Linfield FC
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| Full name | Linfield Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Blues |
| Founded | March 1886 (as Linfield Athletic Club) |
| Ground | Windsor Park, Belfast |
| Capacity | 18,167 |
| Chairman | Roy McGivern |
| Manager | David Healy |
| League | NIFL Premiership |
| 2015–16 | NIFL Premiership, 2nd |
| Website | Club home page |
Linfield Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club was founded in 1886 as Linfield Athletic Club, and in 1905 moved into the current home of Windsor Park, which is also the home of the Northern Ireland national team. The club plays in the NIFL Premiership – the highest level of the Northern Ireland Football League. Linfield's main rival is Glentoran – the other half of Belfast's Big Two. This rivalry traditionally includes a league derby played on Boxing Day each year, which usually attracts the largest league attendance of the season. Linfield's average league attendance at home is approximately 2100, the highest average in the division and roughly twice as large as the league's overall average, which has remained relatively steady at 800–900 spectators per game since the current league format began in 2008. The Blues are managed by former Northern Ireland international and record goalscorer David Healy, who was appointed in October 2015 to succeed Warren Feeney. Feeney resigned in order to become assistant manager (and later the manager) of Newport County.
Historically, as the most dominant club in Northern Irish football, Linfield holds several domestic records and even a world record. The club was one of the eight founding members of the Irish League in 1890, as well as the inaugural winners and one of only three clubs to have competed in every top division season, having never suffered relegation. Linfield has won a record 51 league championships to date – more than twice as many titles as any other Northern Irish club and the second-highest tally of national top-flight titles won by any club worldwide – behind the world record of 54 Scottish league titles won by Rangers. Linfield won a clean sweep of all the trophies in a single season in the 1921–22 season and again in 2006. They narrowly missed out on claiming 7 trophies in a single season in 1961–62 season only failing to win the North South cup, they did however win that trophy in the 1960–61 season. Due to fixture congestion in that season the final for the 1960–61 season was played in 1962 and Linfield paraded the trophy falsely as the 7th of a still tremendous haul of 6 trophies in a single season. Glenavon won the trophy for the 1961–62 season, similarly due to fixture congestion the final for that season was played at the start of 1963. Glenavon to this day still hold the trophy as it was never competed for again. Linfield won all four available domestic trophies to achieve a quadruple, and has also won three domestic trebles along with a world record 23 domestic doubles. The club has lifted the Irish Cup a record 42 times, the League Cup a record nine times, and has been all-Ireland champion (excluding the 12 all-Ireland league titles won prior to the partition of Ireland in 1921) on four occasions – 1962, 1971, 1980 and 2005. The club has never won a European trophy, but did reach the quarter-finals of the 1966–67 European Cup.
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