Chelsea FC

Chelsea Football Club is an English football club based in West London and are the current holders of the Uefa Champions League, which they won following a penalty shootout victory over Bayern Munich in May 2012, and the FA Cup.

They currently feature in the English Premier League and have spent most of their history in the English top flight. The club is currently owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea were founded on March 14,1905 amazing at a pub, then called The Rising Sun and now known as The Butcher’s Hook. The pub is located opposite to the main entrance of Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea were soon admitted to the Football League but failed to make much of an impact in the early years but began to rise after Ted Drake became the club’s manager in 1952 and started modernizing the club. He led Chelsea to their first major trophy and it was the League championship in 1954-1955.

Chelsea continued to enjoy success in the 1960s and won the UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup in 1971 and were consistent in the league and the domestic Cup competitions.

But the late 1970s and the 1980s witnessed a marked decline in Chelsea’s fortunes as stability both on the pitch and off it threatened to destroy the club. The situation was salvaged in the mid 1990s when Dutch legend Ruud Gullit was appointed as the player-manager. Chelsea won the FA Cup in 1997, the League Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1998 and the FA Cup in 2000.

Then along came Roman Abramovich I June 2003 and the Russian acquired the club for 140 million pounds in a move what was then the biggest ever sale of an English football club. Abramovich spent money on acquiring new and talented but expensive players and after recruiting the Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho in 2004, won back to back premier League trophies in 2005 and 2006.

After winning the Premiership in 2004/05 and 2005/06, Chelsea came up just short in 2006/07, although the Blues did capture both the League Cup (over Arsenal in the final in Cardiff) and the F.A. Cup, beating Manchester United in the first championship match at the new Wembley Stadium.

Under Avram Grant, who replaced Mourinho inside the first few weeks of the 2007-2008 season, Chelsea reached the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2008 but lost narrowly on penalties to Manchester United.

Chelsea play their home matches at Stamford Bridge which can host 42,055 people. The club bears the nicknamed the Pensioners but are more commonly called the Blue.

Chelsea fosters huge rivalry with London clubs such as Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

Among the club’s major achievements are:

• 1 Uefa Champions League
• 3 Premier League/1st Division Championships
• 2 Championship/2nd Division Championships
• 5 FA Cup Trophies
• 4 League Cup Trophies
• 2 Cup Winners Cup Trophies
• 1 European Super Cup Trophy