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Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish football club located in Dundee. Officially, United are nicknamed The Terrors and the supporters known as The Arabs, though the latter term has been applied equally, if not more, to the club in recent times via the sporting media. Occasionally, The Tangerines is another term used to describe the club.

United currently play in the Scottish Premier League and are managed by former player Craig Brewster. Eddie Thompson OBE, chairman since September 2002, is the majority shareholder of Dundee United, whilst the supporters - under the guise of ArabTRUST - own the second majority.

In European competition, United are Scotland's fourth most successful team, competing 22 seasons in Europe, in a total of 104 European matches (5 more than Aberdeen F.C.) as of August, 2005. During the club's many European competition runs in the late 20th century, English-based media sometimes incorrectly called the team Dundee F.C. - the name of their city rivals. This still occasionally happens today.

History

Inspired by the examples of Hibernian in Edinburgh and Celtic in Glasgow, the Irish community in Dundee formed a new football club in 1909, following the demise of Dundee Harp. Originally called Dundee Hibernian, the club took over Clepington Park (renamed Tannadice Park) from Dundee Wanderers and played their inaugural game on 18th August, 1909 against Hibernian, with the match ending in a 1-1 draw. The Club was saved from going out of business in October 1923 by a group of Dundee businessmen. They decided to change the club's name to Dundee United in order to attract a wider appeal. The name Dundee City was considered but was protested by city rivals Dundee F.C..

For many years, the club languished in the lower reaches of the Scottish league, competing in the top division only four seasons, until the appointment of Jerry Kerr as manager in 1959. Kerr ended the club's 28-year absence from the First Division in his first season in charge, winning promotion through finishing second in the Second Division. Some notable players from this period included forwards Dennis Gillespie and Jim Irvine, and defenders Doug Smith and Ron Yeats (who went on to captain Liverpool in the 1960s).

In the following season, United finished in the top half of the league (one place above city rivals Dundee), where the club would stay with few exceptions for the next 35 years. The sixties were highlighted by the playing skills of the some notable imports from Scandinavia: Orjan Persson, Finn Seemann, Lennart Wing, Finn Døssing and Mogens Berg. These players also helped give United their first taste of the European scene, where they sensationally eliminated Barcelona in 1966, who were the then-holders of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (now known as the UEFA Cup).

Jim McLean, who was a coach at city rivals Dundee F.C. at the time, took over from Jerry Kerr in 1971 and the most successful era in the club's history began. Up until this point, United was the smaller and less successful of the two Dundee-based football clubs. However, this would change as McLean (and for a time, with assistant manager Walter Smith) took United to their first ever Scottish Cup final in 1973-74. They achieved a record high of third place in the Scottish Premier Division in 1978 then again in 1979, before guiding the side to several major honours; the first by winning the Scottish League Cup in 1979-80, with the trophy being retained the following season.

Dundee United's best season came in 1982-83 when they won the Scottish League title for the first time in the club's history, with what was then a record number of points and record number of goals scored. By then, United had already established a reputation in Europe with impressive wins over sides like AS Monaco, Borussia Mönchengladbach, PSV Eindhoven, Anderlecht and Werder Bremen.

In the resulting European Cup, United reached the semi-final stage in their first run, only to be narrowly eliminated by A.S. Roma. After winning the first leg 2-0, United agonisingly lost 3-0 away, although the Italian side were later fined for attempting to bribe the referee *.

The pinnacle of their achievements in Europe came later in 1986-87 when United became the first Scottish club to reach the final of the UEFA Cup. Along the way, United repeated their earlier 1966 feat of again eliminating FC Barcelona, with victories home and away. The only British side to do this to this present day, in any European competition.

If, unfortunately, it was a case of failure when they failed to beat IFK Göteborg in the two legged final, there was glory in defeat as FIFA bestowed a first-ever Fair Play Award on the club for the sporting behaviour of The Arabs on a memorable night at Tannadice Park.

During those years, Dundee United and Aberdeen broke the traditional dominance of the Old Firm in Scottish football, and the two clubs became known as the New Firm. As Dundee F.C. were not always in the top flight at that time, the New Firm derby had superseded the Dundee derby.

Dundee United had come a long way under McLean, progressing from comparative obscurity to become one of Scotland's foremost clubs. However, after nearly 22 years at the helm he relinquished the position in the June 1993, whilst remaining Chairman of the Club.

Filling his shoes was the first continental to be appointed manager of a Scottish club - Ivan Golac. He inherited a healthy legacy with some of Scotland's finest young talent, though his first action was to sell Duncan Ferguson to Rangers for a fee of £3.75 million, breaking the record transfer fee involving two British clubs.

In Golac's first season, he brought the Scottish Cup to Tannadice Park for the first time in 1994 after six previous club failures. This completed the full set of domestic honours for the Club. United beat Rangers 1-0 with Craig Brewster scoring the winner from close range.

However, the club's fortunes took a turn for the worst after this, as despite enjoying a relatively average campaign in season 1994-95, a late run of defeats, culminating in a 1-0 defeat at home to Celtic on the last day, saw them relegated to the First Division. Despite being title favourites at the lower level, and they eventually finished second. This left them facing a two leg playoff against Partick Thistle for the right to play in the Premier Division in the 1996-97 season. Dundee United won 3-2 on aggregate, thus becoming the only club to be promoted through this short-lived play-off system.

In recent years the club has struggled to maintain such success, much like the previous provincial powers of Scottish football. In 2005, United reached their first Scottish Cup final since 1994, only to lose to Celtic 1-0.

Colours and badge

United's playing kit is distinct: tangerine in colour, first used when the team played under the Dallas Tornado moniker in the United Soccer Association competition of 1967, which they were invitated to participate in after their first European excursion had created many headlines in the football world. After persuasion by the wife of manager Jerry Kerr, the colour would soon be adopted as the club's own in 1969 to give the club a brighter, more modern image. The new colour was paraded for the first time in a pre-season friendly against Everton in August.

When originally founded as Dundee Hibernian, they had followed the example of other clubs of similar heritage by adopting the traditionally Irish colours of green shirts and white shorts. By the time the club became Dundee United in 1923, the colours had been changed to white shirts and black shorts as they sought to distance themsleves from their Irish origins. These colours persisted in various forms up until 1969, sometimes using plain shirts, but also at various times including -style broad hoops, -style narrow hoops and an Airdrie-style "V" motif.

The present club badge was introduced in 1993, and saw the previous Lion Rampant design rebranded in a new circular logo incorporating the club colours. Previously, the lion (presumably adopted as a symbol of Scottish patriotism) had been represented on a simpler shield design. Although this "classic" version had been utilised as the club crest on the cover of the matchday programme as early as 1956, it had never appeared on the players' strip prior to 1983. Since 1959, various other designs had been worn on the shirts, incorporating either the lion rampant or the letters DUFC, often on a circular badge.

Stadium

Dundee United's home ground throughout their history has been Tannadice Park, located on Tannadice Street in the Clepington area of the city. It is situated just yards away from Dens Park, home of Dundee F.C.; the two grounds are the closest senior football grounds in the United Kingdom.

The possibility of both clubs moving to a new, purpose-built shared stadium has been suggested on occasion. The most serious proposal for this was put forward as part of Scotland's bid to host the 2008 European Football Championship, but the failure of the bid meant the scheme was shelved.

Supporters

There have been several stories regarding the origins of the 'Arabs' term. The most popular view is that the name was coined during the severe winter of the 1962-63 season. It was so bad that between December and March, Dundee United were able to play only three times.

One of these was a Scottish Cup tie against Albion Rovers, for which the management, in a desperate attempt to get Tannadice playable, hired an industrial tar burner to melt the several inches of covering snow and ice. Not only did this work but removed the grass, too. Several lorry loads of sand were ordered and spread across the barren surface with the regulation playing lines painted on top. United adapted well to this playing surface and won the game 3-0, prompting observers to comment that they had taken to the new surface like Arabs.

An alternative theory is that during the Suez Crisis of 1956 (or possibly some other crisis in the Middle East), a newspaper had the headline "The Arabs are United", and the description stuck.

The fans, however, used the term to describe themselves. The term was then later resurrected during the early 1990s through the pages of the popular Dundee United football fanzine, The Final Hurdle, with supporters soon declaring that they were 'Proud To Be An Arab'. Deacon Blue singer and long-time Dundee United supporter, Ricky Ross, even wrote a song declaring this fact.

By then, even the official club souvenir shops were selling replica keffiyehs in tangerine and black. The term was now firmly connected with Dundee United.

The former Dundee United Supporters Association (DUSA) is now known as the ArabTRUST, the official club weekly email newsletter is known as ArabNeWS, and the Club website has an ArabFORUM. Various Dundee United supporters clubs and fan websites have Arab in their names too.

Elsewhere, the football media tend to refer to the club mostly as The Arabs, although the official website confirms this refers to the fans and the club nickname is The Terrors.

