Timeline of English football

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1840s – 1850s – 1860s – 1870s – 1880s – 1890s – 1900s – 1910s – 1920s – 1930s – 1940s – 1950s – 1960s – 1970s – 1980s – 1990s – 2000s – 2010s – 2020s

2020s

2024 - 2023 - 2022 - 2021 - 2020

2024

• Liverpool win the League Cup against Chelsea in extra time, making them the first and only club to win the competition 10 times.
• Premier League title
  , becoming the only ever English side to achieve this feat.
• Manchester City to a 13th FA Cup
  trophy.
• Ipswich Town are promoted to the Premier League, returning after a 22-year drought.

2023

• Erik ten Hag wins his first major honour in his first season at Manchester United, as the club won a trophy after a seven-year drought, beating Newcastle United 2-0 in the League Cup final.
• Manchester City win their third league title in a row, becoming the 5th club to achieve this feat. They also win the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup, matching Manchester United's treble achievement 24 years prior.
• Seven years after winning the league and two years after finally winning the FA Cup, Leicester City are relegated after nine years in the top flight.

2022

• Liverpool win the League Cup for a record ninth time, beating Chelsea 11-10 on penalties.
• Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea, gets his bank account frozen and is forced to sell Chelsea.
• Liverpool win the FA Cup, beating Chelsea 6-5 on penalties.
• Manchester City win the league in dramatic fashion, after coming back from 0–2 against Aston Villa to win the league title.

2021

• Chelsea win the UEFA Champions League, beating Manchester City 1-0 in the final in Porto.
• Leicester City win the FA Cup
  for the first time in their history.
• In a season played behind closed doors, Manchester City win the League Cup for the fourth consecutive season and eighth in total, and their fifth Premier League title, seventh in the top flight overall.
• Jack Grealish becomes the most expensive English footballer of all time after a transfer to Premier League champions Manchester City for 100 million pounds.

2020

• All football action stops in March, due to lockdown rules in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It resumes on 17 July, behind closed doors.
• Liverpool win the Premier League for the first time, which marks their first national league title since 1990.
• Arsenal win the FA Cup, extending their record amount to 14.
• Football League
  .

2010s

2019 – 2018 – 2017 – 2016 – 2015 – 2014 – 2013 – 2012 – 2011 – 2010

2019

• Manchester City become the first team to win back-to-back Premier League titles since Manchester United in 2009.
• Liverpool pick up their 6th European Cup, winning the UEFA Champions League in Madrid against Tottenham Hotspur.
• Manchester City become the first English team to win a domestic treble (FA Cup, League Cup and Premier League).
• Tottenham Hotspur play their first game at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, winning 2–0 over Crystal Palace. Heung-Min Son scored the first goal there.

2018

• Manchester City win the Premier League title and become the Centurions, the first club to win the top flight title with 100 points. During the season they break multiple all-time Premier League and Top Division records.
• In League One, the two offshoot clubs of Wimbledon, AFC Wimbledon and Milton Keynes Dons, end the 2017–18 season with different fates, with AFC Wimbledon surviving and MK Dons relegated to League Two. This means that the 2018–19 season will be the first in which AFCW will play in a higher division than MK Dons.
• Chelsea win the FA Cup, beating Manchester United 1-0.

2017

• Arsène Wenger becomes the most successful manager in FA Cup history, winning his 7th FA Cup. Arsenal reclaim the record of most FA Cup titles with 13.
• Arsenal fail to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1997.
• Former Lincoln City, Watford, Aston Villa and England manager Graham Taylor dies aged 72.
• Chelsea win their fifth Premier League title, and sixth English title, achieving a record of 30 wins, in Antonio Conte's first season in English football.
• Europa League
  double.
• Tottenham Hotspur play out their final season at White Hart Lane after nearly 120 years. Spurs beat Manchester United 2-1 on the final match there, with Harry Kane scoring the last goal for Tottenham at this ground and Wayne Rooney becoming the final goalscorer there. The club plan to use Wembley Stadium with their new stadium being built within White Hart Lane's footprint.

2016

• The Football League renames itself as the English Football League, with all of the leagues and cup competitions it organises including "EFL" in their titles.
• Manchester United equal Arsenal's record 12 FA Cups.
• Leicester City win the top tier title of English football for the first time in history, with one British sports book having offered preseason odds of 5000/1 against their winning the title, just 8 years after their relegation to the 3rd tier.
• Leicester City's Jamie Vardy became the first player to score in 11 consecutive appearances in Premier League history.
• Defending champions Chelsea sack manager José Mourinho in December while in 16th place and eventually fail to qualify for European football, for the first time in two decades, finishing 10th, the lowest position for a Premier League holder. This record only stood for one year, as Leicester City finished 12th the following season. Eden Hazard, the previous season's PFA Players' Player of the Year, did not score a league goal until late April.
• Manchester United sack manager Louis van Gaal despite winning the
  Jose Mourinho
  is appointed in his place.

2015

• Arsenal win the FA Cup for a record twelfth time.
• Jose Mourinho
  's return to the club.
• AFC Bournemouth were promoted to the top flight for the first time after winning the Championship, just eight years after they were in administration and barely survived in the Football League.

2014

• 19 May: Louis van Gaal is confirmed as manager of Manchester United. Former interim manager Ryan Giggs is named as his assistant, and confirms his retirement as a player at the age of 40 after nearly a quarter of a century during which he played 963 games and won an English record of 22 major trophies.^[1]
• Arsenal win the FA Cup, their first major trophy in 9 years.
• Manchester City win their 4th top flight title.

2013

• Sir Alex Ferguson retires after winning Manchester United's 20th league title.
• Wigan Athletic win the FA Cup for the first time, but are relegated from the Premier League, becoming the first FA Cup winners to be relegated in the same season as their Cup win.
• Football League Cup for the first time and becomes the first Welsh club to represent the English football league system in European
  tournaments.
• Real Madrid
  for an £85.3 million transfer fee.

• League Cup on penalties in the return of former manager Kenny Dalglish
  .
• Manchester United
  on goal difference, their 3rd overall English league win, and becomes the first team relegated from the Premier League to win the title. This was also their first English league title success since 1968.
• Chelsea win the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history, beating FC Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena on penalties. They also win the FA Cup.

2011

• Manchester United win a record-setting 19th top-flight title. They also reach the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium, but lose to FC Barcelona
  for the second time in three years.
• Manchester City won the 130th FA Cup Final beating Stoke City 1–0 at Wembley, claiming a major trophy after 36 years.
• League Cup Final
  . Despite that, however, they were relegated on the final day of the league season.
• On Saturday, 5 February there were 41 goals from 8 Premier League games which was the record for a single day in the Premier League since it became a 20-team division. The results were Aston Villa 2–2 Fulham, Everton 5–3 Blackpool, Manchester City 3–0 West Brom, Newcastle 4–4 Arsenal, Stoke 3–2 Sunderland, Tottenham 2–1 Bolton, Wigan 4–3 Blackburn, Wolves 2–1 Manchester United.
• Chelsea sign Fernando Torres from Liverpool for a British record £50 million.
• Manager Carlo Ancelotti is sacked despite winning the League and Cup double for Chelsea the previous season.

2010

• League Cup
  title.
• Liverpool fail to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2003. Tottenham Hotspur break into the top four of the Premier League for the first time, thus taking Liverpool's spot in Europe's top club competition.
• Chelsea become the seventh team to win the league and FA Cup
  double, scoring a record 108 Premier League goals in the process.
• The Football League last year, go out of business after 125 years in existence. They are reformed as Chester
  and will initially compete in a regional division.

2009 – 2008 – 2007 – 2006 – 2005 – 2004 – 2003 – 2002 – 2001 – 2000

2009

• Football League Cup of their history but lose 2–0 to FC Barcelona of Spain in the UEFA Champions League
  final.
• Cardiff City leave Ninian Park after 100 years and relocate to a new 27,000-seat stadium nearby.
• Real Madrid
  for £80million.
• UEFA Cup glory in 1981, as well as guiding the England team to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup
  , dies of cancer aged 76.
• Having been deducted a record 30 points for financial irregularities before the start of the season, Luton Town are relegated to the Conference and become the first club to fall to that level after three successive relegations.

