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| Full name | Swindon Town Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Robins | ||
| Founded | 1879[1] | ||
| Ground | The County Ground | ||
| Capacity | 15,728 | ||
| Owner | Clem Morfuni, Hollie Kiely & Bethany Parlodorio[2] | ||
| Chairman | Clem Morfuni | ||
| Manager | Ian Holloway | ||
| League | EFL League Two | ||
| 2023–24 | EFL League Two, 19th of 24 | ||
| Website | http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/ | ||
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Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system.
Founded as Swindon AFC in 1879, the club became Spartans the next year, before finally settling on the name Swindon Town in 1883. It became professional in 1894 as a founding member of the Southern League, later also entering the Western League between 1897 and 1902. The club was crowned Western League champion in 1898–99 and Southern League champion in 1910–11 and 1913–14, before being elected into the Football League in 1920. It remained in the third tier for 43 years until finally securing promotion into the Second Division in 1962–63, where it remained for just two seasons. The team lifted the League Cup after beating Arsenal 3–1 in the 1969 final, and went on to secure promotion at the end of the 1968–69 season with the help of talismanic winger Don Rogers. Relegated again in 1973–74, the club dropped into the fourth tier for the first time at the end of the 1981–82 season.
Swindon won the Fourth Division title in 1985–86 and secured a second successive promotion the following season under the stewardship of Lou Macari. They went on to claim victory in the 1990 Second Division play-off final under Osvaldo Ardiles, but were denied promotion into the top-flight after admitting to breaching Football League regulations. Glenn Hoddle coached the team to victory in the 1993 play-off final to finally secure a place in the top-flight for the first time in the club's history. However they were relegated out of the Premier League at the end of the 1993–94 season and dropped into the third tier with a second consecutive relegation. Promoted again as champions to avoid an FA expulsion and a hat-trick of relegations in 1995–96, they remained in the second tier for four seasons until relegation in the 1999–2000 season. They dropped into the fourth tier League Two in the 2005–06 for the first time since 1986. Since then, Swindon have spent their time between the third and fourth tiers; earning promotion from League Two on three occasions.
Their home colours are red and white. Since 1896 the club has played home matches at the County Ground, which now has a capacity of 15,547. Hall of Fame inductee John Trollope played 770 league games for the club between 1960 and 1980, a professional record in English football until it was broken in 2023 by Dean Lewington.
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