Queens Park Rangers F.C.

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Template:Football club infobox Queens Park Rangers Football Club is an English football team, from Shepherd's Bush, London. The team currently plays in the Football League Championship, having finished as runners-up in the Second Division at the close of the 2003-2004 season.

The team is also referred to as "QPR" (or often just "Rangers") and nicknamed the Hoops (or the Superhoops), due to the team's kit of blue and white hooped shirts, or the Rs. Their home stadium is Loftus Road, which has a capacity of 19,148.

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History

QPR the best teem in the world was formed in 1886, when a team known as St Jude's (formed 1882) merged with Christchurch Rangers. The resulting team was called Queen's Park Rangers, because most of the players came from the Queens Park area of London. QPR became a professional team in 1889 and played their home games in 14 different stadiums, a league record, before permanently settling in Loftus Road in 1933-34 (although the team briefly played at White City during the 1962-63 season in the hope of attracting larger crowds).

In 1966-67, QPR won the Division Three championship and became the first Third Division club to win the League Cup, beating West Bromwich Albion 3-2, (coming back from a two goal deficit). This is the only time QPR have won a cup competition. The final was also the first league cup final to be held at Wembley Stadium.

In 1975-76 Dave Sexton led them to the runners-up spot in the First Division, missing out on the Championship by 1 point. After completing their 42 game season QPR sat at the top of the league 1 point ahead of Liverpool. Liverpool had to win their final game of the season, at Wolverhampton Wanderers to clinch the title. Despite Wolves taking the lead and holding it until the 77th minute, Liverpool scored 3 times to win 3-1 and win the League Championship. The squad contained 5 England internationals and internationals from the home nations and Morocco. QPR were unable to recreate their wonderful league form in 1976-77 but the cup competitions saw some success. The side reached the semi-finals of the league cup but lost in a replay to Aston Villa and in their first entry into European football reached the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup losing to AEK Athens on penalties. In 1977 Sexton moved to Manchester United and two years later QPR slipped into the Second Division.

The 1980-81 season saw Terry Venables take over as manager and in the following year QPR reached the FA Cup final for the only time in the club's history, facing defending holders and London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. The first game ended 1-1 after extra time and so for the second year running the Final was to be decided in a replay. Tottenham won the replay 1-0 with the only goal coming from a Glen Hoddle penalty in the 10th minute.

In 1981, the club installed a 'plastic pitch'. The technology was immature and this unpopular measure was reversed in April 1988. The first game on plastic was against Luton Town who won and later became the second side to install an artificial pitch.

The following season, 1982-83 QPR went on to win the Second Division championship in the following season, thus returning to English football's top division. After a respectable fifth place finish, and UEFA Cup qualification, the following year, Venables departed to become manager of Barcelona in Spain.

Over the next seven years, various managers came and went from Loftus Road, including Don Howe, Frank Sibley and Trevor Francis. The club spent many seasons finishing mid table but avoided relegation. The most successful season during this period was the 1987-88 in which QPR finished 5th. They were also runners up in the 1986 League Cup losing to Oxford United.

Gerry Francis, a key player in the 1970s QPR side who had proved himself as a successful manager with Bristol Rovers, was appointed QPR manager in the summer of 1991. In the 1991-92 First Division campaign they finished mid-table in the league and were founder members of the new Premier League which began in 1992-93. They finished that season in fifth place, and in the following season Francis guided QPR to a ninth place finish. Midway through the 1994-95 season Gerry Francis departed Loftus Road to become manager of Tottenham Hotspur and Ray Wilkins was installed as player/manager. Wilkins guided QPR to an eighth place finish in the Premiership. In July 1995 the club's top goalscorer, Les Ferdinand was sold for a club record sale of £6 million to Newcastle United. The inability to successfully replace Ferdinand saw QPR finish 19th in a Premier league recently reduced from 22 teams to a 20 team.

Ray Wilkins was sacked after 3 games into season 1996-97 and was replaced by former Arsenal coach Stewart Houston. He lasted a little over 18 months before being sacked and his successor, Ray Harford, kept QPR clear of relegation but was dismissed after less than a year in charge following the club's bad start to the 1998-99 season. Gerry Francis, whose promising reign as Tottenham Hotspur manager had ended in disappointment, returned to the Loftus Road hot seat and in 1999-2000 guided QPR to a reasonable tenth place finish. At that point, however, financial problems set in and took their toll on the playing side. Francis was sacked in February 2001 with QPR struggling near the foot of Division One. Ian Holloway, a former QPR midfielder, returned to Loftus Road as manager but was unable to save the club from relegation to Division Two. For the first time in more than 30 years QPR found themselves in the 3rd tier of English football.

QPR spent the 2001-02 season in financial administration which meant a ban from the transfer market, but Holloway consolidated the playing side and the club finished eighth in Division Two, just missing out on the playoffs. In 2002-03, QPR qualified for the playoffs lost 1-0 to Cardiff City in extra time in the final game.

2003-04 was QPR's first successful season for many years. They won promotion as Division Two runners-up and are currently members of the Coca-Cola Football League Championship. The 2004-2005 season saw them finish 11th in the Championship.

On Monday 6th February 2006 Ian Holloway was suspended as Queens Park Rangers manager. The ostensible reason given by the board was that the continual rumours linking Holloway to the vacant manager's job at Leicester City were causing disruption to the playing staff. He was replaced by Gary Waddock as caretaker manager (with former club captain Alan McDonald as his assistant).

In recent years QPR have been dogged with reports of potential administration, and are rumoured to be somewhere in the region of £18 million in debt.

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Honours

  • Division Three South Champions 1947-48.
  • Division Three Champions 1966-67.
  • League Cup Winners 1966-67 v west brom
  • League cup Runners-up 1985-86
  • Division Two Runners-up 1967-68, 1972-73.
  • Division Two Champions 1982-83.
  • Division One Runners-up 1975-76.
  • FA Cup finalists 1982
  • Nationwide Division Two Runners-up 2003-04.
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Famous players

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Famous fans


Source: QPR Mad
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Current Squad

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Supporter's clubs

QPR has an extensive network of loyal supporters associations. The primary LSA can be contacted through the QPR-LSA website. QPR-LSA groups exist throughout the UK, and in numerous countries including USA, New Zealand, Serbia, and many others. The team is occasionally mistaken for Queen's Park Football Club of the Scottish Third Division.

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External links

Template:Football League Championship teamlist
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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