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| Full name | Tranmere Rovers Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Rovers, Super White Army | ||
| Short name | Rovers | ||
| Founded | 1884 as Belmont FC | ||
| Ground | Prenton Park | ||
| Capacity | 16,567[1] | ||
| Owner | Mark & Nicola Palios | ||
| Chairman | Mark Palios | ||
| Manager | Nigel Adkins | ||
| League | EFL League Two | ||
| 2023–24 | EFL League Two, 16th of 24 | ||
| Website | Club website | ||
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Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system.
Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adopted their current name in 1885. Tranmere's regular kit is an all-white strip with blue, or occasionally blue and green trim which have been their main colours since 1962. The club moved to its current home, Prenton Park, in 1912. In 1995, the ground had a major redevelopment in response to the Taylor Report. It now seats 16,567 in four stands: the Main Stand, the Kop, the Johnny King Stand and the Cowshed.
Tranmere played in regional leagues until they were invited to become a founder member of Football League Third Division North in 1921. They finished as champions for the 1937–38 season, though were relegated out of the Second Division the following year. They dropped into the Fourth Division in 1961, before winning promotion back to the third tier at the end of the 1966–67 season. Relegation in 1975 was followed by an immediate promotion in 1975–76 under the stewardship of manager John King, and this time they survived for just three seasons in the third tier until being relegated once again in 1979. During the 1980s, they were beset by financial problems and, in 1987, went into administration. However John King returned to manage the club for a second spell and guided Rovers to promotion in 1988–89, which they followed up by winning the Associate Members' Cup in 1990 and then promotion out of the play-offs in 1991.
The 1990s would prove to be the most successful period in the club's history as Tranmere remained in the second tier, and came close to reaching the Premier League with three consecutive play-off campaigns at the start of the decade. Under King's successor, John Aldridge, Tranmere experienced a number of cup runs, most notably reaching the 2000 League Cup final. They were finally relegated in 2001 and then spent 13 seasons in the third tier, before back-to-back relegations saw them drop out of the Football League after an 94-year stay. Tranmere spent three seasons in the National League and then returned to the third tier of the Football League via successive play-off campaigns in 2018 and 2019. They were relegated from League One in 2020 after clubs voted to end the season early due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- ^ "A Guide to Prenton Park". Tranmere Rovers. 10 July 2012. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2017.