Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club are an English professional club based in , . Founded in 1905, the club competes in the , the top division of . Chelsea are among , having won over thirty competitive honours, including six league titles and six European trophies. Their home ground is .[4]

Chelsea won their first major honour, the , in for the first time in 1970 and their first European honour, the , in 1971. After a period of decline in the late 1970s and 1980s, the club enjoyed a revival in the 1990s and had more success in cup competitions. The past two decades have been the most successful in Chelsea's history: they won five of its six league titles and the during this period. to have won all three of UEFA's main club competitions, and the only London club to have won the Champions League.

Chelsea's home kit colours are royal blue shirts and shorts with white socks. The club's crest features a ceremonial lion rampant regardant holding a staff. and , and a historic rivalry with . Based on attendance figures, the club has the sixth-largest fanbase in England., worth £2.13 billion ($2.576 billion), and are the football club in the world, with earnings of over €428 million in the 2017–18 season. Since 2003, Chelsea have been owned by Russian billionaire .[10]

In 1904, acquired the athletics stadium with the aim of turning it into a football ground. An offer to lease it to nearby was turned down, so Mears opted to found his own club to use the stadium. As there was already a team named Fulham in the borough, the name of the adjacent borough of was chosen for the new club; names like Kensington FC, Stamford Bridge FC and London FC were also considered., and were elected to the Football League shortly afterwards.

Chelsea won promotion to the First Division in their second season, and yo-yoed between the First and Second Divisions in their early years. They reached the , where they lost to at Old Trafford, and finished third in the First Division in 1920, the club's best league campaign to that point. and attracted large crowds. The club had the highest average attendance in English football in ten separate seasons,,,,.[21]
and 1932 and remained in the First Division throughout the 1930s, but success eluded the club in the inter-war years.

Former and England centre-forward was appointed manager in 1952 and proceeded to modernise the club. He removed the club's crest, improved the youth set-up and training regime, rebuilt the side with shrewd signings from the lower divisions and amateur leagues, and led Chelsea to their first major trophy success – the League championship – in , but after objections from and the , Chelsea were persuaded to withdraw from the competition before it started..

Docherty built a new team around the group of talented young players emerging from the club's youth set-up and Chelsea challenged for honours throughout the 1960s, enduring several near-misses. They were on course for a treble of League, FA Cup and League Cup going into the final stages of the 1964–65 season, winning the League Cup but faltering late on in the other two., Chelsea won the , beating 2–1 in a final replay. The following year, Chelsea took their first European honour, a triumph, with another replayed win, this time over in Athens.

The late 1970s through to the '80s was a turbulent period for Chelsea. An ambitious redevelopment of Stamford Bridge threatened the financial stability of the club, element among the support, which was to plague the club throughout the decade. for the nominal sum of £1, although by now the Stamford Bridge freehold had been sold to property developers, meaning the club faced losing their home. for the first time, but in 1983 manager put together an impressive new team for minimal outlay. Chelsea won the title in 1983–84 and established themselves in the top division with two top-six finishes, before being relegated again in 1988. The club bounced back immediately by winning the Second Division championship in 1988–89.

After a long-running legal battle, Bates reunited the stadium freehold with the club in 1992 by doing a deal with the banks of the property developers, who had been bankrupted by a market crash.. The appointment of as player-manager in 1996 began an upturn in the team's fortunes. He added several top international players to the side and led the club to their first major honour since 1971, the . Gullit was replaced by , whose reign saw Chelsea win the , the and the , and the . They also mounted a strong title challenge in 1998–99, finishing four points behind champions Manchester United, and made their first appearance in the . Vialli was sacked in favour of , who guided Chelsea to the and Champions League qualification in 2002–03.

In July 2003, Bates sold Chelsea to Russian billionaire for £140 million. and was replaced by . and in addition to winning an FA Cup ( and ,, which they lost on penalties to .

