Southampton F.C.
Association football club in England / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Southampton Football Club (/saʊθˈ(h)æmptən/ (
listen)) is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the Premier League. Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play in red and white shirts. They have been nicknamed "The Saints" because of the club's beginnings as a church football team at St Mary's Church. Southampton share a long-standing South Coast derby rivalry with Portsmouth, in part due to geographic proximity and both cities' respective maritime histories.
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| Full name | Southampton Football Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Saints | |||
| Founded | 21 November 1885 (as St. Mary's Y.M.A.) | |||
| Ground | St Mary's Stadium | |||
| Capacity | 32,383[1] | |||
| Owner | Sport Republic[2] | |||
| Manager | Rubén Sellés | |||
| League | Premier League | |||
| 2021–22 | Premier League, 15th of 20 | |||
| Website | Club website | |||
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Founded in 1885, the club joined the Southern League as Southampton St. Mary's in 1894, dropping the St. Mary's from their name three years later. Southampton won the Southern League on six occasions and were beaten FA Cup finalists in 1900 and 1902, before being invited to become founder members of the Football League Third Division in 1920. They won promotion as Third Division South champions in 1921–22, remaining in the Second Division for 31 years until they were relegated in 1953. Crowned Third Division champions under the stewardship of Ted Bates in 1959–60, they were promoted into the First Division at the end of the 1965–66 campaign. They played top-flight football for eight seasons, but won the FA Cup as a Second Division team in 1976 with a 1–0 victory over Manchester United. Manager Lawrie McMenemy then took the club back into the top-flight with promotion in 1977–78.
Southampton were beaten finalists in the League Cup in 1979 and finished as runners-up in the First Division in 1983–84, three points behind Liverpool. The club were founder members of the Premier League in 1992 and reached another FA Cup final in 2003. Relegation ended their 27 year stay in the top-flight in 2005, and they were relegated down to the third tier in 2009. Southampton won the Football League Trophy in 2010 and won successive promotion from League One and the Championship in 2010–11 and 2011–12. They have remained in the Premier League since that time, finishing as EFL Cup runners-up again in 2017.