, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a striker from the 1950s to the 1970s....
, Bobby Robson
Bobby Robson
Sir Robert William "Bobby" Robson, CBE was an English footballer and manager, who coached seven European clubs and the England national team during his career....
, Norman Deeley
Norman Deeley
Norman Victor Deeley was an English professional footballer, who spent the majority of his league career with Wolverhampton Wanderers. He scored two goals in the 1960 FA Cup Final, in a performance that won him the Man of the Match award.-Career:The winger won three league titles with the club, in...
, Peter Sillett
Peter Sillett
Peter Richard Tudor Sillett was an England footballer. He played for Chelsea and Southampton as a right-back, and made three appearances for England....
, Danny Blanchflower
Danny Blanchflower
Robert Dennis "Danny" Blanchflower was a former Northern Ireland international footballer and football manager, and journalist who captained Tottenham Hotspur F.C. during its double-winning season of 1961. He was ranked as the greatest player in Spurs history by The Times in 2009...
, Denis Compton
Denis Compton
Denis Charles Scott Compton CBE was an English cricketer who played in 78 Test matches, and a footballer...
and Joe Mercer
Joe Mercer
Joseph 'Joe' Mercer, OBE was an English football player and manager.-Playing career:Mercer was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, the son of a former Nottingham Forest and Tranmere Rovers footballer, also named Joe. Joe Mercer senior died, following health problems resulting from a gas attack...
.
While Edwards and Taylor both lost their lives due to the Munich tragedy, many older players naturally reached the end of their illustrious careers at around the same time. These include Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse
Nathaniel "Nat" Lofthouse, OBE was an English professional footballer who played for Bolton Wanderers for his whole career...
, Tom Finney
Tom Finney
Sir Thomas Finney, OBE is a former English footballer, famous for his loyalty to his league club, Preston North End, and for his performances in the English national side....
, Billy Wright, Stan Mortensen
Stan Mortensen
Stanley Harding "Stan" Mortensen was an English professional footballer, most famous for his part in the 1953 FA Cup Final , in which he became the only player ever to score a hat-trick in a Wembley FA Cup Final...
, Bert Williams
Bert Williams
Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams was one of the preeminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He was by far the best-selling black recording artist before 1920...
and Johnny Carey
Johnny Carey
John Joseph "Johnny" Carey , also known as Jackie Carey, was an Irish footballer and manager. As a player Carey spent most of his career at Manchester United, where he was team captain from 1946 until he retired as a player in 1953...
.
Managers who achieved glory in the first 15 years of postwar English football include Matt Busby
Matt Busby
Sir Alexander Matthew "Matt" Busby, CBE, KCSG was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–1971 season...
, Tom Whittaker
Tom Whittaker (footballer)
Thomas James "Tom" Whittaker MBE was an English football player, trainer and manager, chiefly associated with Arsenal Football Club...
, Stan Cullis
Stan Cullis
Stanley Cullis was a professional footballer and manager, most notably for Wolverhampton Wanderers. During his term as manager between 1948 and 1964 Wolves became one of the strongest teams in the British game, winning the league title on three occasions, and playing a series of high-profile...
, Ted Drake
Ted Drake
Edward Joseph "Ted" Drake was an English football player and manager. As a player, he first played for Southampton but made his name playing for Arsenal in the 1930s, winning two league titles and an FA Cup, as well as five caps for England. He was also a cricketer, but only ever played sparingly...
and Stan Seymour
Stan Seymour
Stan Seymour was a footballer who played, managed, chairmanned, and directed Newcastle United. Born in Kelloe, Seymour is one of the all-time Newcastle United greats, and was known as 'Mr. Newcastle United' after the various years and roles he delivered for the club...
.
1963–1971: The golden age
The end of the 1950s had seen the beginning of the modernization of English football, with the Divisions Three North and South becoming the national Division Three and Division Four in 1958. 1960 saw the introduction of the League CupFootball League Cup
The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
(with the first winners being Aston Villa), whilst Matt Busby rebuilt his Manchester United team into a second Busby Babes, starring George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
. Meanwhile, past giants like Wolves started to decline, with relegation eventually coming in 1965.
It was Tottenham Hotspur who became the dominant force in English football in the early 1960s, winning the elusive double of the League and FA Cup in 1961, retaining the cup in 1962 and becoming the first British team to win a European trophy, after their 5-1 victory over Atlético Madrid in the 1963 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a football club competition contested annually by the most recent winners of all European domestic cup competitions. The cup is one of the many inter-European club competitions that have been organised by UEFA. The first competition was held in the 1960–61 season—but...
final. Fellow London side West Ham United were also successful, with the England trio of Bobby Moore
Bobby Moore
Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...
, Geoff Hurst
Geoff Hurst
Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst MBE is a retired England footballer best remembered for his years with West Ham. He made his mark in World Cup history as the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final. His three goals came in the 1966 final for England in their 4–2 win over West...
and Martin Peters
Martin Peters
Martin Stanford Peters, MBE is a former football player and member of the victorious England team which won the 1966 World Cup as well as playing in the 1970 FIFA World Cup....
helping them win the 1964 FA Cup and the 1965 Cup Winners' Cup.
The English national side showed signs of improving with Alf Ramsey
Alf Ramsey
Sir Alfred Ernest "Alf" Ramsey was an English footballer and manager of the English national football team from 1963 to 1974. His greatest achievement was winning the 1966 World Cup with England on 30 July 1966...
taking over as head coach following a respectable quarter final appearance at the 1962 FIFA World Cup
1962 FIFA World Cup
The 1962 FIFA World Cup, the seventh staging of the World Cup, was held in Chile from 30 May to 17 June. It was won by Brazil, who retained the championship by beating Czechoslovakia 3–1 in the final...
. Ramsey confidently predicted that at the next tournament, England would win the trophy, and they did just that.
The 1966 World Cup saw England win the World Cup in a controversial 4-2 victory over West Germany
Germany national football team
The Germany national football team is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association , which was founded in 1900....
. The three goals scored by Geoff Hurst
Geoff Hurst
Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst MBE is a retired England footballer best remembered for his years with West Ham. He made his mark in World Cup history as the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final. His three goals came in the 1966 final for England in their 4–2 win over West...
within 120 minutes, of which some are controversial, are the only hat trick
Hat Trick
Hat trick, hat-trick or hattrick may refer to:* hat-trick — in various sports, achieving three goals, wickets, etc. in a single match* Hattrick — online football management game** Hattrick Limited — producers of this game...
to be achieved in a World Cup final to date. Bobby Moore
Bobby Moore
Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...
was the captain on that day, whilst Munich air crash survivor Bobby Charlton also played. The World Cup as a whole was highly successful, with the successes of the North Korea team, the fouls of the Uruguay team
Uruguay national football team
The Uruguayan national football team represents Uruguay in international association football and is controlled by the Uruguayan Football Association, the governing body for football in Uruguay. The current head coach is Óscar Tabárez...
, the skill of Eusébio
Eusébio
Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, GCIH, GCM , commonly known simply as Eusébio, is a retired Mozambican-born Portuguese football forward. He is considered one of the best footballers of all-time by the IFFHS, experts and fans...
and the famous quote They think it's all over... it is now
They think it's all over
They think it's all over is a well known quotation and football chant popular in England. It is taken from Kenneth Wolstenholme's BBC TV commentary in the closing moments of the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final, where England beat West Germany 4–2 after extra time to win the FIFA World Cup.Soon after the...
entering England's collective memory.
The period also saw the first English successes in European club football, begun with Manchester United's 4-1 European Cup victory over SL Benfica
SL Benfica
Sport Lisboa e Benfica , commonly known as simply Benfica or occasionally as Benfica Lisbon, is a Portuguese multi-sports club based in Lisbon. Although they successfully compete in a number of different sports, Benfica is mostly known for its association football team...
, and Leeds United
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
's Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The competition was the idea of Swiss pools supremo Ernst Thommen, Ottorino Barassi from Italy, and the English Football Association general secretary Stanley Rous, all of whom later became senior officials...
victory, both in 1968. Indeed, Leeds' win set off a series of 6 consecutive wins in the competition (which was renamed the UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
in 1971) for English clubs, with the 1972 final being held between two of them, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
During this time, a number of different teams competed for league and cup success. Manchester City enjoyed success at the same time as their rivals United, winning the First Division title for only the second time in 1968, and the FA Cup the year after that, and a double of the Cup Winners Cup and League Cup in 1970. Leeds' Fairs Cup success was no isolated effort; Don Revie
Don Revie
Donald George 'Don' Revie, OBE, , was an English footballer who played for Leicester City, Hull City, Sunderland, Manchester City and Leeds United as a deep-lying centre forward. After managing Leeds United he managed England from 1974 until 1977...
's side also won a League Cup in 1968 and the league title the season after. Liverpool under Bill Shankly
Bill Shankly
William "Bill" Shankly, OBE was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Liverpool between 1959 and 1974. One of Britain's most successful and respected football managers, Shankly was also a fine player whose career was interrupted by the Second World War...
had won promotion in 1962 and soon after won the league title in 1964, and again in 1966, with an FA Cup in between; their neighbours Everton meanwhile had similar success but on a smaller scale, taking two league titles in 1963 and 1970, and the FA Cup in 1966.
Players who dominated the English scene during the 1960s include Bobby Moore
Bobby Moore
Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...
, Geoff Hurst
Geoff Hurst
Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst MBE is a retired England footballer best remembered for his years with West Ham. He made his mark in World Cup history as the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final. His three goals came in the 1966 final for England in their 4–2 win over West...
, Bobby Charlton
Bobby Charlton
Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton CBE is an English former professional football player, a member of the England team who won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or for European Footballer of the Year in 1966...
, George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
, Denis Law
Denis Law
Denis Law is a retired Scottish football player, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a striker from the 1950s to the 1970s....
, Jimmy Greaves
Jimmy Greaves
James Peter 'Jimmy' Greaves is an English former football player, England's third highest international goalscorer, the highest goalscorer in the history of Tottenham Hotspur football club, the highest goalscorer in the history of English top flight football and more recently a television pundit -...
, Francis Lee
Francis Lee
Francis Henry Lee is a former professional footballer, who played in the 1960s and 1970s, including 27 appearances for the England national team. Lee played for Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City, and Derby County...
