Buckingham F.C.
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| Full name | Buckingham Football Club | |||
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| Nickname(s) | The Royals The Kingsmen | |||
| Short name | Bucks, BFC | |||
| Founded | 2018 | |||
| Ground | Crown Arena | |||
| Capacity | 65,200 | |||
| Owner | Prince Thomas, Duke of Hanover | |||
| Manager | Thomas Tuchel | |||
| League | Premier League | |||
| 2021-2022 | 3rd of 20 | |||
| Website | Club website | |||
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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 Thomas, Duke of Hanover (formerly King Thomas of the United Kingdom), 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 much resounding success, notably in the 2019-2020 season, where after placing 8th the previous season, Buckingham finished the season at 2nd place behind Liverpool with just five points separating the two clubs. Meanwhile, on the international stage, the club so far has won five international competitions to date, with one victory each in the FA Cup, EFL Cup, UEFA Champions League, FA Community Shield, and the UEFA Super Cup competitions.
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 and former English professional footballer, William Smith as its deputy chairman respectively since the club's 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 Thomas, 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 Thomas 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, along with having a total seating capacity of 95,000 spectators, making it the largest stadium in the United Kingdom.
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.
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".
In addition to their unprecedented improvement in the Premier League, the club also won their first international competition that year when they defeated Arsenal at the 2019–20 FA Cup final, which they won with a 5-4 score through a penalty shootout after both teams were tied at 3-3. In that same year, the club also progressed to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, but was defeated by Leicester City with a 2-3 aggregate. Moreover, their victory at the FA Cup that year allowed them to participate in the 97th FA Community Shield match, which they won 3-1 over their traditional rival, Liverpool, bringing them their second international trophy.
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. In that same year, the club won their first EFL Cup competition after narrowly defeating Tottenham Hotspur with a score of 5-4, thereby awarding the club its second international competition win. However, in the FA Cup, the club otherwise failed to defend its title achieved in the previous season after losing to Leicester City in the semi-finals with a score of 1-3, their second international defeat against Leicester City after the previous year at the EFL Cup.
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 semi-finals before losing to the Spanish club, Real Madrid with a 5-6 aggregate.
Despite the club's advancement and success in some areas, discontent and disappointment over some of the club's perceived shortcomings led to Dutch-born manager, Ronald Koeman departing the club following the season's end, and being subsequently replaced in his position by the German-born Thomas Tuchel, whom had previously managed the illustrious Ligue 1 club, Paris Saint-Germain.
2021-22
In the 2021-22 season, the club nearly came close to defending their title in the EFL Cup, even going so far as to reach the semi-finals following a 5-4 penalty shootout victory over West Ham United, before being later narrowly defeated and eliminated by Chelsea with a 3-4 defeat. Similarly, the club was also able to progress significantly towards the finals in the FA Cup but was also ultimately defeated by Liverpool with a score of 1-3.
Nonetheless, under the leadership of its newly-appointed manager, Thomas Tuchel, the club would go on to win its second international competition, namely, the UEFA Champions League, which they won that year with a decisive 3-0 score over their English rival, Liverpool, therefore securing their third international win after a previous win in the FA Cup and the EFL Cup respectively. Moreover, as the match had taken place just a couple of weeks after Buckingham's previous defeat to Liverpool at the FA Cup finals, many of the club's fans largely saw the victory as a "payback" to the club's previous defeat at the hands of Liverpool, which further heightened the longstanding rivalry between Buckingham and Liverpool.
Following a 3-0 victory over Brighton, 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.
With their victory in the UEFA Champions League that year, Buckingham subsequently faced the German football club, Eintrach Frankfurt, whom had then won that year's UEFA Europa League competition. In the ensuing match, Buckingham easily defeated their German opponent with a score of 4-1, giving them their fifth consecutive international trophy to date, causing Sky News to dub Buckingham a "spectacular trophy-winning machine".
Buckingham Women
Around the time of the club's foundation, the idea of a women's counterpart for the club was said to have been a "great priority" for the club's founder, the Duke of Hanover. However, the idea would remain unrealised throughout the next few years. Eventually, on January 1st 2022, it was announced by the Duke of Hanover that Buckingham W.F.C., the club's women's counterpart has been officially formed, and is therefore set to compete in the upcoming 2022–23 season, where they are expected to make their debut. Then, on June 3rd 2022, it was further announced that among those players whom would form the club's very first starting lineup would include Arsenal midfielder and captain of the England women's national football team, Leah Williamson, while former professional footballer and Buckingham's own deputy chairman, William Smith, was announced as the club's manager.
Rivalry
Owing to its past history of having previously shared Wembley Stadium with Liverpool up until the club's move to a permanent stadium of its own, the two clubs have since come to be seen by many football commentators as "fierce rivals". Meanwhile, since Buckingham's arrival in the Premier League, the two clubs have clashed with one another on a number of instances on the international stage, with the current total being four, three of which were won by Buckingham and the remaining one by Liverpool. In addition, with the appointment of Thomas Tuchel as manager of Buckingham in 2020, the state of rivalry between the two clubs has since come to be referred to by the media as "The Great German Rivalry", as Tuchel himself and Liverpool's current manager, Jürgen Klopp are both German-born managers.
Meanwhile, records-wise, since Buckingham's entry into the Premier League and therefore, the wider football world as a whole, it has so far earned five trophies in total, while Liverpool, during that same time period, has otherwise accumulated a total of six trophies, notwithstanding their other past trophies accumulated long before Buckingham's arrival, stretching all the way back to the 1900s.