Aberdeen F.C.

 

Aberdeen F.C.
Full name	Aberdeen Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Dons
Founded	1903
Ground	Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen, Scotland
Capacity	22,199
Chairman	Stewart Milne
Manager	Jimmy Calderwood
League	Scottish Premier League
2006-07	Scottish Premier League, 3rd
Home colours 　 Away colours

Aberdeen Football Club are a football team from Aberdeen, Scotland, who compete in the Scottish Premier League.

Formed in 1903 from the amalgamation of a number of clubs from Aberdeen, they have historically been one of the most successful Scottish teams. 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 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1982-83, defeating Real Madrid C.F. 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'. The club mascot is Angus the Bull.^[1]

History

Main article: History of Aberdeen F.C.

Aberdeen Football Club are one of Scotland's most successful football teams and are the only Scottish team to have won two European trophies - the European Cup Winners' Cup against Real Madrid on 11 May 1983 and the European Super Cup against the European Cup holders Hamburg in December 1983, making Aberdeen the only Scottish team to have won the European Super Cup, and as currently the last Scottish team to contest a European Super Cup final.

The current Aberdeen FC was born out of the merger of three city clubs; Aberdeen, Victoria United and Orion in 1903.

The new club played its first season in the Scottish Second Division and was then elected, rather than promoted, to the First Division. The club has never since been out of the top tier in Scottish football. Under the management of Jimmy Philip, the club enjoyed steady and unspectacular progress for the first quarter-century of its existence. The club's first Scottish Cup final did not come until 1937 under Philip's successor, Paddy Travers, but no trophies were won prior to the Second World War.

After the war, new manager Dave Halliday steered the team through a period of unprecedented success, winning a Southern League Cup, a Scottish Cup and the club's first league championship as well as appearing in three more cup finals - one a League Cup - all in the space of ten years. His successor Davie Shaw acquired a League Cup as well as another Scottish Cup final appearance, but then the club endured a decade of relatively poor results in the 1960s.

The 1970s saw the beginnings of an upturn in fortunes, as first Eddie Turnbull and then Ally MacLeod led Aberdeen to cup successes during a period of high managerial turnover, before the manager who was to have the greatest impact on the club, Alex Ferguson took over in 1978. Under Ferguson's guidance, the club won three league championships, four Scottish Cups, the European Cup Winner's Cup, the European Super Cup and a League Cup - all in the space of seven years.

Following Ferguson, a succession of managers tried to live up to the standards he had set, most meeting with little or no success. The low point of the club's history came around the turn of the century, when they finished last in the Premier division - avoiding a relegation playoff only on a technicality. Subsequent to this, and with the club in debt for the first time following the construction of a new stand at one end of the ground, a policy of trying to live within their means has meant that the club has not approached the heights of the 1980s, yet in recent seasons has begun to show consistent improvement, particularly since the arrival as manager of Jimmy Calderwood in 2004.

The clubs relationship and trust of Jimmy Calderwood paid off on 4th of October 2007 when, for the club's first time, Aberdeen beat FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk on the away goal rule in the first round of the UEFA Cup qualifying for the group stage of a European competition for the very first time.

Stadium

Main article: Pittodrie

Aberdeen play their home matches at Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen, which has a total capacity of 22,199. The stadium consists of four stands; the Main Stand on the north side, which houses the club offices and players facilities; the Merkland Road Stand on the west side; the South Stand, a quarter of which is used to accommodate travelling supporters (for Old Firm games, half of this stand is given to the visiting fans); and the newest element, the Richard Donald stand at the East, or Beach End, of the ground. This is a modern, two-tier design containing hospitality suites which is significantly taller than the other structures at the ground. Pittodrie was one of the first all-seater stadia in Britain.

In the early years of the 21st century, there have been discussions regarding moving the club to a new location, but as at August 2007, nothing concrete has come of these.

Colours and badge

Colours

For the first season of the club's existence, the team played in a white kit. This is variously reported as all-white, or as white shirts with blue shorts and socks.^[2] This colour scheme was the direct descendent of the kit worn by the precursor Aberdeen club, but lasted only one season before being replaced.

For the 1904-05 season, Aberdeen adopted a black and gold striped shirt, which led to the team being nicknamed 'Wasps'. This strip, with only minor variations, was worn until just before the start of World War II. The blue shorts lasted until 1911, and then were replaced with white ones. Socks (or, in the language of the time, 'stockings') were black with gold trim, either as stripes or as a solid bar at the turndown.

In March 1939, Aberdeen changed from the black and gold colours to red and white - reputedly in order to mirror the silver and red colours of the official City of Aberdeen arms ^{[citation needed]}. The first red strips were worn with white shorts, and the all-red scheme, familiar to many people thanks to the more widespread renown of the team from the late 1970s onward, is a relatively recent innovation. Aberdeen wore red shirts with white shorts and either red or white socks from their adoption in 1939 until the 1965-66 season.

In 1966, Aberdeen adopted red shorts, making the official kit all-red, similar to that of Liverpool, who made a similar change at around the same time. This arrangement has continued to the present day, with several variations in design, in common with most senior clubs as the replica shirt market has expanded. In the late 1970s an Admiral strip featured five vertical white stripes on the left side of the shirt and shorts, and the early 1980s shirts - as worn at the 1983 European Cup Winners Cup final - featured white vertical pinstripes. Later design changes proved controversial with sections of the support - two designs from the mid 1990s, in particular featured significant amounts of blue on the shirt - a colour associated with Rangers, at the time the strongest Scottish club, and one with which Aberdeen supporters considered themselves fierce rivals. The 1996-97 design featured a reversion to white shorts, but this, too, proved unpopular, and the familiar all-red design returned after only one season.

Shirt sponsorship began in 1987, and the initial shirt sponsors were JVC, as with Arsenal in England. Since then, with the club making fewer appearances on the international stage, shirt sponsors have tended to be more local - they have included the local commercial radio station, Northsound.

Change, or 'away' strips (the convention in Scotland until the 1990s was that the home team would change in the event of a clash, but the shirts are still sometimes referred to as 'away') have tended to be either white (often with black shorts) or some combination of yellow and black, referring back to the black and gold strips of the pre-war era, although for a time in the 1970s, Aberdeen sported an all-blue change strip. For the 2007-08 season, the change strip is all-white, with a third kit of yellow and black halves available if needed for European games, or in the event of a clash involving both red and white.

Badge

The club did not have an official crest before 1972, but several variations on the letters AFC had from time to time featured on the shirt, usually in some kind of cursive font. In November 1972^[3], the club unveiled an official crest or logo, designed by Donald Addison. The design represented a capital letter 'A' as the side view of a football goal, with a ball forming the crossbar of the letter. This ball was crosshatched in such a way as to depict it as being inside the net, signifying the scoring of a goal. The logo was completed by the letters 'FC' in smaller type at a level with the ball element. This badge was used on the shirts from around 1978, with no significant alterations until the mid-1980s when the words 'Aberdeen Football Club' were added in a circular border, and the date of the club's founding, 1903, was added under the 'goal' element. The current version of the crest, which retains these elements in a unified design, was introduced at the start of the 1997-98 season. Two stars signifying the winning of the two European cups in 1983 were introduced over the badge in the 2005-06 season.

UEFA Cup 2007/08

Aberdeen reached the group stages of the Uefa Cup for the first time in their history, beating FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk on the away goal rule after a 0-0 draw at Pittodrie in the first round, Darren Mackie got the crucial away goal in the Ukraine, that saw Aberdeen finish the game 1-1.

Drawn in a so-called 'Group of Death', they will start the Group Stages with an away trip to Athens to face Panathinaikos on October 25th, followed by hosting Lokomotiv Moscow at Pittodrie on 8th November. An away trip to Atlético Madrid on November 29th, followed by the final game of the Group Stages, at home to Copenhagen on December 20th.

