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| Full name | Everton Football Club | |||
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| Nickname(s) | The Blues The Toffees |
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| Founded | 1878 | |||
| Ground | Goodison Park | |||
| Capacity | 39,221 | |||
| Owner | Farhad Moshiri | |||
| Chairman | Bill Kenwright | |||
| Manager | Carlo Ancelotti | |||
| League | Premier League | |||
| 2018–19 | Premier League, 8th of 20 | |||
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Everton Football Club (/ˈɛvərtən/) is an English professional football club based in Liverpool that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club has competed in the top division for a record 116 seasons and has missed the top division only four times (1930–31, 1951–52, 1952–53, and 1953–54) since the creation of the Football League, of which it is a founding member. The club has won nine League Championships, five FA Cups, and one UEFA Cup Winners Cup.
Formed in 1878, Everton won its first League Championship during the 1890–91 season. After winning four more League Championships and two FA Cups, the club experienced a post-World War II lull until a revival in the 1960s. A period of sustained success came in the mid-1980s, when Everton won a further two League Championships, one FA Cup, and the 1985 European Cup Winners' Cup. The club's most recent major trophy was the 1995 FA Cup.
The club's supporters are colloquially known as "Evertonians" or "Blues". Everton has a rivalry with Liverpool, and the two sides contest the Merseyside derby. The club has been based at Goodison Park in Walton since 1892, after moving from Anfield following a disagreement over its rent. The club's home colours are royal blue shirts with white shorts and socks.
History
Everton started out in 1878 with the name St Domingo's FC. At first it was only for people who went to St Domingo's church, but so many people were interested they let people from the local are join as well. A year later the club was renamed Everton Football Club, after the area. Everton Football Club's first ever match was against a team called St Peter's in 1879. Everton won 6-0.
Everton entered the FA Cup in the 1886/87 season. They were beaten 1-0 by Rangers in the first round. As football became more and more popular around England, the clubs realised they needed an organised league. In 1888 the Football League was founded. Everton were one of the 12 founding members. Preston North End won the first two leagues and Everton won the third in 1891. They won their second ever trophy, the FA Cup, in 1905 but did not win another until 1916. It was not until 1927 that Everton had their first period of long success. In 1925 they signed Dixie Dean and in 1927 he scored 60 goals in 39 games, setting a new world record and taking Everton to another league title. Everton were relegated, or sent down, to a the second division in 1930/1931. Within a year they were promoted again, and the club has not been relegated again since. This makes them the English football team with the most consecutive seasons in the top league of English football
Everton's second successful period came after 1961 when Harry Catterick was given the job of manager. With Catterick in charge Everton won two league titles and four cups between 1961 and 1970. This success did not last however, and after three years of low league finishes Catterick quit his job. The club finished in middle of the table, or mid-table, positions for the rest of the 1970's with a line of unsuccessful managers. In 1981 the club appointed Howard Kendall to be the new manager. He turned Everton around and eventually became the most successful manager in the clubs history, winning two league titles and three cups between 1981 and 1987. This era also brought Everton's one and only European trophy win, the Cup Winners Cup in 1985. The semi final saw Everton beat German champions Bayern Munich 3-1, a match voted the greatest of all time at Goodison Park. The final saw another 3-1 win for Everton against Rapid Vienna, crowning them European Cup Winners Cup Champions; their first and only European title to date.
In 1985 several Liverpool and 39 Juventus fans died when the crowd started fighting at a stadium in Heysel, Belgium. UEFA decided that Liverpool fans were mainly to blame. Because of this all English clubs were not allowed to play against European teams untl 1991. This denied Everton the chance to defend their European title and the team gradually broke up, selling many of their best players to other European clubs. The club did not do very well in the early 90s, nearly getting relegated twice and going through lots of money problems. However they still became one of the first members of the new English Premier League when it started in 1992. They were quite successful under a manager called Joe Royle,who took over in 1994. In his second season in charge he kept Everton clear of relegation and won the FA cup, the club's first trophy in seven years. The club had steady improvement under Royle, finishing 6th and 7th in the 1996 and 1997 seasons.
After two seasons however the club's performance went downhill and Kendall was sacked after only narrowly avoiding relegation in the 1998/99 season. Former player Walter Smith took over for three seasons, but failed to perform, spending a lot of money but not getting the team to good league positions. David Moyes took over in 2002 and has been one of the club's most successful managers to date. Under his management the club has become a regular top 10 side, finishing 4th in 2005, their highest ever Premier League finish.
Under his management Wayne Rooney was brought into the first team and he was quickly sold to Manchester United for £27 million, a club record fee. Since 2005 Everton have enjoyed regular top 8 finishes and reached the last 16 of the UEFA Cup in 2007 and the FA Cup final in 2009.
Kit
Everton usually wear royal blue shirts with white shorts and blue socks.
They wore many different kit colours in their first few years. At first they wore white shorts and white shirts with blue stripes. However many players who moved to Everton still wore the shirts of their old team, so things quickly got confusing. To solve this the club introduced an all black kit to the club, as black dye was cheap and easily available. However many fans thought this was quite boring and slightly morbid so a red band was added across the chest. It was not until the 1901/02 season that the colours of royal blue and white were first introduced. This kit has stayed, with a few small changes, almost exactly the same from then until the present day. It was changed for one year in 1986, to light blue, but the fans did not like this at all and it was quickly changed back again.
Sponsors
Everton's current shirt sponsor is a beer maker from Thailand, Chang Beer. Previous shirt sponsors have included electronics company NEC and food maker Danka. Everton were the first Premier League team to take off shirt sponsors from their child shirts because they did not like advertising alcohol to children.
Nickname and traditions
Everton's nickname is the Toffees, or sometimes the Toffeemen. This comes from one of two toffee shops that were near their stadium at the time the club started. Both Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House and Old Mother Nobletts Toffee Shop claim to have started off the nickname. At first Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House was very popular with fans because it was near to their stadium. However when the club moved to Goodison Park, they became close to Old Mother Nobletts Toffee Shop. There they sold sweets called 'Everton mints', which proved even more popular. Faced with going out of business, Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House got a licence to throw free toffees to the crowd inside the ground, before the match. This tradition continues even today. A teenage girl is chosen from the crowd to throw toffees to the crowd before the match, at half time and after the match.
At other times in their history Everton have also been known as 'The Black Watch', 'The Blues' and, in the 1980's, 'The School of Science'.
Like many Premier League football clubs, Everton's players walk out onto the pitch to a particular song at the beginning of every match. With Everton it is the theme tune to a 1960's television series called Z-Cars. Z-Cars was about police working in a made up town, which many people believed was based on real life Liverpool.
Images for kids
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Finishing positions in the top flight since 1955
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Since 1938, the local Everton Lock-Up has featured on Everton's crest
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Merseyside derby in 2012, Everton's Sylvain Distin defending against Liverpool's Luis Suárez
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Dixie Dean Statue, outside the Park End
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Goalkeeper Neville Southall made a record 751 first-team appearances for Everton between 1981 and 1997
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John Houlding, former Everton chairman and Anfield landowner
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George Mahon arranged for Everton to move to Goodison Park.
