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'Aberdeen Football Club' is a football team from Scotland, who compete in the Scottish Premier League.
Formed in 1903 from the amalgamation of a number of clubs from Aberdeen, they have historically been one of the most successful Scottish teams. Alex Ferguson was a highly successful manager of the team in the 1980s, guiding them to three league championships, and famously to victory in the 1983 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, defeating Real Madrid in the final.
Aberdeen play at Pittodrie, which has a capacity of 22,199 and was the first all-seater and all-covered stadium in the UK. Aberdeen were also the first team to introduce the 'dug-out'.
History
''Main article: History of Aberdeen F.C.''
Captain, now Director of Football Willie Miller lifts the European Cup Winners' Cup
Aberdeen Football Club are one of Scotland's most successful football teams and are the only Scottish team to have won two European trophies - the European Cup Winners' Cup against Real Madrid on 11 May 1983 and the European Super Cup against the European Cup holders Hamburg in December 1983.
The current Aberdeen FC was born out of the merger of three city clubs; Aberdeen, Victoria United and Orion in 1903.
The new club played its first season in the Scottish Second Division and was then elected, rather than promoted, to the First Division. The club has never since been out of the top tier in Scottish football. Under the management of Jimmy Philip, the club enjoyed steady and unspectacular progress for the first quarter-century of its existence. The club's first Scottish Cup final did not come until 1937 under Philip's successor, Paddy Travers, but no trophies were won prior to the Second World War.
After the war, new manager Dave Halliday steered the team through a period of unprecedented success, winning a Southern League Cup, a Scottish Cup and the club's first league championship as well as appearing in three more cup finals - one a League Cup - all in the space of ten years. His successor Davie Shaw acquired a League Cup as well as another Scottish Cup final appearance, but then the club endured a decade of relatively poor results in the 1960s.
The 1970s saw the beginnings of an upturn in fortunes, as first Eddie Turnbull and then Ally MacLeod led Aberdeen to cup successes during a period of high managerial turnover, before the manager who was to have the greatest impact on the club, Alex Ferguson took over in 1978. Under Ferguson's guidance, the club won three league championships, four Scottish Cups, the European Cup Winner's Cup, the European Super Cup and a League Cup - all in the space of seven years.
Following Ferguson, a succession of managers tried to live up to the standards he had set, most meeting with little or no success. The low point of the club's history came around the turn of the century, when they finished last in the Premier division - avoiding a relegation playoff only on a technicality. Subsequent to this, and with the club in debt for the first time following the construction of a new stand at one end of the ground, a policy of trying to live within their means has meant that the club has not approached the heights of the 1980s, yet in recent seasons has begun to show consistent improvement, particularly since the arrival as manager of Jimmy Calderwood in 2004.
Stadium
''Main article: Pittodrie''
Aberdeen play their home matches at Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen, which has a total capacity of 22,199. The stadium consists of four discrete stands; the Main Stand on the north side, which houses the club offices and players facilities; the Merkland Road Stand on the west side; the South Stand, a third of which is used to accommodate travelling supporters (for Old Firm games, two-thirds of this stand is given to the visiting fans); and the newest element, the Richard Donald stand at the East, or Beach End, of the ground. This is a modern, two-tier design containing hospitality suites which is significantly taller than the other structures at the ground. Pittodrie was one of the first all-seater stadia in Britain.
In the early years of the 21st century, there have been discussions regarding moving the club to a new location, but as at August 2007, nothing concrete has come of these.
Colours and badge
Colours
For the first season of the club's existence, the team played in a white kit. This is variously reported as all-white, or as white shirts with blue shorts and socks.[1] This colour scheme was the direct descendent of the kit worn by the precursor Aberdeen club, but lasted only one season before being replaced.
For the 1904-05 season, Aberdeen adopted a black and gold striped shirt, which led to the team being nicknamed 'Wasps'. This strip, with only minor variations, was worn until just before the start of World War II. The blue shorts lasted until 1911, and then were replaced with white ones. Socks (or, in the language of the time, 'stockings') were black with gold trim, either as stripes or as a solid bar at the turndown.
In March 1939, Aberdeen changed from the black and gold colours to red and white - reputedly in order to mirror the silver and red colours of the official City of Aberdeen arms . The first red strips were worn with white shorts, and the all-red scheme, familiar to many people thanks to the more widespread renown of the team from the late 1970s onward, is a relatively recent innovation. Aberdeen wore red shirts with white shorts and either red or white socks from their adoption in 1939 until the 1965-66 season.
