180px
Full name	Blackpool Football Club Ltd.
Nickname(s)	The Seasiders, The 'Pool, The Tangerines
Founded	26 July 1887 (1887-07-26) (124 years ago)[1]
Ground	Bloomfield Road Blackpool, England (Capacity: 16,220)
Owners	Owen Oyston Valeri Belokon
Chairman	Karl Oyston
Manager	Ian Holloway
League	The Championship
2011–12	The Championship, 5th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They will compete in the 2012–13 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England.

Blackpool's home ground has been Bloomfield Road since 1901, and their main nicknames are the Seasiders, the 'Pool and the Tangerines, the latter in reference to the colour of their home kit, which is often mistaken for orange.^[2][3] Their motto is Progress, as featured on the club crest. They have a fierce local rivalry with Preston North End, who currently play in the third tier. Meetings between the two clubs are known as the West Lancashire derby.

The club's most notable achievement is winning the 1953 FA Cup Final, the so-called "Matthews Final", in which they beat Bolton Wanderers 4–3, overturning a 1–3 deficit in the closing stages of the game. During that post-war period, Blackpool made three Wembley appearances in six years and came close to winning the League Championship on several occasions. They also supplied the national teams with many players, notably for England in 1953 when four Blackpool men lined up at Wembley, causing the Daily Mirror to declare that "Blackpool F.C. are playing Hungary today",^[1][4] though it became a day that English football fans would rather forget. Their least successful period came in the 1980s, and in 1982–83 they finished 21st in English League football's lowest tier, their lowest-ever League finish.

The club has been managed since May 2009 by Ian Holloway, who guided them to the Premier League, via the play-offs, in his first season in charge. As a result, Blackpool became the first club in English football to have won promotion from every division of the Football League via the play-off system.

History[link]

A graph displaying Blackpool's finishing positions in the Football League.

Formation and early years[link]

Blackpool Football Club were formed on 26 July 1887, after a merger with a breakaway group from the local St. John's Football Club. The club managed to win two pieces of silverware in its first season in existence, 1887–88: the Fylde Cup and the Lancashire Junior Cup.

At the conclusion of the following 1888–89 season, Blackpool became founder members of the Lancashire League. In their first season in the competition, the club finished fifth out of the thirteen member clubs. They finished as runners-up over the following three seasons (to Bury twice and Liverpool once), before winning the championship themselves on their fourth attempt.

Blackpool's home at that point in time was Raikes Hall Gardens (also known as the Royal Palace Gardens), which was part of a large entertainment complex that included a theatre and a boating lake, amongst other attractions. This meant that the club's average attendances were around the two-thousand mark, making the club's formative years a financial success.^[1]

After struggling to repeat the success of the 1893–94 season, the Blackpool board decided it was time to leave local football behind, so on 13 May 1896 the club became a limited company and applied for entry to the Football League.

Their application was successful, and for the club's debut season, 1896–97, they joined the sixteen-team Second Division. Blackpool's first-ever Football League game took place on 5 September 1896, at Lincoln City, which they lost 3–1 in front of around 1,500 spectators.^[1][5]

For the 1897–98 campaign, the club played their home games at the Athletic Grounds (at the present-day Stanley Park). They remained there for the first seven home games of 1898–99, before returning to Raikes Hall for the remaining ten.

Blackpool, after finishing third-bottom, were not re-elected at the conclusion of the 1898–99 season, and spent the 1899–1900 term back in the Lancashire League. They finished third, and after the Football League's annual meeting, on 25 May 1900, were permitted back into Division Two. It was during this season out of the League that Blackpool amalgamated with local rivals South Shore.

Early 20th century[link]

After spending a final season, their first back in the League, at Raikes Hall, the club moved to a new ground at Gamble's Field, on Bloomfield Road at the southern end of the town. The ground was subsequently renamed for the road on which it stood.

During the ten seasons that followed, Blackpool could finish no higher than twelfth place. The club's top goalscorers in the League included Bob Birkett (ten goals in 1900–01), Geordie Anderson (twelve goals in 1901–02) and Bob Whittingham (thirteen in 1908–09).

At the end of 1910–11, the club found themselves in seventh place, thanks largely to Joe Clennell's haul of eighteen goals.