, Jeff Astle
Jeff Astle
Jeffrey "The King" Astle was an English footballer. He played 361 games for West Bromwich Albion, scoring 174 goals, and was one of the most iconic players in the history of the club...
, Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks, OBE is a retired English football goalkeeper. The IFFHS named Banks the second best goalkeeper of the 20th century – after Lev Yashin and ahead of Dino Zoff ....
and Roger Hunt
Roger Hunt
Roger Hunt, MBE is an English former footballer. He was a member of the England team which won the 1966 World Cup.-Club career:...
.
The decade also saw the illustrious careers of many famous older players drawing to a close. These include Danny Blanchflower
Danny Blanchflower
Robert Dennis "Danny" Blanchflower was a former Northern Ireland international footballer and football manager, and journalist who captained Tottenham Hotspur F.C. during its double-winning season of 1961. He was ranked as the greatest player in Spurs history by The Times in 2009...
, Harry Gregg
Harry Gregg
Henry "Harry" Gregg, MBE is a former Northern Ireland international footballer and manager.He played 25 times for Northern Ireland as a goalkeeper and played for Manchester United during the reign of Sir Matt Busby with a total of 210 appearances.-Playing career:Gregg started his career with...
, Dennis Viollet
Dennis Viollet
Dennis Sydney Viollet was an English footballer best remembered for his time with Manchester United in the 1950s and early 1960s.-Club career:...
, Norman Deeley
Norman Deeley
Norman Victor Deeley was an English professional footballer, who spent the majority of his league career with Wolverhampton Wanderers. He scored two goals in the 1960 FA Cup Final, in a performance that won him the Man of the Match award.-Career:The winger won three league titles with the club, in...
, Peter McParland
Peter McParland
Peter James McParland, MBE is a former professional footballer.-Dundalk & Aston Villa:...
, Noel Cantwell
Noel Cantwell
Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell was an Irish cricketer and football player born in County Cork, Irish Free State...
, Bert Trautmann
Bert Trautmann
Bernhard Carl "Bert" Trautmann, OBE is a German former professional footballer who played for Manchester City from 1949 to 1964. Brought up during times of inter-war strife in Germany, Trautmann joined the Luftwaffe early in the Second World War, serving as a paratrooper...
, Jimmy Adamson
Jimmy Adamson
James "Jimmy" Adamson was an English professional footballer and football manager. He was born in Ashington, Northumberland...
, Syd Owen
Syd Owen
Sydney William Owen was an English footballer and football coach.Owen was born in Birmingham. He made 388 first-team appearances for Luton Town. In 1959 he was the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year and led Luton Town to the FA Cup Final...
, and the 50-year-old Stanley Matthews
Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE was an English footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers'...
.
Successful managers of the 1960s include Matt Busby
Matt Busby
Sir Alexander Matthew "Matt" Busby, CBE, KCSG was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–1971 season...
, Bill Nicholson
Bill Nicholson (footballer)
William Edward "Bill" Nicholson OBE was an English football player, coach, manager and scout who devoted his life to Tottenham Hotspur in North London.-Early life:...
, Harry Catterick
Harry Catterick
Harry Catterick was an English football player and manager. As a player Catterick played for Everton and Crewe Alexandra, in a career that was interrupted by World War II, but he is most notable as a manager...
, Bill Shankly
Bill Shankly
William "Bill" Shankly, OBE was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Liverpool between 1959 and 1974. One of Britain's most successful and respected football managers, Shankly was also a fine player whose career was interrupted by the Second World War...
, Don Revie
Don Revie
Donald George 'Don' Revie, OBE, , was an English footballer who played for Leicester City, Hull City, Sunderland, Manchester City and Leeds United as a deep-lying centre forward. After managing Leeds United he managed England from 1974 until 1977...
, Joe Mercer
Joe Mercer
Joseph 'Joe' Mercer, OBE was an English football player and manager.-Playing career:Mercer was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, the son of a former Nottingham Forest and Tranmere Rovers footballer, also named Joe. Joe Mercer senior died, following health problems resulting from a gas attack...
and Ron Greenwood.
1972–1985: The rise of Liverpool
The 1970s was an odd decade in English football, with the national team disappointing. They failed to qualify for the 1974 and 1978 World Cups and only made the second round in 1982. English club sides, however, dominated on the continent. Altogether, in the 1970s, English clubs won eight European titles and lost out in four finals; whilst from 1977 to 1984 English clubs won seven out of eight European Cups.London clubs were among the success stories of the early 1970s. Bertie Mee
Bertie Mee
Bertram "Bertie" Mee OBE was an English football player and manager, noted for managing Arsenal to their first Double win in 1971. He was the younger brother of fellow footballer Georgie Mee.-Early life:...
's Arsenal had been in the doldrums for more than 10 years; after suffering two League Cup final defeats in 1968 and 1969 (to Leeds United and Third Division Swindon Town
Swindon Town F.C.
Swindon Town Football Club are a team based in Swindon, Wiltshire. Currently in League Two, Swindon have been managed by Paolo Di Canio since 23 May 2011...
respectively), they finally won silverware with the Fairs Cup in 1970, followed by the League and Cup Double in 1971, making them only the second team of the 20th century to do so. However, Arsenal's success under Mee soon ran dry; their next major trophy coming in 1979 when they won the FA Cup under Terry Neill
Terry Neill
William John Terence "Terry" Neill is a Northern Ireland former football player and manager.-Playing career:Born in Belfast, Neill played as a youth for Bangor, before moving in December 1959 to Arsenal. He spent a year in Arsenal's youth side, before making his debut against Sheffield Wednesday...
. Chelsea also enjoyed silverware, claiming the FA Cup in 1970 and the Winners Cup a year later. Tottenham were also successful, with a UEFA Cup and League Cup in 1971 and 1973 respectively,
However, the dominant team in England in this period was Liverpool, winning league titles in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983 and 1984. They also collected three European Cups, three FA Cups and four League Cups, under Shankly and his successor Bob Paisley
Bob Paisley
Robert "Bob" Paisley OBE was an English football half back turned manager. His association with Liverpool was to span nearly half a century including his contribution to the club, first as a player, then as a physiotherapist and coach, and finally as manager.In nine years as manager between 1974...
, who retired as manager in 1983 to be succeeded by veteran coach Joe Fagan
Joe Fagan
Joe Fagan was an English football manager best known for being manager of Liverpool F.C. from 1983 to 1985.- Career:Joe Fagan's playing career was largely spent at Manchester City for whom he signed in 1938...
. Players such as Emlyn Hughes
Emlyn Hughes
Emlyn Walter Hughes, OBE was an English footballer who captained both the England national team and the much-decorated Liverpool F.C. team of the 1970s.- From Blackpool to Liverpool :...
and Alan Hansen
Alan Hansen
Alan David Hansen is a Scottish former football player and BBC television football pundit. He played as a central defender for Partick Thistle, Liverpool and Scotland...
helped Liverpool have a solid and reliable side, whose skill and talent was supported by a strong work ethic and the famous "boot room" identity. Kevin Keegan
Kevin Keegan
Joseph Kevin Keegan, OBE is a former international footballer and former manager of the England national football team and several English clubs, most notably Newcastle United....
was Liverpool's leading striker for much of the 1970s before being sold to HSV Hamburg
Hamburger SV
Hamburger Sport-Verein, usually referred to as HSV in Germany and Hamburg in international parlance, is a German multi-sport club based in Hamburg, its largest branch being its football department...
in 1977 and being replaced by Kenny Dalglish
Kenny Dalglish
Kenneth Mathieson "Kenny" Dalglish MBE is a Scottish former footballer and the current manager of Liverpool F.C.. In a 22-year playing career, he played for two club teams, Celtic and Liverpool, winning numerous honours with both. He is the most capped Scottish player, with 102 appearances, and...
. The midfielder was boosted towards the end of the decade by the arrival of Graeme Souness
Graeme Souness
Graeme James Souness is a Scottish former professional football player and manager.Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s and player-manager of Rangers in the late 1980s as well as captain of the Scottish national team. He also played for Tottenham Hotspur,...
, and the early 1980s spawned further new stars including high-scoring striker Ian Rush
Ian Rush
Ian James Rush, MBE, is a retired football player from Flint, Wales. He is best remembered as a player for Liverpool, where he was among the top strikers in the English game in the 1980s and 1990s. He also had spells playing at Chester City, Juventus, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Sheffield...
, talented midfielder Craig Johnston
Craig Johnston
Craig Johnston is a former football player who was one of the first Australians to make a major impact in the English game. He is remembered for his time spent with Liverpool throughout the 1980s...
and skilful defender Steve Nicol
Steve Nicol
Stephen "Steve" Nicol is a Scottish former professional footballer. A utility player who played in the all-conquering Liverpool team of the 1980s, he was most recently coach of New England Revolution, and was the longest-tenured head coach in MLS to coach a single club.As a player, Nicol was a...
.
The other notably successful teams of the era were Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
, Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest F.C.
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...
, Everton and Aston Villa. Derby, led by Brian Clough and then Dave Mackay, were the only team other than Liverpool to win the league more than once in the 1970s and also reached the semi-final of the European Cup in the 1972-73 season, though they faded rapidly towards the end of the decade. Forest, led by Brian Clough (who had an infamous 44-day stint at Leeds United after resigning at Derby), took over at the City Ground
City Ground
The City Ground is a football stadium in the West Bridgford area of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898, and has a capacity of 30,602 ....
in January 1975 when Forest were a struggling Second Division side; in 1977 he took them into the First Division and they won the league title a year later, followed by two successive European Cup triumphs and also adding two League Cups. Everton began the 1970s on a high note as league champions in 1970, but rarely featured in the race for the major trophies until they won the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
under Howard Kendall
Howard Kendall
Howard Kendall is an English football manager and former player. He is most famous for his connection to Everton, a club that he both played for and managed. His uncle Harry Taylor played for Newcastle United and Fulham in the 1950s....
in 1985. They added the league title and European Cup Winners' Cup
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a football club competition contested annually by the most recent winners of all European domestic cup competitions. The cup is one of the many inter-European club competitions that have been organised by UEFA. The first competition was held in the 1960–61 season—but...
a year later. Aston Villa had bounced back from relegation to the Third Division in 1970, winning promotion to the top flight in 1975 and a League Cup the same year, and again in 1977. They went on to win the 1981 league title and the year after won the European Cup, becoming the fourth English club to do so, beating Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
.
