Fulham FC

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Template:Football club infobox Fulham Football Club (FFC) is a football team based in Fulham, London. Founded in 1879, they celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004, and they are playing in the top tier of English football, the FA Premiership. Fulham FC are in fact the oldest professional football club from the London area, a record that might surprise a few fans of some of the bigger clubs in the City.

They spent much time in the Old First Division (Premiership) through the 60s, but are yet to gain any major honors, their only FA Cup final appearance being in 1975. They are currently playing at Craven Cottage, a beautiful riverside ground in Fulham, having spent two years at Loftus Road, with a still uncertain future. See more on this topic in the Grounds subsection of this article. They are currently looking for no more than a respectable finish in their 20-team league, although they have avoided relegation for the 2005-2006 season. Fulham also has a ladies team, Fulham L.F.C.. Both the men's and women's team train at the club's ground near Motspur Park - where the Academy is situated.

Contents

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History

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Foundation & The Amateur Years

Fulham Football Club started its existence as Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School FC in 1879. They won the West London Amateur Cup in 1887 and, having changed the name to 'Fulham' in 1888, the West London League in 1893 at the first attempt. They gained professional status on December 12 1898.

They played in colors more akin to Arsenal in this era.

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Pre-1945

After turning professional, it was a number of years before Fulham gained admission to the professional league, which they did by winning the Southern League Championship in the 1906/07 season. Fulham's first ever match as a league side saw them losing 1-0 at home to Hull City in September 1907. The first win came four days later against Derby County, and when they eventually found their feet in the division they impressed, ending up only three points short of promotion.

They didn't come any closer to the First Division for a while, finishing consistently in the mediocracy up until the outbreak of World War II. They won one minor cup, in 1910, the London Challenge Cup,

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Post-1945

Post-war, Fulham were promoted to the First Division in 1959, and had crowds regularly exceeding 30,000. They never pushed higher than mid-table though, and were eventually relegated in 1968. They later saw stars like Bobby Moore and George Best play for the club, and reached the FA Cup Final in 1975, losing to West Ham United. In the build up to this, Tony Rees and The Cottagers released a single, "Viva el Fulham" which is still played and sometimes chanted at Fulham games. Despite a Malcolm Macdonald team in the 1980s which looked to be the start of a new revolution, Fulham hit the football league basement in 1994, in being relegated to the Third Division.

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Recent history

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Life in the basement division

After the side's relegation, Ian Branfoot was installed as manager. His first season in charge yielded a seventh place finish, which would have given them a place in the play-offs if not for a restructuring of the league. Branfoot's second season was a disaster, with the side languishing near the foot of the table and only seeming safe due to Torquay United being hopelessly adrift at bottom position. The situation came to a head when Fulham played Torquay at their Plainmoor ground and lost, meaning that they had only won two from their previous twenty league games. Fulham followed the match with three draws which hardly improved the situation, and Branfoot was fired two weeks after the Torquay match (though retained in other capacities for a while afterwards)

Micky Adams was appointed as manager and oversaw an upturn in form that lifted the side out of what little relegation danger was present. The next season he engineered a complete turnaround in form and his side, captained by Simon Morgan finished second, only missing out on first due to the league dropping the old "goal difference" system in favor of a "goals scored" tally. While Fulham's goal difference was one better than that of champions Wigan Athletic, they scored twelve less goals. This was subtly ironic, as the club's then Chairman Jimmy Hill, had successfully argued that goals scored should decide places of teams tied on points while sitting on an FA panel.

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Al Fayed's Arrival

Millionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed purchased the club that summer and fired Adams in the aftermath of a poor start. In Adams' place he installed a managerial 'dream team' of Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan, pledging that the club would reach the Premiership with five years.

After an argument over team selection, Wilkins left the club in May 1998 to hand over the full managerial duties to Keegan, who steered the club to a spectacular promotion the next season, winning 101 points of a possible 138, captained by now manager Chris Coleman. He then left to become manager of the English national football team, and veteran player Paul Bracewell was put in charge.