In 2009, under caretaker manager , Chelsea won another ., his successor led them to their first and , also becoming the first English top-flight club to score 100 league goals in a season since In 2012, led Chelsea to their seventh ,, beating 4–3 on penalties, the first London club to win the trophy., to have won the three main UEFA trophies. success in March 2015, Mourinho was sacked after four months of the following season after a poor start., Chelsea won their sixth English title and the following season won their eighth FA Cup., under whom Chelsea reached the , which they lost on penalties to for a second time, beating 4–1 in the final. Sarri then left the club to become manager of and was then replaced by former Chelsea player . he guided Chelsea to 4th place in the Premier League and reached the FA Cup , losing 2–1 to Arsenal.[47]

Chelsea have only had one home ground, Stamford Bridge, where they have played since the team's foundation. It was officially opened on 28 April 1877 and for the first 28 years of its existence, it was used almost exclusively by the as an arena for athletics meetings and not at all for football. In 1904 the ground was acquired by businessman and his brother , who had also purchased nearby land (formerly a large market garden) with the aim of staging football matches on the now 12.5 acre (51,000 m2) site., who had also designed , and .[49] Most football clubs were founded first, and then sought grounds in which to play, but Chelsea were founded for Stamford Bridge.

Starting with an open bowl-like design and one grandstand with seating, Stamford Bridge had an original capacity of around 100,000, making it the second biggest stadium in England after . In 1939, another small seated stand was added, the North Stand, which remained until its demolition in 1975.[48]

In the early 1970s, the club's owners announced a modernisation of Stamford Bridge with plans for a state-of-the-art 50,000 all-seater stadium. being sold to property developers. Following a long legal battle, it was not until the mid-1990s that Chelsea's future at the stadium was secured and renovation work resumed. stand, after the club director and benefactor who was killed in a helicopter crash earlier that year.[50]

When Stamford Bridge was redeveloped in the era many additional features were added to the complex including two , apartments, bars, restaurants, the Chelsea Megastore, and an interactive visitor attraction called Chelsea World of Sport. The intention was that these facilities would provide extra revenue to support the football side of the business, but they were less successful than hoped and before the Abramovich takeover in 2003 the debt taken on to finance them was a major burden on the club. Soon after the takeover a decision was taken to drop the "Chelsea Village" brand and refocus on Chelsea as a football club. However, the stadium is sometimes still referred to as part of "Chelsea Village" or "The Village".

The Stamford Bridge , the , the turnstiles and Chelsea's are now owned by , a non-profit organisation in which fans are the shareholders. The CPO was created to ensure the stadium could never again be sold to developers. As a condition for using the Chelsea FC name, the club has to play its first team matches at Stamford Bridge, which means that if the club moves to a new stadium, they may have to change their name.[51]
Chelsea's is located in . Chelsea moved to Cobham in 2004. Their previous training ground in was taken over by in 2005.

Stamford Bridge hosted the from 1920 to 1922, (most recently in matches (the last in matches, the last in 1932; it was also the venue for an unofficial Victory International in 1946. was played at Stamford Bridge as well. match between the and Middlesex, and the . match between world champion and Joe Conn in 1918. between 1928 and 1932, from 1933 to 1968, and in 1948. match in the UK, between and the . team for the .[63]

The current club ownership have stated that a larger stadium is necessary in order for Chelsea to stay competitive with rival clubs who have significantly larger stadia, such as Arsenal and Manchester United. exits, which places constraints on expansion due to regulations., and the . In May 2012, the club made a formal bid to purchase Battersea Power Station, with a view to developing the site into a new stadium, The club subsequently announced plans to redevelop Stamford Bridge into a 60,000-seater stadium,[72]
and in January 2017 these plans were approved by Hammersmith and Fulham council.

Crest

Chelsea have had four main , which all underwent minor variations. The first, adopted when the club was founded, was the image of a , the army veterans who reside at the nearby . This contributed to the club's original "pensioner" nickname, and remained for the next half-century, though it never appeared on the shirts. When became Chelsea manager in 1952, he began to modernise the club. Believing the Chelsea pensioner crest to be old-fashioned, he insisted that it be replaced.. It was based on elements in the of the and the staff from the , former Lords of the Manor of Chelsea. It also featured three red roses, to represent England, and two footballs.[75] This was the first Chelsea crest to appear on the shirts, in the early 1960s.

