|
The history of Norwich City F.C. stretches back to 1902. After a brief period in amateur football, the club spent 15 years as a semi-professional team in the Southern League before admission to The Football League in 1920. For most of the next 50 years, Norwich City F.C. sat in Division Three (South), then the joint lowest tier of the football league, a period that was distinguished by "a thrilling giant-killing sequence which took them to the FA Cup semi-finals" in 1959.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Norwich City 1958–1959 : Results )〕 Shortly afterwards, the club won its first major trophy, the 1962 League Cup. Norwich finally reached the pinnacle of the league structure in 1972, with their first promotion to the top tier. Since then, Norwich City has acquired a reputation as a "yo-yo club", with 22 seasons in the top league and 15 in the second tier. It is during this period that the club has achieved most of its greatest distinctions, claiming its second major trophy, the League Cup in 1985,〔 reaching two more FA Cup semi finals,〔1989 and 1992, 〕 finishing fifth, fourth and third in the top division and beating Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup. In the course of its history, Norwich City has survived a number of incidents that threatened its survival, including ousting from amateur football, the need to be re-elected to The Football League and financial crises. Geoffrey Watling, who was to become club Chairman and after whom a stand at the club's stadium, Carrow Road is named, was instrumental in saving the club from bankruptcy, both in the 1950s and 1990s; his father had played a similar role in 1919. ==Early years: 1902–1930== Norwich City F.C. was formed following a meeting at the Criterion Cafe in Norwich on 17 June 1902 by a group of friends led by two former Norwich CEYMS players,〔 and played their first competitive match against Harwich & Parkeston, at Newmarket Road on 6 September 1902.〔 〕 Originally, the club was nicknamed the ''Citizens'', and played in light blue and white halved shirts.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Club history 1902–1940 )〕 The popular pastime of canary rearing had given rise to the team's nickname of "The Canaries" by April 1905, and by February 1907 this moniker had been adopted by the national press. The following season, inspired by the nickname, City played for the first time in Canary livery; yellow shirts with green collars and cuffs. A local paper reported that "The Cits are dead but the Canaries are very much alive". Norwich played for just over two seasons as an amateur club under The Football Association (FA). However, following an FA Commission of inquiry, the club was informed on the last day of 1904 that they had been deemed a professional organisation and hence ineligible to compete in amateur football. The main allegations were:〔 The club officials, including founding chairman Robert Webster, had to be removed from office and Norwich were to be ousted from the amateur game at the end of the season. The response was swift: at a meeting, just two days later, Wilfrid Lawson Burgess became the first chairman of the professional club and it was resolved to find a place in the professional game.〔 The decision was endorsed at a public meeting in March 1905, a meeting that, significantly, was attended by Nat Whitaker, secretary of the Southern League. He seconded a motion proposed by a local businessman that endorsed the club's "... determination to run a first class professional team". Whitaker actively supported Norwich, as he wanted the League's influence to spread eastwards.〔 On 30 May 1905, they were elected to play in the Southern League, in place of Wellingborough.〔 With increasing attendances at matches and strict new clauses included in a proposed lease extension, Norwich were forced to leave Newmarket Road and move to a converted disused chalk pit in Rosary Road which became known as "The Nest". Works at The Nest, which included dismantling and moving the stands from Newmarket Road, were complete in time for the start of the 1908–09 season. On 10 December 1917, with football suspended during the First World War and the club facing spiralling debts, City went into voluntary liquidation.〔 The club was officially reformed on 15 February 1919; a key figure in the events was a Mr C Watling, father of future club Chairman, Geoffrey Watling. In May 1920, The Football League formed a Third Division, to which Norwich was admitted for the following season. Their first league fixture, against Plymouth, on 28 August 1920, ended in a 1–1 draw. The club endured a mediocre first decade in the League, finishing no higher than eighth but no lower than 18th.〔 It was during this period that the players began to wear a canary emblem on their shirts. A simple canary badge was first adopted in 1922; a variation is used to this day. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Norwich City F.C.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|