Sunderland A.F.C.
From Sunderland A.F.C. Wiki
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| Full name | Sunderland Association Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | The Black Cats, Red and White Army | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1879 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Stadium of Light Sunderland (Capacity 49,000) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Niall Quinn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager | Steve Bruce | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | Premier League | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2008/2009 | Premier league, 16th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Current season | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
}} Sunderland A.F.C. is a professional football club based in the city of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in North East England. The club was founded in 1879 and since then they have played 129 years, starting off with the Blue House field in Hendon and since then they have moved through six different grounds to the Stadium of Light which was opened in 1997 and they have played at ever since. Sunderland have played in the premiership since 2007.
Sunderland A.F.C. currently play in the premier league, which is the top flight of English football, after being promoted from the Coca Cola Championship in the 2006/2007 season. Sunderland have only spent less time in the top flight than Arsenal. Overall Sunderland A.F.C. have been the champions of English football six times, in 1892, 1893 1895, 1902, 1913 and 1936, this making them the sixth most successful football in England.
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[edit] Club History
Glasgow born Sunderland-based school teacher James Allan started the "Sunderland and District Teachers Association Football Club" on 17 October 1879. On 16 October 1880 the club changed its name to "Sunderland Teachers Association Football Club" i.e. the Teachers bit remained, but the statement which announced this indicated that the club opened its membership to all in order to relax financial troubles and increase the pool of players available to it. Sunderland Teachers A.F.C. became Sunderland A.F.C. on limited company status. Sunderland enjoyed an extremely "unhealthy" rivalry with Sunderland Albion F.C. (who confusingly had the same initials) until their demise in the early 20th century.
Ironically it was James Allan who founded Albion after being voted off the Committee of Sunderland A.F.C. although he had formed Albion prior to the meeting.
Sunderland were admitted into The Football League for the 1890/1891 season, replacing Stoke. It was the first time a new club had joined the league since its inauguration in 1888. During the late 19th century they were still famously declared as the "Team of All Talents" by William McGregor, the founder of the league, after a 6–1 over Aston Villa at Perry Barr (erroneously up to now attributed to a 7–2 home win against Aston Villa); and between 1892 and 1902 the team won the league three times and were runners-up a further three times.
In 1913, Sunderland again won the league and lost their first FA Cup Final 1–0 to Aston Villa. It was the closest the club has ever come to The Double.
The club's sixth (and to this day last) league championship came in the 1935–36 season, and the next season the club finally won the F.A. Cup after a 3–1 victory against Preston North End at Wembley Stadium.
Following the Second World War, the club suffered a downturn in fortunes, despite breaking a number of transfer records and being labelled 'The Bank of England Club'. In 1957 the club were implicated in a major financial scandal (the second in their history after the Andrew MacCombie scandal in 1904), resulting in an unprecedented fine of £5,000 and the suspension of the club chair and three directors. In 1958 Sunderland were relegated from the top-flight for the first time in their 68-year league history.
Sunderland won their last major trophy in 1973 courtesy of 1–0 victory over Leeds United in the FA Cup Final. Sunderland, a second division club at the time, won the game thanks to an amazing double save of Jimmy Montgomery to deny Peter Lorimer, described by many as the greatest save at Wembley, and even, by some, as the greatest save of all time. Ian Porterfield scored a stunning volley in the 30th minute to stun Leeds and take the win. Since 1973 only two other clubs (Southampton in 1976 and West Ham United in 1980) have equalled Sunderland's achievement of lifting the FA Cup while playing outside the top tier of English football.
In 1985, Sunderland appeared in their first and only League Cup final, losing 1–0 to Norwich City. Since then the two clubs have contested the "Friendship trophy", which is held when they play each other. Related to the fact that both clubs were relegated at the end of that season
1987 saw one of the lowest points in Sunderland's history, as they were relegated to the third division of the English league for the first and so far only time.
Under new Chairman Bob Murray and new manager Denis Smith the club were promoted as champions the following season. In 1990, they were promoted back to the top flight, after losing to Swindon Town in the play off final, but Swindon's victory being revoked after being found guilty of financial irregularities. They stayed up for one year before being relegated on the final day of the season.
Sunderland's last outing in a major final came in 1992 when, as a second division club, they returned to the FA Cup Final took there by local born manager Malcolm Crosby. There was to be no repeat of the heroics of 1973, with Sunderland losing 2–0 to Liverpool.
The early 1990s was a turbulent period for the club. In 1995, they faced the prospect of a return the third-tier of English football. Peter Reid was brought in, and quickly turned things around. Reid's time in charge had a stabilising effect; he remained manager for seven years, one of the longest tenures in Sunderland's history.
In 1997, Sunderland left Roker Park, their home for 99 years. They moved to the Stadium of Light, then a 42,000-seat arena. At the time the stadium was the biggest new stadium built in England since World War II. The move saw a renaissance at the club, as attendances jumped dramatically. The Stadium capacity was later increased to 49,000.
Sunderland returned to the top-flight as champions in 1999 with a then record points total of 105. Two consecutive seventh place finishes in the Premier League were followed by two less successful seasons and they were relegated to the second-tier with a record low points total of 19 in 2003.
Former Ireland manager Mick McCarthy took over at the club and in 2005 he took Sunderland up as champions (the third time in under ten years). However, the following season was a disaster; Sunderland finished on a new record-low total of 15 points. McCarthy left the club in mid-season and was replaced temporarily by Kevin Ball, a former player.
Following their relegation new hope was given to the club by ex-player Niall Quinn who, along with the Irish Drumaville Consortium, successfully launched a bid to buy out former chairman Bob Murray in July 2006. The consortium appointed former Manchester United captain Roy Keane, a former international team mate of chairman Niall Quinn, as their new manager. Quinn had been in charge for the first few games of the season in a disastrous start. However, under Keane the club rose steadily up the table with an unbeaten run of seventeen games from the start of 2007. Along with Birmingham City FC, Sunderland clinched promotion to the FA Premier League for the upcoming 2007–08 season, following Derby County's 2–0 defeat to Crystal Palace on April 29.
On May 6, 2007 Sunderland were crowned winners of Championship after beating Luton Town 5–0 at Kenilworth Road, and found themselves yet again looking at premiership football. As the next season came round, even though they were struggling, they had improved dramatically, and managed to bypass breaking any unwanted records by December 2007.
[edit] Club Colours
Sunderland began playing in an all-blue kit, then red and white halved shirts, settling on red-and-white stripes in 1887. North East team South Bank FC borrowed Sunderland their red and white striped kits when Sunderland were facing financial difficulties. For the 2007/2008 season, the away kit is all white, which continues a tradition of Sunderland A.F.C. wearing the colour. Sunderland A.F.C. also have a third kit which is all blue with red shoulders.
[edit] Fanzines
The current fanzine of choice is A Love Supreme. Others in the past have been It's The Hope I Can't Stand, Wise Men Say, and The Roker Roar (later The Wearside Roar).
[edit] Rivals
Sunderland's strongest and cloest rivals are currently Newcastle United who are based in the city of Newcastle upon tyne just a few miles north of Sunderland itself, contesting the side in the Tyne-Wear derby over the past century. Sunderland has also a smaller rivalry with the local Middlesbrough F.C. who are based 25 miles south of sunderland in Middlesbrough, sunderland have also had a small but not local rivalry with Leeds United.
