Bradford City A.F.C.
| Full name | Bradford City Association Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Bantams The Paraders The Citizens | ||
| Founded | 1903 | ||
| Ground | Coral Windows Stadium Bradford | ||
| Capacity | 25,136 | ||
| Chairman |  Julian Rhodes Mark Lawn | ||
| Manager |  Stuart McCall | ||
| League | League Two | ||
| 2006-07 | League One, 22nd (relegated) | ||
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Bradford City Association Football Club (also known as The Bantams, and previously The Paraders or The Citizens) are an English football club based in Bradford, Yorkshire, playing in League Two. The club plays home games at Valley Parade, named the Coral Windows stadium under sponsorship naming rights. The ground was the victim of a vicious fire on May 11 1985, which took the lives of 56 supporters.
The club was founded in 1903. It was instantly elected into Division Two of the Football League despite not having played a previous game. Promotion to the top tier followed in 1908 and the club won the FA Cup in 1911, its only major honour. After relegation in 1922 from Division One, the club spent 77 years outside the top flight until promotion to the Premiership in 1999. City stayed up, with a then record low of 36 points, in the first season in the Premiership.
Relegation followed the following season, since then a series of financial crises have pushed the club to the brink of closure. The financial pressures have resulted in two more relegations to its current position in League Two.
The club colours are claret and amber. Bradford & Bingley are the club's official shirt sponsors.
The current manager is Stuart McCall, who enjoyed two playing spells at the club. Current club captain is David Wetherall. The club has two chairmen, Julian Rhodes and Mark Lawn, who are also Bantams fans.
City enjoys rivalries with Leeds United and Huddersfield Town. They also used to have a strong rivalry with cross-town club Bradford A.F.C.
The club spearheaded an initiative in 2007 to slash the price of watching professional football 2007–08 season.[1] As a result season tickets to watch Bradford City will be the cheapest in England at £138, the equivalent of £6 per match.[2] When the offer finished at 7pm on Tuesday, 31 July 2007, the club confirmed the amount of season tickets sold was 12,019.[3]
History
- For information on a breakdown of Bradford City's league and cup history see Bradford City A.F.C. seasons.
Early years
The club was formed out of Manningham RFC, a rugby league club and a founding member of the Northern Rugby Football Union. Manningham RFC left that code at the end of the 1902–03 season to switch to association football. The invitation in 1903 to join the Football League was an attempt to introduce the sport to the rugby-dominated area of West Yorkshire. The club was accepted into the league even before it had a team or played a game. Bradford City and Chelsea, in 1905, share the distinction of being the only clubs to join the league without having played a competitive fixture.
A summer archery contest, which had been organised to raise money for the rugby league club, was used to finance the new club.[4] Its first game was a 2–0 defeat away at Grimsby Town on 1 September 1903. The club claimed its first piece of silverware when it won the Division Two title in 1907–08 and promotion to the top flight.
Cup glory
In its third year in Division One, the club had its most successful in its history. A highest finish of fifth was secured in the league. But the bigger success came in the FA Cup, which the club won for the only time in 1911. The first game in the final against Newcastle United at Crystal Palace ended in a goalless draw before Bradford City won the replay 1–0 at Old Trafford on 28 April 1911, with captain Jimmy Speirs scoring the winning goal. The club was the first winners of the new trophy which was ironically made by Bradford-based company Messrs Fattorini and Sons. The cup run also included a record crowd at Valley Parade of 39,146 in the quarter-final stage against Burnley.
Decline
City were relegated to Division Two in 1921–22 and would spend the next 77 years outside the top flight. A second relegation followed to Division Three (North) in 1926–27, before a record-breaking season in 1928–29 under manager Peter O'Rourke brought the title to City. The season included an 11–1 victory over Rotherham United on the way to a tally of 128 goals.
City remained in Division Two until 1936–37 until they were relegated again. For the following 41 seasons, the club was in the bottom two divisions in professional football. The club was in Division Three (North) until it was became defunct in 1957–58. Relegation to Division Four followed just three years later in 1960–61. City hit record low positions in 1962–63 and 1965–66 before it was promoted in fourth place in 1968–69.
Relegation back to the basement division happened in 1971–72. Promotion, again via fourth place, was earned in 1976–77, but City were instantly relegated the next season in 1977–78. Roy McFarland took the club out of Division Four in 1981–82 when it came second. It would not be until the current season, Bradford City would be relegated back to this level.
Trevor Cherry took over from Roy McFarland following promotion to the Third Division. He managed the club during some of its most difficult years in its history. City went into informal insolvency in 1983. A new company, Bradford City (1983) AFC, was formed replacing the original company formed in 1908.
Just two years later City had secured promotion back into Division Two as league champions. But tragedy struck on what should have been a day of joy for the club.
On 11 May 1985, the club played its final game of the 1984–85 season at home to Lincoln City in front of 11,076 fans. After 40 minutes of the first half, a fire broke out in the main stand that dated back to 1908. Most spectators managed to escape on to the pitch but those who headed for the locked turnstiles were trapped in an inferno, which killed 56 spectators and injured more than 200 others. An investigation into the tragedy decided that it had been caused by a carelessly discarded cigarette that ignited accumulated rubbish beneath the main stand.[5]
Valley Parade was closed after the fire for significant rebuilding of the stadium. City played its home games at Odsal Stadium, the city's rugby ground, Elland Road, Leeds, and at Leeds Road, the former home of Huddersfield Town. The club returned to Valley Parade on 26 December 1986 against Derby County.
A permanent reminder to the fire was erected on the new main stand. The club also holds a commemoration ceremony outside Bradford City Hall every year.
Near miss and another spell in obscurity
Terry Dolan took over from Trevor Cherry, after the club flirted with relegation in 1986–87. Dolan secured Division One football before he took City close to a return to Division One in 1987–88. Two defeats in the final two games of the season to Aston Villa and Ipswich Town condemned City to the play-offs. They lost in the semi-finals to Middlesbrough. Following the sale of star players Stuart McCall and John Hendrie during the summer, the club went down to Division Three just two years later in 1989–90. They remained at this level for another six years.
The Geoffrey Richmond era
John Docherty and Frank Stapleton had both failed to bring success to the club during their respective tenures as manager, despite close promotion challenges, before Geoffrey Richmond took over as chairman in 1994. Richmond promised the fans he would take the club to the Premiership by 1999 in his five-year plan.[6]
Richmond's first managerial appointment was Lennie Lawrence, who had taken both Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough to the top flight. His first season ended in a disappointing finish of 14th. The club began the following season much better, until December 1995 when Lawrence left to take over at Luton Town.
Veteran player Chris Kamara took over, and made a dream start to his managerial career as he guided the Bantams into Division One via the play-offs, with a 2–0 win against Notts County in the club’s first and only visit to Wembley. City avoided relegation on the final game of the following season, but Kamara was sacked mid-way through the 1997–98 campaign. Richmond claimed that the manager had taken the club as far as he could.[7]
Paul Jewell, who would have left the club had promotion not been earned in 1995–96,[citation needed] took over as manager, originally on a caretaker basis. Many fans were not impressed with Jewell's first four months in charge but he was given the managerial position full-time during the summer.[8] Jewell was given money to assemble his own squad, and he twice broke the club's transfer record at the start of the 1998-99 season. Strikers Lee Mills came from Port Vale and Isaiah Rankin from Arsenal, for £1 million and £1.3 million respectively. Jewell also persuaded former captain Stuart McCall to return from Rangers on a free transfer to lead the side.
Jewell surprised all observers in his first full season in 1998–99 by securing the runners-up spot in Division One and promotion to the Premiership with a 3–2 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the final game of the season. City struggled in the first season in the top flight, but Jewell's team continued to confound the critics when they achieved a surprise 1–0 win over Liverpool thanks to a goal from David Wetherall on the last game of the 1999–00 season to avoid relegation with just 34 points. However Jewell left the club only weeks afterwards to take charge of relegated Sheffield Wednesday.
Richmond again turned to an appointment within the club, when he installed assistant Chris Hutchings as manager. Richmond splashed out millions on new players including a club record £2.5million for David Hopkin, Ashley Ward, Dan Petrescu and Italian striker Benito Carbone who was on a reported £40,000 per week.[9] Hutchings oversaw City’s first European campaign in the Intertoto Cup but he was sacked after a terrible start to the season with just one victory from 12 league games. Scotsman Jim Jefferies took over but was unable to stave off relegation. The club was in financial crisis following Richmond’s self-proclaimed six weeks of madness,[10] and Jefferies had been given the job of reducing the debts.
He left halfway through the following season and was replaced by Chesterfield manager Nicky Law. In the summer of 2002, debts of more than £30 million – as a result of the collapse of ITV Digital and the payment of Premiership wages to some of the more high profile players – forced City into administration (though Carbone waived much money owed to him by the club, to help them survive).[9] At one point the Bantams were reputedly just ten minutes from being forced out of business.[citation needed]
Relegations and financial problems
Despite the club's financial problems, City fulfilled its fixtures in the 2002–03 season. Law was sacked in December 2003 with the club battling another relegation and against the backdrop of more financial problems again putting the club at risk of closure. Bryan Robson took over until the end of the season. He was unable to prevent relegation and he was succeeded by his assistant Colin Todd.
Todd had established the Bantams as a competent League One side in his first two seasons at the helm with two top-half finishes despite the club again going into administration in 2004. He was expected to mount a promotion challenge in 2006–07. But the club struggled and after a string of poor results, including just four wins from 24 games, Todd was sacked on 12 February 2007, with City languishing just three points above the relegation zone.
Veteran defender Wetherall was appointed player-manager on a temporary basis with rumours that former players Stuart McCall and Peter Jackson were in line to take over the vacancy.[11] [12] Wetherall was not able to help the club avoid relegation, which was confirmed with a 3–0 defeat at Chesterfield. Relegation meant the 2007–08 season would be the club’s first in the bottom division for 25 years.
During the summer of 2007, City legend midfielder McCall was appointed manager, his first full-time managerial position, after being caretaker in 2000 between Hutchings and Jefferies, and assistant manager to Neil Warnock at Sheffield United. He was joined by fellow former players Wayne Jacobs, as assistant, and Dean Richards, in the role of youth coach. He recorded his first win in the third league game of the season with a 2–1 victory over Wrexham.
Colours and club crest
For a gallery of Bradford City kits, please see here.
Bradford City is the only professional football club in England to wear claret and amber. The colours were inherited from Manningham RFC, when the club converted to football upon Bradford City’s founding in 1903. However, Manningham’s traditional colours were claret and amber hoops, whereas City have worn stripes. Manningham RFC adopted the colours in 1884 before the move to Valley Parade in 1886. Having originally worn black shirts with white shorts, the club’s first game in claret and amber was against Hull on 20 September 1884, at Carlisle Road.
The reason Manningham chose claret and amber is not documented but it was the same colours of the West Yorkshire Regiment, which was based at Belle Vue Barracks on nearby Manningham Lane. Both Manningham, from 1886, and Bradford City, from 1903-08, used the barracks as changing and club rooms.
Bradford City has worn claret and amber, with either white or black, since it was founded. The traditional style has been for stripes. Since the fire in 1985, the club has used black on the kit as a memory to the 56 supporters who died.[13] The club's away shirt has traditionally been white and to a lesser extent also blue. But there has been a profusion of other colours and designs particularly in more recent years.
City scarves have also sold in large numbers in recent years to fans of Harry Potter, because the colours are the same as Harry’s house scarf at Hogwarts School.[14]
A number of other clubs across the world wear claret and amber. They include Scottish club, Motherwell, who originally wore blue until they wore claret and amber for the first time on 23 August 1913, against Celtic. Motherwell chose the colours because they were the racing colours of Lord Hamilton.[15]
Contrary to any suggestion the City colours were certainly not derived from the civic identity of Bradford given that the primary colours of the Bradford coat of arms were red and blue with gold. Manningham was a township within Bradford and its identity was defined more by sporting rivalry with the township of Horton where the Park Avenue ground was situated. The fact that red, amber and black (with white) has been worn by three of the city's senior football clubs (namely Bradford AFC, Bradford RFC / Bradford & Bingley RUFC and Bradford Northern RLFC / Bradford Bulls who were all descended from the original Bradford FC which was based at Park Avenue) has made many people assume that these were the de facto sporting colours of Bradford. Indeed the colours have also been used by other sports organisations in Bradford such as cycling, hockey and athletics principally in the style of a red, amber and black band on a white shirt (as typically worn by Bradford Northern and as an away kit by Bradford). Red, amber and black are also the historic colours of Bradford Cricket Club formed in 1836. Bradford FC had been formed in 1863 by former pupils of Bramham College and in 1880 joined Bradford CC at Park Avenue. However it is not known whether one club took the colours of the other at this time. Bradford did not achieve city status until 1897 and to that extent red, amber and black could well have been associated with Bradford prior to the granting of the arms and certainly well before Bradford's city status.