In a BBC online poll in March 2006, Dundee United fan Zippy was named as Britain's favourite sporting celebrity by a landslide margin *. Other famous Arabs include:

Current squad

Transfers

In:
Player From Fee Date
Craig Conway Compensation due 01 Jun 06 *
Noel Hunt £50k 20 Jun 06 *
Steven Robb Free 20 Jun 06 *

Out:

Player To Fee Date
Craig Samson Released - 01 Jun 06 *
Derek McInnes Released - 26 Jun 06 *
Grant Brebner Melbourne Victory - 04 Jul 06 *
Jim McIntyre Released - 13 Jul 06 *

Pre-season friendlies

Sat 8 July 2006

1 - 4 Stark's Park, Kirkcaldy
McManus Miller 2, Hunt 2

Wed 12 July 2006

Herfølge BK 1-2 Herfølge Stadion, Herfølge
Christoffersen Robb, Brewster

Fri 14 July 2006

FC Nordsjælland 18.00 Hillerød

Wed 19 July 2006

19.30 Station Park, Forfar

Sat 22 July 2006

15.15 Dens Park, Dundee (Evening Telegraph Challenge Cup)

All kick-off times are local time

Noted players

1950s

1960s

1960s-1980s

1970s

1970s-1980s

1970s-1990s

1980s

1980s-1990s

1980s-2000s

1990s

2000s

Noted managers

Pat Reilly (1909-15)

  • Herbert Dainty (1915-17) Pat Reilly (1917-22)
  • Peter O'Rourke (1922-23)
  • Jimmy Brownlie (1923-31)
  • Willie Reid (1931-34)
  • Jimmy Brownlie (1934-36)
  • George Greig (1936-38)
  • Jimmy Brownlie and Sam Irving (1938-39)
  • Bobby McKay (1939)
  • Jimmy Allan (1939-40)
  • Arthur Cram (1941-44)
  • Jimmy Littlejohn (1944)
  • Charlie McGillivray (1944-45)
  • Willie MacFadyen (1945-54)

    • Achievements

    After their only Premier Division championship win, the team reached the resulting semi-final of the European Cup in 1984. After a marathon season in 1986-87, the team lost in both the Scottish Cup and UEFA Cup finals in the space of a few days. The Arabs won the first-ever FIFA Fair Play Award for their sporting behaviour after this UEFA Cup final defeat *.

    Club records

    • Most team goals scored by United during a Scottish League season was 108 in Division Two, 1935/36. With 34 matches played that season that meant an average of 3.2 goals per match, also a club record.
    • Most wins in succession: 10 - The last five matches of the 1982-83 season and the first five of the 1983-84 season.
    • Most wins in a League season: 24 (66%) of 36 League games during a season on two occasions, and on each United took the title, in 1928-29 and 1982-83.

    • The youngest first-team player in the club’s history was Ian Mitchell. He was aged 16 years and four months when he made his debut against Hibernian in Division One in September 1962. Greg Cameron became the youngest player to play for United in the Premier League, with the sixteen year old beating Christian Dailly’s record when he came on in United's 3-0 victory over Kilmarnock in December 2004.

    • The youngest scorer in the club's history is David Goodwillie. He set the record in the 3-1 defeat by Hibernian on 04/03/06, aged 16 years, 11 months and 4 days. This is also the record for the youngest scorer in SPL history *.

    • The oldest player in the club's history to make a competitive appearance was Jimmy Brownlie at the age of 40 years and eight months. Brownlie was manager during the club’s second season in Division One when regular goalkeeper Bill Paterson was ruled out through injury for the Scottish Cup replay with Hearts at Tynecastle in February 1926. In those days, United had no reserve team and goalkeeping injuries were covered by fielding a trialist. As only signed players were eligible for cup ties, Brownlie was forced to emerge from retirement. Gordon Wallace holds the distinction of being the oldest player to make a first-team appearance for Dundee United, albeit in an emergency. The then-coach was aged 50 when he played the full 90 minutes against a Tobago XI on the club's visit to the Caribbean in May 1994.

    • The quickest goal scored by a Dundee United player came just 14 seconds into the Division One match against Hamilton Academical at Tannadice on October 16 1965. It was scored by Finn Døssing and United went on to win 7–0.

    External links

    Official links

    Supporter links

    Dundee United F.C. | Dundee | Scottish football clubs | United Soccer Association teams

    Dundee United F.C. | Dundee United FC | Dundee United F.C. | Dundee United | ダンディー・ユナイテッド | Dundee United FC | Dundee United | Dundee United | Dundee United FC | 邓迪联足球俱乐部

     

    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Dundee United F.C.".

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