27 Facts About Stoke City

Stoke City Football Club is an professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which compete in the EFL Championship.

Stoke City were one of the twelve founding members of the Football League in 1888.

Stoke City remained in the top-flight from 1979 to 1985, though were relegated to the Third Division in 1990.

Stoke City was founded during the 1860s under the title of Stoke Ramblers in 1863.

Stoke City Ramblers were formed in 1868 by Henry Almond who had been a student at Charterhouse school where a dribbling form of the game was popular.

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Stoke City arrived in the region to become an apprentice with the North Staffordshire Railway Company and, wishing to continue playing the game that he had enjoyed whilst at school, established the first formal association football club in the region.

Stoke City were one of the twelve founding members of the Football League when it was introduced in 1888.

In 1890 Stoke City failed to be re-elected and joined the Football Alliance, which they won and thus were re-elected to the Football League.

Stoke City joined the club in 1952 as a coach, before being promoted to assistant manager in 1957.

Stoke City competed in the UEFA Cup in 1972 and 1974 losing at the first attempt to 1.

Stoke City finished the season with only 17 points, with just three wins all season.

Jordan's tenure in charge was short, leaving the club less than a year after joining, and Stoke City opted to re-appoint Lou Macari only 12 months after he had left.

Stoke City did not last long though, and was replaced by Chris Kamara in January 1998.

Stoke City became the first Icelandic-owned football club outside of Iceland.

On 23 May 2006, Coates completed his takeover of Stoke City, marking the end of Gunnar Gislason's chairmanship of the club.

Stoke City managed to turn the Britannia Stadium into a "fortress", making it difficult for teams to pick up points there.

Stoke City was replaced by Paul Lambert, who could not prevent the club ending their 10-year spell in the Premier League.

Stoke City played a home League match against Middlesbrough at Vale Park whilst repair work was on-going.

The Stoke City End Stand was improved in 1979 and through the 1980s more improvements were made.

In 1997, Stoke City left the Victoria Ground after 119 years, and moved to the modern 28,384 all seater Britannia Stadium at a cost of £14.

Stoke City struggled at first to adjust to their new surroundings and were relegated to the third tier in the first season at the new ground.

Stoke City have had problems with football hooliganism in the 1970s through the early 2000s, due to the actions of the "Naughty Forty" firm which associated itself with the club and was formed by supporter Mark Chester.

In 2003, the BBC described Stoke City as having "one of the most active and organised football hooligan firms in England".

In November 2008, a group of Stoke City fans was forced by the Greater Manchester Police to leave Manchester before a league match against Manchester United.

In 1908, Stoke City lost their League status and were able to finally revert to red and white and when they re-joined the league in 1919 the rule was scrapped.

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Since then, Stoke City have forever used red and white striped shirts, with the only time when they diverted from this was for two seasons in the mid-1980s, which saw them wear a pin-striped shirt.

Stoke City's first club crest was a stylised "S" which was used by players in 1882 who would stitch the crest on to their shirts; however, this practice soon faded away.