The club’s crest combines a series of logos from over the years. In 1974, City adopted a contemporary style crest incorporating the club’s initials, with a B-C logo. At the time, the new logo maintained the previous nickname of the Paraders. By December 1981, the club relaunched the Bantams as the official identity with a bantam on the new crest. The crest maintains the club colours and also includes the words The Bantams.
Stadium
Bradford City has played at Valley Parade since the club's inception in 1903, taking over the ground from Manningham RFC. The club also played home games at Odsal Stadium, Elland Road, Leeds, and Leeds Road, the former home of Huddersfield Town between August 1985 and December 1986, while Valley Parade was being redeveloped following the tragic fire on 11 May 1985. A total of 56 supporters were killed on the final game of the season after a fire ripped through the main stand.
Valley Parade is unusual among football grounds because it is built on the side of valley, hence the name, meaning one side of the ground is much higher than the opposite side. The ground has been significantly redeveloped even since it was reopened in December 1986. Its capacity is now 25,136, making it the largest ground in League Two.
The record attendance at the ground was 39,146 for a Fourth Round FA Cup tie against Burnley in 1911. It is the longest surviving record attendance in English football and is unlikely to be ever beaten.[16] The modern all-seater record attendance at the ground was 22,057 in the Premiership against Liverpool in 2001.
Valley Parade has had several other names under sponsorship naming deals and is now called the Coral Windows Stadium.[17] The Bradford City museum is also based in the ground's shop.[18]
The ground has been used for England under-21 and under-18 internationals. Rugby league side Bradford Bulls also used the ground during the 2001 and 2002 Super League seasons.
Rivalry
Although their original neighbours and fierce rivals Bradford (Park Avenue) are now a non-league club, they still engage in a very fierce competition with local rivals Leeds United: they are considered to be the club's most hated rivals in modern times, although it could be said that this is a one-way rivalry: Leeds fans are unlikely to raise the same level of emotion talking about Bradford City that a City fan would of Leeds. This rivalry is mainly due to the two cities' proximity to one another, which has exacerbated in later years because there has been a large following within Bradford choosing to travel the short distance to support Leeds rather than the home town's City. There may be other reasons, including the setting alight of a chip van by a tiny minority of Leeds fans during a game between the two sides at Odsal perceived by some as a mockery of the Bradford City disaster. Leeds United's relegation to League One in 2007 may reignite this rivalry, although Bradford's relegation to League Two has removed the possibility that the three major West Yorkshire football teams (Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield) might be in the same division for the first time since the 1980s in the 2007-08 season.
Also, Huddersfield Town have had roughly the same league status as City for the last couple of decades and so it could be argued that they are City's closest rivals.
Matches against these sides have produced both amazing spectacles and some terrible moments - the 1996-97 season providing examples of both. On February 1, 1997, Huddersfield Town defender Kevin Gray broke the leg of Bradford City striker Gordon Watson in two places with a horrific sliding tackle. Watson was, at that time, the most expensive player in Bradford City's history having cost them £575,000, and was playing in only his third match for the club. He required a 6 inch plate and 7 screws in his leg. It took Gordon almost two years of recovery and five further operations before he was able to return to football, after which he made just a handful of appearances for City before leaving the club. At Leeds High Court in October 1998 he succeeded in becoming only the second player in the history of football to prove negligence by another player and was later awarded in excess of £900,000 in damages,[19][20] making it "the most expensive tackle in British football and legal history".
The return fixture that season was a happier affair. It provided a spectacular display of goals in which City took a 3-0 lead, including one famous goal scored directly from a corner by ex-England star Chris Waddle, before the game swung in Huddersfield's favour as they fought back to the final score of 3-3.
The most recent derby with Huddersfield Town at Galpharm Stadium ended in a 2-0 victory to Town on 10 March 2007.
There are also lesser rivalries with Halifax Town, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley, Oldham Athletic, Hull City and Burnley.
Players
- As of 17 November 2007.[21]
Current squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Players out on loanNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Former playersIn 2007 former Telegraph & Argus sports journalist David Markham released the book The Legends of Bradford City, initially written to mark the club's centenary in 2003. It featured biographies of 100 players and staff members from the history of the club. The players were: StaffCurrent staff
Former managers
HonoursRecords
All records courtesy of Bradford City F.C. official website.[25] SponsorsTeam
Kit
Stadium
MascotsThere are two official mascots of Bradford City. They are The City Gent and Billy Bantam. References
External links |