It was a case of as-you-were, however, for the four seasons leading up to World War I, with finishing positions of fourteenth, twentieth, sixteenth and tenth. For the latter of those seasons, Joe Lane netted 28 goals.

The outbreak of war forced the cancellation of League football for four years, during which time regional competitions were introduced. When normalcy resumed, in 1919–20, Blackpool had appointed their first full-time manager in the form of Bill Norman. Norman guided the club to fourth-placed finishes in his first two League seasons in charge (he was installed as manager during the final inter-war season), with Lane again netting close to thirty goals in the former.

The club's form nosedived in the 1921–22 season, with a finishing position of nineteenth, before bouncing back to a fifth-placed finish in the following campaign. Harry Bedford, who had joined the club from Nottingham Forest, was the country's top League scorer, with 32 goals to his name.

Bedford repeated the feat the following season, this time under the watchful eye of new manager Frank Buckley, who replaced Bill Norman after his four years of service. Blackpool finished fourth in Buckley's first season in charge.

The 1924–25 season was not as successful; a seventeenth-placed finish tempered only slightly by the club's reaching the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time. A single-goal defeat at fellow Lancastrians Blackburn Rovers ended the Seasiders' run.

Buckley guided Blackpool to top-ten finishes in his final two seasons as manager – with Billy Tremelling's thirty goals in the latter helping considerably – before he left to take the helm at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Buckley's replacement was Sydney Beaumont, who took charge for the 1927–28 season, but he lasted only until the spring after the club finished in nineteenth position.

Harry Evans was installed as the new Blackpool manager, in an honorary capacity, for the 1928–29 campaign. Due in no small part to Jimmy Hampson's 40 goals, the club finished eighth. In his second season, Evans guided Blackpool to the Division Two championship (their only championship to date), finishing three points ahead of Chelsea. Hampson had bagged 45 of the club's 98 League goals.

Blackpool lasted only three seasons in the First Division. Two third-bottom finishes were followed by a last-placed finish, and the club returned to the Second Division.

The club's relegation prompted the Blackpool board to install a recognised manager, and they opted for Sandy MacFarlane. MacFarlane occupied the Bloomfield Road hot seat for just two seasons, in which the club finished eleventh and fourth. MacFarlane's final season, 1934–35, marked Jimmy Hampson's eighth successive (and final) season as Blackpool's top League goalscorer.

Joe Smith was appointed Blackpool's sixth manager in August 1935, a role in which he remained for the next 23 years.

The club finished tenth in Smith's first season, with Bobby Finan taking over from Hampson as top scorer, with 34 goals. It was Smith's second season in charge, however, that marked the starting point of the success to come. Blackpool finished the 1936–37 season as runners-up in the Second Division to Leicester City and were promoted back to the First Division.

Two seasons of Division One football were played before a second World War intervened. Blackpool sat atop the table at the time the abandonment occurred.^[6] Regional competitions were implemented again between 1939 and 1945. For the 1945–46 season, after the war's conclusion, Blackpool spent one season in the Football League North.

Post-World War II[link]

Scottish defender Hugh Kelly had arrived at Blackpool in 1943, as had fellow defender Tommy Garrett in 1942. Forward Stan Mortensen joined the club after the war in 1946. Mortensen went on to become Blackpool's top League goalscorer for the next nine seasons, sharing the honour with Allan Brown in 1952–53. Stanley Matthews, who became a regular source of goals for Mortensen, joined Blackpool in 1947, as did centre-forward Jackie Mudie. Goalkeeper George Farm signed in 1948 as did outside-left Bill Perry in 1949. Kelly, Garrett, Matthews, Mudie, Farm and Perry would play with the club throughout the 1950s, the most successful decade in the club's history.

Post-war Blackpool reached the FA Cup Final on three occasions, losing to Manchester United in 1948 and Newcastle United three years later, and winning it in 1953 captained by Harry Johnston.

In 1955–56, and now captained by Kelly, Blackpool attained their highest-ever League finish: runners-up to Manchester United, despite losing their final four League games. It was a feat that could not be matched or bettered over the following two seasons, with fourth and seventh-placed finishes, and Smith left Blackpool as the club's most successful and longest-serving manager.

Smith was succeeded, in May 1958, by Ron Suart, the first former Seasiders player to return to the club as manager. In his first season, he led the club to eighth in the First Division and the sixth round of the FA Cup. A 23-year-old Ray Charnley topped the club's goalscoring chart with twenty, in his first season as a professional, and went on to repeat the feat for seven of the eight seasons that followed.

