West Ham United F.C.

West Ham United rightly have a proud tradition in English football for playing entertaining, attacking football. It is an approach that has thrilled millions since the east London club was formed in 1900, five years after the inception of our forerunners, Thames Ironworks. It is enshrined in Hammers' history that regardless of their status at any given time, whether challenging for silverware or fighting relegation, the club has never sacrificed its long-held football principles. Our knowledgeable fans have come to expect nothing less and they are proud of it. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. They moved to the Boleyn Ground in 1904, which remained their home ground for more than a century. The team initially competed in the Southern League and Western League before joining the Football League in 1919. They were promoted to the top flight in 1923, when they were also losing finalists in the first FA Cup Final held at Wembley. In 1940, the club won the inaugural Football League War Cup. West Ham have been winners of the FA Cup three times, in 1964, 1975, and 1980, and have also been runners-up twice, in 1923, and 2006. The club have reached two major European finals, winning the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1965 and finishing runners-up in the same competition in 1976. West Ham also won the Intertoto Cup in 1999. They are one of eight clubs never to have fallen below the second tier of English football, spending 60 of 92 league seasons in the top flight, up to and including the 2017-18 season. The club's highest league position to date came in 1985-86, when they achieved third place in the then First Division. Three West Ham players were members of the 1966 World Cup final-winning England team: captain Bobby Moore and goalscorers Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.