Leeds had initially built on their success, winning an FA Cup in 1972 and the league title in 1973-74. However, after Don Revie left for England in 1974, they won no more trophies and were relegated in 1982. Another side successful in the early 70s, Arsenal, had little to shout about until they played a trio of Cup Finals between 1978 and 1980, only winning the one, in 1979, 3-2 against Manchester United. Fellow London side West Ham United beat them in the following year's final, to add to the Cup they won in 1975. After relegation in 1977, Tottenham bounced back and were resurgent in this period, winning the FA Cup twice and the UEFA Cup in 1974.
Other clubs did not fare as well in the 1970s; Manchester United began to decline that eventually saw them relegated in 1974. However, they were promoted back the following season, and reached three cup finals in four years (1976, 1977 and 1979), though they only won the 1977 final. United went on to finish second twice during the 1980s and won another FA Cup in 1983, but the league title continued to elude them - they had not won it since 1967. On the other hand, their neighbours City struggled in the early 1980s; after reaching the 1981 Cup Final, they declined rapidly and were relegated in 1983, in spite of heavy spending on players who rarely lived up to their price tags.
Meanwhile, Chelsea were also going through a turbulent time after winning the FA Cup in 1970 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1971. Financial problems and the loss of key players meant they spent most of 1970s and 1980s bouncing between the First and Second Divisions. In 1983, they only narrowly avoided relegation to the Third Division, but were promoted the following year.
Wolves, who had arguably been the best team of the 1950s and were still a reasonable force in 1980 (when they finished sixth and won the League Cup), suffered a spectacular decline which began in 1984 and ended in 1986 with three successive relegations that saw them in the Fourth Division for the first time. They were not alone in suffering a relegation hat-trick; Bristol City had completed the first such humiliation in 1982, though they were admittedly a far smaller club whose relegation in 1980 came after just four years in the top flight after an absence of 65 years.
Wolves were one of several once-great sides to endure a decline during the 1970s and early 1980s. Huddersfield Town (who complete the first league title hat-trick during the 1920s) were relegated from the First Division in 1971 and fell into the Fourth Division in 1975, not winning promotion until 1980. Portsmouth (league champions in 1949 and 1950) fell into the Fourth Division in 1978 as an almost bankrupt side, but climbed out of it in 1980 and within five years were in the hunt for a First Division comeback. Derby County were league champions in 1972 and 1975, but a rapid decline saw them fall into the Second Division in 1980 and the Third Division in 1984.
The period was also marked by some surprise FA Cup wins by lower-division teams over top-flight sides; these included Sunderland (beating Leeds United in 1973), Southampton (beating Manchester United in 1976) and West Ham United (beating Arsenal in 1980). Bobby Robson
Bobby Robson
Sir Robert William "Bobby" Robson, CBE was an English footballer and manager, who coached seven European clubs and the England national team during his career....
's Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....
were another successful smaller club, winning the FA Cup in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981. They also came second in the league in 1981 and 1982.
During this period transfer fees began to rise rapidly as more money entered the game; Trevor Francis
Trevor Francis
Trevor John Francis , is a former footballer who won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest and played for England 52 times. He was England's first £1 million player...
became Britain's first million-pound rated footballer in 1979. 1979 also saw the formation of the Football Conference
Football Conference
The Football Conference is a football league in England which consists of three divisions called Conference National, Conference North, and Conference South. Some Football Conference clubs are fully professional, such as Luton Town, but most of them are semi-professional...
. This was the first national league to develop below the Football League, and was the beginning of a formalisation of the English football pyramid
English football league system
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for association football clubs in England, with six teams from Wales also competing...
. The first seven Conference champions failed to gain election to the Football League, but in 1986 it was decided that the following year's champions would be automatically promoted to the league to replace the Fourth Division's bottom side....
The re-election system saw Cambridge United elected to the league in 1970, Hereford United in 1972, Wimbledon in 1977 and Wigan Athletic in 1978. Cambridge reached the Second Division in 1978 and were a competent side at this level for five seasons before a terrible decline saw them fall back into the Fourth Division in 1985. Hereford reached the Second Division after just four years of league membership, only to endure back-to-back relegations which pushed them back into the Fourth Division in 1978. Wimbledon's first two promotions from the Fourth Division ended in relegation after just one season, but by 1984 they had reached the Second Division and their biggest successes were yet to come.
Players who dominated the English scene during the 1970s and early 1980s include Kevin Keegan
Kevin Keegan
Joseph Kevin Keegan, OBE is a former international footballer and former manager of the England national football team and several English clubs, most notably Newcastle United....
, Kenny Dalglish
Kenny Dalglish
Kenneth Mathieson "Kenny" Dalglish MBE is a Scottish former footballer and the current manager of Liverpool F.C.. In a 22-year playing career, he played for two club teams, Celtic and Liverpool, winning numerous honours with both. He is the most capped Scottish player, with 102 appearances, and...
, Graeme Souness
Graeme Souness
Graeme James Souness is a Scottish former professional football player and manager.Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s and player-manager of Rangers in the late 1980s as well as captain of the Scottish national team. He also played for Tottenham Hotspur,...
, Peter Shilton
Peter Shilton
Peter Leslie Shilton OBE is a former English footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He currently holds the record for playing more games for England than anyone else, earning 125 caps....
, Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson OBE is an English football manager and a former player. He is best known for playing in midfield for Manchester United, where he was the longest serving captain in club history. He was the manager of Sheffield United, being relieved of his first team duties at the club in February 2008...
, John Wark
John Wark
John Wark is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame...
, Liam Brady
Liam Brady
Liam Brady is a former Irish association football player, and former assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland national football team....
, Steve Perryman
Steve Perryman
Stephen John "Steve" Perryman MBE is a former English international football player and current manager who is best remembered for his successes with Tottenham Hotspur during the 1970s and early 1980s...
, Glenn Hoddle
Glenn Hoddle
Glenn Hoddle is an English former footballer and manager who played as an attacking midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, AS Monaco, Chelsea and Swindon Town and at international level for England....
and Alan Hansen
Alan Hansen
Alan David Hansen is a Scottish former football player and BBC television football pundit. He played as a central defender for Partick Thistle, Liverpool and Scotland...
.
Older players whose careers finished during this time include Bobby Moore
Bobby Moore
Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...
, Bobby Charlton
Bobby Charlton
Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton CBE is an English former professional football player, a member of the England team who won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or for European Footballer of the Year in 1966...
, George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
, Denis Law
Denis Law
Denis Law is a retired Scottish football player, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a striker from the 1950s to the 1970s....
, Jimmy Greaves
Jimmy Greaves
James Peter 'Jimmy' Greaves is an English former football player, England's third highest international goalscorer, the highest goalscorer in the history of Tottenham Hotspur football club, the highest goalscorer in the history of English top flight football and more recently a television pundit -...
, Billy Bremner
Billy Bremner
William John "Billy" Bremner was a Scottish professional footballer, most noted for his captaincy of the Leeds United team of the 1960s and 1970s. He has since been voted Leeds United's greatest player of all time and has a statue outside the South East corner of Elland Road...
, Jack Charlton
Jack Charlton
John "Jack" Charlton, OBE, DL is a former footballer and manager who played for Leeds United in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and was part of the England team who won the 1966 World Cup...
, Emlyn Hughes
Emlyn Hughes
Emlyn Walter Hughes, OBE was an English footballer who captained both the England national team and the much-decorated Liverpool F.C. team of the 1970s.- From Blackpool to Liverpool :...
, Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks, OBE is a retired English football goalkeeper. The IFFHS named Banks the second best goalkeeper of the 20th century – after Lev Yashin and ahead of Dino Zoff ....
and Alex Stepney
Alex Stepney
Alexander Cyril "Alex" Stepney is a former English football player who was Manchester United's goalkeeper when they became the first English club to win the European Cup.-London beginnings:...
.
Successful managers of this era include Bill Shankly
Bill Shankly
William "Bill" Shankly, OBE was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Liverpool between 1959 and 1974. One of Britain's most successful and respected football managers, Shankly was also a fine player whose career was interrupted by the Second World War...
, Bob Paisley
Bob Paisley
Robert "Bob" Paisley OBE was an English football half back turned manager. His association with Liverpool was to span nearly half a century including his contribution to the club, first as a player, then as a physiotherapist and coach, and finally as manager.In nine years as manager between 1974...
, Don Revie
Don Revie
Donald George 'Don' Revie, OBE, , was an English footballer who played for Leicester City, Hull City, Sunderland, Manchester City and Leeds United as a deep-lying centre forward. After managing Leeds United he managed England from 1974 until 1977...
, John Lyall
John Lyall
John Angus Lyall was an English footballer and manager of Scottish descent. His mother, Catherine, was from the Isle of Lewis, his father, James, was from Kirriemuir. He was born in Ilford, Essex.- Youth team career :...
, Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...
, Ron Saunders
Ron Saunders
Ron Saunders is a retired English football player and former successful manager. He remains the only manager to have taken charge of Aston Villa, Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion, normally bitter rivals....
, Ron Atkinson
Ron Atkinson
Ronald Ernest Atkinson, commonly known as "Big Ron" and "Bojangles" is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits...
, Bobby Robson
Bobby Robson
Sir Robert William "Bobby" Robson, CBE was an English footballer and manager, who coached seven European clubs and the England national team during his career....
and Keith Burkinshaw
Keith Burkinshaw
Harry Keith Burkinshaw is an English former professional footballer and football manager.-Playing career:...
.
1986–1991: The end of an era
During the 1970s and 1980s, the spectre of hooliganismFootball hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
had begun to haunt English football. The Heysel Stadium disaster
Heysel Stadium disaster
The Heysel Stadium disaster occurred on 29 May 1985 when escaping fans were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, as a result of rioting before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool of England and Juventus of Italy...
was the epitome of this, with English hooligans mixing with poor policing and an old stadium to cause the deaths of 39 Juventus fans during the 1985 European Cup final. This led to English teams being banned from European football for five years, and Liverpool - the club involved - being banned for six.
