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Brentford Football Club is a professional
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
club in
Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings wh ...
,
West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Londo ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, which competes in the
Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
, the highest tier of
English football Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...
, having gained promotion via the playoffs at the end of the 2020–21 Championship season. Nicknamed "The Bees", the club was founded in 1889 and played home matches at
Griffin Park Griffin Park was a football ground in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow, England. It was the home ground of Brentford F.C. from its opening in September 1904 to August 2020. The ground is in a predominantly residential area and was ...
from 1904 before moving to Gtech Community Stadium in 2020. Their main rivals are fellow
West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Londo ...
-based clubs
Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...
and
Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
. Brentford initially played amateur football before they entered the London League in 1896 and finished as runners-up of the Second Division and then the First Division to win election into the Southern League in 1898. They won the Southern League Second Division in 1900–01 and were elected into the
Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
in 1920. Brentford won the
Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...
title in 1932–33 and the
Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
title in 1934–35. The club enjoyed a successful spell in the top flight of English football, reaching a peak of fifth in the First Division, in 1935–36, their highest ever league finish, before three relegations left them in the Fourth Division by 1962. They were crowned Fourth Division champions in 1962–63, but were relegated in 1966 and again in 1973 after gaining promotion in 1971–72. Brentford spent 14 seasons in the Third Division after gaining promotion in 1977–78 and went on to win the Third Division title in 1991–92, though were relegated again in 1993. Brentford were relegated into the fourth tier in 1998 and won promotion as champions in the 1998–99 campaign. The club were relegated in 2007 and won promotion as champions of League Two in 2008–09 and then were promoted out of League One in 2013–14. They had unsuccessful Championship play-off campaigns in 2015 and 2020. Brentford have a poor record in finals, finishing as runners-up in three Associate Members' Cup / Football League Trophy finals (
1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
,
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...
and
2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...
) and losing four play-off finals (the 1997 Second Division final, 2002 Second Division final, 2013 League One final and 2020 Championship final). However, Brentford won the 2021 Championship final to be promoted to the highest level for the first time since the 1946–47 season.


History


Current and past grounds

* Clifden Road (1889–1891) * Benn's Field (1891–1895) * Shotter's Field (1895–1898) * Cross Roads (1898–1900) * York Road (1900–1904) *
Griffin Park Griffin Park was a football ground in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow, England. It was the home ground of Brentford F.C. from its opening in September 1904 to August 2020. The ground is in a predominantly residential area and was ...
(1904–2020) * Gtech Community Stadium (2020–present)


Players


First team


Out on loan


Brentford B


Coaching staff

:''As of 5 December 2022''


First team


Brentford B


Management

:''As of 26 July 2022''


Nickname

Brentford's nickname is "The Bees". The nickname was unintentionally created by students of
Borough Road College Borough Road is in Southwark, London SE1. It runs east–west between St George's Circus and Borough High Street. History and location The route was created as part of the planning and road improvements associated with the completion of We ...
in the 1890s, when they attended a match and shouted the college's chant "buck up Bs" in support of their friend and then-Brentford player Joseph Gettins. Local newspapers misheard the chant as "Buck up Bees" and the nickname stuck.


Colours and badge

Brentford's predominant home colours are a red and white striped shirt, black shorts and red or black socks. These have been the club's predominant home colours since the 1925–26 season, bar one season – 1960–61 – when yellow (gold) and blue were used, unsuccessfully. The colours on entering the Football League, in 1920–21, were white shirts, navy shorts and navy socks. Away kits have varied over the years, with the current colours being a yellow shirt with yellow shorts, both with black detailing, along with yellow socks. Brentford have had several badges on their shirts since it was formed in 1889. The first one, in 1893, was a white shield, with 'BFC' in blue and a wavy line in blue, which is thought to represent the river and the rowing club, who founded the football club. The next known badge, the Middlesex County Arms, was on shirts donated by a club supporter in 1909. The Brentford and Chiswick arms, as a badge, was used just for the one season, in 1938–39. The next badge was in 1971–72 when a shield, formed into quadrants, which had a hive and bees in one, 3 seaxes in another and the other two with red and white stripes. In 1972, the club organised a competition to design a new crest, which was won by Mr B.G. Spencer's design, a circle with a bee and stripes and the founding date of 1888. This was introduced in 1973 and used until May 1975, when it was brought to the club's attention, via Graham Haynes, that the club was formed in 1889 and not in 1888. Therefore a new badge, reputedly designed by
Dan Tana Dan Tana (born 1935 as Dobrivoje Tanasijević; ) is a Serbian and American restaurateur, actor, football administrator/executive, and former professional footballer. Tana is best known as the proprietor of an eponymous restaurant, Dan Tana's, in ...
– the club's chairman at the time – was introduced for the 1975–76 season and continued until 1994 when the current badge was introduced. In 2011 Russell Grant claimed to have designed the badge in a BBC interview, however it was in fact designed in 1993 for two season tickets by supporter Andrew Henning, following a request from Keith Loring the then chief executive. In 2017, the club redesigned its crest to a more modern, uncluttered, design with the flexibility for use in two tone colour print. The design is a double roundel with the club name and year founded in white on a red background and a large central bee.


Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors


Honours and best performances


League

*
Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
/ First Division /
Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...
(Tier 2) ** Champions (1): 1934–35 ** Play-off winners (1):
2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
* Third Division / Second Division / League One (Tier 3) ** Champions (2): 1932–33 (
South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
), 1991–92 **Promoted (1): 2013–14 * Fourth Division / Third Division / League Two (Tier 4) ** Champions (3): 1962–63, 1998–99, 2008–09 * Southern League Second Division **Champions (1): 1900–01 * London League First Division: 1 **Promoted (1): 1897–98Elected into Southern League Second Division London. *London League Second Division: 1 **Promoted (1): 1896–97 * West London Alliance: 1 **Champions (1): 1892–93No system of promotion in place.


Cups

*Middlesex Junior Cup: 1 **1893–94 *West Middlesex Cup: 1 ** 1894–95 *
London Senior Cup The London Senior Cup is the County Senior Cup of the London FA. The London Senior Cup was first won by Upton Park in 1882. Although the leading professional sides in London no longer compete, the Cup has been won in the past by the likes of Ar ...
: 1 **1897–98 * Middlesex Senior Cup: 1 ** 1897–98 *Southern Professional Charity Cup: 1 ** 1908–09 *Ealing Hospital Cup: 1 ** 1910–11 * London Challenge Cup: 3 ** 1934–35, 1964–65, 1966–67 *London Charity Fund: 1 **1928


Wartime honours

*
London Combination The Football Combination was a football competition for the reserve teams of English Football League clubs from Southern England, the Midlands and Wales; other clubs from the Midlands and those from the North playing in the Central League (it is n ...
: 1 ** 1918–19 *
London War Cup The London War Cup was an English football competition held during the Second World War. It was established to be a wartime replacement for the FA Cup, which had been suspended for the duration of the conflict. Although called the London War Cu ...
: 1 ** 1941–42


Best performances


League

* First Division /
Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
(Tier 1) ** 5th: 1935–36 * Western League ** 2nd:
1904–05 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...
* Southern League First Division ** 9th:
1905–06 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...


Cups

*
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
** Sixth round/Quarter-finals: 1937–38, 1945–46, 1948–49, 1988–89 *
Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by t ...
** Semi-finals:
2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
*
Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL ...
** Runners-up: 1984–85, 2000–01,
2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...
*
Empire Exhibition Trophy The Empire Exhibition Trophy was a football competition held in 1938 in conjunction with the Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938 in Glasgow. It was held to commemorate the Exhibition, then underway in Bellahouston Park, and the prize was a solid silv ...
** First round: 1938 * Southern Professional Floodlit Cup ** Semi-finals: 1955–56, 1956–57 * First Alliance Cup ** First round: 1988


Awards

* Football League Awards ** Community Club of the Year (2): 2005–06, 2013–14 ** League Two Community Club of the Year (1): 2008–09 ** Best Club Sponsorship (1): 2006–07 ** Family Excellence Award (8): 2007–08, 2009–10,
2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...
, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16 *Stadium Business Awards ** Sponsorship, Sales and Marketing (1): 2013 *
Littlewoods Littlewoods was a retail and football betting company founded in Liverpool, England, by John Moores in 1923. By the 1980s, it had grown to become the largest private company in Europe, but subsequently declined in the face of increased com ...
Giant Killers Award **2–1 vs Norwich City,
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
third round, 6 January 1996


