Fulham F.C.

This article is about the men's football club. For the women's team, see Fulham F.C. Women.

Fulham
Fulham's crest since 2000
Full nameFulham Football Club
Nickname(s)The Cottagers
Founded1879; 145 years ago (1879) (as St Andrews Cricket & Football Club)[1]
GroundCraven Cottage
Capacity29,589[2]
OwnerShahid Khan[3]
ChairmanShahid Khan[3]
ManagerMarco Silva
LeaguePremier League
2023–24Premier League, 13th of 20
Websitefulhamfc.com
Current season

Fulham Football Club is a professional football club based in Fulham, West London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. They have played home games at Craven Cottage since 1896, other than a two-year period spent at Loftus Road whilst Craven Cottage underwent redevelopments that were completed in 2004. They contest West London derby rivalries with Brentford, Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers. The club adopted a white shirt and black shorts as its kit in 1903, which has been used ever since.[4]

Founded in 1879, they are London's oldest professional football club.[5] They joined the Southern League in 1898 and won two First Division titles (1905–06 and 1906–07), as well as two Second Division titles and a Western League title. Elected into the Second Division of the Football League in 1907, Fulham would win the Third Division South in 1931–32, four years after being relegated. They won the Second Division title in 1948–49, though were relegated after three seasons. Promoted back to the First Division again in 1958–59, the form of star player Johnny Haynes helped Fulham to remain in the top-flight until consecutive relegations occurred by 1969. They were promoted in 1970–71 and went on to reach the final of the 1974–75 FA Cup.

Fulham drifted between the second and fourth tiers until being taken over by Mohamed Al-Fayed in 1997. They went on to win two divisional titles in three seasons to reach the Premier League by 2001. They won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2002 and were beaten in the 2010 final of the UEFA Europa League. However, thirteen consecutive seasons in the top-flight culminated in relegation in 2014. Since that time, the club have moved between the first and second tiers under new owner Shahid Khan. Fulham had changed divisions in five successive seasons between 2017–18 to 2021–22, being relegated after winning the 2018 and 2020 EFL Championship play-off finals. They then won the 2021–22 EFL Championship title, finally settling in the Premier League, where they have played since 2022.

  1. ^ "History". Fulham F.C. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  2. ^ "Premier League Handbook 2022/23" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Welcome To Shahid Khan". Fulham F.C. 12 July 2013. Archived from the original on 14 July 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  4. ^ "Fulham – Historical Football Kits". Historicalkits.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  5. ^ 1879 according to the club history Archived 13 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine on the official website and 1886/7 "St Andrews-Fulham Fields". Archived from the original on 18 October 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009. according to 'How a church's cricket and football club became Fulham Football Club' – Morgan Phillips 2007.