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| Full name | Watford Football Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) |
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| Founded | 1881 | |||
| Ground | Vicarage Road | |||
| Capacity | 22,200[1] | |||
| Owner | Gino Pozzo | |||
| Chairman | Scott Duxbury[2] | |||
| Head coach | Tom Cleverley | |||
| League | EFL Championship | |||
| 2023–24 | EFL Championship, 15th of 24 | |||
| Website | watfordfc.com | |||
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Watford Football Club is a professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. The club competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football.
The team played at several grounds in their early history, including what is now West Herts Sports Club,[3] before moving to Vicarage Road in 1922. They have a long-standing rivalry with nearby club Luton Town.
Graham Taylor's tenure as manager at the club between 1977 and 1987 saw Watford rise from the fourth tier to the first. The team finished second in the First Division in 1982–83, competed in the UEFA Cup in 1983–84, and reached the 1984 FA Cup final. Watford declined between 1987 and 1997, before Taylor returned as manager, leading the team to successive promotions from the renamed Second Division[a] to the Premier League for one season in 1999–2000. The club played again in the highest tier in 2006–07 under Aidy Boothroyd's management, and then again from 2015 to 2020, reaching the 2019 FA Cup final, their second FA Cup final, but losing to a record-equalling 6–0 score line. In April 2021, Watford were promoted back into the Premier League having spent just one season in the Championship, but were relegated back to the Championship in May 2022.
- ^ "Premier League Handbook 2019/20" (PDF). Premier League. p. 38. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ "Club Statement" Archived 20 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine. watfordfc.com. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ^ "History - Club History". www.watfordfc.com. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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