Fulham

Fulham were formed in 1879 as Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School F.C., founded by worshippers (mostly adept at cricket) at the Church of England on Star Road, West Kensington (St Andrew's, Fulham Fields). Fulham's mother church still stands today with a plaque commemorating the team's foundation. They won the West London Amateur Cup in 1887 and, having shortened the name from Fulham St Andrews to its present form in December 1888, they then won the West London League in 1893 at the first attempt. One of the club's first ever kits was half red, half white shirts with white shorts worn in the 1886–87 season. Fulham started playing at their current ground at Craven Cottage in 1896, their first game against now defunct rivals Minerva.

The club gained professional status on 12 December 1898, the same year that they were admitted into the Southern League's Second Division. They were the third club from London to turn professional, following Arsenal, then named Royal Arsenal 1891, and Millwall in 1893. They adopted a red and white kit during the 1896–97 season. In 1902–03, the club won promotion from this division, entering the Southern League First Division. The club's first recorded all-white club kit came in 1903, and ever since then the club has been playing in all-white shirts and black shorts, with socks going through various evolutions of black and/or white, but are now normally white-only. The club won the Southern League twice, in 1905–06 and 1906–07.

Fulham joined The Football League after the second of their Southern League triumphs. The club's first league game, playing in the Second Division's 1907–08 season, saw them lose 1–0 at home to Hull City in September 1907. The first win came a few days later at Derby County's Baseball Ground by a score line of 1–0. Fulham finished the season three points short of promotion in fourth place. The club progressed all the way to the semi-final of that season's FA Cup, a run that included an 8–3 away win at Luton Town. In the semi-final, however, they were heavily beaten, 6–0, by Newcastle United. This is still a record loss for an FA Cup semi-final game. Two years later, the club won the London Challenge Cup in the 1909–10 season. Fulham's first season in Division Two turned out to be the highest that the club would finish for 21 years, until in 1927–28 when the club were relegated to the 3rd Division South, created in 1920. Hussein Hegazi, an Egyptian forward, was one of the first non-British players to appear in The Football League, though he only played one game for Fulham in 1911, marked with a goal, afterwards playing for non-league Dulwich Hamlet.

During this period, businessman and politician Henry Norris was the club chairman and curiously he had an indirect role in the foundation of Fulham's local rivals Chelsea. When he rejected an offer from businessman Gus Mears to move Fulham to land where the present-day Chelsea stadium Stamford Bridge is situated, Mears decided to create his own team to occupy the ground. In 1910, Norris started to combine his role at Fulham with the chairmanship of Arsenal. Fulham became the first British team to sell hot dogs at their ground in 1926. Fulham had several high-profile international players during the 1920s, including Len Oliver and Albert Barrett.

After finishing fifth, seventh and ninth (out of 22 teams) in their first three seasons in the Third Division South, Fulham won the division in the 1931–32 season. In doing so they beat Torquay United 10–2, won 24 out of 42 games and scored 111 goals, thus being promoted back to the Second Division. The next season they missed out on a second consecutive promotion, finishing third behind Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City. A mixed bag of league performances followed, although the club also reached another FA Cup semi-final during the 1935–36 season. Fulham were also to draw with Austria in 1936 before Anschluss. On 8 October 1938, Craven Cottage saw its all-time highest attendance at a match against Millwall, with a crowd of 49,335 watching the game.

League and cup football were severely disrupted by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, with the Football League split into regional divisions temporarily, with a national Football League War Cup and a London War Cup up for grabs. Craven Cottage was used like many grounds for fitness and training of the army youth reserves. Post-war, a full league programme was only restored for 1946–47. In the third season of what is now considered the modern era of football, Fulham finished top of the Second Division, with a win–loss–draw record of 24–9–9 (identical to that which won them the Third Division South 17 years previously). John Fox Watson made a pioneering transfer to Real Madrid in 1948, becoming one of the first players from the United Kingdom to sign for a high-profile side abroad.^[]

Promotion to the top tier of English football saw the club perform poorly, finishing 17th in their first year and 18th in their second. In only their third season of First Division football, Fulham finished rock bottom of the 22-team league in the 1951–52 season, winning only eight of 42 games. On 20 May 1951, Fulham played one of their first ever games in North America in an exhibition match against Celtic at Delorimier Stadium in Montreal in front of 29,000 spectators.

Possibly the single most influential character in Fulham's history is Johnny Haynes. "Mr. Fulham" or "The Maestro," as Haynes later came to be known, signed for The Cottagers as a schoolboy in 1950, making his first team debut on Boxing Day against Southampton at Craven Cottage in the 1951/52 relegation season. Haynes played for another 18 years, notching 657 appearances (along with many other club records too), his last appearance for Fulham coming on 17 January 1970. He is often considered as the greatest player in Fulham history, and never played for another team in Britain. He gained 56 caps for England (22 as captain), with many being earned while playing for Fulham in the Second Division. Haynes was injured in a car accident in Blackpool in 1962, but by his own admissions never regained the fitness or form to play for England again, missing out on England's victory in the 1966 FIFA World Cup for which he would have stood a chance of being selected. The Stevenage Road Stand was renamed in his honour after his death in a car crash in 2005.

Fulham reached the 1957–58 FA Cup semi-finals, the best cup run of Haynes' career and nearest he came to a major trophy win playing in England. They were eliminated in a replay by the remnants of Manchester United's Busby Babes team that had been decimated in the Munich air disaster the month before. United were the first top division team Fulham played in that cup run. Fulham won promotion back to the First Division in the following season by finishing second to Sheffield Wednesday. Also joining Fulham in 1958 was Graham Leggat, who went on to score 134 goals in 277 appearances, (making him the club's fifth all-time top scorer). In the 1959–60 season, they achieved tenth position in the First Division, which until finishing ninth in the 2003–04 season was their highest-ever league position. This accompanied another appearance in the last four of the FA Cup in 1962. By this time, the club were regularly playing in front of 30,000 plus crowds at Craven Cottage, despite struggling in the league.^[]

The club earned a reputation for constantly battling against relegation most seasons, with numerous narrow escapes; none more so than in 1965–66. On the morning of 26 February 1966, Fulham were bottom with just 15 points from 29 matches. The last 13 games saw Fulham win nine and draw two to reach safety. Eventually, however, the club suffered relegation in the 1967–68 season, having won just ten out of their 42 games. Even that, however, was not as catastrophic as the calamity of next season. Winning only seven in 42, the club were relegated to the Third Division.

The aforementioned Third Division hiatus lasted only two seasons before the club was promoted back to the Second Division as runners-up in 1970–71. This spell also saw Fulham invited to the Anglo-Italian Cup, which saw the club draw four out of four games in 1972–73 season. This preceded a period of high-profile signings for the club under Alec Stock in the mid-1970s, including Alan Mullery and Bobby Moore. Fulham reached their only FA Cup final to date in 1975, having won their first semi-final in five attempts. The club lost 2–0 to West Ham United in the final at Wembley Stadium. This gained the club qualification for another European tournament, the Anglo-Scottish Cup, where they reached the final, losing to Middlesbrough.

George Best played 47 times for the club in the 1976–77 season. Rodney Marsh, who having grown up with Fulham in the 1960s went on to play First Division football and play for England, rejoined the club in the same season, playing only 16 games. This capped one of the most successful eras in Fulham history.^[]

The club were relegated again after winning only 11 in 42 matches in the 1979–80 season, which eventually resulted in Bobby Campbell's dismissal in October 1980, to be replaced by Malcolm Macdonald. With a strong squad during his 1980–1984 period in charge (with players such as Ray Houghton, Tony Gale, Paul Parker, Gerry Peyton and Ray Lewington), they won promotion again in 1981–82 back to the Second Division, although the promotion was overshadowed by the suicide of former defender Dave Clement a few weeks before promotion was sealed.^[]

In 1980, Fulham founded the rugby league club that is now London Broncos designed to be an extra stream of income for the football club, but which made financial losses every year while linked to Fulham F.C. Then called "Fulham Rugby League," they played at Craven Cottage until moving away from the parent club in 1984.

In 1978, Fulham had signed Gordon "Ivor" Davies who, during two spells at Fulham, became the club's leading goalscorer of all time with a total of 178 goals in all competitions; the record still stands. Fulham narrowly missed out on back-to-back promotions to the First Division, losing 1–0 to Derby County away on the last day of the 1982–83 season – although the match was abandoned after 88 minutes due to a pitch invasion and inexplicably never replayed or finished. The side which had shown so much promise was quickly sold off as the club were in debt, so it was little surprise when the club were relegated again to the Third Division in 1986. The club nearly went out of business in 1987 via an ill-advised merger attempt with Queens Park Rangers. It was only the intervention of ex-player Jimmy Hill that allowed the club to stay in business by formation of a new company, Fulham FC (1987) Ltd. In 1987, the club took part in what was then the longest penalty deciders ever recorded – it needed 28 spot kicks to sort out a winner between them and Aldershot following a Football League Trophy match.^[]