Aberdeenshire Cup

Aberdeen FC has won its local competition more times than any other Aberdeenshire based team. They have won it a record 39 times, first off back in 1887-1888. During these early years a team called Aberdeen did play, and later merged with Victoria United and Orion to form the Aberdeen FC we know today. The records dating back to 1887-88 season count as part of Aberdeen's official history. Aberdeen also won many other competitions during the 1880s to 1890s right up to the newly formed Aberdeen FC in 1903. These Cup and League successes still count as part of their history.

Competition history

This is an account of Aberdeen's competition history during the last ten years. For a more complete list, see Aberdeen F.C. seasons

Season	Division	Position	Scottish Cup	League Cup	European Competition	Top Scorer
1997-98	Premier Division	6th	3rd Round	Semi-final
Premier Division renamed as Scottish Premier League (SPL)
1998-99	SPL	8th	3rd Round	3rd Round
1999-00	SPL	10th	Runners-up	Runners-up
2000-01	SPL	7th	4th Round	3rd Round	UEFA Cup: 2nd Preliminary Round	Stavrum 17
2001-02	SPL	4th	5th Round	3rd Round		Winters 13
2002-03	SPL	8th	4th Round	Quarter-final	UEFA Cup: 1st Round
2003-04	SPL	11th	5th Round	Quarter-final		Sheerin 8
2004-05	SPL	4rd	Quarter-final	3rd Round		Mackie 15
2005-06	SPL	6th	4th Round	Quarter-final		Lovell 10
2006-07	SPL	3rd	3rd Round	2nd Round		Mackie 13

Famous players

AFC Hall of Fame

Aberdeen inaugurated the Hall of Fame following the club's centenary celebrations in 2003. Over a five year period, around 50 players and staff will be inducted. As of September 2006, the following players are listed on the official website^[4] as members:

Chris Anderson Jim Bett Henning Boel Martin Buchan Dick Donald Arthur Graham

Joe Harper Jim Hermiston John Hewitt Drew Jarvie Jim Leighton Fred Martin

Willie Miller Teddy Scott Ally Shewan Neil Simpson Gordon Strachan Alec Young

Other notable players

For a complete list of former Aberdeen players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Aberdeen F.C. players.

Russell Anderson Steve Archibald Roberto Bisconti Eric Black Charlie Cooke Neale Cooper Billy Dodds Davie Dodds Hans Gillhaus Bryan Gunn Craig Hignett Alex Jackson Eoin Jess Ilian Kiriakov Mark McGhee Alex McLeish

Stewart McKimmie Mike Newell Charlie Nicholas Peter Nicholas Tommy Pearson Jocky Scott Duncan Shearer Theo Snelders Gordon Strachan Zoltán Varga Noel Whelan Dean Windass Hicham Zerouali

Managers

• Jimmy Philip (1903-1924)
• Patrick Travers (1924-1938)
• David Halliday (1938-1955)
• Davie Shaw (1955-1959)
• Tommy Pearson (1959-1965)
• Eddie Turnbull (1965-1971)
• Jimmy Bonthrone (1971-1975)
• Ally McLeod (1975-1977)
• Billy McNeill (1977-1978)
• Alex Ferguson (1978-1986)
• Alex Ferguson & Archie Knox (1986)
• Ian Porterfield (1986-1988)
• Alex Smith & Jocky Scott (1988-1992)
• Willie Miller (1992-1995)
• Roy Aitken (1995-1997)
• Alex Miller (1997-1998)
• Paul Hegarty (1998-1999)
• Ebbe Skovdahl (1999-2002)
• Steve Paterson (2002-2004)
• Jimmy Calderwood (2004- Present)

Current squad (season 2007-2008)

No. Position Player 1 GK Jamie Langfield 2 DF Michael Hart 3 DF Richie Byrne 4 DF Jackie McNamara 5 DF Zander Diamond 6 MF Scott Severin (captain) 7 MF Jamie Smith 8 MF Barry Nicholson 9 FW Steve Lovell 10 FW Darren Mackie 11 MF Chris Clark 14 MF Richard Foster 15 DF Karim Touzani 16 FW Lee Miller

No. Position Player 17 DF Dan Smith 18 DF Lee Mair 19 MF Derek Young 20 GK Derek Soutar 21 DF Andrew Considine 22 FW Chris Maguire 24 MF Jeffrey de Visscher 25 FW Jonathan Smith 26 FW Sone Aluko (On loan from Birmingham City) 29 DF Neil McVitie 30 GK Greg Kelly 31 FW Michael Paton 33 MF Stuart Smith 37 DF Jonathan Kurrant

For recent transfers, see List of Scottish football transfers 2007-08.

Honours

• European Cup Winners Cup Champions (1) : 1982-83
  • Semi-Finalists (1) : 1983-84

• European Super Cup Champions (1) : 1983-84

• Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
  • Second Round (1) : 1968-69

• European Champions Cup / UEFA Champions League
  • Quarter-Final (1) : 1985-86

• UEFA Cup
  • Third Round (1) : 1981-82

• UEFA Cup
  • Group Stage (Second Round) (1) : 2007-08

• Scottish League Champions (4) : 1954-55; 1979-80; 1983-84; 1984-85
  • Runners-up (12) : 1936-37; 1955-56; 1970-71; 1971-72; 1977-78; 1980-81; 1981-82; 1988-89; 1989-90; 1990-91; 1992-93; 1993-94

• Scottish Cup Champions (7) : 1946-47; 1969-70; 1981-82; 1982-83; 1983-84; 1985-86; 1989-90
  • Runners-up (8) : 1936-37; 1952-53; 1953-54; 1958-59; 1966-67; 1977-78; 1992-93; 1999-00

• Scottish League Cup Champions (5) : 1955-56; 1976-77; 1985-86; 1989-90; 1995-96
  • Runners-up (7) : 1946-47; 1978-79; 1979-80; 1987-88; 1988-89; 1992-93; 1999-00

• Southern League Cup Champions (1) : 1945-46

• Aberdeenshire Cup Champions (39) : 1887-88; 1888-89; 1889-90; 1897-98; 1901-02; 1903-04; 1904-05; 1906-07; 1907-08; 1908-09; 1909-10; 1911-12; 1912-13; 1913-14; 1914-15; 1919-20; 1921-22; 1922-23; 1923-24; 1924-25; 1925-26; 1926-27; 1927-28; 1928-29; 1929-30; 1930-31; 1931-32; 1932-33; 1980-81; 1981-82; 1982-83; 1987-88; 1989-90; 1990-91; 1992-93; 1997-98; 2003-04; 2004-05

• Aberdeenshire Charity Cup Champions (2) : 1891-92; 1897-98

• Scottish Qualifying Cup Champions (1) : 1904-05

• Mitchell Cup Champions (3) : 1941-42; 1942-43; 1944-45

• North Eastern League Champions (4) : 1941-42; 1942-43; 1943-44; 1944-45

• Northern League Champions (2) : 1905-06; 1910-11

• Edinburgh Football League 1st or 2nd Placing (1) : 1905-06

• North Eastern Suplimentary Cup Champions (2) : 1941-42; 1942-43

• Scottish Football Alliance League Champions (2) : 1932-33; 1935-36

• Scottish League 'C' Division Champions (2) : 1952-53; 1954-55

• Dewar Shield Champions (15) : 1906-07; 1908-09; 1912-13; 1914-15; 1926-27; 1928-29; 1930-31; 1931-32; 1932-33; 1933-34; 1935-36; 1936-37; 1939-40; 1945-46; 1949-50

• Drybrough Cup Champions (2) : 1971-72; 1980-81

• Tennents' Sixes Champions (2) : 1986; 1987

• Highland Football League (Reserve Team Championship) Champions : 1912-13; 1924-25

• Adidas "World Team of the Year" : 1983

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Barcelona	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Winner 1983 Runner up: Real Madrid	Succeeded by Juventus
Preceded by Aston Villa FC	UEFA Super Cup Winner 1983 Runner up: Hamburg SV	Succeeded by Juventus

European record

As of October 5th, 2007:

Competition	Appearances	Matches played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA
European Champions Cup / UEFA Champions League	3	12	5	4	3	14	12
European Cup Winners Cup / UEFA Cup Winners Cup	8	39	22	5	12	79	37
European Super Cup / UEFA Super Cup	1	2	1	1	0	2	0
UEFA Cup	14	48	14	18	16	55	57
UEFA Intertoto Cup	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Inter Cities Fairs Cup	1	4	2	1	1	4	4
Total	27	105	44	29	32	154	110

Club records and achievements

• First match: Aberdeen 1 - 1 Stenhousemuir (Pittodrie; August 15 1903)
• Largest win: Aberdeen 13 - 0 Peterhead (Pittodrie, Scottish Cup 3rd Round; February 10 1923)
• Largest defeat: Celtic 8 - 0 Aberdeen (Celtic Park, Scottish First Division; January 30 1965)
• Highest home attendance: 45,061 vs Hearts, Scottish Cup Quarter-final, 13 March, 1954 ^[5]
• Highest average home attendance: 24,200, 1948-49 (15 games) ^[5]
• Most capped player: Jim Leighton, 91 Scotland
• Most League appearances: Willie Miller, 556, 1973-1990
• Most goals scored: Joe Harper, 205
• Most goals in a season: Benny Yorston, 38, 1934-35
• Highest Transfer fee received: £1,750,000 Eoin Jess, Coventry City February 1996
• Highest Transfer fee paid: £1,000,000 Paul Bernard, Oldham Athletic September 1995

• The Scottish Cup final win against Celtic F.C. in 1937 was attended by a crowd of 146,433 at Hampden Park in Glasgow, which remains a record for a club match in European football.
• Goalkeeper Mark de Clerck scored on his debut versus Berwick Rangers in 1980: a Belgian goalkeeper, signed from a Dutch club, scoring for a Scottish side on English soil.
• The first ever Aberdeen goalscorer was Willie McAulay against Stenhousemuir on 15 August 1903 in front of 8,000 spectators at Pittodrie.
• Aberdeen were the first team to lose a European tie on penalties after a 4-4 aggregate draw with Budapest Honvéd FC of Hungary in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1970.^[6]

UEFA ranking

Current club ranking 161 Germinal Beerschot 162 Vålerengen 162 Tromsø IL 164 Aberdeen 164 Hibernian 166 Viktoria Zizkov 167 Malatyaspor Full List

Current national league ranking 08 Dutch League 09 Russian League 10 Scottish League 11 Belgian League 12 Ukrainian League Full List

External links

• Official Site
• Red Ultras
• AFC CHAT - unofficial fans site
• Reds Online - interactive fans site

References

1. ^ Mascot Pictures. Aberdeen F.C.. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
2. ^ Aberdeen. Historical Football Kits. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
3. ^ Aberdeen. Football Crests.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
4. ^ http://www.afc.co.uk
5. ^ ^{a b} Ross, David (2005). The Roar of the Crowd: Following Scottish football down the years. Argyll publishing, 94, 167. ISBN 9-8781902-831831. 
6. ^ http://www.afc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/forcereg/dons/0,,10284,00.html?

Source

• Webster, Jack (2003). The First 100 years of The Dons: The official history of Aberdeen Football Club 1903 - 2003. Hodder & Stoughton, London. ISBN 0-340-82344-5. 

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