The League Cup came into existence in 1960–61. Blackpool were knocked out in the second round, the round in which they entered. The club's First Division status came under threat, but they managed to avoid relegation by one point, at the expense of Newcastle United. Local arch-rivals Preston North End were the other club to make the drop.

Mid-table finishes in 1961–62 and 1962–63 (and an appearance in the League Cup semi-finals during the former) were offset by another lowly finish of eighteenth in 1963–64, with Alan Ball top-scoring with thirteen goals. Much of the same ensued over the following two seasons, before relegation finally occurred in 1966–67. Blackpool finished bottom of the table, eight points adrift of fellow demotion victims Aston Villa. Suart had resigned four months before the end of the season. His replacement was another former Blackpool player, Stan Mortensen.

Late 20th century[link]

Mortensen picked up the pieces for the club's first season back in the Second Division in thirty years, guiding them to a third-placed finish. They had gone into the final game of the season at Huddersfield Town knowing that a win would likely secure a return to the First Division. They won 3–1, but once the premature celebrations had ended, they discovered that their nearest rivals, Queens Park Rangers, had scored a last-minute winner at Aston Villa. Q.P.R. were promoted by virtue of a better goal-average: 1.86, to Blackpool's 1.65.

At the end of the following 1968–69 campaign, the Blackpool board made the decision to sack Mortensen after just over two years in the job. Their decision was met by fans with shock and anger, as Mortensen was as popular a manager as he was a player.^[1]

Les Shannon, who spent the majority of his playing career with Blackpool's Lancashire rivals Burnley, was installed as manager for the 1969–70 season. In his first season he succeeded where Mortensen had failed, by guiding the club back to the top flight as runners-up behind Huddersfield Town. Their promotion had been sealed after the penultimate game of the season, a 3–0 victory at rivals Preston North End, courtesy of a Fred Pickering hat-trick. The result effectively relegated the hosts to the Third Division.

As quickly as Shannon had taken Blackpool up, he saw them return whence they came. The club finished at the foot of the table and were relegated back to Division Two, along with Burnley. Before the season's conclusion, Shannon was briefly replaced in a caretaker-manager capacity by Jimmy Meadows, who in turn was permanently replaced by Bob Stokoe. On 12 June 1971, well over a month after the conclusion of the League season, Blackpool won the Anglo-Italian Cup with a 2–1 victory over Bologna in the final. This was achieved without the services of Jimmy Armfield, who retired in May after seventeen years and 627 appearances for the club.

Blackpool finished amongst the top ten teams in the Second Division for six consecutive seasons, under three different managers: Stokoe, Harry Potts and Allan Brown. Twice Blackpool narrowly missed promotion to Division One, by two points in 1974 and one point in 1977.

Brown's second season at the helm, 1977–78, ended with the club's relegation to the Division Three for the first time in their history.

Stokoe returned for a second stint as manager for the 1978–79 campaign, at the end of which Blackpool finished mid-table. Stokoe resigned during the summer.

Stan Ternent became Blackpool's seventh manager in nine years, only to be replaced in February 1980 by Alan Ball, the popular former Blackpool midfielder who left the club for Everton fourteen years earlier. Ball himself only lasted a year in the job, and departed when the club were relegated to the League's basement division.

Allan Brown had taken over from Ball in February 1981, and he remained in charge for the following 1981–82 term. Blackpool finished twelfth in their first season in Division Four; however, unable to handle the pressure of the job,^[1] Brown resigned during the close season.

Sam Ellis took over from Brown in June 1982, three years after he finished his playing career with Watford. His first season saw Blackpool finish 21st, with Dave Bamber topping the club's goalscoring chart for the second consecutive season with ten strikes.

It was Ellis's third season, however, that brought the success the club had been looking for. Blackpool finished second behind Chesterfield and were back in Division Three.

The club managed to finish in the top half of the table for their first three seasons in the Third Division, but slipped to nineteenth in Ellis's seventh and final season in charge.

On 17 April 1986, the board of directors, after an emergency meeting, put the club on the market after councillors rejected plans to sell Bloomfield Road for a supermarket site in a £35 million redevelopment scheme.

