Chelsea FC

Chelsea FC was formed in 1905 by the brothers, Henry Augustus Mears and Joseph Mears. In echoes of the Everton / Liverpool situation, the brothers owned the Stamford Bridge Athletics Ground in the Borough of Fulham, and they had wanted Fulham FC to adopt it as their home ground. However, a disagreement over rent meant that this did not happen. Chelsea initially applied to join the Southern League, but objections from both Spurs and Fulham mean that this was denied, so instead they applied to the Football League. This application was approved in May 1905 and in August 1905 the club commenced its first season in the Football League, finishing a creditable 3rd in the second division.

Initially honours were hard to come by for Chelsea - for example, they had to wait until 1954-55 for their first League title and until 1970 for their first FA Cup victory. Of course in more recent times, Chelsea has become one of the power houses of both English and European football, since the arrival of the Russian Billionaire, Roman Abramovich.