Buckingham F.C.

Full name	Buckingham Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Royals The Kingsmen
Short name	Bucks, BFC
Founded	2018
Ground	Crown Arena
Capacity	65,200
Owner	Prince William, Duke of Hanover
Manager	Thomas Tuchel
League	Premier League
2020-2021	3rd of 20
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Buckingham Football Club is an English football club based in London, England that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Popularly nicknamed The Royals or The Kingsmen, the club was founded in 2018 by Prince William, Duke of Hanover (formerly King William VI), whom prior to founding the club, was said to have had initial aspirations on securing the ownership of Manchester United from the Glazer family, which were ultimately unrealised. For the first three years, the club largely shared the Wembley Stadium with Liverpool, before later moving to a permanent stadium and training ground of their own, the Crown Arena stadium, which was officially opened in 2021. Meanwhile, it is the youngest Premier League club to date, having been founded just a few years prior.

Since joining the Premier League in 2018, the club so far has seen general success, notably in the 2019-2020 season, where after placing 8th the previous season, Buckingham finished the season at 2nd place behind Liverpool. Meanwhile, on the international stage, the club so far has earned its only international trophy to date after narrowly defeating Liverpool with a 1-0 score at the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final.

In addition to the club's distinctively young age, Buckingham is also known for being the only English football club to have been founded and currently owned by a member of the British royal family, with the Duke of Hanover currently serving as the club's chairman since its foundation. It was also the second richest club in the Premier League behind Manchester City, prior to the Saudi acquisition of Newcastle United, which gave the club a dramatically large net worth of roughly $580 billion.

History

Founding

Buckingham was officially founded on June 5th 2018 by Prince William, Duke of Hanover, whom up until a year prior, was King of the British from 1997. According to a popular rumour that circulated around the time of its establishment, the club was reportedly established as a way for the British royal, a longtime Manchester United fan to supposedly challenge the owners of Manchester United, all of whom are part of the Glazer family, an American family which first came to prominence under the late Malcolm Glazer, whom up until his death in 2014, simultaneously owned both Manchester United and the professional American football team, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, this rumour was denied by William himself, whom otherwise framed it as "a personal venture of mine into the world of professional football".

Initially faced with a lack of its own stadium and training ground, its owner and chairman, the Duke of Hanover began to look for a nearby Premier League football club whose stadium Buckingham is expected to share for the first few years or so. This effort soon proved successful, when Buckingham was allowed to jointly share the Wembley Stadium alongside fellow Premier League competitor, Liverpool. However, three years later, the arrangement would ultimately come to an end with the opening of the Crown Arena stadium, which currently serves as Buckingham's stadium and training ground.

Debut

Just a few months after its foundation, the club made its debut in the 2018-19 Premier League season, with Dutch-born Ronald Koeman, whom previously managed Southampton and Everton respectively being hired as the club's manager. Regardless, the club ultimately finished at 8th place by the end of the 2018-19 season, which initially sparked doubts by some commentators and observers over the club's potential and capabilities. Nonetheless, during the subsequent transfer window period, the club was blessed with a series of successful transfers, made evident by the signings of, among others, Ivan Perišić from Inter Milan and John Stones from Manchester City at £26.9 million (€32.3 million) and £131 million (€158.2 million) respectively.

2019-20

The following season, amidst initial expectations that Buckingham would largely retain its previous ranking, or even slip further downwards towards relegation, the club, to the surprise of many, went on to achieve an almost unbroken winning streak throughout the entirety of the season, with only four draws and four defeats in total, thereby allowing them to surpass most of their more established rivals, and eventually reach 2nd place behind Liverpool in 1st place by the end of the season, an achievement that was described by ESPN as "a truly shocking and unexpected comeback", while The Guardian otherwise wrote that "just as how almost everyone is talking about the Duke's so-called failed experiment the year before, now almost everyone is instead talking about just how unbelievable the club has been by the end of the season". However, despite the success in the Premier League, the club otherwise failed to secure any international cups for themselves, despite reaching the quarter-finals and the final stage in the EFL Cup and FA Cup respectively.

2020-21

Throughout the following 2020-21 Premier League season, the club maintained a largely commendable performance throughout, despite slipping to fourth place by the end of the season. However, in that same year, the club was able to reach the semi-finals in the EFL Cup, thereby considerably improving upon their past record in the aforementioned competition, while in the FA Cup, they never progressed beyond the starting third round stage.

Due to them having placed second in the previous season of the Premier League, the club also qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its history. For their debut participation in the competition, the club was able to progress to the quarter-finals before being eliminated by their Portuguese rival, FC Porto.

Meanwhile, Ronald Koeman, whom had been the club's manager since its establishment in 2018 departed the club, and was replaced by Thomas Tuchel, whom previously managed the successful Ligue 1 club, Paris Saint-Germain.

2021-22

Meanwhile, for the 2021-22 season, the club failed to make any significant progress in the EFL Cup, having been eliminated in the starting third round. On the other hand, Buckingham came close to replicating their previous successes in the FA Cup but was ultimately eliminated in the semi-finals.

Under the leadership of its newly-appointed manager, Thomas Tuchel, the club would go on to win its first international competition, namely, the UEFA Champions League, which they won that year in 1-0 victory over their English rival, Liverpool, with the lone goal being contributed by midfielder, Joaquín Correa, whom successfully scored a penalty shot that was awarded to the club at the 104th minute following an incident where Correa himself was tackled by the Liverpool forward, Mohamed Salah, resulting in Salah's removal from the field by way of a red card, and the awarding of a penalty kick to Buckingham due to the incident having occurred within the penalty area. Prior to that, another penalty shot was also awarded to Buckingham at the 57th minute, in which Liverpool defender, Trent Alexander-Arnold, much like Salah afterwards, was also removed from the field by way of a red card following an incident involving himself and Buckingham midfielder, Joshua Kimmich, whose subsequent replacement, Lorenzo Insigne, otherwise failed in his penalty shot attempt, which was foiled by Liverpool goalkeeper, Alisson Becker. On the other hand, at the 77th minute, midfielder, Jordan Henderson also failed to accomplish his penalty shot for Liverpool after he was roughed by midfielder, Ainsley Maitland-Niles within the penalty area, with goalkeeper, Marc-André ter Stegen successfully foiling Henderson's attempt at a goal.

Following a 3-0 victory over Brighton (the club's largest ever victory margin in a final seasonal Premier League match along with that of a similar 3-0 victory over Newcastle United in the 2020-21 season), Buckingham eventually concluded the season in third place, finishing behind Liverpool and ahead of Chelsea, thereby allowing them to compete to retain their Champions League title in the upcoming 2022–23 season.

Players