Southampton FC

Southampton Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Southampton. The club currently features in the English Football League Championship. They have won the FA Cup once in their history.

The club was founded in 1885 by members of the St.Mary’s Church of England Young Men’s Association and was initially christened as St. Mary’s Young Men’s Association FC. In the 1887-1888 the club was renamed as St. Mary’s FC and embraced the name Southampton St. Mary’s in 1894 when they joined the Southern League. At the end of the 1896-1897 season the club finally came to be known as Southampton FC.

In 1920 Southampton joined the then newly formed Football League Division 3 and were promoted to Division 2 at the end of the 1920-1921 season. Southampton would continue to stay in Division Two for the next 31 years.

In 1966 Southampton Southampton reached the English top flight for the first time in their history and stayed in the fist division for the next 8 years.

In 1976 Southampton won the FA Cup by defeating Manchester United in the final at Wembley. Southampton returned to the first division at the end of the 1977-1978 season and played impressively in the succeeding years. In 1983-84 they were runners-up at the end of the season, only three points behind Liverpool.

Southampton were one of the funding members of the English Premier League in 1992 and somehow held onto their top flight status until the end of the 2004-2005 season when they were relegated.

Southampton play their home matches at St. Mary’s Stadium, which can entertain a crowd of 32,689. They used to play at the Dell but moved to St. Mary’s in 2001.

Southampton bear the nickname the Saints and are owned by parent company Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC.