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Blackpool F.C.

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Blackpool Football Club is an English football club currently in Football League One. Their home ground is Bloomfield Road in the seaside resort of Blackpool in north-west England and they are known as "The Seasiders" or "The Tangerines", the latter stemming from their home colour.

The club's most famous achievement is winning the FA Cup in 1953 (in the so-called "Matthews Final"), when they beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3, overturning a 1-3 deficit in the closing stages of the game.

Although the main entrance to the ground (via the now demolished South stand) used to be on Bloomfield Road, since the re-development of the North and West stands, it is now from Seasiders Way.

The club's owners, the Oyston family, announced in December 2005 that they were considering three bids for the club.

Blackpool have been outside the top division since 1971, and are currently in League One (third tier of the English league).

In 1982-83, Blackpool endured the worst season in their history. They finished second from bottom in the Fourth Division and were only saved from relegation to the Alliance Premier League (now the Conference) because the re-election system voted in their favour. The club recovered two years later to win promotion to the Third Division, only to go down again in 1990.

Under the management of Billy Ayre, Blackpool reached the Fourth Division playoff final in 1991 but lost to Torquay on penalties, only to win the following year's final in the same manner against Scunthorpe.

Blackpool narrowly avoided relegation from Division Two in 1994. Ayre was sacked, to be replaced by his assistant, Sam Allardyce, who guided them to third place in 1996; however, he too was sacked after they lost to Bradford in the playoffs.

Nigel Worthington was appointed manager for the 1997-98 season, replacing Stockport-bound Gary Megson, but was relieved of his position two years later with Blackpool heading for relegation to Division Three. His successor, Steve McMahon, was unable to save the Seasiders from relegation, but brought them back at the first attempt via the playoffs. He was replaced by Colin Hendry three years later. Hendry lasted little over a year before being replaced by Simon Grayson.

Grayson had previously briefly teamed up with Mike Flynn for the final game of the 2003-04 season (after McMahon's departure). With assistance from experienced coaches Tony Parkes and Asa Hartford, Grayson was able to guide the team to 19th place and safety in his first managerial job. In early May 2006, it appeared that Valeri Belokon, a Latvian businessman with connections in both banking and beer, was poised to make a considerable investment in the club, possibly even taking over the chairmanship from Karl Oyston. On 19th May, it was announced that Belokon had agreed to invest £5 million into the club, which will be spread over several years.

And duly on 19th June 2006, Valeri Belekon invested into Blackpool FC, purely into the playing side of the club, of which he now has a newly issued share holding of 20% with the option to increase that stake at some point to 50%. Belokon becomes the new "President" of Blackpool FC. All the funds he has invested are apparently to be for the purchase of new players. The club may also bring over Latvian players as there is now also a link to Latvian football. Indeed, Blackpool are due to fly out to Latvia for a pre-season tour of Latvia from 17th to 21st June.

Contents

History

Bloomfield Road, home of Blackpool F.C.
Enlarge
Bloomfield Road, home of Blackpool F.C.

Source: [Blackpool] at the Football Club History Database

Managers

There have been 27 different Blackpool managers:

Current squad

| width="1%" | |bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" width="48%"| |}

* denotes player signed during close season

Source : [SoccerBase]

Non-playing staff

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Honours

Club records

Famous Players

Famous Fans

Ground history

Blackpool have called the following grounds home during their existence:

External links

 

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