2008

• Portsmouth beat Cardiff City 1–0 in the FA Cup final, winning the competition for the first time in 49 years, the longest gap between two FA Cup wins for the same club.
• In early September, both
  Tottenham Hotspur board. Manchester City were purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group and on the same day broke the transfer record by purchasing Robinho
  of Brazil for £32million – slightly exceeding the £30.75million that their city rivals paid for Berbatov.
• Three clubs start the
  Football League Two season with points deductions. Both Rotherham United and AFC Bournemouth started the season on -17 points after exiting administration without using a Company Voluntary Agreement. Luton Town
  started on -30 points after a 20-point deduction due to exiting administration without using a CVA and a 10-point deduction due to illegal agent payments during transfers. This 30-point deduction doubled the previous record for points deduction imposed on a club set in 2007.
• Manchester United win the Premier League for the 10th time and overall 17th English League championship. It is also the tenth title for manager Sir Alex Ferguson (now the longest serving manager in English football with 22 years of unbroken service at the club) and Ryan Giggs, the only player to have collected title medals with all 10 of their championship winning sides since 1993.
• Tottenham Hotspur beat
  final of the Football League Cup to be held at the new Wembley Stadium
• Fabio Capello succeeds Steve McClaren as head coach of the England national football team.
• Derby became the first Premier League side to be relegated in March.
• The 2008 UEFA Champions League final is the first all-English club final in European Cup history, and after 120 minutes, Manchester United beat Chelsea on penalties after a 1–1 draw in Moscow, Russia.
• Leicester City are relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time in their 124-year history.
• Conference National champions, 16 years after the previous incarnation
  went out of business.
• Hull City A.F.C. reach the top flight for the first time in their history beating Bristol City F.C. 1–0 at Wembley Stadium in the play-off final.

2007

• administration on 22 November, thus incurring a 10-point deduction for the 2007–08 season.^[2]
• Steve McClaren is fired from the job as England manager after failing to qualify for the 2008 Euros – the first time in 24 years that England have failed to qualify for the European Championships.
• Manchester United win the Premiership for the ninth time under Sir Alex Ferguson.
• Chelsea win a cup double winning the FA Cup in the first final back at the recently completed Wembley Stadium. The match finished 1–0 with Didier Drogba scoring the only goal in the last minute of extra-time. Ryan Giggs set a new record for the player to appear in the most finals. However, he could not beat Mark Hughes' record for the most finals won by one player. The victory by Chelsea stopped Manchester United from winning the Double.
• administration on 4 May after a number of years struggling with the debt incurred by previous boards, thus incurring a 10-point deduction for the 2006–07 season, resulting in them being relegated to the third tier for the first time, but this was not the last of them. Two months later, on 4 August, the club was sold without a C.V.A. after entering administration, required by league rules.^[3] In consequence, Leeds were hit with the biggest point deduction yet in English professional football history (until Luton's 30 point penalty a year later), starting the 2007–08
  League One season on -15.
• Conference North
  .
• Chelsea become League Cup champions after beating Arsenal 2–1 at the Millennium Stadium. This was also the last major English Cup Final to be played at the Millennium Stadium before the move back to Wembley Stadium after its completion.
• The
  UEFA Women's Cup Final against Swedish side Umeå
  1–0 on aggregate.
• American tycoons George N. Gillett Jr. and Tom Hicks pay £174.1m to take over Liverpool.
• Alan Ball Jr., member of England's World Cup winning team of 1966, dies of a heart attack aged 61.

2006

• American billionaire Randy Lerner
  for £64million.
• John Terry succeeds David Beckham as England's national team captain. Liverpool's Steven Gerrard is named vice-captain.
• Sven-Göran Eriksson announces that he will step down as England manager following the 2006 World Cup. He will be succeeded by Steve McClaren with effect from 1 August.
• Chelsea win the Premier League for the second year in succession.
• League Cup for the second time in their history beating Wigan Athletic 4–0 at the Millennium Stadium
  .
• UEFA Cup final for the first time in their history, only to be beaten 4–0 by Sevilla
  .
• Peter Osgood, who won FA Cups with Chelsea and Southampton in the 1970s, dies of a heart attack aged 59.
• Premiership
  club to change their shirt design mid-season due to the collapse of former sponsors Allsports.
• Alan Shearer retires two weeks early following a knee injury. After a professional career that lasted almost 20 years, the former England and Newcastle captain bows out as the Premiership's leading goal scorer of all time with 260 goals in 441 games but only one trophy, the 1994–95 Premiership title.^[4]
• Sunderland are relegated from the Premiership, and break the record set by Stoke City 21 years earlier for the lowest points accumulated, ending the season with just 15 points. They also matched Stoke's record low of just 3 wins.
• Football League championship
  with a professional league record of 106 points.
• Liverpool beat West Ham 3–1 on penalties in the 125th FA Cup final after the game finished 3–3 in normal time. It is the last FA Cup game at the Millennium Stadium before Wembley re-opens.
• Ashburton Grove
  .
• The players of Aston Villa make history on 14 July by issuing a joint statement critical of chairman Doug Ellis, the first-ever time such a statement has been formally issued to the press by a collective of players from any English football club.
• In their first season as a top division club and only their 28th in the professional leagues, Wigan Athletic finish tenth (having spent much of the season in the top five) and are League Cup runners-up to Manchester United who beat them 4–0 in the final.
• Oxford United, the 1986 League Cup winners and members of the First Division from 1985 to 1988, become the first former winners of a major trophy to be relegated to the Conference.

2005

• European Super Cup
  for a third time, an English record.
• A.C. Milan in Istanbul
  .
• Premier League
  title as they set a new Premier League record for fewest goals conceded (15) and most points attained (95).
• Arsenal become the first team to win the FA Cup on penalties when they triumph over Manchester United in the shootout after a goalless draw.
• George Best, widely regarded one of the greatest footballers in the history of Manchester United and the footballing world, dies aged 59 after a short illness.
• Premier League
  .
• Highfield Road
  stadium.
• The Glazer takeover of Manchester United leads to disgruntled fans creating F.C. United of Manchester.
• League Two
  .
• Former England internationals Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Le Saux retire from playing, their careers going out on a low note as their club Southampton drop out of the top flight after 27 years.
• Barnet are promoted back to the Football League after four years away, along with Carlisle United who return after just one season.

2004

• Arsenal are crowned Premiership champions after going a 38-game league season unbeaten, earning the nickname The Invincibles.
• Manchester United win the FA Cup for a record eleventh time.
• League Two
  respectively as part of a rebranding exercise.
• striker Wayne Rooney, still only 18, becomes the world's most expensive teenager when he signs for Manchester United
  in a transfer deal which could eventually rise to £25million from an initial £20million.
• League Cup
  final to win the first major trophy in their 128-year history.
• Carlisle United, who spent one season in the First Division during the 1970s, become the first former members of the top flight to be relegated to the Conference after 76 years of league membership. They go down with York City, who have played in the Football League for 75 years and eliminated several clubs (notably Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton) from the top flight in cup competitions.
• Brian Clough, the legendary manager who guided Derby County to a League title & Nottingham Forest to League & European Glory, dies of stomach cancer aged 69.
• Bill Nicholson, the legendary former Tottenham Hotspur manager, dies aged 85.
• Wimbledon become Milton Keynes Dons to reflect their new location.

2003

• League Cup
  for a record seventh time.
• Arsenal win the FA Cup Final by beating Southampton 1–0
• Chelsea are bought by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in an English record takeover deal worth £150 million.
• Premiership
  title in eleven seasons.
• Premiership
  era after they are relegated with a record low of 4 wins, 19 points and 21 goals.
• receivership
  with £30 million debts and a transfer embargo.
• Manchester City leave Maine Road after 80 years and move into the 48,000-seat City of Manchester Stadium which had been constructed for the previous year's Commonwealth Games.
• Darlington, the Division Three club, leave the Feethams after 120 years and relocate to a new 25,000-seat stadium in the south of the town.
• Marc-Vivien Foé, the Manchester City midfielder, collapses and dies while playing in the semi-final of the Confederations Cup for Cameroon in France. Foé, 28, also played for West Ham United earlier in his career.
• a new permanent stadium
  is built.

2002

• Arsenal join Manchester United as the second club to have won three league championship/FA Cup doubles.
• Premiership
  , ending an exile from the top flight which both clubs had begun in 1986.
• Mobile phone operator
  MM02 replaces SEGA as Arsenal
  's shirt sponsor.
• Walkers Stadium
  .
• central defender Rio Ferdinand
  .
• On 16 March, a First Division match between Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion degenerates into one of the most violent in English football history, featuring multiple on-field assaults and ending with abandonment when United, trailing 3–0 at the time, were left with 6 players. This match enters English football lore as the Battle of Bramall Lane.
• St. James' Park
  on 20 April 2002.
• Everton become the first team to have spent 100 seasons in the top flight of English football.
• The FA approves the plan of
  Combined Counties League
  ) than the original one, who are competing in Division One, but the new Wimbledon club is soon enjoying the highest attendance.
• Brighton & Hove Albion
  become only the seventh club in English football history to win back-to-back promotion championships after winning the 2001–02 League One title (having won the 2000–01 League Two title the season before).

2001

• Manchester United become only the fourth English club to win three successive league championships, following Huddersfield Town in the 1920s, Arsenal in the 1930s, and Liverpool in the 1980s.
• UEFA Cup
  .
• League Cup and two league championships with Arsenal
  as well as never being on the losing side in his 14 England appearances, dies of cancer aged 33.
• Juventus
  at the Stadio Comunale, in the second leg of a Cup Winners' Cup semi-final on 23 April 1980, (the first time an English club had beaten Juventus in Turin), dies of a drug overdose at the age of 39, He had led a troubled life since injury resulted in his premature retirement from football in 1983 aged just 21. He was known as "a forgotten hero" as his death gained no media coverage at all, announcements of Paul's death in his local free newspaper omitted the fact that he had formerly been a footballer and merely labeled him a "local addict".
• Premiership
  after 34 successive seasons of top-flight football.
• Premier League
  's formation to have made their way from Division Three (now League Two) to the top flight.
• Stan Cullis, legendary former player and manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers, dies aged 85.
• Bertie Mee, managed of Arsenal's 1971 double-winning team, dies aged 82.
• Les Sealey, who kept goal for Manchester United in their FA Cup triumph of 1990 and the European Cup Winners' Cup triumph of 1991, dies of a heart attack aged 43.
• Manor Ground after 76 years and relocate to the new 12,500-seat Kassam Stadium (named after chairman Firoz Kassam) at Blackbird Leys, while Southampton end 103 years at The Dell and move into their new 32,000-seat St Mary's Stadium
  – which holds more than twice as many spectators as their old ground.
• Manchester United break the national transfer fee record twice – first by paying
  Lazio of Italy £28.1million for Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón
  .

• FIFA Club World Championship—Darlington
  become the lucky losers who take their place in the third-round draw.
• England lose 1–0 to Germany in their opening qualifier for the 2002 World Cup, in a game which is also the last game at Wembley Stadium before it closes its doors after 77 years for a complete revamp. The historic goal is scored by Dietmar Hamann.
• Kevin Keegan resigns after England's defeat and is succeeded by Lazio's Swedish coach Sven-Göran Eriksson – the first foreigner to take charge of the England team.
• Chelsea beat Aston Villa 1–0 to win the last FA Cup final at Wembley before its reconstruction.
• Sir Stanley Matthews, legendary former England, Blackpool and Stoke City
  winger, dies after a short illness at the age of 85.
• The new home of Welsh football is the 72,000-seat Millennium Stadium, which stands on the site of Cardiff Arms Park, and will host all English cup finals and playoff finals until Wembley is reopened.
• After guiding
  Football League Cup victory in two seasons, manager Martin O'Neill moves north of the border to manage Celtic in the Scottish Premier League
  .
• Alan Knight, 39-year-old goalkeeper, retires after playing 801 games for Portsmouth since 1978.
• Wimbledon are relegated from the Premier League after 14 years in the top flight.

1990s

1999 – 1998 – 1997 – 1996 – 1995 – 1994 – 1993 – 1992 – 1991 – 1990

1999

• knighthood
  .
• On-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass scores an injury-time winner for Carlisle United on the last day of the season to preserve their league status and relegate Scarborough.
• Bradford City finish runners-up in Division One to end their 77-year absence from the top flight of English football.
• Glenn Hoddle is sacked as England manager after a controversial newspaper interview. He is replaced by Kevin Keegan.
• Sir
  1966 England World Cup winning team, dies from Alzheimer's disease
  at the age of 79.
• On Boxing Day, Chelsea become the first British side to field an entirely foreign (non-UK) line-up in a Premier League match against Southampton.
• Division One champions Sunderland set a then English professional league record of 105 points.
• Blackburn Rovers are relegated from the Premier League just four years after being champions.
• Cheltenham Town are promoted to the Football League as Conference champions.
• JJB Stadium
  .

1998

• Arsenal equal Manchester United's record of two league championship and FA Cup doubles in their first full season under the management of Frenchman Arsène Wenger, who was also the first foreign manager to win the English top flight.
• League Cup within four months of Gianluca Vialli taking charge of team affairs following Ruud Gullit's dismissal, which follows a dispute with chairman Ken Bates
  over transfer funds.
• Football League
  with a record of 34 league defeats.
• Manchester City are relegated to the third tier of the English league for the first time in their history.
• Halifax Town win the Conference title and are promoted back to the Football League after five years away.
• Reading leave Elm Park after 102 years and relocate to the 25,000-seat Madejski Stadium named after chairman John Madejski.
• England go out of the World Cup in France after losing on penalties to Argentina after a 2–2 draw.
• Charlton Athletic win promotion to the Premier League by beating Sunderland 7–6 on penalties after a 4–4 draw in the Division One playoff final at Wembley.

1997

• After captaining
  Premiership title in five seasons and 11th English League championship overall, Eric Cantona
  announces his retirement as a player.
• Ruud Gullit becomes the first foreign manager to win an English trophy after his Chelsea side defeated Middlesbrough 2–0 in the FA Cup final to end their 26-year trophy drought.
• Premiership
  fixture at short notice seeing them relegated in second from bottom place – so they finished in the last two of all three major English competitions.
• Alan Shearer is ruled out of football for seven months after suffering a broken ankle in a pre-season game.
• Kevin Keegan shocks Newcastle United by resigning as manager just after the turn of the New Year. He felt that he could take the club no further, and is succeeded by Kenny Dalglish.
• Reebok Stadium, leaving Burnden Park
  , their home for 102 years.
• Sunderland end 99 years at Roker Park and move to the 42,000-seat Stadium of Light on the banks of the River Wear.
• Derby County relocate to Pride Park Stadium after 101 years at the Baseball Ground.
• After a record 119 years at the
  Britannia Stadium
  .
• Hereford United
  , who go down instead, on the last day of the Division Three season.
• Billy Bremner, legendary Leeds United captain of the 1960s and 1970s, dies of a heart attack aged 54.

1996

• Manchester United win a unique second league championship and FA Cup double. Following taunts that "You win nothing with kids", the young team hits back by achieving something that no English team has done before.
• Alan Shearer becomes the world's first £15-million player when he leaves Blackburn Rovers to join his hometown club Newcastle United.
• European Championships
  for the first time and reach the semi-finals, losing 6–5 on penalties after a 1–1 draw.
• European Championships and is replaced by Glenn Hoddle
  .
• Bob Paisley, who won a record 21 prizes in nine seasons as Liverpool manager, died, aged 77, after a long illness.
• League Cup for a record-equaling fifth time, against Leeds United
  3–0.
• Goalkeeper Peter Shilton plays his 1000th career league game for Leyton Orient against Brighton & Hove Albion.
• Memorial Ground
  , home of the local rugby team.

1995

• Pal Lydersen and John Jensen
  .
• Premiership
  title to top the English league for the first time since 1914.
• A Paul Rideout goal gives Everton a 1–0 victory over Manchester United in the FA Cup final to leave Alex Ferguson's men without a major trophy for the first time since 1989.
• Bobby Stokes, who scored Southampton's winning goal in their shock win over Manchester United in the 1976 FA Cup final, dies suddenly at the age of 44.
• striker Stan Collymore
  for £8.5million.
• Middlesbrough leave their Ayresome Park home for the Riverside Stadium, the first stadium designed and constructed to comply with the Taylor Report.
• centenary
  .
• Middlesbrough, Division One champions, leave Ayresome Park after 92 years and move to the new 30,000-seat Riverside Stadium on the banks of the River Tees. They return to the Premier League as the first top division club to move into a new stadium since Manchester City moved into Maine Road in 1923.

1994

• League Cup
  .
• striker Chris Sutton
  .
• Club and former England captain Bryan Robson leaves Manchester United after 13 years to become player-manager of Middlesbrough.
• Tottenham Hotspur are found guilty of financial irregularities dating back to the 1980s and handed the most severe punishment in the history of English football: a £600,000 fine, 12 league points deducted and a one-year ban from the FA Cup. The points deduction and the FA Cup ban are later quashed but the fine is increased to a new record of £1.5million.
• Billy Wright, former captain of Wolverhampton Wanderers and England, dies of cancer aged 70.
• Alfred McAlpine Stadium
  .
• Northampton Town relocate to Sixfields Stadium after 97 years at the County Ground.
• Liverpool's famous
  Spion Kop
  is demolished to make way for a new all-seater stand, as is Aston Villa's Holte End, as standing accommodation is banned from Premier League stadiums.

1993

• Premiership title to end their 26-year wait for the league championship. They strengthened themselves for the defence of their big prize by paying a British record fee of £3.75million for Nottingham Forest's young Irish midfielder Roy Keane
  .
• League Cup in the same season, after beating Sheffield Wednesday
  2–1 in both finals.
• Tony Barton, who managed Aston Villa to European Cup glory in 1982, dies of a heart attack aged 56.
• Graham Taylor quits as England manager after the nation's failure to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup and is succeeded by Terry Venables
  .
• Bobby Moore, captain of England's 1966 World Cup winning team, dies at the age of 51.
• The New Den
  .
• Wycombe Wanderers, managed by the former Nottingham Forest player Martin O'Neill, win the GM Vauxhall Conference title and take the place of Halifax Town in Division Three.
• Brian Clough retires as manager of Nottingham Forest after 18 years in charge, and goes out on a low note as Forest are relegated from the Premier League.
• UEFA Cup, where they famously eliminate FC Bayern Munich in the second round before being beaten by Inter Milan
  in the next round.
• Newcastle United are promoted back to the top flight after a four-year exile.

1992

• FA Premier League, an elite league of 22 clubs that replaces the old Football League First Division
  as England's highest division.
• Football League Cup
  for the first time in their history, beating four-time winners Nottingham Forest in the final.
• Blackburn Rovers, back in the top flight for the first time since the 1960s, make Alan Shearer England's most expensive footballer by paying Southampton £3.5million for his services.
• FA Premier League
  .
• Liverpool win the FA Cup for the fifth time in their centenary year.
• Aldershot, who have struggled to stay afloat for two years, finally go out of business on 25 March. Maidstone United follow suit on 17 August after their financial crisis leaves them with no option but to quit the Football League.
• Eight years after retiring as a player, Kevin Keegan returns to football as manager of Newcastle United and saves them from Second Division relegation.
• Chester City move into their new Deva Stadium, having ground-shared with Macclesfield Town for two years since leaving Sealand Road.
• Gary Lineker retires from international football with 48 goals to his name for England – just one goal short of the record set by Bobby Charlton. He also calls time on his career in England, joining Nagoya Grampus of Japan.
• England are eliminated from
  Sweden
  .
• After a slow start to the new Premier League campaign puts their league title hopes under serious doubt, Manchester United pay Leeds United £1.2million for French striker Eric Cantona in hope of winning a title race which by late November is being led by the likes of Aston Villa and Norwich City.
• Lazio
  of Italy in a £5.5million move from Tottenham Hotspur.

1991

• Arsenal win the Football League title with just one defeat from 38 fixtures.
• Cup Winners' Cup
  final.
• UEFA Cup
  for the 1991–92 season.
• After three years with French side AS Monaco, Glenn Hoddle returns to England to become player-manager of Swindon Town.
• Dean Saunders becomes the most expensive player in English footballer when he is transferred from Derby County to Liverpool in a £2.9million deal.
• Tottenham Hotspur win the FA Cup for a record eighth time, beating Nottingham Forest 2–1 in the final, but midfielder Paul Gascoigne is ruled out for a year with a knee injury suffered early in the game.
• Bari
  for £6.5million.
• Barnet are promoted to the Football League as Conference champions.
• Kenny Dalglish resigns as Liverpool manager on 22 February, and returns to football as manager of Second Division side Blackburn Rovers on 12 October following the club's takeover by wealthy local steel baron Jack Walker.

1990

• Liverpool win their eighteenth top-flight title.
• Jozef Venglos
  – the first manager in the top flight of English football from outside of the British Isles.
• English clubs are readmitted to European competition after a five-year ban arising from the
  Cup Winners' Cup. Champions Liverpool are unable to compete in the European Cup
  because they have to serve an extra year of the ban.
• Leeds United won the Second Division championship to end their eight-year exile from the First Division.
• striker David Longhurst collapses and dies in his side's Fourth Division home fixture against Lincoln City at Bootham Crescent
  .
• AFC Bournemouth director Brian Tiler, a former Aston Villa player, is killed in a car crash. Manager Harry Redknapp is also involved in the crash but survived.
• Play-off finals become one-legged matches played at Wembley. In the Second Division, Swindon Town beat Sunderland
  1–0 but stay in the Second Division after being found guilty of financial irregularities, with Sunderland being promoted in their place.
• Manchester United win their first major trophy under the management of Alex Ferguson, beating Crystal Palace 1–0 in the FA Cup final replay after drawing the first match 3–3.
• Peter Shilton retires from international football at the age of 40, kept goal a record 125 caps for the country.
• Manchester United and Arsenal were respectively deducted 1 and 2 points, for a 21-man brawl involving their players on the pitch. The first and, so far, the only instances in English league history where a team were docked points for player misconduct.

1980s

1989 – 1988 – 1987 – 1986 – 1985 – 1984 – 1983 – 1982 – 1981 – 1980

1989

• final game of the season from Michael Thomas, giving them a 2–0 away win over nearest rivals Liverpool
  to snatch the title on goals scored, with both teams goal difference being equal.
• 94 Liverpool fans die on 15 April after being crushed on the terraces at Hillsborough, where Liverpool were taking on Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-final.^[5] The final death toll for the disaster was 97.
• Liverpool go on to win the FA Cup with a 3–2 extra-time victory over Everton at Wembley. Ian Rush, who scored twice in the 1986 all-Merseyside final triumph, does so again.
• John Lyall's 15-year reign as West Ham manager comes to an end after they are relegated from the First Division.
• Football Conference
  for failing to fulfill their fixtures.
• motor neurone disease
  aged 61.
• Peter Shilton becomes the most capped England international when he wins his 109th cap beating Bobby Moore's record.
• Football League Cup
  .
• Alex Ferguson makes a host of big-money signings for Manchester United in his latest attempt to win them their first league title since 1967, paying a total of more than £7 million for Mike Phelan, Neil Webb, Paul Ince, Gary Pallister and Danny Wallace.
• Gary Lineker returns to English football after three years in Spain with FC Barcelona when he joins Tottenham Hotspur for £1.1million.

1988

• Liverpool wrap up their seventeenth league title after losing just two league games in a 40-game season.
• Wimbledon beat Liverpool 1–0 to win the FA Cup in one of the most dramatic finals seen at Wembley. The triumph came at the end of Wimbledon's 11th season as a Football League club and only their second as First Division members.
• League Cup
  final.
• Jackie Milburn, former Newcastle United striker, dies of cancer at the age of 64.
• Football Conference
  title.
• Paul Gascoigne, 21-year-old Newcastle United midfielder, becomes England's first £2 million footballer when he signs for Tottenham Hotspur.
• Shortly after Gascoigne's transfer, the national transfer fee record is broken again when Everton pay £2.2million for West Ham United striker Tony Cottee.
• Juventus
  in Italy for £2.8million – the third time in the space of a few weeks that the record fee paid by an English club is broken.
• Football League at 41, retires from playing with West Ham United
  .
• Mark Hughes returns to Manchester United after two years away for a fee of £1.8million.
• Portsmouth are relegated to the Second Division a year after promotion.

1987

• Tottenham manager David Pleat resigns after rumours in the media that he has been involved in a vice ring. He is replaced by Terry Venables.
• Coventry City win the first major trophy in their history by beating Tottenham Hotspur (unbeaten in their previous seven finals) 3–2 in the FA Cup final.
• Everton win their ninth league title in adversity after struggling with massive injuries all season, still managing to win the league by 11 clear points.
• Conference champions Scarborough
  .
• play-offs to settle the final promotion
  place initially including one team from the higher division.
• Former Aston Villa and Wales midfielder Trevor Hockey dies of a heart attack at the age of 43.
• Arsenal become the first team to defeat Liverpool in a game in which Ian Rush had scored by defeating them 2–1 at Wembley in the League Cup Final.
• Spion Kop
  terrace.
• Ian Rush moves to Juventus, as agreed in his deal the previous summer.
• Portsmouth are promoted back to the First Division after 29 years away.
• Alex Ferguson begins to rebuild Manchester United by signing Arsenal defender Viv Anderson, Celtic striker Brian McClair and Norwich City defender Steve Bruce.
• John Barnes for £900,000, and replace Ian Rush with Oxford United's John Aldridge
  for £750,000.