Rivalries

Brentford's main rivals are
Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...
and
Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
. The club have a long standing rivalry with Fulham. In the past this fixture has been marred by crowd violence. Brentford's rivalry with Queens Park Rangers intensified in 1967, when Rangers failed in an attempted takeover of the Bees, a move which, had it succeeded, would have seen Rangers move into Griffin Park and Brentford quit the
Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
. As with the Fulham rivalry, this fixture sees passions run high amongst both sets of supporters with local pride at stake.


International links

In February 2013, it was announced that Brentford had entered into partnership with Icelandic 1. deild karla club
UMF Selfoss Ungmennafélag Selfoss, commonly known as Selfoss or UMF Selfoss, is an Icelandic multisport club, located in the town of Selfoss in the Southern Region. In May 2019, the Selfoss men's handball team won the national handball championship for ...
, which would enable Brentford to send youth and development squad players to
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
to gain experience. The partnership also sees the two clubs exchanging coaching philosophies and allows Brentford to utilise UMF Selfoss' scouting network. In May 2013, the Brentford staff forged links with
Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...
n lower league club Gulu United as part of the "United for United" project, aimed at forming the region's first youth training camp and identifying talented players. Brentford owner Matthew Benham became majority shareholder in Danish club FC Midtjylland in 2014 and the staff of both clubs share ideas.


Affiliated clubs

* FC Midtjylland − Sister club *
London Tigers The London Tigers were a professional Double-A Minor League Baseball team that played in the Eastern League from 1989 to 1993. They played at Labatt Memorial Park in London, Ontario, and were affiliated with the Detroit Tigers. At the time it ...
*
UMF Selfoss Ungmennafélag Selfoss, commonly known as Selfoss or UMF Selfoss, is an Icelandic multisport club, located in the town of Selfoss in the Southern Region. In May 2019, the Selfoss men's handball team won the national handball championship for ...
* Gulu United


Celebrity connections

* Brentford FC is mentioned often on the BBC comedy ''
People Just Do Nothing ''People Just Do Nothing'' is a British television mockumentary sitcom, created and performed by Allan Mustafa, Steve Stamp, Asim Chaudhry and Hugo Chegwin. The programme follows the lives of MC Grindah, DJ Beats and their friends, who run ...
''. DJ Beats often wears a Brentford jacket, and Angel's room is full of Brentford memorabilia. * Actor and comedian
Bradley Walsh Bradley John Walsh (born 4 June 1960) is an English actor, comedian, singer, television presenter, and former professional footballer. Walsh is known for his roles as Danny Baldwin in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2004–2006), a ...
was a professional at the club in the late 1970s, but never made the first team squad. *
Dan Tana Dan Tana (born 1935 as Dobrivoje Tanasijević; ) is a Serbian and American restaurateur, actor, football administrator/executive, and former professional footballer. Tana is best known as the proprietor of an eponymous restaurant, Dan Tana's, in ...
, Hollywood actor and restaurateur, served on the club's board and was chairman. * Model Stephen James played for the club's youth team prior to his release in 2008. * Entertainer Vic Oliver served as the club's vice-president in the early 1950s and was later president of the Brentford Supporters' Club. * Politician Jack Dunnett served as club chairman between 1961 and 1967. *
Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...
became a director of the club for a year in 1979. *Radiohead guitarist
Ed O'Brien Edward John O'Brien (born 15 April 1968) is an English guitarist, songwriter and member of the rock band Radiohead. He releases solo music under the name EOB. O'Brien attended Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, England, where he met the other mem ...
has been a supporter and season ticket holder at Brentford Football Club


Notes


References


External links

* of Brentford F.C. * of Bees United – The Brentford Supporters' Trust (owners of the majority of shares in the club) * of BIAS – Brentford Independent Association of Supporters {{Authority control 1889 establishments in England Association football clubs established in 1889 Brentford, London Football clubs in England Football clubs in London English Football League clubs Premier League clubs Southern Football League clubs Sport in the London Borough of Hounslow Former English Football League clubs