Even when English teams were re-admitted, it was not until 1995 that they regained all of their lost places. And it took a while for English teams to re-establish themselves in Europe. Although Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
won the European Cup Winners' Cup in the first season after the ban was lifted
1990-91 in English football
The 1990–91 season was the 111th season of competitive football in England.- First Division :Arsenal won the league. Runners-up spot was achieved by Liverpool, who had led the table for much of the first half of the season but had been shell-shocked in February by the sudden resignation of manager...
, the European Cup
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
was not won by an English club until 1999 – 15 years after the last triumph.
The Hillsborough disaster
Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989 at Hillsborough, a football stadium, the home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people, and 766 being injured, all fans of Liverpool F.C....
, which also involved Liverpool, though not related to hooliganism but caused by bad policing, an old stadium and anti-hooligan fences led to 94 deaths and more than 300 injuries. The final death toll was 96. These two tragedies led to a modernization of English football and English grounds. Efforts were made to remove hooligans from English football, whilst the Taylor Report
Taylor Report
The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report, better known as the Taylor Report is a document, whose development was overseen by Lord Taylor of Gosforth, concerning the aftermath and causes of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. An interim report was published in August 1989, and the final...
led to the grounds of all top level clubs becoming all-seater.
Match attendances, which had been in decline since the 1970s, was beginning to recover by the turn of the 1990s thanks to the improving image of football as well as the strengthened national economy and falling unemployment after the crises of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
On the field, Liverpool's domination was coming to an end; it also saw the culmination of the phenomenal rise of Wimbledon
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...
, who rose from the Fourth Division to the First in just four seasons, before finishing sixth in their inaugural season in the top flight and beating Liverpool 1-0 in the 1988 FA Cup final, one of the competition's biggest shocks. Another team to make an improbably quick rise from Fourth to First Divisions was Swansea City, who had climbed three divisions between 1977 and 1981. They finished sixth in their first top division campaign, but were relegated the following year and in 1986 fell back into the Fourth Division.
A number of other small clubs achieved success at this time. Charlton Athletic, who were forced to leave The Valley and ground-share with West Ham for safety reasons in 1985, won promotion to the First Division in 1986 after an exile of nearly 30 years. They defied the odds by remaining at this level until their luck finally ran out and they were relegated in 1990. Norwich City went down to the Second Division in 1985 but that blow was cushioned by a League Cup triumph. They returned to the top flight a year later and finished fifth on their comeback, also coming fourth and reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in 1989. They reached another FA Cup semi-final in 1992. Oxford United, who had only joined the Football League in 1962, reached the First Division in 1985 and lifted the League Cup the following season. They went back down again in 1988, the same year that Middlesbrough reached the First Division a mere two seasons after almost going out of business as a Third Division side. Luton Town, who began the latest of several spells as a First Division side in 1982, won the Football League Cup
Football League Cup
The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
- their first major trophy - in 1988 at the expense of a much more fancied Arsenal side.
Many fallen giants fell on hard times during the later part of the 1980s. Burnley and Preston North End (both Football League founders with five league titles between them), were relegated to the Fourth Division in 1985. Preston were promoted back to the Third Division in 1987, but that year saw Burnley narrowly avoid becoming the first team to suffer automatic relegation to the Conference (that humiliation was endured by Lincoln City instead) and it was not until 1992 that Burnley won promotion from the basement division.
One fallen giant to enjoy something of a resurgence in this era was Derby County. They had been relegated to the Third Division in 1984, just nine years after being league champions, but back-to-back promotions saw them back in the First Division in 1987. They emerged as surprise title contenders in 1988-89 and finished fifth, only missing out on a UEFA Cup place due to the ban on English clubs in European competition. But Derby were unable to sustain their run of success, and went down to the Second Division in 1991.
In 1986, Wolverhampton Wanderers fell into the Fourth Division for the first time in their history, and became only the second English team to endure three successive relegations. By 1989, they had won promotion to the Second Division almost single-handedly thanks to the goalscoring exploits of striker Steve Bull
Steve Bull
Stephen George "Steve" Bull, MBE, is an English former footballer who is best remembered for his 13-year spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers...
, who became the first English footballer to score 50 or more competitive goals in successive seasons. Local businessman Jack Hayward
Jack Hayward
Sir Jack Arnold Hayward, OBE is an English businessman, property developer, philanthropist and president of Premier League football club Wolverhampton Wanderers.-Biography:...
took the club over in 1990, and declared his ambition to restore Wolves as a major footballing force.
Bolton Wanderers, four times FA Cup winners, were relegated to the Fourth Division in 1987, the same year that Sunderland fell into the Third Division for the first time in their history. Both teams, however, won promotion at the first attempt.
With Liverpool's fortunes waning, George Graham's
George Graham (footballer)
George Graham is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success at Arsenal, as a player in the 1970s and then as manager from 1986 until 1995.-Early life:...
Arsenal started to win trophies again, with a League Cup in 1987 and two league titles, in 1989 and 1991, the former being won in the final minute of the final game of the season
Liverpool 0–2 Arsenal (26 May 1989)
The final match of the 1988–89 English Football League season was contested on 26 May 1989, between Liverpool and Arsenal, at Liverpool's Anfield ground. By sheer coincidence, it was the match between the top two teams in the First Division and the teams were close enough on points for the match to...
against title rivals Liverpool, with young midfielder Michael Thomas scoring the crucial goal. Arsenal would go on to be the first side to pick up the Cup Double in 1993, and followed it with a Cup Winners' Cup the year after.
Arsenal's neighbours Tottenham were also successful, winning the FA Cup in 1990-91, with midfielder Paul Gascoigne
Paul Gascoigne
Paul John Gascoigne , commonly referred to as Gazza, is a retired English professional footballer.Playing in the position of midfield, Gascoigne's career included spells at Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough, Everton and Gansu Tianma, where he scored at least a goal...
proving the hero in the semi-finals against Arsenal before injuring himself in the final against Nottingham Forest. Tottenham bought Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
's high-scoring England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
striker Gary Lineker
Gary Lineker
Gary Winston Lineker, OBE , is a former English footballer, who played as a striker. He is a sports broadcaster for the BBC, Al Jazeera Sports and Eredivisie Live...
in 1989, and he continued his excellent form over three years at the club before leaving to finish his career in Japan.
Leeds had finally won promotion back to the top flight in 1990 and under Howard Wilkinson
Howard Wilkinson
Howard Wilkinson is a former English football player and manager, and has recently stepped down as a Non-Executive Director at Sheffield Wednesday after formerly relinquishing the chairman role to Milan Mandaric...
they won the 1991-92 league title. Wilkinson is still the most recent English manager to win the league championship. However, the departure of Eric Cantona
Eric Cantona
Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona is a French actor and former French international footballer. He played for Auxerre, Martigues, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nîmes and Leeds United before ending his professional footballing career at Manchester United, where he won four Premier League titles in...
to Manchester United, amongst other factors, meant they were unable to make a regular challenge for the title following the creation of the Premier League.
Manchester United's six-year trophyless run had ended in 1983 when manager Ron Atkinson
Ron Atkinson
Ronald Ernest Atkinson, commonly known as "Big Ron" and "Bojangles" is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits...
(appointed in 1981) guided them to FA Cup glory. They achieved another triumph two years later, but had still gone without a league title since 1967. 10 successive league wins at the start of the 1985-86 season suggested that the title was on its way back to Old Trafford
Old Trafford
Old Trafford commonly refers to two sporting arenas:* Old Trafford, home of Manchester United F.C.* Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket ClubOld Trafford can also refer to:...
, but United's form fell away as they finished fourth and Liverpool sealed the title. A terrible start to the 1986-87 season cost Atkinson his job in early November, when Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
was recruited from Aberdeen
Aberdeen F.C.
Aberdeen Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen...
. Ferguson strengthened the squad in the 1987 close season and the first stages of the new season and things were looking good as Ferguson's first full season as manager saw United finished second behind runaway champions Liverpool. Further signings after this improvement suggested that the title was even closer for United, but a series of injuries blighted the side and they finished 11th in 1989. United's wait for silverware ended in 1990 when they won their 7th FA Cup, and a year later they won the European Cup Winners' Cup, but it had now been well over 20 years since the league title had been United's.
Despite failure to qualify for Euro 1984 (the first major tournament since the appointment of Bobby Robson
Bobby Robson
Sir Robert William "Bobby" Robson, CBE was an English footballer and manager, who coached seven European clubs and the England national team during his career....
as manager), England continued to improve as the 1980s wore on, losing controversially to Argentina
Argentina national football team
The Argentina national football team represents Argentina in association football and is controlled by the Argentine Football Association , the governing body for football in Argentina. Argentina's home stadium is Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti and their head coach is Alejandro...
in the 1986 World Cup and unluckily on penalties to Germany
Germany national football team
The Germany national football team is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association , which was founded in 1900....
in the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup, eventually finishing fourth. This success for the national team, and the gradually improving grounds, helped to reinvigorate football's popularity. Attendances rose from the late 1980s and continued to do so as football moved into the business era.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the emergence of numerous young players who went on to reach great heights in the game. These include Paul Gascoigne
Paul Gascoigne
Paul John Gascoigne , commonly referred to as Gazza, is a retired English professional footballer.Playing in the position of midfield, Gascoigne's career included spells at Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough, Everton and Gansu Tianma, where he scored at least a goal...
, David Platt, Matt Le Tissier, Lee Sharpe
Lee Sharpe
Lee Stuart Sharpe is an English former footballer. Predominantly a left winger, Sharpe joined Manchester United from Torquay United as a youngster in 1988, playing for the club up until 1996...
, Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season...
and Paul Merson
Paul Merson
Paul Charles Merson is a retired English football player, and former player-manager of Walsall. His playing career has included spells at Arsenal, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and finishing his playing career at Tamworth. He also played for England 21 times...
.
Established great players who were still playing the top in the early 1990s include Ian Rush
Ian Rush
Ian James Rush, MBE, is a retired football player from Flint, Wales. He is best remembered as a player for Liverpool, where he was among the top strikers in the English game in the 1980s and 1990s. He also had spells playing at Chester City, Juventus, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Sheffield...
, Peter Beardsley
Peter Beardsley
Peter Andrew Beardsley MBE is an English former footballer who played between 1979 and 1999. He once set a record transfer fee in the game and represented his country 59 times between 1986 and 1996, once as captain...
, Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson OBE is an English football manager and a former player. He is best known for playing in midfield for Manchester United, where he was the longest serving captain in club history. He was the manager of Sheffield United, being relieved of his first team duties at the club in February 2008...