• Hand of God goal. Argentina
  go on to win the competition.
• Liverpool win the league championship and FA Cup double in Kenny Dalglish's first season as player-manager, after Everton throw away their huge advantage in the closing weeks of the season.
• Liverpool sell Ian Rush to Juventus of Italy for £3.2 million, but keep him for a season on loan.
• Sir Stanley Rous, one of the Football Association's most prominent administrators, dies at the age of 90. Shortly after his death, a stand at Watford's Vicarage Road
  stadium is to be named in his honour.
• Wimbledon are promoted to the First Division in only their ninth season as a Football League club.
• hat trick
  of successive relegations to fall into the Fourth Division for the first time in their history.
• Terry Venables signs two English based strikers for Spanish club FC Barcelona – Mark Hughes from Manchester United for £2.2million and Gary Lineker from Everton for £2.7million.
• Football League Cup
  .
• Wimbledon, who only joined the Football League nine years ago, win promotion to the First Division to complete a four-year rise from the Fourth Division.
• Swindon Town, Fourth Division champions, set a new Football League record of 102 points.
• Wolverhampton Wanderers suffer a third successive relegation and fall into the Fourth Division, but are saved from going out of business by a new takeover deal, as are Middlesbrough after relegation to the Third Division.
• West Ham United finish a club-best third in the league and are just four points behind champions Liverpool.
• Manchester United manager Ron Atkinson is sacked in November after a poor start to the season, instantly replaced by the successful Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson
  .

• Everton win their 8th league title with 5 league games to spare, they then take their foot off the gas to lose 3 of their last 5 but still set a club record points total.
• 56 spectators are burnt to death and more than 200 are injured in a fire at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium on 11 May.
• 39 spectators, most of them Italian, are trampled to death in rioting on the terraces of the
  Juventus win 1–0. The sequel of the tragedy was a 5-year ban on English clubs from European competition, with a 6-year ban on Liverpool
  .
• Cup Winners' Cup
  to their trophy cabinet.
• Anton Johnson is banned from football for life after it is revealed that he had illegally taken control of two football clubs (Southend United and Rotherham United) at the same time and had also mishandled the finances of both clubs.
• Preston North End and Burnley are both relegated to the Fourth Division for the first time.
• 16 years old
  Matthew Le Tissier finishes a trial at Oxford United and signs for Southampton
  .
• Oxford United promoted to the top flight, after claiming the Second Division championship, a year after they won the Third Division championship in 1984, the only club to have won two consecutive championships on the way to the Top Flight.
• A 14-year-old boy is crushed to death by a collapsed wall when Leeds United fans riot on the last game of the Second Division season at Birmingham City, but media coverage and public attention of the tragedy is overshadowed as it occurred on the same afternoon as the Bradford City fire.
• Harry Catterick, who managed Everton to league title glory in 1963 and 1970 as well as an FA Cup triumph in 1966, dies from a heart attack while watching their FA Cup quarter-final win over Ipswich Town at Goodison Park.

1984

• League Cup and the European Cup in Joe Fagan
  's first season as manager.
• UEFA Cup
  .
• Everton beat Watford in the FA Cup final to win their first major trophy under the management of Howard Kendall.
• Kevin Keegan calls time on his playing career after helping Newcastle United win promotion to the First Division.
• Ian Rush is voted Footballer of the Year by the FWA after scoring 32 goals to help Liverpool win their third successive league title.
• Terry Venables signs Tottenham player Steve Archibald for Spanish club FC Barcelona for £1.15million.
• Tony Barton is sacked after two-and-a-half years as manager of Aston Villa. He had won the European Cup just three months after being appointed. Villa replace him with Shrewsbury Town's manager Graham Turner.
• Southampton finish a club-best second place in the First Division.
• Sheffield Wednesday return to the First Division after 14 years away.
• A.C. Milan of Italy for £1.5million and replace him with Scotland and Aberdeen's Gordon Strachan
  for £500,000.

• The Football Association and then Scottish Football Association initiate the end of the British Home Championships by announcing they will not enter after the 1983–84 competition.
• Liverpool
  retain both the League Cup and league title.
• Manchester United beat Brighton & Hove Albion 4–0 in the FA Cup replay after a 2–2 draw in the first match to win their first major trophy under the management of Ron Atkinson.
• Watford finish second in the league at the end of their first season in the First Division.
• 1984 European Football Championship
  .
• League Cup to bring his tally of major prizes to an English record of 21. His successor is 62-year-old coach Joe Fagan
  .
• Sharp Electronics become the first official sponsors of Manchester United
  .
• Manchester United and England winger Steve Coppell retires from playing at the age of 28 due to a knee injury.

1982

• Ron Greenwood retires as England manager after the 1982 FIFA World Cup, which was won by Italy. He is replaced by Ipswich Town manager Bobby Robson.
• Liverpool
  win their thirteenth League championship, and their second League Cup title.
• Just three months after stepping up from the coaching staff to replace Ron Saunders, Tony Barton guides Aston Villa to glory in the European Cup – they beat FC Bayern Munich 1–0 thanks to a Peter Withe goal.
• JVC Electronics become the first official sponsors of Arsenal.
• Ossie Ardiles and Ricardo Villa miss the final due to hostility from fans over the Falklands War
  .
• Swansea City finish sixth in their first season as a First Division club, after having topped the league on several occasions.
• Watford win promotion to the First Division for the first time in their history.
• Bristol City
  declared bankruptcy and reform under a new company, BCFC 1982.

1981

• The Football League
  begins awarding three points for a win instead of two.
• Aston Villa win their first league championship for 71 years.
• UEFA Cup
  .
• League Cup
  in a season where they had failed to make a serious bid for the league title.
• Tottenham Hotspur win the FA Cup
• Bill Shankly dies of a heart attack aged 68, seven years after he retired as Liverpool manager.
• Ron Atkinson replaces Dave Sexton as manager of Manchester United. Three months after his appointment, West Bromwich Albion midfielder, Bryan Robson, follows his old manager to Old Trafford for an English record fee of £1.75million.

1980

• Liverpool win a second consecutive league championship.
• Nottingham Forest retain their European Cup crown, making them the only team to have won more European Cups than league titles.
• ITV. Control of the club passes to his son Martin
  .
• West Ham beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final to become the third Second Division team in eight years to win the trophy thanks to a Trevor Brooking goal.
• Dixie Dean, who scored 60 goals for Everton during the 1927–28 season, dies of a heart attack at the age of 73 while watching an Everton v Liverpool game at Goodison Park on 1 March.
• League Cup to his list of honours after helping them overcome Nottingham Forest
  in the final.

1979 – 1978 – 1977 – 1976 – 1975 – 1974 – 1973 – 1972 – 1971 – 1970

1979

• Nottingham Forest lose their defence of the league title to Liverpool but compensate by winning the European Cup.
• One of Nottingham Forest's key players in the European triumph is Trevor Francis, who four months earlier had signed from Birmingham City and became Britain's first million-pound footballer.
• Arsenal overcome a late revival by Manchester United to win 3–2 in the FA Cup final – their first major trophy since Terry Neill replaced Bertie Mee as manager.
• Brendan Batson – who were known as The Three Degrees. Ron Atkinson's side had achieved a famous 5–3 away win over Manchester United
  on 29 December to put pressure on the title race.
• Danny Blanchflower's short-lived and unsuccessful reign as manager of Chelsea comes to an end after the club suffers relegation to the Second Division.
• Brighton & Hove Albion
  are promoted to the top flight for the first time in their history.

1978

• Newly promoted
  League Cup
  for the first time in their history. As of 2021–22 they are the last newly promoted club to become league champions.
• Ipswich Town win the FA Cup for the first time in their history.
• West Bromwich Albion appoint Cambridge United's Ron Atkinson as manager.
• Wigan Athletic are elected to the Football League in place of Southport
• Tottenham Hotspur, back in the First Division after a one-year absence, sign two Argentine World Cup winners – Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa – for a combined fee of £750,000.
• FC Bruges
  1–0 at Wembley through a Kenny Dalglish strike.

1977

• Tommy Docherty is sacked as manager of Manchester United just weeks after guiding them to FA Cup victory over Liverpool. He is replaced by Dave Sexton.
• Liverpool establish themselves as one of Europe's finest sides by retaining the league title and joining the list of European Cup winners.
• PFA Player of the Year and PFA Young Player of the Year. He was the only player to have won both in the same season, until Cristiano Ronaldo
  in 2006–7.
• Cup Winners' Cup
  winning teams of 1970 and 1971, is killed in a car crash near Oxford at the age of 31 along with his wife.
• Workington
  .
• Kenny Dalglish joins Liverpool at a record £440,000 to replace Kevin Keegan who leaves to join Hamburg in Germany.
• After a 2–1 victory to Scotland against England in the British Home Championship at Wembley Stadium, the Tartan Army invade the pitch, breaking goalposts and helping themselves to some of Wembley's turf.^[6][7]

1976

• Liverpool win the league championship for a record 9th time to end manager Bob Paisley's two-year quest to bring a major trophy to Anfield.
• Southampton beat Manchester United 1–0 in the FA Cup final thanks to a goal from Bobby Stokes.
• Pop star
  Graham Taylor
  as manager.
• Queens Park Rangers finish league runners-up to achieve their highest-ever league position.
• Bertie Mee retires as manager of Arsenal and is replaced by Terry Neill.

1975

• Derby County, in Dave Mackay's first full season as manager, win their second league title in four years to add to the 1972 championship which had been won by Mackay's predecessor, Brian Clough.
• John Lyall ends his first season as West Ham manager with an FA Cup triumph at the expense of Fulham, whose side included former West Ham captain Bobby Moore.
• Carlisle United, who had topped the 1974–75 First Division after three games, are relegated after failing to put together a consistent run of good form in their first season as a top division club.
• Manchester United are promoted back to the First Division one season after losing their top-flight status.
• League Cup
  and gaining promotion to the First Division in the same season.

1974

• The Football Association scraps the distinction between professional and amateur players leading to no more UK teams being entered for the Olympics.
• Sir Alf Ramsay pays for England's failure to qualify for the World Cup with his job. He is succeeded by Leeds United manager Don Revie.
• Liverpool win the FA Cup for a second time after an emphatic victory over Newcastle United.
• Leeds United are league champions in their final season under Don Revie's management. Former Derby County manager Brian Clough is appointed but leaves after 44 days and is, in turn, replaced by Jimmy Armfield.
• Stockport County
  .
• Bill Shankly retires after 15 glorious years as Liverpool manager and is replaced by 55-year-old coach Bob Paisley.
• Old Trafford with his final touch in league football, but Birmingham City
  's victory would have condemned them to relegation regardless of the outcome of United's game.
• Former
  Football League side Bradford Park Avenue go into liquidation and are reformed as a Sunday league
  side.
• Liverpool win the first FA Charity Shield match to be decided by a penalty shootout, and the first to be played at Wembley Stadium.

1973

• An Ian Porterfield goal gives Second Division Sunderland a shock win over Leeds United in the FA Cup final.
• Leeds United also blow their title chances and Liverpool are crowned league champions instead.
• Bobby Charlton and Denis Law both leave Manchester United after long and illustrious careers.
• The Football League announces that three clubs, instead of two, are to be relegated from the First and Second Divisions from the end of the 1973–74 season onwards, with three clubs being promoted to the Second and Third Divisions. The four-up, four-down system between the Third and Fourth Divisions would continue.
• Hereford United end their first season as a Football League club by winning promotion from the Fourth Division.

1972

• League Cup
  to record the first major trophy of their history.
• Derby County, managed by 37-year-old Brian Clough, win the first league championship of their history.
• UEFA Cup
  , becoming the first British team to win two European trophies.
• Leeds United win the FA Cup for the first time adding it to their growing list of honours.
• Manchester United sack manager Frank O'Farrell and replace him with Scottish national coach Tommy Docherty.
• Barrow
  .

1971

• Arsenal become the fourth English club to win the league championship and FA Cup double.
• 20 years old Kevin Keegan leaves Scunthorpe United to join Liverpool for £35,000.
• UEFA Cup
  .
• Cup Winners' Cup
  final to claim their first European trophy.
• Manchester United appoint Leicester City's Frank O'Farrell as their permanent successor to Wilf McGuinness.
• Alvechurch progress to the first round of the FA Cup after taking Oxford City to a record six replays in the qualifying round.

1970

• England lose their defence of the World Cup to Brazil.
• Everton win the league title, one short of the record number of points
• Wilf McGuinness is sacked just before the turn of 1971 after 18 months in charge of Manchester United. Sir Matt Busby takes control of first-team affairs until the end of the season.
• The
  Old Trafford after drawing 2–2 in the first game at Wembley
  .
• Bradford Park Avenue
  .
• In the Bogotá Bracelet incident Bobby Moore is accused of stealing a bracelet while in Colombia with the England squad for the 1970 FIFA World Cup, but all charges are quickly dropped.

1960s

1969 – 1968 – 1967 – 1966 – 1965 – 1964 – 1963 – 1962 – 1961 – 1960

1969

• Leeds United win the first league championship of their history.
• Manchester City continue their run of success under the management of Joe Mercer by winning the FA Cup.
• Sir Matt Busby retires after 24 years as manager of Manchester United and is replaced by 32-year-old reserve team coach Wilf McGuinness, a surprise choice after big names like Don Revie and Jock Stein had been linked with the job.
• European Fairs Cup
  to end their 14-year wait for a major trophy.
• Football Writers Association
  (FWA) Player of the Year award.

1968

• For the first time two English teams win European Competitions in the same season (info below)
• Manchester United beat Benfica 4–1 in extra time at Wembley to win the European Cup with goals from Bobby Charlton twice, George Best and 19-year-old Brian Kidd- who was covering for the injured Denis Law.
• Football League Cup against Arsenal 1–0 and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1–0 on aggregate against Ferencvárosi TC
  .
• The blue half of Manchester also celebrates after winning the league championship for only the second time in their history.
• A Jeff Astle goal against Everton in the FA Cup final gives West Bromwich Albion their fifth triumph in the history of the competition.
• European Footballer of the Year after a brilliant season which was rounded off by scoring a goal in the European Cup
  final.
• Matt Busby is knighted after guiding Manchester United to the European Cup title.

1967

• Manchester United win the league championship – their fifth under Matt Busby and their seventh of all time, and last for the next 26 years, until the formation of the Premier League.
• Tottenham Hotspur beat Chelsea 2–1 in the FA Cup final.
• League Cup
  final.
• Goalkeeper Harry Gregg leaves Manchester United after 10 years during which he established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the English game, but with no medals to show for it: he had missed the 1963 FA Cup final due to injury and had not played enough games to qualify for a medal when United won the league in 1965 and 1967.
• Coventry City, managed by Jimmy Hill, win the Second Division championship and are promoted to the First Division for the first time in their history.

1966

• England win the 1966 FIFA World Cup 4–2 against West Germany in extra time as Geoff Hurst becomes the first man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, with two of his goals being controversial. Martin Peters also scores for England.
• knighthood
  for inspiring England's World Cup glory.
• Everton win the FA Cup after beating Sheffield Wednesday 3–2 in the final at Wembley.
• Manchester United lose the defence of the league championship trophy to Liverpool.
• European Footballer of the Year
  .

1965

• Manchester United win their first league title since the Munich air disaster.
• Liverpool win the FA Cup for the first time in their history.
• Cup Winners' Cup
  to bring the total of English clubs winning European trophies to two.
• Eric Brook, all-time record goalscorer for Manchester City, dies at the age of 57.
• knighthood
  shortly afterward.

1964

• BBC2 at 6:30 pm on 22 August with highlights of Liverpool's 3–2 home win over Arsenal. Kenneth Wolstenholme is both presenter and commentator to an audience of just 20,000.^[8]
• Liverpool win the league championship to claim their first major trophy under the management of Bill Shankly.
• West Ham win the FA Cup to claim the first major trophy in their history.
• Tottenham Hotspur inside-forward John White is struck by lightning on a North London golf course and dies instantly at the age of 27.
• Tottenham Hotspur captain Danny Blanchflower retires as a player at the age of 37 after failing to overcome a serious knee injury.

1963

• Cup Winners' Cup
  to establish themselves as the first English club to win a European competition.
• Everton win their first league championship of the postwar years.
• Manchester United win the FA Cup for the first time in 15 years. It is their first major trophy since the Munich air disaster five years earlier.
• League Cup
  final to win the first major trophy of their history.
• 1911 FA Cup winners Bradford City finish second from bottom in the Fourth Division and have to seek re-election in order to preserve their Football League place.

1962

• Tottenham Hotspur beat Burnley (also league runners-up) at Wembley to retain the FA Cup.
• League Cup
  – the first major trophy of their history.
• Ipswich Town are crowned league champions in their first season as a First Division club.
• Walter Winterbottom retires after 16 years as England manager and is replaced by Ipswich Town manager, Alf Ramsey.
• Accrington Stanley resign from the Football League in March and their Fourth Division records are expunged. Their place in the league for 1962–63 is given to Southern Football League champions Oxford United.

1961

• Tottenham Hotspur become the first club of the 20th century to win the league championship and FA Cup double.
• League Cup
  final. The second leg of the final is withheld until the 1961–62 season due to fixture congestion.
• Leeds United appoint former Leicester City and Manchester City player Don Revie, 33, as their new player-manager.
• Manchester City sell 21-year-old Scottish striker Denis Law to Torino of Italy in the first £100,000 deal involving a British club.
• Terry Bly scores 52 league goals for Peterborough United as they complete their first league season as Fourth Division champions.

1960

• Burnley overcome a spirited challenge of 106-goal Wolves to win the league championship.
• Wolves compensate for their league championship disappointment by overcoming Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup final.
• Oldham Athletic, league runners-up 45 years earlier, finish second from bottom in the Fourth Division but retain their league status after the Football League's members vote for Gateshead to go down and Midland League champions Peterborough United to go up for the 1960–61 season.
• former Arsenal and Sunderland player Charlie Buchan dies at the age of 68.
• Aston Villa win the Second Division championship to regain their First Division status a year after losing it.

1950s

1959 – 1958 – 1957 – 1956 – 1955 – 1954 – 1953

1959

• Bill Shankly is appointed manager of Liverpool
• Wolves retain the league championship despite a spirited challenge from a new-look Manchester United.
• Nottingham Forest win the FA Cup for the first time since 1898.
• Port Vale win the first-ever Fourth Division championship after scoring 110 league goals.
• Billy Wright becomes the first player to play 100 times for England.
• Birmingham City and England full-back Jeff Hall dies at the age of 29.

1958

• In an incident known as the Munich air disaster, eight Manchester United players die and two more have their careers ended by injury after a plane crash at Munich-Riem Airport. Manager Matt Busby is badly injured and spends two months in hospital recovering from multiple injuries.
• A makeshift Manchester United side reach the FA Cup Final, but lose 2–0 to Bolton.
• Wolves win the league championship for the second time and qualify for the European Cup for the first time.
• Sunderland are relegated from the First Division for the first time, having been in the top division every season since joining the Football League in 1890.
• Former Manchester United and Manchester City winger Billy Meredith dies aged 83.

1957

• Manchester United win the league title for the second year running.
• Aston Villa beat Manchester United 2–1 in the FA Cup final to win the trophy for a record seventh time. Their victory denies United the double, meaning Villa are still the last team to achieve the feat, back in 1896–97.
• Stanley Matthews retires from international football at the age of 42, but continues his club career with Blackpool.
• Charlton Athletic turn the tables on Huddersfield Town during the final 20 minutes of a Second Division fixture by turning a 5–1 deficit into a 7–6 lead.
• Eastbourne United manager Ron Greenwood, 36, is appointed first-team coach of Arsenal
  .

• Manchester United win the league championship with a reshaped side containing mostly young players including Duncan Edwards (19), David Pegg (20), Albert Scanlon (20) and Mark Jones (22). They become England's first representatives in the European Cup, in the competition's second season, as the previous league champions Chelsea were blocked from entering the inaugural tournament by the Football Association.
• German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann plays through Manchester City's FA Cup victory over Birmingham City
  despite suffering what an X-ray later confirms as a broken neck, and was able to continue his career.
• The top three sides in the
  Third Division South – Leyton Orient, Brighton & Hove Albion and Ipswich Town
  – all score over 100 league goals.

• Chelsea win the league championship for the first time in their history.
• Blackburn Rovers score 106 Second Division goals but concede 79 times and sixth place is not high enough for promotion to the First Division.
• Newcastle United win the FA Cup after beating Manchester City 3–1 at Wembley.
• Duncan Edwards, 18-year-old Manchester United wing-half, becomes England's youngest international when he plays in a side containing 40-year-old Stanley Matthews, who had played for England before Edwards was born.

1954

• Wolves win the league title for the first time in their history.
• West Bromwich Albion complete a double for clubs in central England by winning the FA Cup for the fourth time in their history.
• Everton finish Second Division runners-up, are promoted to the First Division and have remained there ever since.
• Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic and Swindon Town are bracketed together in 19th place in the Third Division South
  having both accumulated 40 league points, scored 67 goals and conceded 70 goals.

• 38-year-old
  'Matthews Final', despite the fact that his teammate Stan Mortensen
  scored a hat-trick in the game.
• Arsenal win a record-breaking seventh league title with a superior goal difference over Preston North End, who also have 54 points and have not won the league title since 1890.
• England's unbeaten home record against a non-British nation ends when they lose 6–3 then Hungarian Aranycsapat at Wembley.

1952

• Manchester United win their first top-flight title in 41 years under the guidance of Matt Busby
  .
• Newcastle United become one of a few teams to win the FA Cup
  two years in succession.

• Portsmouth win their first league title, 10 years after winning the FA Cup.

1948

• 83,260 watch Manchester United vs Arsenal at Maine Road on 17 January to become the highest attendance at an English league game.
• Manchester United end a 37-year trophy drought after beating Blackpool to win the FA Cup
  .
• Arsenal win the top flight title.

1947

• After a close three-horse title race, Liverpool win the first post-war league championship.
• Charlton Athletic win the FA Cup
  , their first and only major trophy to date.

• Football League North (Wartime – Joint Division One League with Football League South)
• Champions: Sheffield United
• Derby County become the first team to win the FA Cup after losing a game when two-legged games are introduced for one season only.
• League football resumes following the end of the Second World War.
• The Football Association end their boycott of FIFA, paving the way for England to play in World Cup matches.

1930s

1939

• The Football League is abandoned three games into the new season after the outbreak of the Second World War
• Portsmouth beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 4–1 in the FA Cup final.

1938

• Manchester City become the first and only defending Champions to be relegated.

1937

• Manchester City win their first-ever league title.
• Sunderland win the FA Cup for the first time.

1936

• Sunderland A.F.C. win their 6th league championship.
• Founding Football League members, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers are relegated to the second division.

1935

• Arsenal win their third successive league title.

1934

• Arsenal and Huddersfield Town's manager Herbert Chapman dies of pneumonia on 6 January.
• 84,569 watch Manchester City defeat Stoke City at Maine Road in the FA Cup 6th Round, the biggest crowd ever recorded for an English game outside of Wembley Stadium.

1932

• Everton win the league championship after a year's absence from the First Division.
• Newcastle United win their third FA Cup
  trophy.

• Aston Villa set an all-time top-flight record of 128 goals in a season, but still finish runners-up to Arsenal by 7 points.
• Second division
  West Bromwich Albion win the FA Cup
  .

• Sheffield Wednesday
  defend their league championship, winning their fourth league title.
• Arsenal win their first ever major trophy, the FA Cup.
• Everton are relegated for the first time, just two years after being crowned top flight league champions.

1920s

1929

• Sheffield Wednesday
  win the league championship by a point.
• Bolton Wanderers
  win the FA Cup for the third time.

1928

• Arsenal and Chelsea are the first clubs to play with shirt numbers on 25 August.
• Dixie Dean becomes the first and only player to score 60 goals in one season in English football, helping Everton to win the top flight title.
• Blackburn Rovers equal Aston Villa's record of six FA Cup
  wins.

• Huddersfield Town become the first team to be the Football League champions three seasons in succession.

1925

• FA Cup: Sheffield United 1–0 Cardiff City
• Sheffield United F.C win the FA Cup, their last major trophy to this day. Runners-Up Cardiff City
• The offside rule is changed: a player is now onside if a minimum of two (instead of three) opposing players are between him and the goal line.

1924

• Huddersfield Town
  win the league for the first time.
• FA Cup: Corinthian 1-0 Blackburn Rovers
• A major shock in the first round as five times Cup winners, and First Division staple, Blackburn Rovers, are unexpectedly beaten by the amateurs of Corinthian F.C. at the Crystal Palace.
• Aston Villa to win the FA Cup
  in what became known as the "Rainy Day Final" due to the weather and pitch conditions.

• Liverpool win a second consecutive league championship, a fourth in total.
• White Horse Final
  .
• Aston Villa centre-half Tommy Ball is shot dead by his neighbour in November thus becoming the only Football League player to have been murdered.^[9]

1921

• The Football League is increased to 92 clubs with the Third Division becoming the Third Division South and the introduction of 24 new clubs in the Third Division North
  .
• Burnley win their first top flight title, going a record 30 matches unbeaten^[10]

1920

• The Southern League's top division is absorbed into the Football League creating the Football League Third Division
• Aston Villa capture the FA Cup for a record sixth time.

1910s

1919

• Leeds City are expelled and dissolved by the football league after financial irregularities including the payment of players during the First World War. In its place, a new club is formed, Leeds United.

1915

• Everton win the final league title before league football is suspended because of the First World War.
• FA Cup Final: Sheffield United 3–0 Chelsea
• Sheffield United F.C win the FA Cup.

1914

• Blackburn Rovers
  win their second league title and their second in three seasons.

1913

• Sunderland A.F.C. beat Aston Villa to win their 5th league championship.
• Aston Villa defeat Sunderland to win the FA Cup.

1912

• Blackburn Rovers
  succeed in winning their first league title.

1911

• Bradford City win the FA Cup, its only major honour.

1910

• Aston Villa win the league championship for a record sixth time.
• Brighton & Hove Albion, champions of the Southern Football League, defeat Aston Villa, Football League champions, to win the 1910 FA Charity Shield
  , their only top-flight honour to date.
• Millwall leave East London, relocating to The Den in South London.

1900s

1909

• The Charity Shield is inaugurated.
• Manchester United win their first-ever FA Cup title.