In 1986, with now owner of the club, Chelsea's crest was changed again as part of another attempt to modernise and because the old rampant lion badge could not be trademarked. With the new ownership of , and the club's centenary approaching, combined with demands from fans for the popular 1950s badge to be restored, it was decided that the crest should be changed again in 2005. The new crest was officially adopted for the start of the

Colours

Chelsea's first home colours (1905 – c. 1912)

Chelsea have always worn blue shirts, although they originally used the paler , which was taken from the racing colours of then club president, , and was worn with white shorts and dark blue or black socks. In the 1960s Chelsea manager changed the kit again, switching to blue shorts (which have remained ever since) and white socks, believing it made the club's colours more modern and distinctive, since no other major side used that combination; this kit was first worn during the 1964–65 season.[81] Since then Chelsea have always worn white socks with their home kit apart from a short spell from 1985 to 1992, when blue socks were reintroduced.

Chelsea's away colours are usually all yellow or all white with blue trim. More recently, the club have had a number of black or dark blue away kits which alternate every year.'s kit. of the 1950s. The graphite and tangerine strip has appeared in lists of the worst football kits ever.[85]

Chelsea are among the most widely supported football clubs in the world. They have the sixth highest average all-time attendance in , team in the 2013–14 season, with an average gate of 41,572. area including working-class parts such as and , wealthier areas like Chelsea and , and from the . There are also numerous official supporters clubs in the United Kingdom and all over the world. As of 2018, Chelsea had 72.2 million followers on social media, the fourth highest among football clubs.[91]

At matches, Chelsea fans sing such as "" (to the tune of "", whose lyrics were probably written by supporter Mick Greenaway), "Ten Men Went to Mow", "We All Follow the Chelsea" (to the tune of ""), "Zigga Zagga", and the celebratory "Celery". The latter is often accompanied by fans throwing celery at each other, although the vegetable was banned inside Stamford Bridge after an incident involving midfielder at the .[94]
During the 1970s and 1980s in particular, Chelsea supporters were associated with . The club's "", originally known as the Chelsea Shed Boys, and subsequently as the , were nationally notorious for football violence, alongside hooligan firms from other clubs such as 's and 's , before, during and after matches. rejected.[96]

Since the 1990s, there has been a marked decline in crowd trouble at matches, as a result of stricter policing, in grounds and the advent of . to improve the atmosphere at home matches, with notable success. According to statistics, 126 Chelsea fans were arrested for football-related offences during the were issued, the fifth-highest in the division.[98]

Rivalries

Chelsea have long-standing rivalries with North London clubs and . A with dates back to several heated and controversial matches in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the . has grown following repeated clashes in cup competitions. Chelsea's fellow sides , and are generally not considered major rivals, as matches have only taken place intermittently due to the clubs often being in separate divisions.[104]

A 2004 survey by Planetfootball.com found that Chelsea fans consider their main rivalries to be with (in descending order): , Tottenham Hotspur and . In the same survey, fans of Arsenal, Fulham, Leeds United, QPR, Tottenham, and West Ham United named Chelsea as one of their three main rivals., Chelsea fans named Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United as their most disliked clubs. In the same survey, "Chelsea" was the top answer to the question "Which other English club do you dislike the most?"

Chelsea's highest appearance-maker is ex-captain , who played in 795 competitive games for the club between 1961 and 1980. (729; 1959–79), (717; 1998–2017), (648; 2001–2014) and (592; 1963–1975 and 1983–1984). With 103 (101 while at the club) for England, Lampard is Chelsea's most capped international player. Every starting player in Chelsea's 57 games of the 2013–14 season was a full international – a new club record.[109]

Lampard is Chelsea's all-time top goalscorer, having scored 211 goals in 648 games (2001–2014);'s longstanding record of 202 in May 2013. (1906–1912), (1929–1939), (1948–1956), (1957–1961), (1964–1974 and 1978–1979), (1983–1992), (2004–2012 and 2014–2015), and (2012–2019). Greaves holds the club record for the most goals scored in one season (43 in 1960–61).

Chelsea's biggest winning scoreline in a competitive match is 13–0, achieved against in the in 1971. in 2010, which was matched in 2012 against . in 1953. The club's 21–0 victory over Jeunesse Hautcharage in the is also a record in European competition. match against Arsenal on 12 October 1935. However, an estimated crowd of over 100,000 attended a against Soviet team on 13 November 1945.