, Steve Bruce
Steve Bruce
Stephen Roger "Steve" Bruce is an English football manager and former player. Born in Corbridge, Northumberland, he was a promising schoolboy footballer but was rejected by a number of professional clubs. He was on the verge of quitting the game altogether when he was offered a trial with Gillingham...
, Neville Southall
Neville Southall
Neville Southall MBE is a former Wales international footballer, best known for his time with Everton. He has been described as one of the best goalkeepers of his generation and won the FWA Footballer of the Year award in 1985...
and Ray Wilkins
Ray Wilkins
Raymond Colin Wilkins MBE , often known as "Butch" Wilkins, is an English former footballer and at present a television pundit...
.
This era also saw many famous names hanging up their boots after long and illustrious careers. These include Ray Clemence
Ray Clemence
Raymond Neal "Ray" Clemence, MBE is one of English and European football's most decorated goalkeepers ever and was part of the Liverpool team of the 1970s.-Scunthorpe United:...
, Gary Bailey
Gary Bailey
Gary Richard Bailey is a former footballer who made nearly 300 appearances in the Football League playing as a goalkeeper for Manchester United. He was capped twice for England....
, Alan Hansen
Alan Hansen
Alan David Hansen is a Scottish former football player and BBC television football pundit. He played as a central defender for Partick Thistle, Liverpool and Scotland...
, Craig Johnston
Craig Johnston
Craig Johnston is a former football player who was one of the first Australians to make a major impact in the English game. He is remembered for his time spent with Liverpool throughout the 1980s...
, Norman Whiteside
Norman Whiteside
Norman Whiteside is a former Northern Ireland international footballer who played in two World Cups.He appeared for Manchester United and Everton, before his career was ended by injury at the age of 26. He won the FA Cup twice during his time playing for Manchester United, in 1983 and 1985...
, Andy Gray and Billy Bonds
Billy Bonds
William Arthur "Billy" Bonds MBE is a former professional footballer and manager, who is most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager...
.
Successful managers of this era include Kenny Dalglish
Kenny Dalglish
Kenneth Mathieson "Kenny" Dalglish MBE is a Scottish former footballer and the current manager of Liverpool F.C.. In a 22-year playing career, he played for two club teams, Celtic and Liverpool, winning numerous honours with both. He is the most capped Scottish player, with 102 appearances, and...
, George Graham
George Graham (footballer)
George Graham is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success at Arsenal, as a player in the 1970s and then as manager from 1986 until 1995.-Early life:...
, Howard Kendall
Howard Kendall
Howard Kendall is an English football manager and former player. He is most famous for his connection to Everton, a club that he both played for and managed. His uncle Harry Taylor played for Newcastle United and Fulham in the 1950s....
, Howard Wilkinson
Howard Wilkinson
Howard Wilkinson is a former English football player and manager, and has recently stepped down as a Non-Executive Director at Sheffield Wednesday after formerly relinquishing the chairman role to Milan Mandaric...
, Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
, Bobby Gould
Bobby Gould
Robert Anthony "Bobby" Gould is an English former footballer and manager.-Playing career:Born in Coventry, Gould started his career at Coventry City, making his debut for the club whilst still an apprentice at the age of 16. He did not sign professional until June 1964...
, John Lyall
John Lyall
John Angus Lyall was an English footballer and manager of Scottish descent. His mother, Catherine, was from the Isle of Lewis, his father, James, was from Kirriemuir. He was born in Ilford, Essex.- Youth team career :...
, Jim Smith
Jim Smith (footballer)
James Michael "Jim" Smith is a retired English footballer and manager. As a player, he made 249 appearances in the Fourth Division of The Football League, representing Aldershot, Halifax Town, Lincoln City and Colchester United, and played for three-and-a-half years for Boston United of the...
, Maurice Evans
Maurice Evans (footballer)
Maurice George Evans was a football player with Reading Football Club, and later manager of Shrewsbury, Reading and Oxford United....
and Dave Bassett
Dave Bassett
David Bassett , also frequently known by his nickname of Harry, is an English football manager and a former player....
.
1992–2001: The Premier League and Sky Television
The FA Premier League was formed in 1992 when the top twenty two clubs in English football broke away from the football league, in order to increase their incomes and make themselves more competitive on a European stage. By selling TV rights separately to the Football League, the clubs increased their income and exposure. The Premier League became the top level of English football, and Division One (later renamed the Football League ChampionshipFootball League Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...
) fell to the second level.
Manchester United were the first Premiership winners, their first title in 26 years, and under Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
, they dominated English football during the 1990s, winning five league titles (including two doubles), one League Cup, one Cup Winners' Cup and, in 1999, a unique treble: the FA Cup, League and Champions League all in one season. Their success was made even more remarkable by the high number of players who came up simultaneously through their youth system, including brothers Gary
Gary Neville
Gary Alexander Neville is a former English footballer. He is England's most capped right-back and was Manchester United's club captain for five years....
and Philip Neville
Philip Neville
Philip John "Phil" Neville is an English footballer who captains Premier League club Everton. Neville also played for England from 1996 until 2007...
, Paul Scholes
Paul Scholes
Paul Scholes is a retired English footballer, a one-club man who played his entire professional career for Manchester United.Born in Salford, but later moving to Langley, Scholes excelled in both cricket and football in school. He first trained with Manchester United at the age of 14 after being...
and David Beckham
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
. This success continued in the new millennium.
United's main challengers for the title in the Premier League's first few years were Blackburn Rovers, led by star striker Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer OBE, DL is a retired English footballer. He played as a striker in the top level of English league football for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and for the England national team...
, also won their first league title since World War I in 1994-95, and Newcastle United, who famously conceded a 10-point lead at Christmas to lose the title to United in 1995-96. Newcastle had reached the Premiership in 1993 as Division One champions, and in their first Premiership campaign finished third to qualify for the UEFA Cup. They finished second in 1996 and again in 1997, but by the end of the decade had wallowed away to mid table.
Blackburn failed to sustain their success after the 1995 title triumph, and in 1999 they were relegated to Division One.
A number of other teams challenged for the title in the early Premiership years. Aston Villa finished second in 1993, but declined over the next two seasons (despite a League Cup victory in 1994). They enjoyed a revival in 1996, winning the League Cup and finishing fourth in the Premiership, and by 1999 had qualified for the UEFA Cup five times in seven seasons, though their continental form had been unconvincing. Norwich City were surprise title contenders in 1992-93 under new manager Mike Walker, leading the table at several stages before finishing third - and doing so entered the UEFA Cup for the first time in their history. They achieved a shock win over Bayern Munich before being eliminated by Inter Milan, but were unable to keep up their good progress and in 1995 fell into Division One. By the end of the decade, they had yet to make a Premiership comeback.
Many teams that had succeed in the 1970s and 1980s did not fare as well in the Premiership. Liverpool were unable to dominate the decade as they had done in the 1970s and 1980s; after their 1990 title win, their only other trophies of the decade were the FA Cup in 1992 and the League Cup in 1995; they finished as low as 8th in 1994 and although they did finish sixth in the first season of the Premier League, they had spent much of that season in the bottom half of the table. Everton fared no better, although they won the FA Cup in 1995, beating Manchester United, they were involved in no less than three relegation battles during the decade (once staying up only on goal difference) and never finished higher than sixth in the league. After a promising start to the decade which included two fifth place finish, Manchester City also fought relegation, but lost, slipping into the Division One in 1996 and Division Two in 1998. But two successive promotions saw them back in the Premiership for the 2000-01 season. Nottingham Forest were relegated from the Premier League three times, in 1993, 1997 and 1999, and unlike City have yet to return.
Arsenal began the Premier League with moderate league form (a shortage of goals restricting them to 10th place) but excellent form in the cups, as they became the first English team to win both domestic cups in the same season - beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in both finals. They won the Cup Winners' Cup a year later, but manager George Graham
George Graham (footballer)
George Graham is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success at Arsenal, as a player in the 1970s and then as manager from 1986 until 1995.-Early life:...
was sacked the following February after admitting to receiving a "bung" when signing Danish midfielder John Jensen
John Jensen
John Jensen , nicknamed Faxe, is a former Danish international footballer who is unemployed. He is known for his temper and is often outspoken in interviews. His playing career lasted over a decade, during which he played most famously for Arsenal F.C...
in 1992. They reached the Cup Winners' Cup final for the second year running under temporary manager Stewart Houston
Stewart Houston
Stewart Mackie Houston is a Scottish former football player and coach.A left back, Houston's first professional club were Chelsea, but he failed to break into the first team and only made 14 appearances in five years. He was sold to Brentford in 1972...
, but finished 12th in the Premiership. They reached fifth the following season under new manager Bruce Rioch
Bruce Rioch
Bruce David Rioch is an English-born football manager and former player. He was manager of Aalborg BK in the Danish Superliga, until his sacking on 23 October 2008....
, who was sacked for a dispute with the directors soon afterwards and replaced by Frenchman
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Arsène Wenger
Arsène Wenger
Arsène Wenger, OBE is a French association football manager and former player, who has managed English Premier League side Arsenal since 1996...
. Under Wenger, they won the double in 1998 to become only the second team in English football to repeat this triumph - though, unlike Manchester United two years earlier, with an entirely different set of players.
English football grew wealthier and more popular than ever before, with clubs spending tens of millions of pounds on players and on their wages, which rose to over £100,000 a week for the top stars. This also made it harder for promoted clubs to establish themselves at the top flight. In 1993, newly promoted Middlesbrough lost their top flight status after just one season, while Blackburn finished fourth and Ipswich finished 16th (having occupied fourth place in February). In 1994, newly-promoted Swindon went down after winning just five games all season and conceding 100 goals. Newcastle, meanwhile, qualified for the UEFA Cup in third place and West Ham achieved a respectable 13th place finish. In 1995, newly-promoted Nottingham Forest matched Newcastle's success by coming third and qualifying for the UEFA Cup, while Crystal Palace and Leicester City went straight back down. In 1996, newly-promoted Bolton Wanderers went straight back down, while Middlesbrough attained a secure 12th place (they would have finished even higher had it not been for a dismal mid-season run of form which saw them endure 10 defeats from 11 games). In 1997, newly-promoted Leicester City finished ninth and won the League Cup, while Derby County finished 12th, but Sunderland went straight back down. In 1998, all three newly-promoted teams - Bolton Wanderers, Barnsley and Crystal Palace - were relegated straight back to Division One. In 1999, Middlesbrough attained an impressive ninth place finish, but Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forest were relegated.
