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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 been one of the top clubs in Scotland. Sir 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 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' and flood lighting.

History

Aberdeen Football Club is one of Scotland's most successful football teams.

Origins of the club

The current Aberdeen FC was born out of the merger of three city clubs; Aberdeen, Victoria United and Orion. A public meeting on March 20, 1903 was attended by more than 1,600 citizens, and on that date the amalgamation issue was discussed and given the go-ahead. On April 14 that same year the merger was made official and Aberdeen Football Club was born.

The merger allowed Aberdeen (wearing an all-white kit) to seriously entertain thoughts of joining the Scottish Football League, but had to settle with spending its inaugural season in the Northern League having narrowly failed to gain admission to the First Division.

League football arrived in 1904-05 as Aberdeen were accepted to the Second Division, and immediately changed kit colours to black and gold giving them the nickname of the wasps. Despite finishing 7th in the league, Aberdeen successfully applied to join the First Division for the 1905-06 season and embarked on what has become an unbroken run of top flight football. Only Rangers and Celtic along with Aberdeen have never been relegated from top-flight British football. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen_F.C.#History

Scottish Dominance

Aberdeen (changing to red shirts from 1939 and all-red from 1965) established themselves as a reasonably strong side in Scottish football throughout the years, but struggled to attain trophy success. That changed in 1947 when the club won its first Scottish Cup with a 2-1 victory over Hibernian. The Scottish League Championship was claimed in 1954-55 as the club emerged as a credible threat to the Old Firm dominance of Scottish football.

During the summer of 1967, Aberdeen played a season in North America as part of a fledgling league called the United Soccer Association. This league imported twelve entire clubs from Europe and South America to play in American and Canadian cities, with each club bearing a local name. Aberdeen, playing as the "Washington Whips", won the Eastern Division title, but then lost the championship match to the Western Division winners "Los Angeles Wolves" (Wolverhampton Wanderers of England). (This FIFA-sanctioned league merged the following season with the non-sanctioned National Professional Soccer League, which had also begun in 1967, to form the North American Soccer League.)

They had a fairly strong team in the early 1970s. They won the Scottish Cup in 1969-70, beating Celtic in the final, and came second in the Scottish Football League in the next two seasons, but they fell away. Their strongest players at this time included Joe Harper, Martin Buchan, and Zoltan Varga.

The 1980s, however, became Aberdeen's glory years as they went through an incredible run of success. They became the more successful half of the New Firm, which also included Dundee United, which challenged the traditional dominance of Scottish football by the Old Firm comprising Celtic and Rangers, and achieved success further afield as well, winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983.

The catalyst for this was the arrival of new manager Alex Ferguson, now in charge of Manchester Utd., in 1978. Ferguson is a legendary figure in the north-east, after bringing three Scottish league championships, four Scottish Cups, one League Cup, the European Cup Winners Cup and the European Super Cup to Aberdeen. The eighties side included such stars as Willie Miller, Alex McLeish and Gordon Strachan. The night in Gothenburg in 1983 when the European dream was realised is still treasured by all Aberdeen fans old enough to remember. Aberdeen are still the most recent Scottish club to win a European trophy.

The departure of Ferguson in November of 1986 left the Dons board with the arduous task of replacing the irreplaceable, and they inexplicably opted for little-known coach Ian Porterfield. Porterfield's reign was nothing short of disastrous and ended with his resignation in May 1988.

90 minutes from the title

Alex Smith & Jocky Scott formed a co-managership of the club to replace Porterfield, and achieved a great Cup double in 1989-90 as they started to repair the damage done by the previous manager. In the 1990-91 season a run of twelve victories in thirteen games left Aberdeen sitting top of the table on goal difference ahead of Rangers, going into the final match of the season at Ibrox Park. A change of tactics (which eventually led to Jocky Scott leaving the club) and a Mark Hateley double gave the Championship to Rangers, and allowed them to continue on the Championship run that saw them eventually lift nine consecutive titles.

Into decline

Alex Smith floundered as manager in his own right, and was eventually sacked in 1992. Club legend Willie Miller failed to emulate his stunning playing success in the managerial hotseat, and since then a variety of managers have come and gone.

Since the latter half of the 1990s the club has declined somewhat, finding it impossible to compete against the dominance of Rangers and Celtic. The team has even come close to being relegated out of the Premier on a couple of occasions, on one occasion being saved from a relegation playoff only because the winner of the Division One was unable to fulfill ground safety requirements and was therefore barred from promotion.

After a period of over-spending in an attempt to compete with Rangers and Celtic, Aberdeen are now attempting to live within their means.

Brighter Future?

Their current manager Jimmy Calderwood is hoping to take the Dons back to the glory years. In his first season (2004/05) in charge he led the team into the top six for the first time in three seasons, with a final finishing position of fourth, only missing out on the European spot of third place by goal difference. Willie Miller also returned to the club as the Director of Football.

2005/06 saw Calderwood remain in the Pittodrie hotseat, but rumours of a possible departure to several English 'championship' and 'Div.1' teams filled the papers during the close season. These were all firmly denied by the Willie Miller and the Aberdeen Board - but later confirmed by Calderwood himself. Changes were afoot in the SPL, with another former Gothenburg hero taking up a managers hot seat with one of the Old-Firm - Gordon Strachan at Celtic, and the Lithuanian revolution at Hearts. The board gave the manager (what can only be, in the present Scottish football financial climate, described as) considerable investement to compete - and for the first time in a long time, qualifying for Europe seemed on the cards. Calderwood followed a 'quality over quantity' strategy - and by the time the transfer window closed had brought several players with international honours to the club.

However this policy's flaws quickly became transparent: on the Dutch pre-season tour injuries decimated the squad forcing Calderwood to 'borrow' his son from one of the local dutch sides to help fill places in the team.

These injuries severely hampered the pre-season regime, and preparations for the first game of the season - a trip to Tannadice. This match (a 1-1 draw) seemed to promise a good year ahead, although the team was poor in the first half, the second had some good passing football: it could almost be used a metaphor for the whole of the season.

The injuries continued to pile up - with only one recognised defender able to play at one point, several long term injuries, and key figures missing.

Teams coming to Pittodrie changed their tactics, preferring to sit back and let Aberdeen attack - and then hit on the counter. A tactic that saw Aberdeen lose or draw far too many games at home. Away was a different story, although the freeflowing football that seemed destined to entertain us at the start of the season nowhere to be seen.

The turn of year saw Aberdeen emerge - losing only a handfull of games from January to the end of the season, taking points from all games against rangers - qualifying for the top six, and ultimately one point away from 4th place.

Season 2005/06 cup defeats: the League Cup - 3rd round, 1-0 defeat by Motherwell the Scottish Cup - 4th round, 3-0 defeat by Hearts

The season finished with several players leaving - some by their own desire to play elsewhere (McNaughton), some wanting guaranteed first team football (Esson), and some who were on loan (Snoyl).

The chairman then appeared on television, correctly saying that AFC should be aiming higher than 6th in the league, and also that no funds would be made available for the manager to buy.

Famous players

Managers

Current Squad (season 2005-2006)

Honours

Trivia

  • Goalkeeper Mark De Clerk scored on his debut versus Berwick Rangers in 1980. Thus making 'A Belgian keeper, signed from a Dutch club, scoring for a Scottish side on English soil!'
  • Pittodrie was the first all seater stadium in Scotland and the first sports venue in the world to have a dug-out. They were invented by trainer Donald Coleman in the early 1930s.
  • Aberdeen are the only Scottish team to have won two European trophies - the European Cup Winners Cup against Real Madrid on the 11th of May 1983 and later that year the European Super Cup against the European Cup holders Hamburg.
  • Aberdeen, along with the 'Old Firm', are one of the few sides in Scottish football never to have been relegated from the top flight.
  • The first ever Aberdeen goalscorer was Willie McAulay against Stenhousemuir on 15th August 1903 in front of 8,000 spectators in Pittodrie.
  • Due to the perceived rural isolation of Aberdeen compared to the rest of Scotland, Aberdeen fans have been labelled 'sheep shaggers'. Consequently Aberdeen fans have taken pride in reinforcing this allegation and inflatable sheep are a frequent sight at games.

Club Records

External links

Aberdeen F.C. | Scottish football clubs | Sport in Aberdeen | United Soccer Association teams

Aberdeen F.C. | Aberdeen FC | Aberdeen F.C. | Aberdeen FC | Aberdeen FC | アバディーンFC | Aberdeen FC | Aberdeen FC | Aberdeen F.C. | Aberdeen F.C. | Aberdeen FC | Aberdeen FC | 阿伯丁足球俱乐部

 

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