Sunderland AFC

By far the greatest team the wolrd has ever seenFormed in 1879, Sunderland were admitted into The Football League in 1892, becoming the 13th professional team in the country. During the late 19th century, they were known as the "Team of All Talents" - between 1892 and 1902 they won the league three times and were runners-up a further three times. Sunderland have been English Champions six times in total (last time was 1936), and won the FA Cup most famously as a Second Division club in 1973 (previously winning the FA Cup in 1937), when they beat the then mighty Leeds United 1 - 0.After World War II, Sunderland's fortunes faded, and in 1958, following an illegal-payment scandal which saw the club heavily fined, they were relegated for the first time in their history. At the time Sunderland was the last remaining club never to have been relegated. Since the war, the 1973 FA Cup has been the only major trophy won.Since the late 1960's, Sunderland have moved up and down divisions at regular intervals, rarely settling for more than five years. In 1987, they were relegated to the third division. They spent only one season there; their only season outside of the top two divisions.In 1997, Sunderland moved from Roker Park, home for 99 years, to the Stadium of Light, a 42,000 seater stadium (later increased to 49,000) on the banks of the River Wear. The stadium brought huge crowds and after two seasons they were promoted to the Premiership. Around this time, Sunderland also began to lay plans for the Academy of Light, a new world-class training academy for young stars.After a promising few seasons in the Premiership, the club was eventually relegated back to the Championship, with heavy debts.After another two seasons in the second-level of English football, Mick McCarthy took the club back up as Champions. The return to England's top flight however has seen a return to the depressing days of the 2002-03 season when wins, goals, and points were scarce. Sunderland, for the first time in their history, failed to win a home game before Christmas. By the end of February they had still not won a home game and the embarrassment was compounded when they were knocked-out of the FA Cup at the 4th round stage by League One side Brentford.On March 6, 2006, McCarthy was sacked by the club. Former club captain and Academy coach Kevin Ball took control as caretaker manager for the remainder of the season.The almost-inevitable relegation was mathematically confirmed on April 14th 2006, when in a very creditable display they drew 0-0 against Manchester United at Old Trafford.A modicum of self respect was achieved in beating Fulham 2-1 in their last home game of the season. In doing so they avoided the ignomy of being the only club in the history of the premiership, to never win at home all season. At least this gave the fans something to cheer about.They finally compounded the fans' misery by setting a new record low of 15 points which has never been achieved by any other team in the Premier League's 13 year existence (nor indeed in any division of the English league, if allowance is made for the change from 2 to 3 points for a victory in 1981-82). This outstanding league total saw them fall 24 points short of nearest surviving team Portsmouth F.C.Since their demise, however, new hope has been given to the club in the form of former crowd favourite Niall Quinn, who along with a consortium, thought to be made up of his connections from horse racing, has launched a bid to buy out former chairman Bob Murray.Top Flight Football League Champions: 6 1891/1892, 1892/1893, 1894/1895, 1901/1902, 1912/1913, 1935/1936 Football League runners-up: 5 1893/1894, 1897/1898, 1900/1901, 1922/1923, 1934/1935 [edit] Second Flight Football League Championship winners: 1 2004/2005 'New' Football League First Division winners: 2 1995/1996, 1998/1999 'Old' Football League Second Division winners: 1 1975/1976 'Old' Football League Second Division runner-up: 1 1963/1964 [edit] Third Flight 'Old' Football League Third Division winners: 1 1987/1988 [edit] Cup Competitions FA Cup winners: 2 1937, 1973 FA Cup beaten finalists: 2 1913, 1992 War Cup beaten finalists: 1 1942 League Cup (Milk Cup) beaten finalists: 1 1985 Charity Shield winners: 1 1936 Sheriff of London Charity Shield winners: 1 1903 Charity Shield runners up: 1 1937 You should create your own MySpace Layouts like me by using nUCLEArcENTURy .COM's MySpace Profile Editor !