The Premier League was decreased from 22 to 20 clubs in 1995.
The national team over this period varied in their success, failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup but reaching the semi-finals in Euro 96, losing on penalties to Germany at the semi-final stage. They also achieved automatic qualification for the 1998 World Cup, losing to Argentina on penalties in the Second Round. Manager Graham Taylor had quit in November 1993 after failing to attain a World Cup place, and his successor Terry Venables
Terry Venables
Terence Frederick "Terry" Venables , often referred to as "El Tel", is a former football player and manager, as well as being a media pundit. During the 1960s and 70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England...
left after the encouraging Euro 96 campaign due to off-the-field disputes. His successor Glenn Hoddle
Glenn Hoddle
Glenn Hoddle is an English former footballer and manager who played as an attacking midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, AS Monaco, Chelsea and Swindon Town and at international level for England....
took England to the World Cup, but was fired the following February after a controversial newspaper interview in which he suggested that disabled people were being punished for sins in a previous life. His successor Kevin Keegan
Kevin Keegan
Joseph Kevin Keegan, OBE is a former international footballer and former manager of the England national football team and several English clubs, most notably Newcastle United....
achieved the task of attaining qualification for Euro 2000.
The trend for clubs to relocate to new stadiums accelerated throughout the 1990s. By the end of the decade, Walsall
Walsall F.C.
Walsall Football Club are an English association football club based in Walsall, West Midlands. They currently play in League One. The club was founded in 1888 as Walsall Town Swifts, an amalgamation of Walsall Town F.C. and Walsall Swifts F.C. The club was one of the founder members of the Second...
, Chester City
Chester City F.C.
Chester City Football Club was an English football team from Chester. The club was founded as Chester F.C., and joined the Football League in 1931, spending most of their time in the lower divisions. They changed their name to Chester City in 1983. Chester won their first league title in 2004, the...
, Milwall
Millwall F.C.
Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...
, Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield Town F.C.
Huddersfield Town Football Club is an English football club formed in 1908 and based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. They currently play in League One...
, Northampton Town
Northampton Town F.C.
Northampton Town Football Club are an English professional football club based in Northampton, Northamptonshire. They currently play in Football League Two, the lowest league division, after being relegated from League One on the last day of the 2008–09 season...
, Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough F.C.
Middlesbrough Football Club , also known as Boro, are an English football club based in Middlesbrough, who play in the Football League Championship. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadium since August 1995, their third ground since turning professional in 1889...
, Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
, Sunderland
Sunderland A.F.C.
Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...
, Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers F.C.
Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....
, Stoke City
Stoke City F.C.
Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...
, Reading
Reading F.C.
Reading Football Club is an English association football club based in the town of Reading, Berkshire who currently play in the Championship...
and Wigan Athletic
Wigan Athletic F.C.
Wigan Athletic Football Club is an English Premier League Association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, having been promoted from the Championship in 2005. Wigan's current spell in the Premier League is the only top flight run in the club's history.They have played at the DW...
had all moved to new stadiums, and several other clubs were planning to relocate. This was due to the requirement that all Premier League and Division One
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
stadiums had to have all-seater stadiums by the start of the 1994-95 season
1994-95 in English football
-Premiership:Blackburn Rovers ended their 81-year wait for the league title thanks to the strike partnership of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton which scored a total of more than 50 league goals. Manchester United would have made it three league titles in a row if they had been able to turn a 1-1 draw...
, although standing accommodation was still permitted at Division Two and Three stadiums, as well as non-league venues.
Prominent footballers who emerged during the 1990s include Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season...
, David Beckham
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
, Michael Owen
Michael Owen
Michael James Owen is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Manchester United.The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997...
, Sol Campbell
Sol Campbell
Sulzeer Jeremiah "Sol" Campbell is an English footballer who is currently a free agent. A central defender, Campbell has played for Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United, as well as the English national team.Born in East London to Jamaican parents, Campbell's...
, Chris Sutton
Chris Sutton
Christopher Roy "Chris" Sutton is an English football manager and former player.In his career, Sutton played for Norwich City, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Celtic, Birmingham City and Aston Villa. Sutton scored over 150 career goals in over 400 league appearances spanning 16 years in the English...
, Robbie Fowler
Robbie Fowler
Robert Bernard Fowler is an English footballer who is currently player/manager for Thai Premier League club Muangthong United....
, Gary Neville
Gary Neville
Gary Alexander Neville is a former English footballer. He is England's most capped right-back and was Manchester United's club captain for five years....
and Rio Ferdinand
Rio Ferdinand
Rio Gavin Ferdinand is an English footballer. He plays at centre back for Manchester United in the Premier League and for the England national football team...
.
As well as British and Irish talent, there were numerous foreign imports to the English game during the decade who went on to achieve stardom with English clubs. These include Eric Cantona
Eric Cantona
Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona is a French actor and former French international footballer. He played for Auxerre, Martigues, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nîmes and Leeds United before ending his professional footballing career at Manchester United, where he won four Premier League titles in...
, Jurgen Klinsmann
Jürgen Klinsmann
Jürgen Klinsmann is a German football manager and former player who is currently the coach of the United States Men's National Team. As a player, Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe and was part of the West German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the German one that...
, Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Nicolaas Bergkamp , is a former Dutch professional footballer who is currently the assistant manager to Frank de Boer at Ajax. At club level he played for Ajax, Internazionale, and Arsenal, and also represented the Netherlands at international level...
, Gianfranco Zola
Gianfranco Zola
Gianfranco Zola, OBE, Ufficiale OMRI is a retired Italian footballer and manager, who most recently managed West Ham United from 2008 to 2010, after having been assistant manager of the Italy U-21 under Pierluigi Casiraghi...
, Patrick Vieira
Patrick Vieira
Patrick Vieira is a retired French footballer of Senegalese descent who is the Football Development Executive at Manchester City....
and Peter Schmeichel
Peter Schmeichel
Peter Bolesław Schmeichel MBE is a retired Danish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and was voted the "World's Best Goalkeeper" in 1992 and 1993...
.
Many experienced players whose careers began during the 1980s were still playing at the highest level as the 1990s drew to a close. These include David Seaman
David Seaman
David Andrew Seaman MBE is a former English football goalkeeper who played for several clubs, most notably Arsenal. He retired from the game on 13 January 2004, following a recurring shoulder injury...
, Tony Adams
Tony Adams (footballer)
Tony Alexander Adams, MBE is an English football manager and former player.Adams spent his entire playing career of 22 years as a defender at Arsenal. He is considered one of the greatest Arsenal players of all time by the club's own fans and was included in the Football League 100 Legends...
, Gary Pallister
Gary Pallister
Gary Andrew Pallister is an English former footballer, most noted for his nine-year spell at Manchester United from 1989 until 1998...
, Colin Hendry
Colin Hendry
Edward Colin Hendry is a retired Scottish footballer and manager, who played as a defender. Hendry started his career with Dundee in 1983 and spent spells at Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Rangers, Coventry City, Bolton Wanderers and Blackpool...
, Paul Ince
Paul Ince
Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince is an English football manager and a former professional player. He has managed Blackburn Rovers, Milton Keynes Dons and Macclesfield Town...
, Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer OBE, DL is a retired English footballer. He played as a striker in the top level of English league football for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and for the England national team...
and Mark Hughes
Mark Hughes
Leslie Mark Hughes, OBE , is a former Welsh international footballer. As an international footballer, he made 72 appearances and scored 16 goals....
.
The decade also saw the illustrious careers of numerous legendary players draw to a close. These include Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson OBE is an English football manager and a former player. He is best known for playing in midfield for Manchester United, where he was the longest serving captain in club history. He was the manager of Sheffield United, being relieved of his first team duties at the club in February 2008...
, Gordon Strachan
Gordon Strachan
Gordon David Strachan OBE is a Scottish football manager and former player. He is currently without a club, having last managed Middlesbrough. Strachan played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. Prior to Middlesbrough,...
, Ian Rush
Ian Rush
Ian James Rush, MBE, is a retired football player from Flint, Wales. He is best remembered as a player for Liverpool, where he was among the top strikers in the English game in the 1980s and 1990s. He also had spells playing at Chester City, Juventus, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Sheffield...
, Peter Beardsley
Peter Beardsley
Peter Andrew Beardsley MBE is an English former footballer who played between 1979 and 1999. He once set a record transfer fee in the game and represented his country 59 times between 1986 and 1996, once as captain...
, Steve Bruce
Steve Bruce
Stephen Roger "Steve" Bruce is an English football manager and former player. Born in Corbridge, Northumberland, he was a promising schoolboy footballer but was rejected by a number of professional clubs. He was on the verge of quitting the game altogether when he was offered a trial with Gillingham...
, John Barnes
John Barnes (footballer)
John Charles Bryan Barnes MBE is an English football manager and former player.During his playing career, Barnes had successful periods at Watford and Liverpool in the 1980s and 1990s, winning the First Division twice, the FA Cup twice, and playing for England 79 times...
and Peter Shilton
Peter Shilton
Peter Leslie Shilton OBE is a former English footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He currently holds the record for playing more games for England than anyone else, earning 125 caps....
.
Successful managers of this era include Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
, Kenny Dalglish
Kenny Dalglish
Kenneth Mathieson "Kenny" Dalglish MBE is a Scottish former footballer and the current manager of Liverpool F.C.. In a 22-year playing career, he played for two club teams, Celtic and Liverpool, winning numerous honours with both. He is the most capped Scottish player, with 102 appearances, and...
, Arsène Wenger
Arsène Wenger
Arsène Wenger, OBE is a French association football manager and former player, who has managed English Premier League side Arsenal since 1996...
, Ruud Gullit
Ruud Gullit
OON is a Dutch football manager and former football player, who played professionally in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the captain of the Netherlands national team that was victorious at Euro 88 and was also a member of the squad for the 1990 World Cup. He was named the European Footballer of the...
, Gianluca Vialli
Gianluca Vialli
Gianluca Vialli is an Italian football manager and former player. Since retiring, he has gone into management and punditry and is a commentator for Sky Sport Italia....
