Chelsea Football Club

(Bast)

Chelsea Football Club
Chelsea Football Club is a football club in London, finding themselves more precisely Fulham founded in 1905 currently operating in Premier League Championship in England football.

History
The beginnings: the birth of Chelsea FC is linked to the construction stage of Stamford Bridge. Following the refusal of Fulham to use this new forum in London, proponents of the stadium were forced to create their own club. They managed to convince the League to accept the candidacy of the club barely born, which conducted its debut in D2 championship on September 2, 1905 in Stockport. Stamford Bridge is cordially inaugurated two days later at a friendly match to face Liverpool. The rush is disappointing (4 000) as that recorded a week later for the debut of Blues at home in the league (6 000). However the good results helping, Chelsea has managed to build very quickly a very important basis of supporters. Since its third season of existence, Chelsea was the club record best affluences of the country.

The taste of the international
Chelsea has long been a club practicing the recruitment of foreign players. Indeed, when Gianluca Vialli was the coach, the club did not less than 13 different nationalities in its workforce, so that drives the heart of London should be done in Italian! Chelsea was the first English team to bring a starting eleven composed entirely of non-Britons, during the day championship on December 26, 1999.

Chelsea is also the second contingent french in England behind Arsenal FC since have succeeded Marcel Desailly, Franck Lebœuf, Emmanuel Petit, Didier Deschamps, William Gallas, Claude Makélélé, Bernard Lambourde, Lassana Diarra, Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka.

The money power
In 2003, the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club then losing to Ken Bates for about 200 million euros. There then injected nearly 700 million euros. He gets the best players on the planet, and after the departure of Italian coach Claudio Ranieri, he brought the sulphur but talented coach of FC Porto (just winning the Champions League), José Mourinho who will start on 19 September 2007 evening after an early season poussif (officially because relations between José Mourinho and Roman Abramovich were at a standstill, the latter having hoped for a faux pas of his team to dismiss the Portuguese coach). Chelsea is now among the six clubs the richest in the world, with FC Barcelona, Juventus Turin, Real Madrid, Manchester United and AC Milan.

The birth of a great club
In 90 years, Chelsea stands out as a decidedly international team, practicing a game spectacular, but the club is also marked by its irregularity and remains an outsider. Great names of Football on the twilight of their career or players ready to bounce came to Chelsea (Gianfranco Zola, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Marcel Desailly). At that time, Chelsea is regarded as a team of mercenaries. Upon the arrival of Ranieri, Chelsea tries to buying big names in football to form a team, the bet will be won because almost complete seconds behind Arsenal FC. Yet Ranieri is thanked and arrive José Mourinho and Peter Kenyon to establish a true long-term plan to become a great club. Since 2005, therefore, Peter Kenyon to Chelsea can become a club of rich and powerful and especially dependent little by little the money Roman Abramovich. Thus in 2005, Samsung became the official sponsor of the club and in 2006 became the Adidas equipment. Chelsea have also built a full team under the auspices of José Mourinho. Recruitment is dispersed on two axes, great players and great hopes of football. Thus Claude Makélélé or more recently Florent Malouda, Michael Ballack, Andrei Shevchenko, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka were among the big names in football to join Chelsea. And Arjen Robben, Joe Cole and Frank Lampard are among the very high expectations to the ranks of Blues. It reinforces their position as best club of English football by providing 2 championship titles in England in 2005 and 2006, plus 2 League Cup in 2005 and 2007 and a Cup in 2007.

Another proof that Chelsea is a big club: the record of invincibility (63 games) at home in the league who was beaten at the 1st day of the 2007-2008 season and a victory over Birmingham City. The number is now at 80 matches without defeat at home to the championship.

During the 2008 season, Chelsea was hoisted for the first time in its history in the finals of the Champions League by UEFA.


Chelsea and its supporters
In the pure English tradition, Chelsea is supported by a Kop important in England. But Chelsea is still serve poor child compared to other big clubs in England. The craze for Chelsea is far from that doomed for clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool FC, FC Arsenal or Newcastle United. Chelsea has the fifth influx of English football, and regularly attracts more than 40000 supporters a Stamford Brigde. The historical basis of supporters of Chelsea comes from the working classes of west London, Hammersmith or Battersea, or classes more affluent neighborhoods of Chelsea and Kensington. In recent years, Chelsea as Lyon found a new lease of life at the popularity, players and results caregiver. In the 70 and 80 years, Chelsea supporters were involved in hooliganism, and were known for their violence, like the supporters of West Ham United or Milwall. Some groups of supporters were close to the Nationalist Party English (British National Party). In France, the image of Chelsea is somewhat controversial. Few players french came to Chelsea as Arsenal. Chelsea is still not registered in the European charts as Liverpool and Manchester United. The number of supporters of Blues in France is low and scattered. Yet, every day their numbers are growing. In July 2006, like similar structures exist to supporters of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester, an association called "Chelsea Supporters France" is born. This is the first part of Chelsea supporters in France, which is on the verge of being recognized by the club.

Awards
* The UEFA Supercup (1):
o Winner: 1998.
* Europe Cup Winners' Cup (2):
o Winner: 1971 and 1998.
* Championship in England (3):
o Champion: 1955, 2005 and 2006.
o Vice-champion: 2004, 2007.
* Cup in England (4):
o Winner: 1970, 1997, 2000 and 2007.
o Finalist: 1915, 1967, 1994 and 2002.
* League Cup (4):
o Winner: 1965, 1998, 2005 and 2007.
o Finalist: 1972 and 2008.
* Championship in England from D2 (2):
o Champion: 1984 and 1989
o Vice-champion: 1907, 1912, 1930, 1963 and 1977.
* Charity Shield (3)
o Winner: 1955, 2000, 2005.

Read also Chelsea

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