In 1992, the foundation of the Premier League, and the resignation of 22 clubs from The Football League, restored Fulham to that league's Second Division. However, the club were relegated to the new Third Division after a poor 1993–94 season, following which Ian Branfoot was appointed as team manager.^[]

After an eighth-place finish in Branfoot's first season in charge, the club hit its lowest-ever final league position in the 1995–96 season, finishing 17th out of 24. Branfoot was dismissed as manager, but remained at the club in other capacities for a short while. In February 1996, Micky Adams became player-manager. Adams oversaw an upturn in form that lifted the side out of relegation danger. The next season, he engineered a second-place league finish, missing out on first place because several years previously the league had dropped the old "goal difference" system in favour of a "goals scored" tally, meaning Fulham finished behind Wigan Athletic. The club's chairman Jimmy Hill had argued in 1992 that goals scored should decide places of teams tied on points, and the Football League clubs had voted the system in.^[]

Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed bought the club for £6.25 million in the summer of 1997. The club was purchased via Bill Muddyman's Muddyman Group. Al-Fayed had Micky Adams replaced in the aftermath of a mid-table start to the season. He installed a two-tier management "dream team" of Ray Wilkins as First Team Manager and Kevin Keegan as chief operating officer, pledging that the club would reach the Premier League within five years. After an argument over team selection, Wilkins left the club in May 1998 to hand over the full managerial duties to Keegan. Keegan then helped steer the club to promotion the next season, winning 101 points out of a possible 138, after spending £1.1 million to sign Paul Peschisolido from West Bromwich Albion. Peschisolido was top scorer and captained by Chris Coleman – then the most expensive footballer outside the top two divisions of the English league.^[]

In 1999, Keegan left Fulham to become manager of England, and Paul Bracewell was put in charge. Bracewell was dismissed in March 2000, as Fulham's promising early season form dwindled away to a mid-table finish. Frenchman Jean Tigana was put in charge and, having signed a number of young stars (including French striker Louis Saha), he guided Fulham to their third promotion in five seasons in the 2000–01 season, giving Fulham top-flight status for the first time since 1968. Fulham once again amassed 101 points out of a possible 138 in their scintillating title run, which was crowned with an open-top bus parade down Fulham Palace Road. They are the only team to have twice reached 100 points in a season. During the season, Chris Coleman was involved in a car crash that put him out of action for well over a year and eventually ended his playing career after he failed to make a sufficient recovery. Fulham's run through the divisions saw a large turnover of players, with the only player to play for the club in all four leagues being Sean Davis.^[]

Fulham returned to the top division of English football, and competed in the Premier League for the first time. The club finished the 2001–02 season in 13th place. Fulham were the only team to host top-flight football with some standing areas in the 21st century, but due to restrictions on standing, this was not allowed to continue; clubs promoted from the second division had only three years to make their ground all-seater. Fulham were forced to groundshare with QPR at Loftus Road during the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons while Craven Cottage was rebuilt as an all-seated stadium. There were fears that Fulham would not return to the Cottage, after it was revealed that Al-Fayed had sold the first right to build on the ground to a property development firm.

In 2002–03, Fulham spent most of the season in the lower half of the table. Chairman Al-Fayed told manager Jean Tigana that his contract would not be renewed at the end of the season. However, with five games left to play and relegation still possible, Tigana was dismissed, and Chris Coleman was temporarily put in charge. Fulham won 10 points from a possible 15 and managed to avoid relegation. Coleman was appointed manager on a permanent basis in the summer of 2003; despite predictions that the inexperience of Coleman would result in Fulham's relegation, he kept the club well clear of relegation, guiding them to a club record ninth-place finish in his debut season. This might have been greater had the club not come under significant financial pressure to sell Louis Saha to Manchester United, for whom they received a club record £13 million.^[]

Fulham lost a legal case against former manager Tigana in 2004 after Al-Fayed wrongly alleged that Tigana had overpaid more than £7 million for new players and had negotiated transfers in secret.

Coleman notched up another satisfactory performance in the 2004–05 season and guided Fulham to a secure 13th-place finish. The following season Fulham improved by one place, finishing 12th – the high point of the season was a 1–0 win over local rivals and reigning champions Chelsea in the West London derby – Chelsea had only lost two games in two and a half years. The 2006–07 season proved to be Coleman's last, as on 10 April 2007, Fulham terminated his contract with immediate effect. His replacement was Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez. Fulham only gained four points from five games with Sanchez as caretaker manager. They ensured top-flight survival that season by defeating a weakened Liverpool side 1–0 in the penultimate match of the season, and Sanchez was appointed manager.^[]

Sanchez received strong financial backing from the board and made a number of signings during the summer break, but, after just two league wins in the first five months of the season and with Fulham in the relegation zone, he was dismissed on 21 December 2007 after a defeat to Newcastle United. Roy Hodgson was named as the new manager of Fulham on 28 December 2007 and took up his contractual duties on 30 December, just two days before the January transfer window opened.

Hodgson's tenure did not start well and it took a month to secure his first win, against Aston Villa, courtesy of a Jimmy Bullard free-kick. Fulham continued to struggle and a 3–1 home defeat in April at the hands of fellow strugglers Sunderland left Hodgson on the verge of tears in the post-match press conference and many pundits writing off Fulham's survival chances. Despite the negative press, Hodgson continued to believe survival was attainable. The turning point of the season came in the third-to-last match, against Manchester City. Fulham trailed 2–0 at half-time and had the Premier League scores at that time become results, they would have been relegated. However, the introduction of Diomansy Kamara heralded the start of a fantastic comeback—Kamara struck twice as Fulham registered an amazing 3–2 victory. Fulham then won a crucial match against fellow strugglers Birmingham City at Craven Cottage, leaving survival in the club's own hands. Barring a goal-rush from fellow strugglers Reading, a win against a Portsmouth side looking ahead to their fourth FA Cup final would guarantee survival.^[]

With 15 minutes to play at Portsmouth, Fulham were drawing, and with Birmingham City and Reading leading comfortably against Blackburn Rovers and Derby County respectively, they looked likely to be relegated. However, Fulham earned a free-kick with 76 minutes played; Jimmy Bullard's delivery found Danny Murphy, who headed home the decisive goal, sparking manic celebrations from the travelling fans. Hodgson had ensured survival against all odds, breaking several club records in the process and cementing his place in Fulham folklore. Fulham narrowly missed out on a UEFA Cup place via Fairplay by a dubious 0.8 of a point behind Manchester City, who lost 8–1 at Middlesbrough.

In the 2008–09 season, Fulham finished seventh, their highest-ever league placing, earning qualification for the inaugural UEFA Europa League, the second time that the club had entered a UEFA competition.

2009–10 was arguably the most successful season in the club's history. They were eliminated from the FA Cup in the quarter-finals for the second year running, and finished 12th in the Premier League, despite fielding weakened teams in the last few matches. In the inaugural Europa League season, however, Fulham reached the final, meeting Spanish club Atlético Madrid, who had dropped down from the Champions League, at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg. In their first European cup final, the Cottagers were beaten 2–1 after extra time, having drawn 1–1 after full-time. The achievement of taking Fulham so unexpectedly far, beating famous teams like Hamburger SV, Juventus, holders Shakhtar Donetsk and Basel in the competition, led to Roy Hodgson being voted the LMA Manager of the Year by the widest margin in the history of the award. The home match in the round of 16 was arguably Fulham's greatest result in the history of the club. Despite losing 3–1 in the first leg at Italian giants Juventus and falling behind minutes into the second leg at Craven Cottage, Fulham scored four goals with no reply from Juventus.^[]

At the end of the season, Hodgson left Fulham to manage Liverpool.

On 29 July 2010, Mark Hughes was named the successor to Hodgson, signing a two-year contract with the club. Hughes had previously managed Manchester City, the Welsh national team and Blackburn. Hughes' first match in charge was against Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium. The highlight of the season was a 4–0 win in the FA Cup over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, all goals coming in the first half. Hughes resigned as manager of Fulham on 2 June 2011, having spent fewer than 11 months at the club. The Whites had an encouraging finish in eighth position and qualified for the Europa League via Fairplay.^[]

On 7 June 2011, Martin Jol signed a two-year contract with Fulham, becoming successor to Hughes. Jol's first match was a 3–0 Europa League win against NSÍ Runavík of the Faroe Islands on 30 June. Fulham then navigated their way with some ease to the group stage in the Europa League through late summer. However, the Cottagers were knocked out with the last seconds of the group stage matches, Odense Boldklub equalising to make a draw, leaving Fulham in third place, with Polish side Wisła Kraków instead progressing to the next round.^[]

