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Arsenal Football Club (also known as Arsenal, The Arsenal or The Gunners) are an English professional football club based in north London. They play in the FA Premier League and are one of the most successful clubs in English football. Arsenal have won thirteen First Division and Premier League titles, ten FA Cups and in 2005–06 became the first London club to reach the UEFA Champions League final. Arsenal are also members of the G-14 group of leading European football clubs.
Arsenal were founded in Woolwich, south-east London, in 1886, but in 1913 they moved north across the city to Arsenal Stadium, Highbury. In May 2006 they left Highbury, moving to their current home, the Emirates Stadium in nearby Ashburton Grove, Holloway. Arsenal have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with neighbours Tottenham Hotspur, located four miles away in Tottenham, whom they play in the North London derby.
Arsenal were founded as Dial Square in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, but were renamed Royal Arsenal shortly afterwards. They renamed themselves again to Woolwich Arsenal after turning professional in 1891. The club joined the Football League in 1893, starting out in the Second Division, and won promotion to the First Division in 1904. However, the club's geographic isolation resulted in lower attendances than those of other clubs, which led to the club becoming mired in financial problems. In 1913, soon after relegation back to the Second Division, they moved across the Thames to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, North London. They dropped "Woolwich" from their name the following year, thus becoming one of only two Football League teams not named after a place, the other being Port Vale. Arsenal only finished in fifth place in 1919, but nevertheless were elected to rejoin the First Division at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, by reportedly dubious means.
The return of former player George Graham as manager in 1986 brought a third period of glory. Arsenal won the League Cup in 1987, Graham's first season in charge. This was followed by a League title win in 1989, won with a last-minute goal in the final game of the season against fellow title challengers Liverpool. Graham's Arsenal won another title in 1991, losing only one match, the FA Cup and League Cup double in 1993 and a second European trophy, the Cup Winners' Cup, in 1994. However, Graham's reputation was tarnished when it was revealed that he had taken kickbacks from agent Rune Hauge for signing certain players and he was sacked in 1995.
Arsenal's original home colours. The team wore a similar kit (but with redcurrant socks) during the 2005–06 season.
For much of Arsenal's history, their home colours have been bright red shirts with white sleeves and white shorts, though this has not always been the case. The choice of red is in recognition of a charitable donation from Nottingham Forest, soon after Arsenal's foundation in 1886. Two of Dial Square's founding members, Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates, were former Forest players who had moved to Woolwich for work. As they put together the first team in the area, no kit could be found, so Beardsley and Bates wrote home for help and received a set of kit and a ball. The shirt was redcurrant, a dark shade of red similar to burgundy, and was worn with white shorts and blue socks.[8]
In 1933 Herbert Chapman, wanting his players to be more distinctly dressed, updated the kit, adding white sleeves and changing the shade to a brighter pillar box red. The origin of the white sleeves is not conclusively known, but two possible inspirations have been put forward. One story reports that Chapman noticed a supporter in the stands wearing a red sleeveless sweater over a white shirt; another was that he was inspired by a similar outfit worn by famous cartoonist Tom Webster, with whom Chapman played golf.[9] Regardless of which story is true, the red and white shirts have come to define Arsenal and the team have worn the combination ever since, aside from two seasons. The first was 1966–67, when Arsenal wore all-red shirts;[8] this proved unpopular and the white sleeves returned the following season. The second was 2005–06, the last season that Arsenal played at Highbury, when the team wore one-year commemorative redcurrant shirts similar to those worn in 1913, their first season in the stadium. The club reverted to their traditional colours at the start of the 2006–07 season.
Arsenal's home colours have been the inspiration for at least two other clubs. In 1909, Sparta Prague adopted a dark red kit like the one Arsenal wore at the time; in the 1930s, Hibernian adopted the design of the Arsenal shirt sleeves in their own green and white strip. Both teams still wear these designs to this day.