For the 1989–90 season, Blackpool appointed Jimmy Mullen as manager. Mullen's reign last only eleven months, however, and he left the club after their relegation back to Division Four.

Graham Carr replaced Mullen, but his spell in the manager's seat was even shorter – just four months. He was sacked in November 1990 with Blackpool in eighteenth place.

Carr's replacement was his assistant, Billy Ayre. Ayre guided the team to a fifth-placed finish and qualification for the play-offs. They lost only five of their thirty League games that remained at the time of Ayre's appointment. The run included thirteen consecutive home League wins in an eventual 24–game unbeaten run at Bloomfield Road.^[1] The run was extended to fifteen consecutive home wins at the start of the 1991–92 campaign, which remains the club record.

After beating Scunthorpe United in the two-legged semi-finals of the play-offs, Blackpool lost to Torquay United in the Wembley final, on penalties after the score was tied 2–2 after regular and extra time (see Blackpool F.C. season 1990-91#Final).

The following 1991–92 season finished with Blackpool in fourth place, missing out on automatic promotion by one point, which meant another play-offs experience. This time they met Barnet in the semi-finals and won 2–1 on aggregate. They returned to Wembley, where they faced Scunthorpe United in the final, the team they knocked out of the play-offs twelve months earlier. Again the score was tied at the end of regular and extra time, but Blackpool were victorious in the penalty shootout and booked their place in the new Division Two.

Blackpool struggled in their first two terms back in the third tier of English football, demonstrated by eighteenth- and twentieth-placed finishes, avoiding relegation in the latter season by virtue of a 4–1 victory over Leyton Orient on the final day of the season.^[7] Ayre was sacked in the summer of 1994 and was replaced by Sam Allardyce.

Allardyce led Blackpool to a mid-table finish in his first season and saw the club knocked out of both cup competitions at the first hurdle. Tony Ellis was the club's top scorer with seventeen League goals.

The 1995–96 season saw Blackpool finish third and claim a place in the play-offs for the third time in six seasons. In the semi-finals, Blackpool travelled to Bradford City and won 2–0. Three days later, they hosted the Yorkshiremen at Bloomfield Road and lost 3–0. Blackpool remained in Division Two, and Allardyce was sacked not long afterwards.

Former Norwich City manager Gary Megson replaced Allardyce, and attained a seventh-placed finish in his only season in charge. Nigel Worthington succeeded Megson in the summer of 1997, and in the Irishman's two full campaigns in the hot seat, Blackpool finished twelfth and fourteenth. Worthington resigned towards the end of the 1999–2000 season, and his seat was filled by the former Liverpool and England midfielder Steve McMahon.

21st century[link]

Bloomfield Road, Blackpool's home since 1899, during its reconstruction phase in the early part of the 21st century. This view is looking north.

McMahon arrived too late to save the club from relegation to the Third Division after a 22nd-placed finish in the table. In his first full season in charge, Blackpool were promoted to Division Two by winning the play-offs. The following season the club received its record outgoing transfer fee; £1.75million from Southampton for Brett Ormerod, eclipsing the £600,000 Q.P.R. paid for Trevor Sinclair eight years earlier. They also gained the first of two Football League Trophy wins in 2002 as Blackpool beat Cambridge United 4–1 at the Millennium Stadium. Their second win was in 2004, this time beating Southend United 2–0 again in Cardiff. In the summer following the Trophy win McMahon resigned, as he believed he could not take the club any further with the budget he was being offered. Colin Hendry became the new manager, but was replaced by Simon Grayson in November 2005 after an unsuccessful stint which left Blackpool languishing just above the relegation zone of League One.

In the 2006–07 FA Cup Blackpool reached the fourth round for the first time in seventeen years, after beating Aldershot Town 4–2 at Bloomfield Road, but were knocked out by Norwich City, 3–2 after a replay at Carrow Road.^[8] They finished in third place, and qualified for the play-offs, and as top scorers in League One with 76 goals.^[9] After beating Oldham Athletic 5–2 on aggregate in the semi-final^[10] they met Yeovil Town in the final at the new Wembley Stadium, their first appearance at England's national stadium in fifteen years. Blackpool won 2–0, a club-record tenth consecutive victory, and were promoted to The Championship in their 100th overall season in the Football League.^[11] The promotion marked their return to English football's second tier for the first time in 29 years.

