Manchester City Football Club was founded in 1880 as West Gorton Saint Marks. In 1887 the name was changed to Ardwick Football Club and in 1894 it took its current name. The club plays its home games at the Etihad Stadium in East Manchester and plays in the Premier Leaque.
History
The club was founded in 1880 as Weston Gorton Saint Marks. In 1887 the club moved to the new Hyde Road stadium in Ardwick, east Manchester, and the club was renamed Ardwick Football Club. In 1891/92 the club joined the Football Alliance, the equivalent of the Football League. The following season, the Football Alliance was absorbed by the Football League and the league became the second tier of the system. Financial difficulties led to a reorganization within the club in 1893/94 and the name was changed to Manchester City Football Club.
Back and forth
In 1896 the club became vice champion behind Liverpool but was unable to promote. Three yeastonars later it was a hit when the title was won. After three seasons, the club was relegated and was able to promote again after one season. On re-entry, the club became vice-champion behind Sheffield Wednesday, beating Bolton Wanderers 1-0 at Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final. The club had some good results, but relegated again in 1909. Again the club was able to return after one season and achieved mediocre results until the competition was stopped by the First World War, in the last season the club finished fifth.
After the war, the club continued with the same élan and achieved good results, in 1921 finishing second behind Burnley. A year earlier, the main stand was destroyed by fire and the club moved to the new Maine Road stadium in 1923. After the good listing it went downhill until another relegation followed in 1926. This time it took two seasons before City could rejoin the elite. In 1933 the club reached the final of the FA Cup again, but lost to Everton, a year later it was hit when Portsmouth were defeated.
In 1936/37 the club became champions three points ahead of Charlton Athletic. However, the success did not last and there was even an anticlimax with relegation the following season, which while the club scored 80 times, the most in the entire division. In the second division, the club finished in the second tier, in 1939 the competition was stopped prematurely due to the outbreak of the Second World War.
Post-war period
After the war, the club immediately became champions in the Second Division and rejoined the elite. After two seasons in the top ten, the club relegated again in 1950. After one season, City returned and battled relegation for several seasons until 1954/55 when the club finished seventh and won the FA Cup against Birmingham City. This FA final, which the club won 3-1, is one of the most famous in history, as City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann fractured a cervical vertebra after a collision 15 minutes before the end and continued to play without knowing what happened. hand wash. The following year, the club was fourth in the league, the following seasons the club was an average with the occasional outlier. In 1963 the club was relegated again and even in the second division could not compete with the top in the first two seasons, the spectators also failed and in January 1965 the record low came, 8,015 against Swindon Town. The third season in the Second Division was a hit and the club was promoted again, this time for a successful era.
The Golden years
After a quiet season, the club competed for the title in 1967/68 along with defending champions and arch-rival Manchester United. City won the title two points ahead of United and were allowed to play European for the first time. However, the Turkish Fenerbahçe SK turned it into a short adventure. It also did not run smoothly in the competition and the club only finished thirteenth, although that was a lot better than the last time when they were champions. Consolation prize that year was another FA Cup win and a new European adventure. Athletic Bilbao, Lierse, Académica and Schalke were successively set aside and in the final of the European Cup II, City beat the Polish Górnik Zabrze. Thus, in 1969, the club became the second team to win a national and international cup in the same season. The following year, the club was defeated by Chelsea in the semi-finals. In 1974, the club gave the final blow to Manchester United on the last day of the season by winning a goal from former player Denis Law 1-0, resulting in United’s relegation.
Dark years
The eighties ushered in a less favorable period. For example, the club relegated in 1983 and played two years in the second division and then two years in the first division, before being relegated again and playing two years in the second division. The nineties started better with a fifth place in 1991 and 1992 led by trainer Peter Reid. After he left, things also got worse for the club. In 1992 City co-founded the Premier League which replaced the First Division as the top division. The club played there until 1996 when another relegation followed. Two seasons later, a low point in the club’s history was reached, The Citizens were relegated to the third division (Second Division).
In the first season, the club finished third and was able to promote through the play-offs. As far as first-class football sounded in 1998 when the club were relegated, it was so close when the new millennium was ushered in and the club returned to the top of English football as vice champions. Bermudian striker Shaun Goater’s goals seemed to herald a revival. However, the two promotions in a row had been a bit too much for the club, which immediately relegated again. But then City became champions again and on the return they reached ninth place and European football was again played. Two years later, the club did even better with eighth place.