Fulham's Premier League form in the 2011–12 season was mixed, with the continuing away-record hangover of previous seasons dragging on. In October 2011, Fulham had an emphatic 6–0 home win over neighbours QPR, with Andrew Johnson scoring a hat-trick for Fulham in the match. The January 2012 transfer window saw Bobby Zamora move over the Hammersmith flyover to Loftus Road, with Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak coming in place from VfB Stuttgart.^[]

The New Year saw two further hat-tricks scored by Clint Dempsey. On 11 February 2012, Progrebnyak scored on his debut in the 2–1 win over Stoke City. In March 2012, a 5–0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers saw a hat-trick from Pogrebnyak. The Cottagers broke their historic drought on Merseyside with a 1–0 win over Liverpool at Anfield on May Day and another win against Sunderland in the last home game meant Fulham were only one point short of equalling their largest points haul in the Premier League, with just one game remaining. However, they failed to achieve this after losing their last game away at Tottenham.

In the 2012–13 season, Fulham ended a seven-match winless run by beating Swansea City 3–0 away at the Liberty Stadium on the final game of the season on 19 May 2013. Fulham finished the season in 12th place.

Shahid Khan took over as chairman in July 2013, but after a poor start to the 2013–14 season, having only amassed 10 points from 13 games, Martin Jol was dismissed as manager in December 2013, with René Meulensteen taking charge as head coach. Meulensteen was replaced by Felix Magath after just 17 games in charge following no upturn in form, but fortunes did not improve, and Fulham were eventually relegated to the Championship after a 4–1 defeat away to Stoke on 3 May.

Fulham broke the Championship transfer record that summer in a restructuring of the squad by Magath, but after a disastrous start to the new season, amassing just one point in seven games, Magath was dismissed in September 2014, with Kit Symons appointed as caretaker manager. Fulham eventually finished the season in 17th place. The team suffered an inconsistent start to the following season and after a 5–2 loss at home to Birmingham City, and lying in 12th place, Kit Symons was dismissed as manager in November 2015. It paved the way for Serbian Slaviša Jokanović to be appointed on 27 December 2015. Fulham's fortunes did not improve greatly following Jokanović's appointment, but the team finished the 2015–16 Championship season in 20th place, avoiding relegation by 11 points.^[]

The 2016–17 season saw huge improvements in both results and performances. Despite an inconsistent start, the team saw a significant improvement from October onwards which saw them secure a 6th-place finish. They entered the play-offs, but lost to Reading 2–1 on aggregate in the semi-final. During this time, club owner Shahid Khan's son Tony Khan was named as Vice Chairman and Director of Football Operations, and he also holds the roles of General Manager and Sporting Director. Despite a slow start to the following season, the club went on a club-record 23 game unbeaten run in the league which led to a 3rd-place finish, narrowly missing out automatic promotion. The team went on to win the EFL Championship play-off final against Aston Villa to return to the Premier League on 26 May 2018.

During the season, the club signed Aleksandar Mitrović, initially on loan until the end of the season. Mitrović would go on to score more than 100 goals for the club, becoming the eighth player in Fulham's history to do so.

Following a poor start to life back in the Premier League, Jokanović was dismissed in November 2018 and replaced with former Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri. Results ultimately did not improve under Ranieri, as well as him alienating several key players, and he left the club in February 2019. He was replaced by Scott Parker as caretaker manager who could not save the club from relegation on 3 April 2019. Parker was appointed as manager on a permanent basis on 10 May 2019. In a season that was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Parker led the club straight back to the Premier League on 4 August 2020, defeating London rivals Brentford 2–1 in the play-off final after a fourth-place finish. However, the club would once again be relegated after just a single season back in the top flight after a 2–0 defeat to Burnley on 10 May 2021.

In the aftermath of relegation, Parker left the club by mutual consent and was replaced by former Everton manager Marco Silva. After relegation, Fulham under Silva earned promotion back to the top tier with four games to go, winning the 2021–22 Championship title. Fulham started the 2022–23 Premier League season much better than prior years. At the halfway point, Fulham sat in 6th place, had tallied a 2–1 win over West London rivals Chelsea, whom they had not defeated in nearly 16 years, and collected a string of four consecutive top-flight victories for the first time since April 1966.