, George Graham
George Graham (footballer)
George Graham is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success at Arsenal, as a player in the 1970s and then as manager from 1986 until 1995.-Early life:...
, Joe Royle
Joe Royle
Joseph "Joe" Royle is an English football manager. In his club career, he played for Everton , Manchester City, Bristol City, Norwich City, and the England national team...
, Frank Clark, Brian Little
Brian Little (footballer)
Brian Little is an English former football player and manager who is currently without a job after being relieved of his duties as manager of Gainsborough Trinity on 22 August 2011. Little has previously managed Darlington, Leicester City, Aston Villa, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Hull City,...
and Martin O'Neill
Martin O'Neill
Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, OBE, is a Northern Irish football manager and former player.Until resigning the post on 9 August 2010, he was manager of Aston Villa. Starting his career in his native Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playing career with Nottingham...
.
2003–present: Financial polarization
In England, as in Europe in general, the early first decade of the 21st century saw the financial bubble burst, with the collapse of ITV DigitalITV Digital
ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster, which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network as ONdigital in 1998 and briefly re-branded as ITV Digital in July 2001, before the service ceased in May 2002. Its main shareholders...
in May 2002 leaving a hole in the pockets of the Football League clubs who had relied on their television money to maintain high wages. Although no football league teams collapsed (no team has done so since Maidstone United in 1992), many entered administration, including Leicester City
Leicester City F.C.
Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...
and Bradford City
Bradford City A.F.C.
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, playing in League Two....
. From the 2004-05
2004-05 in English football
The 2004–05 season was the 125th season of competitive football in England.-Overview:*2004–05 was the first season to feature the rebranded Football League. The First Division, Second Division and Third Division were renamed the Football League Championship, Football League One and Football League...
, administration for any Premier League or Football League club would mean a 10-point deduction. Most of the non-league divisions adopted a similar penalty.
Another club that faced financial ruin was Leeds United; having reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2000-01 they looked set for dominance on the domestic and European scene, but after failing to qualify for the competition the following season, they were unable to cover the loans they had taken out to fund their spending. They were forced to sell their ground (and lease it back) and many of their best players. They were relegated at the end of the 2003-04 season and three years later slipped into the league's third tier for the first time in their history, although their debts have since been substantially reduced.
At the same time, the country's richest clubs continued to grow, with the wages of top players increasing further.
Manchester United's outstanding success has continued, though to a slightly lesser degree than the success they had previously enjoyed. Arsenal won a third Double in 2002 and clinched the title in 2004 without losing a single league game all season. In 2003 and 2005, when they missed out on the title, they had the FA Cup as compensation. United still managed to win another FA Cup in 2004 and the League Cup in 2006, as well as league titles in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2007. Chelsea's success continued to grow, with Roman Abramovich - a Russian oligarch - purchasing Chelsea in a £150m takeover in 2003. Abramovich, whose move to England made him the country's richest man (he has since been overtaken), made substantial transfer funds available to manager Claudio Ranieri
Claudio Ranieri
Claudio Ranieri, is an Italian football manager, currently in charge as head coach of Internazionale.He has also managed many other well-known clubs in Europe, including Cagliari, Napoli, Fiorentina, Valencia, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Parma, Juventus and Roma.-Early life:Ranieri attended St...
. After finishing second in 2004, Chelsea won the League Cup and league title under Ranieri's replacement José Mourinho
José Mourinho
José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho is a Portuguese football manager and the current manager of Real Madrid. He is commonly known as "The Special One".Mourinho is regarded by some players, coaches and critics as the best ever coach in football....
in 2005, and another title in 2006.
While unable to challenge for the league title, Liverpool achieved success in other competitions, including a treble of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001. Another League Cup followed in 2003, but the biggest triumph of the decade so far was a Champions League win in 2005, with a memorable comeback
2005 UEFA Champions League Final
The 2005 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, Europe's primary club football competition. The showpiece event was contested between Liverpool of England and Milan of Italy at the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey on 25 May 2005...
from 3-0 down against AC Milan in the final; Liverpool became the second club since the Heysel ban to take the trophy. The season after Liverpool won the FA Cup, winning on penalties after drawing 3-3 with newly-promoted West Ham United. Tottenham Hotspur have also resurged under new manager Martin Jol
Martin Jol
Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder who currently manages Fulham in the Premier League. Jol played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany, and England, as well as earning three caps with the Dutch national team...
, narrowly missing out on a Champions League place in 2006 after finishing fifth.
The England national team during this time became managed by a non-English national for the first time in their history when Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson , in Sweden commonly referred to just by his nickname Svennis, is a Swedish ex-football manager. From October 2010 to October 2011 he managed Football League Championship side Leicester City....
took charge. He achieved respectable results in international tournaments, going out to eventual winners Brazil
Brazil national football team
The Brazil national football team represents Brazil in international men's football and is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation , the governing body for football in Brazil. They are a member of the International Federation of Association Football since 1923 and also a member of the...
in the 2002 World Cup
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was implemented. Brazil won the tournament for a record fifth time, beating Germany 2–0...
, hosts Portugal
Portugal national football team
The Portugal national football team represents Portugal in association football and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation, the governing body for football in Portugal. Portugal's home ground is Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, and their head coach is Paulo Bento...
in Euro 2004, and Portugal once again on penalties in the 2006 World Cup
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
having reached the quarter-finals. Arguably due to pressure over the lack of actual victories in major tournaments, Eriksson announced his resignation prior to the 2006 World Cup. Steve McClaren
Steve McClaren
Stephen "Steve" McClaren is an English football manager and former player.McClaren was previously manager of VfL Wolfsburg in Germany between May 2010 and February 2011, having left his post at Dutch side FC Twente, with whom he won the club's first Eredivisie championship in the 2009–10 season...
was selected by the FA as his replacement, and took over as manager on 1 August 2006, on a 4-year contract. England's failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championships led to McClaren being sacked on 22 November 2007, after only 16 months in charge. He was replaced by Italian Fabio Capello
Fabio Capello
Fabio Capello is an Italian football manager and former player. He is the manager of the England national football team.Capello has the distinction of winning the domestic league title with every club he has coached throughout his career...
.
The 2006-07 season saw Manchester United win the Premier League title for the first time in four years, with Chelsea finishing second (their failure to win a third successive title compensated for in the shape of success in both domestic cups), Liverpool finishing third and Arsenal fourth, while Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Bolton Wanderers achieved UEFA Cup qualification. The gulf between the Premier League and Football League Championship was highlighted once again as two of the newly promoted teams (Watford and Sheffield United) were relegated, although Reading - the other newly promoted team, and playing their first top flight campaign ever - finished 8th and narrowly missed out on European qualification. The race for promotion to the Premier League had a predictable finish as the two automatic promotion places were both taken by teams relegated a year earlier - Sunderland and Birmingham City. Derby County took the third and final promotion places with a playoff victory at the expensive of newly relegated West Bromwich Albion, while Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton (who had both been in the Premier League a couple of years earlier) were the losing semi finalists. Narrowly missing out on a playoff place were Colchester United
Colchester United F.C.
Colchester United Football Club is an English football club based in Colchester. The club was formed in 1937, and briefly shared their old Layer Road home with now defunct side Colchester Town who had previously used the ground from 1910....
, who finished 10th in their very first season at this level and had been among the pre-season relegation favourites.
Going down to League One were Southend United and Luton Town
Luton Town F.C.
Luton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based since 1905 at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Bedfordshire. The club currently competes in the fifth tier of English football, the Conference National, for the third consecutive season during the 2011–12 season.Formed in 1885, it was...
, along with a Leeds United
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
who just five years earlier had been one of the Premier League's top clubs, only for a string of financial crises to drag them down the league. Scunthorpe United were among the clubs to reach the Championship in 2007, sealing the League One title after more than 40 years in the league's lower reaches, while Blackpool returned to the second tier for the first time since the 1970s with a playoff victory.
2007-08 brought a familiar pattern in the Premier League as Manchester United retained the Premier League title and Chelsea finished second, with Arsenal third and Liverpool fourth. Everton and Aston Villa completed the top six to seal UEFA Cup qualification, while Tottenham Hotspur lifted the Football League Cup
Football League Cup
The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
to end their nine-year trophy drought. The most remarkable success story of the season, however, belonged to Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp
Henry James "Harry" Redknapp is a former English footballer who has enjoyed a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth. He is the current manager of Tottenham Hotspur....
, who brought Portsmouth
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
their first major honour for nearly 60 years in the shape of the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
. When Redknapp had first taken over as manager of Portsmouth in March 2002, the South Coast
Southern England
Southern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...
club hadn't played in the top flight for more than 40 years with the excpetion of one unsuccessful campaign in the late 1980s. A year later they sealed promotion to the Premier League and slowly established themselves back among the elite. Redknapp had been reviled by Portsmouth fans when defecting to their local rivals Southampton
Southampton F.C.
Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...
in November 2004, only to return a year later after failing to save Southampton from relegation. After saving Portsmouth from relegation on his return, he spent heavily and attracted top class players including David James
David James (footballer)
David Benjamin James is an English footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Bristol City.On 14 February 2009, he achieved the all-time Premier League appearance record with 536 appearances, overtaking Gary Speed. He held this record until being overtaken by Ryan Giggs on the 14th May 2011...
, Sol Campbell
Sol Campbell
Sulzeer Jeremiah "Sol" Campbell is an English footballer who is currently a free agent. A central defender, Campbell has played for Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United, as well as the English national team.Born in East London to Jamaican parents, Campbell's...
and Kanu
Nwankwo Kanu
Nwankwo Kanu, OON , or simply Kanu, is a Nigerian footballer who plays for Portsmouth. He was also a member of the Nigerian national team for 16 years from 1994 until 2010...
to the club and his heavy spending paid off as Portsmouth managed a top half finish for the first time since the 1950s, and at Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
on 17 May 2008 the long wait for glory ended as a Kanu goal gave Portsmouth victory over Cardiff City
Cardiff city
Cardiff City may refer to:* Cardiff city centre* Cardiff City Council* Cardiff City F.C.* Cardiff City L.F.C.* Cardiff City Stadium...
in the FA Cup final. "Second season syndrome" kicked in at Reading, whose two-year spell in the top flight ended with relegation on the final day of the season one year after almost qualifying for Europe.