Thai influence
In the summer of 2007, it was announced that Manchester City had been taken over by a billionaire as yet another club in England. The Thai Thaksin Shinawatra took over eighty percent of the shares for 81.6 million pounds. He pumped several million into the squad which ensured that the new coach, Sven-Göran Eriksson, was able to buy eight new players, including Rolando Bianchi and Vedran Thorluka. However, it did not yield great results.
Resurrection
The resurrection, with the help of major investment, was awarded the league title in the final round of matches against Queens Park Rangers on 13 May 2012. The team was still 1-2 down until the 92nd minute and with this score on the scoreboard should leave the league title to eternal rival Manchester United. The impossible succeeded and City still won through goals from Edin Džeko and Sergio Aguero. 44 years after the 1968 league title, City finally took the title again.
In 2014, Manchester City repeated this fact by beating West Ham United 2-0 on the final day of play. Led by Manuel Pellegrini, the club took the so-called League Cup Double that season, because City had already won the League Cup, after a 3-1 win over Sunderland AFC.
Under the leadership of the Spanish success trainer Josep Guardiola, many prizes were won. In its first season, the club did not win a prize, but the club managed to record a record turnover of 473.4 million pounds. Turnover increased by 21 percent. A profit of 1 million pounds was made in the first year under the leadership of trainer-coach Pep Guardiola.
The 2017/18 season went extremely well for The Citizens. The club remained undefeated for a long time. On 23 December 2017, Agüero scored his 100th goal at City’s Etihad Stadium when he scored in the league game against Bournemouth. With the 4-0 victory, Guardiola’s team set a record: more than a hundred goals (101) in one calendar year. On January 14, 2018, Manchester City suffered their first-ever Premier League defeat of that season. That happened in the 23rd round and the opponent was Liverpool, who triumphed at home with 4-3. It was City’s first loss in the Premier League since 5 April 2017.
Liverpool also beat City twice in the Champions League. They were eliminated in the quarterfinals after finishing as group winners in a group with Shakhtar Donetsk, Napoli and Feyenoord. In the eighth finals, Manchester City eliminated Basel (5-2 over two matches). The club could become champions in the Manchester Derby against Manchester United on 7 April 2018. The Citizens took a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Vincent Kompany and İlkay Gündoğan, but 2 goals from Paul Pogba and 1 from Chris Smalling forced the championship party to be postponed. That was celebrated a week later when Manchester City beat Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United lost to West Bromich Albion. That became the second prize of the season after the Carabao Cup was won earlier that season by a 3-0 win over Arsenal in the final. After the championship, Leroy Sané received another award: ‘PFA Young Player Of The Year’ for best young player of the year in the Premier League. The magical barrier of 100 goals in one Premier League season was also broken, scored by former Manchester City player Pablo Zabaleta, who then played for opponent West Ham United.
In 2008, just a year after its acquisition by Shinawatra, the club was bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, which bought a majority stake for $185 million. The wealth of the Al Nahyan family, one of the investors, is estimated to be €32 billion, making City the richest club in the world in one fell swoop.
One of the investors’ motives is to promote Abu Dhabi in the sporting and cultural field. The Thai Thaksin Shinawatra was allowed to stay on as chairman. The first major purchase Manchester City made since the new takeover was Robinho, who was taken over from Real Madrid for 42 million euros, in addition Vincent Kompany was also attracted. The Belgian was taken over from Hamburger SV for 8 million euros. Major acquisitions followed in the years that followed, such as Carlos Tévez, Kolo Touré, Patrick Vieira, David Silva and Sergio Agüero. In the summers of 2011, 2012 and 2013, nearly £273 million was spent on new players. A state-of-the-art £200 million training complex was also built, primarily intended for the youth. Because the club did not comply with FIFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, City was fined £60 million and a salary cap by the World Football Association. The club was also allowed to register a maximum of 21 players for the Champions League from the 2014/15 season. City said in a statement that they would accept the sanctions without murmuring.
Etihad Stadium
The Etihad Stadium has been the home of Manchester City since 1999. Today it can accommodate 55,000 spectators, following an expansion of the stands in 2015. Manchester City Council leases the stadium to Manchester City for 250 years in exchange for their old stadium, Maine Road. It has also been agreed that the club will give 50% of the proceeds from ticket sales for 34,000 places (the capacity of Maine Road) to the municipality.