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Rise to the Premiership

Bracewell sacked in March 2000 as Fulham's promising early season form dwindled away, and Jean Tigana was put in charge, and having signed a number of young stars, including Louis Saha, he guided Fulham to their third promotion in five seasons, again in emphatic style, giving Fulham top flight status for the first time since 1968. During this season club captain and subsequent manager, Chris Coleman, was involved in a car crash which eventually finished his career.

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Life in the Premiership

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2001-02: A disappointing debut

Fulham were widely tipped to take the Premiership by storm, with many pundits predicting a challenge for the UEFA cup or even Champions League places. The expected challenge never materialised and a 13th place finish was much lower than had been hoped for.

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2002-03: More disappointment

The following season saw Fulham dangerously close to the relegation zone, and Tigana announced that he would leave his job at the end of the season. He left slightly sooner than that, with Chris Coleman taking charge for five games at the end of the season.

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2003-04: A high finish

Coleman was given the manager's job on a permanent basis in the summer of 2003 and kept the club well clear of relegation, guiding them to a club record ninth place finish. Had it not been for the mid-season sale of Louis Saha to Manchester United, then Fulham could very well have qualified for Europe.

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2004-05: Another solid finish

Coleman continued to defy the odds in 2004-05 and guided Fulham to a secure 13th place finish, which surprised many pundits who predicted that Coleman's relative inexperience would cost Fulham their Premiership status.

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The current set-up

Chris Coleman's assistant manager is Steve Kean. The pair are helped in their roles by three coaches including ex-manager Ray Lewington, Scottish legend Billy McKinlay. The third is goalkeeping coach Dave Beasant. The first team physio is Australian Jason Palmer and the Fulham Academy is headed by John Murtough.

Craig Brown was appointed by the club in summer 2005 as their "International Representative".

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Rivalries

Chelsea FC are a Premiership football team based in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, in terms of distance this is a clear rivalry between the two clubs. But the two clubs have spent most of the last 40 years in different divisions and Chelsea don't see Fulham as rivals so to speak. Fulham have rivalries with other West London Clubs QPR (also based in Fulham), and Brentford FC. However once again these clubs are in separate divisions, and will remain so for the time being providing Fulham escape relegation to the English Championship.

Fulham also have rivalries with other London Clubs including West Ham United FC, Crystal Palace FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC, Charlton Athletic FC, Arsenal FC and other London Clubs.

On 19 March 2006 Fulham FC recorded their first victory over Chelsea FC in nearly 27 years, after skipper Luis Boa Morte latched onto a deflected Steed Malbranque shot, and subsequently scored. In a very heated and controversial game, Didier Drogba had a goal disallowed for handball, despite the assistant referee's view bieng possibly obscured, (however, the decision was undoubtably correct) and William Gallas was sent off for a potentially leg breaking challenge on Heidar Helguson which led to a melee between the 2 sets of players. Gallas as he walked off the pitch made "thumbs down" gestures to the Johnny Haynes Stand as they chanted "Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheerio" at him. The gestures provoked a "Who are ya!" chant, and Gallas is now subject to punishment by the English FA due to his actions. The final whistle blew, however a pitch invasion by Fulham fans didn't help matters. This led to crowd trouble after the game as Chelsea fans entered the pitch. It is thought this may well re-ignite the West London Derby between the two clubs for the future.

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Managers

Fulham have had 30 full-time managers in their history. All but one have been British, the exception being Frenchman Jean Tigana. The dates given here are for their stretches as club manager, numerous people have played at the club (e.g. Bracewell) or been employed by the club before or after actually being first-team manager (e.g. Keegan).

Name From To
Harry Bradshaw 1904 1909
Phil Kelso 1909 1924
Andy Ducat 1924 1926
Joe Bradshaw 1926 1929
Ned Liddell 1929 1931
James McIntyre 1931 1934
Jimmy Hogan 1934 1935
Jack Peart 1935 1948
Frank Osborne 1948 1949
Bill Dodgin, Sr. 1949 1953
Frank Osborne 1953 1956
Dugald Livingstone 1956 1958
Bedford Jezzard 1958 1964
Vic Buckingham 1965 1968
Bobby Robson 1968 1968
Bill Dodgin, Jr. 1969 1972
Alec Stock 1972 1976
Bobby Campbell 1976 1980
Malcolm MacDonald 1980 1984
Ray Harford 1984 1986
Ray Lewington 1986 1990
Alan Dicks 1990 1991
Don Mackay 1991 1994
Ian Branfoot* 1994 1996
Micky Adams 1996 1997
Ray Wilkins 1997 1998
Kevin Keegan** 1998 1999
Paul Bracewell*** 1999 2000
Jean Tigana 2000 2003
Chris Coleman 2003
  • *Ian Branfoot continued to be employed by the club after his dismissal as manager.
  • **Kevin Keegan was employed by the club as Chief Operating Officer during his predecessor's reign.
  • ***When Paul Bracewell was fired half way through the 1999-2000 season, there was a temporary period of Fulham being managed by their striker Karlheinz Riedle and his old boss at Liverpool Roy Evans. Riedle actually injured a lung in the season's penultimate game - his last for the club.
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Grounds

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Honours

Fulham Football Club have never won a major trophy, however, they have a reasonably long list of achievements. In the list below, all trophies and leagues are referred to by the names they held at the time, which due to commercial and practical reasons have changed over time. For more information see articles in individual leagues from here.

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Club Records and Statistics

Image:Fulham.gif

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All Time Results Record

Correct for the start of the 2004-05 Season

Played :3434
Won:1289
Drawn:853
Lost:1292
Scored:5085
Conceded:4956
Points (3pts/win):4720
  • Won = 37.5% (Roughly equal to winning 3 in every 8 games)
  • Drawn = 24.8% (2 in 8)
  • Lost = 37.6% (3 in 8)
  • Goals scored per Game = 1.48
  • Goals conceded per Game = 1.45
  • Points per Game = 1.44
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Performance in the top division

Fulham have spent 15 seasons in the national top flight, finishing in these positions:

  • 9th - Once (2004)
  • 10th - Once
  • 13th - Twice
  • 14th - Once
  • 15th - Once
  • 16th - Once
  • 17th - Twice
  • 18th - Twice
  • 20th - Three Times
  • 22nd - Twice
Correct for Start of 2005-2006 season.
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Appearances

There are five Fulham players who have been in the club's starting line-up more than 450 times, all of whom have since retired from football.

Johnny Haynes :657
Eddie Lowe :511
Les Barrett :487 + 4 as substitute
Frank Penn :460
George Cohen :459
Correct for start of 2005-2006 season.
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Current Players

The three most often-starting players still at the club as of January 2006 are:

Luis Boa Morte :220
Steed Malbranque :196
Sylvain Legwinski :163
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Goalscorers

There are seven men to have scored more than one hundred goals for the club, all of whom have since retired from football:

Gordon Davies :178
Johnny Haynes :157
Bedford Jezzard :154
Jim Hammond :150
Graham Leggatt :134
Arthur Stevens :124
Steve Earle :108
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Current players

The four most prolific scorers still at the club as of January 2006 are:

Luis Boa Morte :||51

Steed Malbranque :||41

Brian McBride :||23

Collins JOHN :||15

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Current squad

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Players out on loan

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External links

Template:BBC Football Info


Template:FA Premier League teamlist
FA Premier League seasons

1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99
1999-00 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 edit

Football in England (Women's)
League competitions The FA Cup competitions
FA Premier League England (men) FA Cup (Women's)
The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) (women) League Cup
Football Conference (Nat, N, S) List of clubs FA Community Shield
Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) List of venues Football League Trophy
Southern League (Prem, 1W, 1E) (by capacity) FA Trophy
Isthmian League (Prem, 1, 2) List of leagues FA Vase
English football league system Records FA NLS Cup
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