Arsenal's away colours are traditionally yellow and blue, although they wore a green and navy away kit for a short while in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s and the advent of the lucrative replica kit market, the away colours have been changed regularly; the general rule currently is that they are changed every season with the outgoing away kit becoming the third choice kit for the following season. Generally, the away colours have been either yellow and blue, or two-tone blue designs, although there was a metallic gold and navy strip for the 2001–02 season. However, many Arsenal fans feel that the blue shirts bring bad luck – all three of the club's recent Premier League titles have come in a season where the team wore yellow or gold away. The away colours for 2005–06 and 2006–07 are yellow and dark grey; this is an exception to the one-season rule to compensate for the short lifetime of the 2005-06 redcurrant commemorative home kit.
Arsenal's shirts have been sponsored since 1982, when the club agreed a deal with JVC, which lasted until 1999. Since then, the club shirts have advertised SEGA Dreamcast (1999–2002), O2 (2002–06) and current sponsors Emirates (from 2006 until at least 2014). The shirts themselves have been manufactured by Nike since 1994; before that Umbro (1978–86) and Adidas (1986–94) were responsible for clothing the team.
Arsenal previous Stadium, widely referred to as Highbury, was Arsenal's home from September 1913 until May 2006. The original stadium was designed by the renowned football architect Archibald Leitch, and had a design common to many football grounds in the UK at the time, with a single covered stand and three open-air banks of terracing. In the 1930s, the entire stadium was given a massive overhaul, with new Art Deco East and West stands constructed, and roofs added to the North Bank and Clock End terraces. At its peak, Highbury could hold over 60,000 spectators, and had a capacity of 57,000 until the early 1990s. The Taylor Report and Premier League regulations forced Arsenal to convert Highbury into an all-seater in time for the 1993–94 season, reducing the capacity to just under 39,000 seated spectators. This capacity had to be reduced further during Champions League matches to accommodate additional advertising hoardings, so much so that for two seasons (1998–99 and 1999–00) Arsenal played Champions League home matches at Wembley, which could house more than 70,000 spectators.
Expansion of Highbury was restricted because the East Stand had been designated as a Grade II listed building and the other three stands were close to residential properties whose owners objected to expansion. These limitations have prevented the club from maximising the revenue that their domestic form could have brought in recent seasons. After considering various options, Arsenal decided in 1999 to build a new 60,000-seater stadium at Ashburton Grove (since renamed the Emirates Stadium), about 500 metres south-west of Highbury. The project was initially delayed by red tape and rising costs, but construction was completed in July 2006, in time for the start of the 2006–07 season. The stadium is named after its sponsors, the airline company Emirates, with whom the club signed the largest sponsorship deal in English football history, worth approximately £100 million;[11] however some fans refer to the ground as Ashburton Grove, or the Grove, as they do not agree with corporate sponsorship of stadium names.[12] The stadium will be officially known as Emirates Stadium until at least 2021, and the airline will be the club's shirt sponsor until the end of the 2013–14 season.
Arsenal have a large and generally loyal fanbase, with virtually all home matches selling out; in 2005-06, Arsenal had the sixth-highest average attendance in England (38,184).[13] Arsenal fans often refer to themselves as "Gooners", the name being derived from the team's nickname, "The Gunners". The club's location, adjoining both wealthy areas such as Canonbury and Barnsbury, mixed areas such as Finsbury Park and Highbury, and largely working class areas such as Holloway and Stoke Newington has meant that Arsenal's supporters have come from across the usual class divides. Arsenal have the highest proportion (7.7%) of non-white attending supporters of any club in English football,[14] possibly because of the high proportion of ethnic minorities in north London.
Like all major English football clubs, Arsenal have a number of domestic supporters' clubs, including the Official Arsenal Football Supporters Club, which is affiliated with the club, and the Arsenal Independent Supporters' Association, which maintains an independent line. The club's supporters also publish fanzines such as The Gooner, Highbury High, Gunflash and the less cerebral Up The Arse!. In addition to the usual English football chants, Arsenal's supporters sing "One-Nil to the Arsenal" (to the tune of "Go West") and "Boring, Boring Arsenal", which used to be a common taunt from opposition fans but is now sung ironically by Arsenal supporters when the team is playing well.
In recent times, a supporter's attachment to a football club has become less dependent on geography, and Arsenal now have many fans not just from London but all over England and the world. While there have always been small pockets of supporters abroad, Arsenal's support base has widened considerably with the advent of satellite television, and there are now significant supporters' clubs worldwide. A 2005 report by Granada Ventures, which owns a 9.9% stake in the club, estimated Arsenal's global fanbase at 27 million, the third largest in the world.[15]
Arsenal's longest-running and deepest rivalry is with their nearest major neighbours, Tottenham Hotspur, with matches between the two being referred to as North London derbies. Matches against other London sides, such as Chelsea and West Ham United are also derbies, but the rivalry is not as intense as that between Arsenal and Tottenham. In addition, Arsenal and Manchester United have had a strong on-pitch rivalry since the late 1980s, which has intensified in recent years when both clubs have been competing for the Premier League title.
Arsenal's parent company, Arsenal Holdings plc, operates as a non-quoted public limited company. Arsenal's ownership is considerably different from that of other football clubs. Only 62,000 shares in Arsenal have been issued, and they are not traded on a public exchange such as the FTSE or AIM; instead, they are traded infrequently on PLUS, a specialist market. As of September 2006, Arsenal's market capitalization value is £314m,[16] and the club made a pre-tax profit of £15.9m in the year ending May 31, 2006.[17]
Arsenal's board of directors hold the majority of the club's shares, controlling over 60% of share capital. Currently, the club's largest shareholders are Danny Fiszman (a London diamond dealer) and Nina Bracewell-Smith (wife of the grandson of former chairman Sir Bracewell Smith), who hold 25.2% and 15.9% respectively. Vice-chairman David Dein holds 14.6% while club chairman Peter Hill-Wood owns less than 1%.[18] In recent years, with Arsenal becoming a significant media asset, outside organisations have bought into the club. These include entertainment firm Granada Ventures (a subsidiary of ITV plc) (9.9%) and hedge fund Lansdowne Partners (2.7%); Lansdowne used to have a stake in Manchester United before selling it to Malcolm Glazer.[19] In September 2006 an unknown investor bought 700 shares (just over 1% of the club), prompting speculation of a takeover bid.[20]
Arsenal also formed the backdrop to one of the earliest football-related films, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939). The film is centred on a friendly match between Arsenal and an amateur side, one of whose players is poisoned whilst playing. Many Arsenal players appeared as themselves, although only manager George Allison was given a speaking part.
More recently, the book Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby was an autobiographical account of Hornby's life and relationship with football and Arsenal in particular. Published in 1992, it formed part of, and may have played an active part in, the revival and rehabilitation of football in British society during the 1990s. The book was later made into a film starring Colin Firth, which centred on the club's 1988–89 title win. The book also inspired an American film adaptation, about a fan of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox.
Arsenal have often been stereotyped as a defensive and "boring" side, especially during the 1970s and 1980s; many comedians, such as Eric Morecambe, made jokes about this at the team's expense. The theme was repeated in the 1997 film The Full Monty, in a scene where the lead actors move in a line and raise their hands, deliberately mimicking the Arsenal defence's offside trap, in an attempt to co-ordinate their stripping. Another film reference to the club's defence comes in the film Plunkett & Macleane, in which there are two characters named Dixon and Winterburn, named after Arsenal's long serving full backs - the right-sided Lee Dixon and the left-sided Nigel Winterburn.
Arsenal football club have still not won the European cup (unlike rivals Manchester United with two and Liverpool with 5 respectively) and couldn't beat the Catalan giants in their first European Cup (or UEFA Champions League as it is now known) final in Paris, May 2006.
:lmao:
