37 Facts About Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in EFL League One.

Charlton Athletic spent seven successive years in the Premier League, before suffering two relegations in three years.

Charlton Athletic FC were formed on 9 June 1905 by a group of 14 to 15-year-olds in East Street, Charlton, which is known as Eastmoor Street and no longer residential.

Contrary to some histories, the club was founded as "Charlton Athletic" and had no connection to other teams or institutions such as East St Mission, Blundell Mission or Charlton Reds; it was not founded by a church, school, employer or as a franchise for an existing ground.

Charlton Athletic spent most of the years before the First World War playing in local leagues but progressing rapidly, winning successive leagues and so promotions eight years in a row.

Related searches

At the outbreak of World War One, Charlton Athletic were one of the first clubs to close down to take part in the "Greater Game" overseas.

In 1923, Charlton Athletic became "giant killers" in the FA Cup beating top flight sides Manchester City, West Bromwich Albion, and Preston North End before losing to eventual winners Bolton Wanderers in the Quarter-Finals.

Later that year, it was proposed that Charlton Athletic merge with Catford Southend to create a larger team with bigger support.

Charlton Athletic finished second bottom in the Football League in 1926 and were forced to apply for re-election which was successful.

Charlton Athletic is commemorated in the name of a stand at the Valley.

Charlton Athletic finally secured promotion to the First Division by beating local rivals West Ham United at the Boleyn Ground, with their centre-half John Oakes playing on despite concussion and a broken nose.

In 1937, Charlton Athletic finished runners up in the First Division, in 1938 finished fourth and 1939 finished third.

The club began to groundshare with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and this arrangement looked to be for the long-term, as Charlton Athletic did not have enough funds to revamp the Valley to meet safety requirements.

In 1987 Charlton Athletic returned to Wembley for the first time since the 1947 FA Cup final for the Full Members Cup final against Blackburn.

Charlton Athletic was replaced by joint player-managers Alan Curbishley and Steve Gritt.

Charlton Athletic died suddenly at the end of the following month at the age of 30.

Under his sole leadership Charlton Athletic made an appearance in the play-off in 1996 but were eliminated by Crystal Palace in the semi-finals and the following season brought a disappointing 15th-place finish.

Charlton Athletic were unable to build on this level of achievement and Curbishley departed in 2006, with the club still established as a solid mid-table side.

Charlton Athletic's return to the second tier of English football was a disappointment, with their promotion campaign tailing off to an 11th-place finish.

On 10 October 2008, Charlton Athletic received an indicative offer for the club from a Dubai-based diversified investment company.

On 11 March 2014, two days after an FA Cup quarter-final loss to Sheffield United, and with Charlton Athletic sitting bottom of the table, Powell was sacked and leaked private emails suggested that this was due to a rift with the owner.

Charlton Athletic started strong, but a long run of draws meant that after only 25 games in charge Peeters was dismissed with the team in 14th place.

Charlton Athletic was replaced by former player Lee Bowyer as caretaker manager who guided them to a 6th-place finish, but lost in the play-off semi-final.

On 29 November 2019, Charlton Athletic were acquired by East Street Investments from Abu Dhabi, subject to approval from the English Football League.

In June 2020, Charlton Athletic confirmed that ESI had been taken over by a consortium led by businessman Paul Elliott, and said it had contacted the EFL to finalise the ownership change.

Related searches

Charlton Athletic attempted to regain control of the club to prevent Elliot's takeover from going ahead, but failed and was fined and dismissed for challenging the club's directors.

Charlton Athletic have used a number of crests and badges during their history, although the current design has not been changed since 1968.

However, after the move fell through, Charlton Athletic returned to wearing red and white as their home colours.

Progression of the nickname can be seen in the book The Addicks Cartoons: An Affectionate Look into the Early History of Charlton Athletic, which covers the pre-First World War history of Charlton through a narrative based on 56 cartoons which appeared in the now defunct Kentish Independent.

Charlton Athletic stayed at The Valley until 1923, when the club moved to The Mount stadium in Catford as part of a proposed merger with Catford Southend Football Club.

In September 1985, Charlton Athletic made the controversial move to ground-share with South London neighbours Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

Unlike those rivals Charlton Athletic have never competed in football's fourth tier and are the only one of the three to have won the FA Cup.

In 1985, Charlton Athletic were forced to ground-share with Crystal Palace after safety concerns at The Valley.

Charlton Athletic fans campaigned for a return to The Valley throughout their time at Selhurst Park.

Since their first meeting in the Football League in 1925, Charlton Athletic have won 17, drawn 13 and lost 26 games against Palace.

Charlton Athletic featured in the ITV one-off drama Albert's Memorial, shown on 12 September 2010 and starring David Jason and David Warner.

Charlton Athletic assumes a pivotal role in the film The Silent Playground.