In 1966, Aberdeen adopted red shorts, making the official kit all-red, similar to that of Liverpool, who made a similar change at around the same time. This arrangement has continued to the present day, with several variations in design, in common with most senior clubs as the replica shirt market has expanded. In the late 1970s an Admiral strip featured five vertical white stripes on the left side of the shirt and shorts, and the early 1980s shirts - as worn at the 1983 European Cup Winners Cup final - featured white vertical pinstripes. Later design changes proved controversial with sections of the support - two designs from the mid 1990s, in particular featured significant amounts of blue on the shirt - a colour associated with Rangers, at the time the strongest Scottish club, and one with which Aberdeen supporters considered themselves fierce rivals. The 1996-97 design featured a reversion to white shorts, but this, too, proved unpopular, and the familiar all-red design returned after only one season.
Shirt sponsorship began in 1987, and the initial shirt sponsors were JVC, as with Arsenal in England. Since then, with the club making fewer appearances on the international stage, shirt sponsors have tended to be more local - they have included the local commercial radio station, Northsound.
Change, or 'away' strips (the convention in Scotland until the 1990s was that the home team would change in the event of a clash, but the shirts are still sometimes referred to as 'away') have tended to be either white (often with black shorts) or some combination of yellow and black, referring back to the black and gold strips of the pre-war era, although for a time in the 1970s, Aberdeen sported an all-blue change strip. For the 2007-08 season, the change strip is all-white, with a third kit of yellow and black halves available if needed for European games, or in the event of a clash involving both red and white.
Badge
The club did not have an official crest before 1972, but several variations on the letters AFC had from time to time featured on the shirt, usually in some kind of cursive font. In November 1972[2], the club unveiled an official crest or logo, designed by Donald Addison. The design represented a capital letter 'A' as the side view of a football goal, with a ball forming the crossbar of the letter. This ball was crosshatched in such a way as to depict it as being inside the net, signifying the scoring of a goal. The logo was completed by the letters 'FC' in smaller type at a level with the ball element. This badge was used on the shirts from around 1978, with no significant alterations until the mid-1980s when the words 'Aberdeen Football Club' were added in a circular border, and the date of the club's founding, 1903, was added under the 'goal' element. The current version of the crest, which retains these elements in a unified design, was introduced at the start of the 1997-98 season.
Competition history
This is an account of Aberdeen's competition history during the last ten years. For a more complete list, see Aberdeen F.C. seasons
| 'Season' | 'Division' | 'Position' | 'Scottish Cup' | 'League Cup' | 'European Competition' | 'Top Scorer' |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | Premier Division | 6th | 3rd Round | Semi-final | ||
| 'Premier Division renamed as Scottish Premier League (SPL)' | ||||||
| 1998-99 | SPL | 8th | 3rd Round | 3rd Round | ||
| 1999-00 | SPL | 10th | ''Runners-up'' | ''Runners-up'' | ||
| 2000-01 | SPL | 7th | 4th Round | 3rd Round | UEFA Cup: 2nd Preliminary Round | Stavrum 17 |
| 2001-02 | SPL | 4th | 5th Round | 3rd Round | Winters 13 | |
| 2002-03 | SPL | 8th | 4th Round | Quarter-final | UEFA Cup: 1st Round | |
| 2003-04 | SPL | 11th | 5th Round | Quarter-final | Sheerin 8 | |
| 2004-05 | SPL | 4rd | Quarter-final | 3rd Round | Mackie 15 | |
| 2005-06 | SPL | 6th | 4th Round | Quarter-final | Lovell 10 | |
| 2006-07 | SPL | 3rd | 3rd Round | 2nd Round | Mackie 13 | |
Famous players
AFC Hall of Fame
Aberdeen inaugurated the Hall of Fame following the club's centenary celebrations in 2003. Over a five year period, around 50 players and staff will be inducted. As of September 2006, the following players are listed on the official website[3] as members:
★ Chris Anderson ★ Jim Bett ★ Henning Boel ★ Martin Buchan ★ Dick Donald ★ Arthur Graham | ★ Joe Harper ★ Jim Hermiston ★ John Hewitt ★ Drew Jarvie ★ Jim Leighton ★ Fred Martin | ★ Willie Miller ★ Teddy Scott ★ Ally Shewan ★ Neil Simpson ★ Gordon Strachan ★ Alec Young |
Other notable players
''For a complete list of former Aberdeen players with a Wikipedia article, see .''