Blackpool knocked Premier League side Derby County out of the League Cup at the second-round stage on 28 August 2007. The match ended 1–1 after ninety minutes and 2–2 after extra time. The Seasiders won the resulting penalty shootout 7–6.^[12] On 25 September, Blackpool beat Southend United 2–1 after extra time^[13] to reach the fourth round for the first time in 35 years. They were drawn away to Premiership side Tottenham Hotspur in the last sixteen, a match they lost 2–0.^[14] Tottenham went on to win the competition.

Blackpool finished the 2007–08 season in 19th place, escaping relegation by two points and ensuring their safety in a 1–1 draw with Watford on the final day of The Championship season.

On 23 December 2008, Simon Grayson left the club to join League One club Leeds United after just over three years in charge at Bloomfield Road.^[15] Under the guidance of Grayson's assistant, Tony Parkes, in a caretaker manager capacity, Blackpool finished the 2008–09 campaign in 16th place. Parkes left the club on 18 May 2009 after a meeting with chairman Karl Oyston about finances.^[16]

On 21 May 2009, Ian Holloway was appointed as manager, signing a one-year contract with the club with an option of a further year.^[17] On 31 July it was announced that club president Valeri Belokon was setting up a new transfer fund, into which he was adding a "considerable amount" on 5 August in order to invest in new players identified by Holloway.^[18] Four days later Blackpool broke their transfer record by signing Charlie Adam from Scottish champions Rangers for £500,000,^[19] eclipsing the £275,000 paid to Millwall for Chris Malkin in 1996.

Blackpool finished the 2009–10 regular season in sixth place in The Championship, their highest finish in the Football League since 1970–71,^[20] and claimed a spot in the play-offs. On 2 May 2010, the 57th anniversary of Blackpool's FA Cup Final victory, Blackpool hosted Bristol City for the final League game of the season. They needed to match or better Swansea City's result in their match at home to Doncaster Rovers. Both matches ended in draws, with Swansea's Lee Trundle having a late goal disallowed for handball, which meant Blackpool secured the remaining play-off place.^[21]

On 8 May, Blackpool beat Nottingham Forest 2–1 at Bloomfield Road in the semi-final first leg.^[21] Three days later, they beat them 4–3 (6–4 on aggregate) at the City Ground in the second leg to progress to the final (their third in ten seasons) against Cardiff. The result meant Blackpool had beaten Forest in all four of the clubs' meetings in 2009–10.^[22]

Blackpool defeated Cardiff City 3–2 on 22 May in the Championship play-off Final at Wembley Stadium to earn promotion to the Premier League.^[23] It would be Blackpool's debut appearance in the Premier League since the 1992 founding of the competition and their first appearance in English football's top flight in 39 years.^[24] Blackpool have now, uniquely, been promoted through all three tiers of the Football League via the play-off system. Furthermore, they have won all nine play-off games they have been involved in during the ten seasons between 2001 and 2010. The fixture was dubbed "the richest game in football", because the victorious club would receive a £90 million windfall.^[25] It was more than double the £36 million that the winners of the Champions League received.^[26]

On 24 May, a Promotion Parade was held along Blackpool's promenade for the club's personnel, who travelled on an open-top double decker bus from Gynn Square down the Golden Mile to the Waterloo Headland. The police estimated that about 100,000 people lined the route. At the Headland, manager and squad took to a stage to address the gathered mass crowd. "This is the most unbelievable moment of my life," said Ian Holloway. "I've jumped on the best ride of my life and I don't want to go home."^[27][28]

Recent events[link]

In their first-ever Premier League match, Blackpool defeated Wigan Athletic 4–0 at the DW Stadium. The result saw the Seasiders sit atop the table^[29] until Chelsea's 6–0 victory over West Bromwich Albion later in the day. It was the first time they had been in such a position since they won their opening game of the 1957–58 top-flight campaign.^[30] The initial fixture list had the game being played at Bloomfield Road, but the Premier League permitted the switching of the game to Wigan because construction work on Bloomfield Road's East Stand had not been completed in time.

On 27 January 2011, the Premier League fined Blackpool £25,000 for fielding what they believed to be a weakened team against Aston Villa on 10 November. Ian Holloway, who initially threatened to resign if punishment was dealt, made ten changes to the team for the fixture. The club had fourteen days to appeal the decision,^[31] but chose not to, with Karl Oyston stating that if the fine was upheld there was a threat of a point deduction and an increase in the fine.^[32]

On 22 May 2011, exactly 365 days after their promotion, Blackpool were relegated back to The Championship, after losing 4–2 at champions Manchester United, coupled with results elsewhere, on the final day of the season.^[33] Despite predictions that they "wouldn't get ten points,"^[34] Blackpool took 39 from their 38 games, including home^[35] and away^[36] victories over Liverpool, consecutive away wins at Stoke City^[37] and Sunderland,^[38] and a home victory over Tottenham Hotspur.^[39] Seven of their ten overall wins were obtained before the new year, and at the end of 2010 they sat in eighth place; however, seven defeats in the opening eight fixtures of 2011 saw them drop down the table. The next match, a draw at home Aston Villa, left them in fifteenth, their lowest placing of the campaign to date. Another run of defeats — this time five in six — put them in the relegation zone for the first time.^[40] They climbed out of the bottom three, at the expense of Wigan Athletic, with successive home draws against Newcastle United and Stoke City. They dropped back in after a draw at Tottenham, with Wolves switching places, and sat level on points with Wigan and three ahead of bottom club West Ham United.

A victory, their first in three months, over Bolton Wanderers, in their penultimate League fixture, wasn't enough to edge them out again, as Wolves won at Sunderland. To Old Trafford they went, and despite leading twelve minutes into the second half, the hosts, who were crowned champions a week earlier, took control and condemned 19th-placed Blackpool to relegation, along with Birmingham City and West Ham.

In July 2011, Blackpool smashed their outgoing transfer record when Charlie Adam signed for Liverpool in a £7-million deal.^[41][42] A portion of these funds was used to bring former Scotland, Rangers, Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham captain Barry Ferguson to Bloomfield Road, where he once again assumed the armband, from his fellow Scot Adam.^[43]

On 9 May 2012, Blackpool secured their place in the Championship play-off final in their second consecutive season in the division after beating Birmingham City 3–2 on aggregate in the semi-finals.^[44]

They met West Ham in the 19 May final at Wembley, losing 2–1, thus ending their fourteen-game unbeaten run in play-off fixtures, dating back to 1992.^[45]

Rivals[link]

Blackpool's primary rivalry is with Preston North End, and the West Lancashire derby between the two clubs has been contested nearly 100 times across four divisions of league football. A Blackpool-supporting producer of the television show Countdown took a novel swipe at Preston by displaying the letters "PNECRISIS" for viewers to solve in May 2011. This had come after supporters at both clubs took turns mocking each other at the prospect of Preston's relegation to League One.^[46] Other rivals include Burnley, Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic and Wigan Athletic.

Stadium[link]

The main entrance of Bloomfield Road, viewed in May 2010.

Blackpool have played their home games at Bloomfield Road since 1901.

In the summer of 2010 work was done on the stadium to prepare for the club's debut season in the Premier League. A new 5,120-capacity temporary East Stand was built, together with improvements to the floodlighting, media and medical facilities and the dugouts, as well as painting work on the West Stand and Kop. A new video screen was also installed. During the season, the South Stand is to have further hospitality areas fitted out, and work is also being done on the South West corner in order to reach a capacity of over 18,000.

As from the first home game, against Fulham on 28 August 2010, the capacity was 16,220, the highest capacity at Bloomfield Road in thirty years.

Players[link]

Current squad[link]

As of 24 May 2012.^[47][48]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player — DF Alex Addai — FW Louis Almond — DF Alex Baptiste — FW Thomas Barkhuizen — MF Chris Basham — FW Roman Bednář — DF Paul Bignot — MF Gerardo Bruna — DF Craig Cathcart — DF Matt Challoner — DF Stephen Crainey — MF Adam Dodd — DF Neal Eardley — DF Ashley Eastham — DF Ian Evatt — MF Barry Ferguson (captain)

No. Position Player — GK Matt Gilks — MF Elliot Grandin — GK Mark Halstead — DF Bob Harris — MF Tom Ince — GK Chris Kettings — MF Ángel Martínez — MF Jamie Menagh — FW Kevin Phillips — MF Matt Phillips — MF Keith Southern — FW Craig Sutherland — MF Ludovic Sylvestre — MF Gary Taylor-Fletcher — DF Curtis Thompson — MF Liam Tomsett

Reserve team[link]

Up until the 2009–10 season the reserve team competed in the Central League Division One West. They have been Central League champions twice, in 1919–20 and 1949–50.

With the first team promoted to the Premier League, for the 2010–11 season the reserves competed in the Premier Reserve League. They were in North Group B, with Blackburn Rovers, Everton, Liverpool and Sunderland. At the end of the campaign, the club withdrew from reserve league football, preferring to play such games behind closed doors.^[49]

Youth team and Centre of Excellence[link]

The youth team competes in the Football League Youth Alliance, North West Conference. They are also eligible to enter the FA Youth Cup and the Lancashire FA Youth Cup, which they won in the 2007–08 season. In the final, on 28 April 2008, they beat Wigan Athletic 2–0 at Bloomfield Road.^[50] They also won the Lancashire FA Youth Cup in the 1985–86 season. Youth-team players can also play in the club's reserve team.

Players to have come through the Blackpool youth team include Danny Coid, who served the club for thirteen years. Other players to have progressed through the ranks include Danny Mitchley, who made his first-team debut in the 2008–09 season, as well as Ashley Eastham and Louis Almond, both of whom made their first-team debuts in the 2009–10 season (Almond made his debut whilst still being a member of the youth team). Former Premier League players Trevor Sinclair, Paul Stewart and Alan Wright were also products of the Blackpool youth department. Others include Matthew Blinkhorn, John Hills, Clarke Carlisle and Rickie Lambert.

The head of the youth department is John Hills, who replaced fellow ex-Blackpool player Gary Parkinson in August 2011. Parkinson suffered a stroke in September 2010.^[51] Another former Tangerine, Phil Clarkson, is the Under-15s coach.

The club also has a Centre of Excellence, managed by Garreth Barker, with boys teams in age ranges from under-9s to under-16s. The Centre of Excellence runs Development Centres in Preston and Lytham St Annes. They also have two partner clubs: Isle of Man Football League side Union Mills and Thornton-Cleveleys of the West Lancashire Football League.

See also:

• List of Blackpool F.C. players
• List of notable Blackpool F.C. players
• Blackpool F.C. players with a Wikipedia article

One-club men[link]

Nine players spent their entire professional playing career with Blackpool:^[52]

Internationals[link]

Blackpool have had 43 full-international representatives. Their first was Fred Griffiths (for Wales) in 1900. In 1996, Northern Ireland's James Quinn became the club's first player in sixteen years to be selected for a full international; the last being Derek Spence. Their most recent was Matt Phillips (for Scotland) in 2012.

Many players won additional caps with other clubs, but the totals given below apply solely to appearances made while with Blackpool.

As of 26 May 2011

England

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

Prior to 1924, there was only one Irish national team. In that year, the Republic of Ireland began playing separate matches, and that position is reflected here.

Republic of Ireland

Latvia

Algeria

Australia

Ghana

Hall of Fame[link]

The Blackpool F.C. Hall of Fame was established on 22 August 2006, with a plaque unveiled by Jimmy Armfield. Organised by the Blackpool Supporters Association, Blackpool fans around the world voted on their all-time heroes. Five players per decade are inducted.^[53]

Pre-1950s:

• Jack Parkinson
• Harry Bedford
• Jimmy Hampson
• Jock Dodds
• Georgie Mee

1950s:

• Stan Mortensen
• Stanley Matthews
• Bill Perry
• Harry Johnston
• Allan Brown

1960s:

• Jimmy Armfield
• Alan Ball
• Tony Green
• Ray Charnley
• Glyn James

1970s:

• Alan Suddick
• Mickey Walsh
• Tommy Hutchison
• John Burridge
• Mickey Burns

1980s:

• Paul Stewart
• Alan Wright
• Eamon O'Keefe
• Andy Garner
• Mike Davies

1990s:

• Trevor Sinclair
• Dave Bamber
• Tony Ellis
• Andy Morrison
• Phil Clarkson

PFA Team of the Year[link]

Six players have been included in the PFA Team of the Year whilst playing for Blackpool.