West Bromwich Albion returned to the Premier League as Championship champions at the end of the 2007-08 season, but the big news in this division came with Stoke City's return to the top flight after 23 years away, and Hull City
Hull City A.F.C.
Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...
's promotion to the top flight for the very first time as they defeated a Bristol City side (without top division football since 1980) in the playoff final, just five years after they had been in the league's basement division and barely a decade since they had been bankrupt and on the verge of losing their Football League status. A fallen giant at this level was Leicester City, who fell into the third tier of English football for the very first time having started the decade as League Cup winners and UEFA Cup competitors.
In the first all-English European Cup final, Manchester United defeated Chelsea on penalties in Moscow after a 1-1 draw in open play.
Promisement in the lower reaches of the league during 2007-08 came from Milton Keynes Dons
Milton Keynes Dons F.C.
.Milton Keynes Dons Football Club is an English professional football club founded in 2004 and based since 2007 at Stadium mk, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire...
, who under the management of former England captain Paul Ince
Paul Ince
Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince is an English football manager and a former professional player. He has managed Blackburn Rovers, Milton Keynes Dons and Macclesfield Town...
sealed their first honours in the shape of the Football League Trophy
Football League Trophy
The Football League Trophy, currently known as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football knock-out competition open to the 48 clubs in Football League One and Football League Two, the bottom two divisions in the four fully professional top...
and League Two
Football League Two
Football League Two is the third-highest division of The Football League and fourth-highest division overall in the English football league system....
title - four years after their name had appeared on fixture lists following the controversial relocation of the old Wimbledon
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...
club from South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
to the new town of Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
some 70 miles away. Darren Ferguson
Darren Ferguson
Darren Ferguson is a Scottish football manager and former player, currently in his second spell as the manager of Peterborough United...
, son of Sir Alex Ferguson, was also heralded as a "manager of the future" after guiding Peterborough United
Peterborough United F.C.
Peterborough United Football Club are a professional English football club based in Peterborough. Peterborough United formed in 1934 and played in the old Midland League, which they won six times; eventually being admitted to the Football League in 1960, replacing Gateshead. Their home ground is...
to promotion, while Aldershot Town
Aldershot Town F.C.
Aldershot Town Football Club is an association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, founded in the spring of 1992 just after the closure of debt-ridden Fourth Division club Aldershot Football Club...
returned to the Football League under the management of Gary Waddock
Gary Waddock
Gary Patrick Waddock is a former professional and international footballer. He is currently manager at League One club Wycombe Wanderers. He formerly managed Queens Park Rangers and Aldershot Town...
, 16 years after the old Aldershot club
Aldershot F.C.
Aldershot Football Club was an English Football League club, which was wound up in the High Court in March 1992. They became the first Football League club since Accrington Stanley to resign from the League during the course of a season. The club was nicknamed the Shots for both the last syllable...
had been declared bankrupt and forced out of the league.
The 2008-09 season began with the two biggest transfer fees in English football - Manchester City's
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
£32.4million move for the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian winger Robinho
Robinho
Robson de Souza , more commonly known as Robinho, is a Brazilian professional footballer who currently plays as second striker and winger for Serie A club AC Milan...
and Manchester United's £30.75million capture of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n striker Dimitar Berbatov
Dimitar Berbatov
Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov is a Bulgarian footballer who plays as a forward for Manchester United. He captained the Bulgarian national team from 2006 to 2010, and is its all-time leading goalscorer and has also won the Bulgarian Footballer of the Year a record seven times, surpassing the number of...
from Tottenham Hotspur. The season had a familiar ending, as Manchester United sealed their third successive Premier League title by a four-point margin over a Liverpool side who came their closest yet to achieving the league title which has eluded them since 1990; ironically United's latest title win saw the match Liverpool's record of 18 English top division titles. Chelsea finished outside the top two for the first time since 2003 as they finished third but still managed to win the FA Cup. Arsenal sealed the last Champions League place with a fourth place finish. Everton's progress under David Moyes
David Moyes
David William Moyes is an association football manager and former player, currently managing English Premier League club Everton. He was the 2003, 2005 and 2009 League Managers Association Manager of the Year...
continued as they finished fifth in the league and reached their first cup final for 14 years, taking an early lead in the FA Cup final before losing 2-1 to Chelsea. In the Football League Cup, Manchester United sealed the trophy for the third time, but endured disappointment on the continental stage when losing the European Cup final to FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....
. Aston Villa, enjoying something of a revival under manager Martin O'Neill
Martin O'Neill
Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, OBE, is a Northern Irish football manager and former player.Until resigning the post on 9 August 2010, he was manager of Aston Villa. Starting his career in his native Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playing career with Nottingham...
after a decade of underachievement, qualified for the newly named UEFA Europa League along with Everton and a rejuvenated Fulham side who had narrowly avoided relegation the previous season.
Midland rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City returned to the Premier League and five years and one year away respectively. Burnley's playoff win saw them return to the top flight as well, after 33 years away, to join rejuventated Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
"old powers" Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers among the elite. Preston North End, another of the great old Lancashire clubs, were left looking at the Premier League door after their fourth playoff failure in nine seasons. Hopes of a Welsh presence in the Premier League were put on hold for at least another season at Cardiff City and Swansea City narrowly missed out on the playoffs.
In League One, Leicester City made a quick return to the second tier as champions, accompanied by Darren Ferguson's thriving Peterborough United and a Scunthorpe United side whose manager Nigel Adkins
Nigel Adkins
Nigel Howard Adkins is a former footballer and is the current manager of Championship Club Southampton.-Playing career:As a player, Adkins was goalkeeper for Tranmere Rovers, Wigan Athletic and Bangor City...
had rewarded the club's faith in him by regaining the second tier place that had been lost two years earlier.
Luton Town, a top flight club as recently as 1992, suffered a third successive relegation and fell out of the Football League due to a 30-point deduction for financial irregularities which rooted them to the bottom of League Two; without it they would have finished mid table and comfortably avoided a rare third successive relegation.
Manchester United became the receipts of the world's biggest transfer fee during the 2009 close season when they sold Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, OIH, , commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team...
, widely regarded as the best footballer in the world, to Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
of Spain for £80million.
Star players rising to prominence this era have included Wayne Rooney
Wayne Rooney
Wayne Mark Rooney is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team...
(Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
, Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
and England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
), Thierry Henry
Thierry Henry
Thierry Daniel Henry is a French professional footballer who plays for the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer.Henry was born in Les Ulis, Essonne where he played for an array of local sides as a youngster and showed great promise as a goal-scorer. He was spotted by AS Monaco in 1990 and...
(Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
and France), Frank Lampard
Frank Lampard
Frank James Lampard is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Chelsea and the England national team. He also holds the position of vice-captain for his club side...
(Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
and England), Steven Gerrard
Steven Gerrard
Steven George Gerrard MBE is an English footballer who plays for and captains Premier League club Liverpool. He also has 89 caps for the England national team. He has played much of his career in a centre midfielder role, but he has also been used as a second striker and right winger...
(Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
and England) and Joe Cole
Joe Cole
Joseph John "Joe" Cole is an English footballer who plays for Lille, on loan from Liverpool, and the England national football team as midfielder. He started his career with where he played more than 100 games during five years, until he left for Chelsea in 2003...
(West Ham United
West Ham United F.C.
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...
, Chelsea and England).
Michael Owen
Michael Owen
Michael James Owen is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Manchester United.The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997...
, Rio Ferdinand
Rio Ferdinand
Rio Gavin Ferdinand is an English footballer. He plays at centre back for Manchester United in the Premier League and for the England national football team...
, Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season...
, David Beckham
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
and Sol Campbell
Sol Campbell
Sulzeer Jeremiah "Sol" Campbell is an English footballer who is currently a free agent. A central defender, Campbell has played for Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United, as well as the English national team.Born in East London to Jamaican parents, Campbell's...
are some of the prominent players still active in the game during the first decade of the 21st century after rising to fame during the 1990s, though Beckham has not played in England since 2003.
Legendary players whose illustrious careers have come to an end during this decade include Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer OBE, DL is a retired English footballer. He played as a striker in the top level of English league football for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and for the England national team...
, Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Nicolaas Bergkamp , is a former Dutch professional footballer who is currently the assistant manager to Frank de Boer at Ajax. At club level he played for Ajax, Internazionale, and Arsenal, and also represented the Netherlands at international level...
, Denis Irwin
Denis Irwin
Denis Joseph Irwin is a former Irish football player who is best known for his long and successful stint at Manchester United, where he established himself as one of the most important players in the United team that won a host of domestic and European trophies in his time there between 1990 and...
, Paul Ince
Paul Ince
Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince is an English football manager and a former professional player. He has managed Blackburn Rovers, Milton Keynes Dons and Macclesfield Town...
and Roy Keane
Roy Keane
Roy Maurice Keane is an Irish former footballer and manager. In his 18-year playing career, he played for Cobh Ramblers in the League of Ireland, Nottingham Forest and Manchester United, before ending his career at Celtic in Scotland....
.
Successful managers of this era include Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
, Jose Mourinho
José Mourinho
José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho is a Portuguese football manager and the current manager of Real Madrid. He is commonly known as "The Special One".Mourinho is regarded by some players, coaches and critics as the best ever coach in football....
, Arsène Wenger
Arsène Wenger
Arsène Wenger, OBE is a French association football manager and former player, who has managed English Premier League side Arsenal since 1996...
, Gerard Houllier
Gérard Houllier
Gérard Houllier, OBE , is a French football manager, who was last manager of Premier League club Aston Villa. He stepped down on 1 June 2011, following hospitalisation over heart problems towards the end of the 2010-2011 season....
, and Rafael Benítez
Rafael Benítez
Rafael "Rafa" Benítez Maudes is a football manager, and former player. He is currently unemployed, after leaving as manager of Internazionale in December 2010....
.
See also
- Timeline of English footballTimeline of English football1840s – 1850s – 1860s – 1870s – 1880s – 1890s – 1900s – 1910s – 1920s – 1930s – 1940s – 1950s – 1960s – 1970s – 1980s – 1990s – 2000s-2000s:2008 – 2007 – 2006 – 2005 – 2004 – 2003 – 2002 – 2001 – 2000-2010:...
- History of the English football league systemHistory of the English football league systemThe National League System consists of a group of semi-professional football leagues in England, below the fully professional FA Premier League and The Football League...