1908

• Manchester United F.C. win their first league championship.
• The United Kingdom national football team, then competing under the name Great Britain and Ireland, win the gold medal in the first official football tournament at the 1908 Summer Olympics.
• Second division
  Newcastle United in the FA Cup
  final.

• The action by
  Amateur Football Association
  .
• Professional Footballers' Association formed.

1906

• Liverpool F.C. win their second league championship
• Everton win the FA Cup for the first time.

1905

• Norwich City FC
  ousted from amateur football and deemed a professional organisation by the FA
• Alf Common becomes the first £1,000 transfer when he moves from Sunderland to Middlesbrough.
• Chelsea Football Club is founded at The Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher's Hook), Fulham Road, London, on 14 March and like Bradford City in 1903 are immediately elected to the league.
• Aston Villa win the FA Cup.
• Crystal Palace is founded on 10 September by workers at Joseph Paxton's famous Crystal Palace, in Sydenham.

1904

• Sheffield Wednesday
  win their first-ever league championship.
• Manchester City win the FA Cup.

1903

• the Football League
  before they have ever played a game.

1902

• Norwich City FC
  formed as an amateur club
• Sunderland A.F.C. win their 4th league championship
• J.H. Davies takes over near bankrupt Newton Heath (L&YR) F.C. and changes its name to Manchester United.
• Sheffield United win the FA Cup. Runners Up: Southampton
• Sheffield United 1–1 Southampton – (R) Sheffield United 2–1 Southampton

1901

• Tottenham Hotspur become the first non-league club to win the FA Cup
  . Runners Up: Sheffield United F.C
• Tottenham Hotspur
  2–2 Sheffield United – (R) Tottenham Hotspur 3–1 Sheffield United
• Liverpool F.C. win their first league title.

1900

• Aston Villa win the league championship, their fifth title in seven years.
• Sheffield United F.C Finish 2nd.
• Sunderland Finish 3rd.
• Leading Goalscorer Billy Garraty (Aston Villa) 27
• Brighton & Hove Albion are founded.

1890s

1899

• Aston Villa win the last championship of the 1800s, defeating runners-up Liverpool F.C. 5–0 in the last match to secure the title.
• Sheffield United F.C Win the FA Cup. Runners Up Derby County.
• Scunthorpe United F.C. are formed.

1898

• Sheffield United F.C secure the league title for the first time and only time.
• Sunderland Finish 2nd.
• Wolverhampton Wanderers Finish 3rd.
• Leading Goalscorer Fred Wheldon (Aston Villa) 21
• Portsmouth F.C is formed.

1897

• Aston Villa capture their third league title and the FA Cup to win the second Double in English football.
• Sheffield United Finish 2nd.
• Derby County Finish 3rd.
• Leading Goalscorer: Steve Bloomer (Derby County) 22

1896

• Aston Villa capture the league title.

1895

• Sunderland A.F.C. become the first team to win the league championship 3 times.
• Aston Villa win the FA Cup. The Cup is then stolen from the window of a shop in Aston, Birmingham and never found. A replacement is made.
• Thames Ironworks F.C. are formed as the works team of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. The club would later be reformed as West Ham United.

1894

• Aston Villa win their first league championship. Later that year though their former captain Archie Hunter dies aged just 35.
• Formerly St Mark's West Gorton and Aldwick Association FC are renamed Manchester City.

1893

• Sunderland A.F.C. retain league championship.

1892

• Sunderland A.F.C. win their first league championship.
• Expansion of
  the Football League
  to two divisions.
• John Houlding, owner of Anfield, founds Liverpool Football Club on 15 March.
• West Bromwich Albion defeat Aston Villa in the FA Cup final. There are suspicions over the performance of Villa keeper Jimmy Warner. His pub is burned down by a mob and he never plays for the club again.

1891

• Everton win their first league championship.
• Luton Town become the south of England's first professional club in August – paying the entire team 2 shillings and sixpence plus expenses.
• The
  penalty kick
  is introduced.
• Assistant referees are first introduced as linesmen.

1890

• Frank Whitby
  becomes the first professional player in the south of England on 15 December, earning 5 shillings per week.

1880s

1889

• the Football League as unbeaten champions. They also become the first team to win the 'double', gaining the FA Cup
  without conceding a goal.
• Sheffield United is formed.

1888

• The oldest professional league in the world,
  The Football League is established by Aston Villa director William McGregor

• Aston Villa win their first FA Cup and the first Midland winners.

1886

• Blackburn Rovers win the FA Cup
  for a third year in a row.
• Plymouth Argyle F.C
  are founded.
• Dial Square are founded, the team who went on to become Arsenal.

1885

• The threat of secession leads to the legalisation of professionalism on 20 July by the Football Association making the British Football Association redundant.
• Luton Town, Millwall Rovers and Southampton founded.

1884

• Preston North End are suspended for one year from the FA Cup for paying players.
• Rules attempting to restrict professionalism, such as only Englishmen being allowed to play in the FA Cup, lead to the formation of the British Football Association as a rival to the Football Association.

1883

• The
  Ireland
  before the late 1970s).
• Accrington are expelled from the Football Association for paying players.
• Bristol Rovers F.C. are formed.

1882

• The Football Association (England), the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and the Irish Football Association meet on 6 December and agree on one uniform set of rules for football. They also establish the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to approve changes to the rules (a task that they still perform to this day).
• Burnley F.C. are formed
• Hotspur Football Club is formed (later to become Tottenham Hotspur).

1880

• St'Marks (West Gorton) are formed in Manchester.

1870s

1879

• Doncaster Rovers
  are formed.
• Sunderland A.F.C. are formed.

1878

• First
  floodlit football match played at Bramall Lane
  , Sheffield on 14 October 1878 in front of an attendance of 20,000.
• Newton Heath LYR Football Club was formed by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath (later known as Manchester United Football Club).
• St Domingo's FC is formed, later changing its name in November 1879 – to Everton.

1876

• Middlesbrough Football Club
  is formed.
• Birmingham Senior Cup, the first Association tournament on a local level, commences.

1875

• The crossbar is introduced, replacing tape as the means of marking the top of the
  goal
  .
• Birmingham City are formed, under the name Small Heath Alliance.
• Blackburn Rovers Football Club
  are formed.

1874

• Aston Villa Football Club is formed by 15 members of the Aston Villa Wesleyan Chapel, in Lozells, nr. Aston, Warwks.
• Bolton Wanderers F.C. are formed.

1873

• The Calthorpe football club is formed, as the first club in Birmingham playing solely to the Association laws.

1872

• Scotland and England draw 0–0, played at the West of Scotland Cricket Club. This is recognised by FIFA as the first official international match.
• Wanderers beat Royal Engineers in the first FA Cup final.

1871

• Charles William Alcock creates the Football Association Challenge Cup and the first FA Cup tournament
  takes place.
• Old Etonians F.C. formed.
• Southall F.C. formed.
• Uxbridge F.C. formed.
• Reading F.C. formed.
• The South Derbyshire Football Association was established in March 1871^[11]

1870

• First "goalkeepers", and transition from "dribbling game" to "
  passing game" is seen in club matches in Sheffield
  and London.
• A match between
  Kennington Oval
  in London. This was the first match between the nations but is not recognised as being the first international (see 1872).
• Abingdon F.C. are established (Maidenhead and Marlow took part in the first FA Cup tournament
  the following year).

• The first ever football tournament, the Youdan Cup, was played by twelve Sheffield clubs.
• 4 September 1867, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club was established.

1865

• Nottingham Forest F.C. The oldest existing league club, established.

1863

• The Football Association is founded and ratifies the original 14 rules of the game.

1862

• Notts County
  , the oldest professional football club in the world, is formed.

1850s

1857

• Sheffield F.C., the world's oldest football club, established and the Sheffield Rules developed.

1840s

1849

• Official referees appear for the first time in a football match in Cheltenham, two on the pitch and one in tribune.

1848

• The Cambridge Rules
  are created being the first attempt to establish formal rules.

1846

• A time limit on length of play is first introduced and first described in Lancashire^[12]

1845

• First use of referee in English public school football games, from Eton football^[12]

1842

• First use of referee. During a match in Rochdale, between the Bodyguards club and the Fearnaught club^[12]

1820s

1823

• First description of a pass comes from Suffolk.^[13][14] In this Moor describes a team ball game with goals in which a player who can not advance further "throws the ball [he must in no case give it] to some less beleaguered friend more free and more in breath than himself". Although this description refers to throwing, Moor tells us that the game was at other times a football one: "Sometimes a large football was used; the game was then called 'kicking camp'."

1790s

1796

• Last meetings of The Gymnastic Society, the first football club in the world.

See also

• Football in England
• Football in the United Kingdom
• History of association football
• Timeline of association football

References