Managers
★ Jimmy Philip (1903-1924)
★ Patrick Travers (1924-1938)
★ David Halliday (1938-1955)
★ Davie Shaw (1955-1959)
★ Tommy Pearson (1959-1965)
★ Eddie Turnbull (1965-1971)
★ Jimmy Bonthrone (1971-1975)
★ Ally McLeod (1975-1977)
★ Billy McNeill (1977-1978)
★ Alex Ferguson (1978-1986)
★ Ian Porterfield (1986-1988)
★ Alex Smith & Jocky Scott (1988-1992)
★ Willie Miller (1992-1995)
★ Roy Aitken (1995-1997)
★ Alex Miller (1997-1998)
★ Paul Hegarty (1998-1999)
★ Ebbe Skovdahl (1999-2002)
★ Steve Paterson (2002-2004)
★ Jimmy Calderwood (2004- Present)
Current squad (season 2007-2008)
Players in 'bold' have international caps.
:''For recent transfers, see List of Scottish football transfers 2007-08.''
Honours
★ European Cup Winners' Cup (1) :- 1982-83
★ European Super Cup (1) :- 1983-84
★ Scottish League Champions (4) :- 1954-55; 1979-80; 1983-84; 1984-85
★ Scottish Cup Winners (7) :- 1946-47; 1969-70; 1981-82; 1982-83; 1983-84; 1985-86; 1989-90
★ Scottish League Cup Winners (5) :- 1955-56; 1976-77; 1985-86; 1989-90; 1995-96
★ Southern League Cup Winners (1) :- 1946
★ Drybrough Cup Winners (2) :- 1971-72; 1980-81
★ Tennents' Sixes Winners (2) :- 1986; 1987
★ Highland Football League (reserve team championship) :- 1915; 1925
★ Adidas "World Team of the Year" 1983
Club records and achievements
★ 'First match:' Aberdeen 1 - 1 Stenhousemuir (Pittodrie; August 15 1903)
★ 'Largest win:' Aberdeen 13 - 0 Peterhead (Pittodrie, Scottish Cup 3rd Round; February 10 1923)
★ 'Largest defeat:' Celtic 8 - 0 Aberdeen (Celtic Park, Scottish First Division; January 30 1965)
★ 'Highest home attendance:' 45,061 vs Hearts, Scottish Cup Quarter-final, 13 March, 1954 The Roar of the Crowd: Following Scottish football down the years, , David, Ross, Argyll publishing, 2005, ISBN 9-8781902-831831
★ 'Highest average home attendance:' 24,200, 1948-49 (15 games)
★ 'Most capped player:' Jim Leighton, 91 Scotland
★ 'Most League appearances:' Willie Miller, 556, 1973-1990
★ 'Most goals scored:' Joe Harper, 205
★ 'Most goals in a season:' Benny Yorston, 38, 1934-35
★ 'Highest Transfer fee received:' £1,750,000 Eoin Jess, Coventry City February 1996
★ 'Highest Transfer fee paid:' £1,000,000 Paul Bernard, Oldham Athletic September 1995
★ The Scottish Cup final win against Celtic F.C. in 1937 was attended by a crowd of 146,433 at Hampden Park in Glasgow, which remains a record for a club match in European football.
★ Goalkeeper Mark de Clerck scored on his debut versus Berwick Rangers in 1980: a Belgian goalkeeper, signed from a Dutch club, scoring for a Scottish side on English soil.
★ The first ever Aberdeen goalscorer was Willie McAulay against Stenhousemuir on 15 August 1903 in front of 8,000 spectators at Pittodrie.
★ Aberdeen were the first team to lose a European tie on penalties after a 4-4 aggregate draw with Budapest Honvéd FC of Hungary in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1970.[4]
UEFA ranking
'Current club ranking' ★ 161 Germinal Beerschot ★ 162 Vålerengen ★ 162 Tromsø IL ★ '164' 'Aberdeen' ★ 164 Hibernian ★ 166 Viktoria Zizkov ★ 167 Malatyaspor ★ Full List | 'Current national league ranking' ★ 08 Dutch League ★ 09 Russian League ★ '10' 'Scottish League' ★ 11 Belgian League ★ 12 Ukrainian League ★ Full List |
External links
★ Official Site
★ Red Ultras
★ AFC CHAT - unofficial fans site
★ Reds Online - interactive fans site
References
1. Aberdeen
2. Aberdeen
3. http://www.afc.co.uk
4. http://www.afc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/forcereg/dons/0,,10284,00.html?
Source
★ The First 100 years of The Dons: The official history of Aberdeen Football Club 1903 - 2003, , Jack, Webster, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2003, ISBN 0-340-82344-5
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