• 2003: Martin Bullock (Second Division)
• 2004: Richie Wellens, Scott Taylor (Second Division)
• 2007: Wes Hoolahan (League One)
• 2010: Charlie Adam (The Championship)
• 2012: Matt Phillips (The Championship)

Football League 100 Legends[link]

The Football League 100 Legends is a list of "100 legendary football players" produced by The Football League in 1998 to celebrate the 100th season of League football. Five former Blackpool players were included in the list.^[54]

• Jimmy Armfield
• Alan Ball
• Peter Doherty
• Stanley Matthews
• Stan Mortensen

Non-playing staff[link]

As of 9 August 2011.^[55][56]

On 18 August 2010, Karl Oyston stood down as both chairman and director of the club with immediate effect, although he remained as Acting Chief Executive.^[57] In 2011, however, he was listed as chairman once more on Blackpool's official website.^[56]

Blackpool Football Club Ltd. is owned by Segesta (formerly Blackpool Football Club Properties), who hold 76.23% of the shares. VBFA (Valeri Belokon) owns 20%, while another 201 shareholders make up the remaining 3.77%.

Segesta, meanwhile, is owned by the Oyston Family (97.34%). 301 shareholders make up the remaining 2.66%.

Managers[link]

There have been 29 full-time managers of Blackpool (including repeat appointments), all of whom have been of United Kingdom nationality. The longest-serving manager was Joe Smith, who occupied the role for 23 years. The club has, on average, appointed a new manager every 3.2 years.

The statistics in the table below account for Football League and Premier League games only. Play-off games are excluded.

As of 28 April 2012

A pie chart displaying (in chronological order, clockwise from noon) Blackpool's managers and their years of service to the club. Note: caretaker and part-time managers have been omitted; multiple terms have been combined

A bar chart displaying (in descending order) Blackpool's managers by their total number of Football League games in charge (as of the end of the 2009–10 season). Note: caretaker and part-time managers have been omitted; multiple terms have been combined

A bar chart displaying (in descending order) the win percentages of Blackpool's managers in Football League games (as of the end of the 2009–10 season). Note: caretaker and part-time managers have been omitted; multiple terms are displayed as an average

^1 – Also played for Blackpool
^2 – Norman was the club's first full-time manager

League history[link]

Blackpool have played 106 seasons in English league football. 28 of these were spent in the first tier, 48 in the second, 22 in the third, and seven in the fourth. Also, one inter-war season was played, in what was titled Football League North, in 1945–46.

Honours[link]

Blackpool have eight Football League and fifteen cup honours to their name. They are:

* denotes most recent honour

Records[link]

Kits[link]

Shirts[link]

Blackpool first began wearing tangerine for the 1923–24 season, after a recommendation from referee Albert Hargreaves, who officiated an international match between the Netherlands and Belgium and was impressed by the Dutchmen's colours.^[59]

Before changing to tangerine permanently, the team tried several different colours: blue-and-white striped shirts in the 1890s (becoming known as the Merry Stripes); a mixture of red or white shirts at the turn of the twentieth century; and, during World War I, black, yellow and red. The latter was adopted to include the colours of the flag of Belgium, a show of support for the large number of Belgian refugees that had arrived in the town. After the war, they wore white shirts and navy-blue shorts. The board introduced another change in 1934 when the team appeared in alternating dark- and light-blue stripes (which have been reintroduced several times in the mid-1990s and 2002, as well as Blackpool's return to the top flight in 2010 as the club's third kit), but they bowed to public pressure in 1939 and settled on tangerine.^[59] Between 1938 and 1958 Blackpool's kit consisted of tangerine shirts, white shorts and navy blue socks. The club now uses tangerine socks, though navy was used as a secondary colour in the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[60]

In August 1997, psychic Uri Geller said that Blackpool's new all-blue away strip would prove to be unsuccessful due to the lack of "psychic energy" that the players would get. The kit was subsequently worn for the first time at Bristol City, where the Seasiders suffered their first defeat of the season.^[4]

Sponsors[link]

Lytham St Annes-based energy-conservation company Inenco sponsored Blackpool for three seasons in the early 1990s.

Blackpool's away shirt for the 2009–10 campaign.

Below is a list of Blackpool's shirt sponsors:

Back-of-shirt sponsors:

Shorts sponsors:

Source

Manufacturers[link]

Below is a list of Blackpool's kit manufacturers: