Buckingham F.C.

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Buckingham
Buckingham FC.png
Full nameBuckingham Football Club
Nickname(s)The Royals
The Kingsmen
Short nameBucks, BFC
Founded2018
GroundCrown Arena
Capacity51,500
OwnerPrince Thomas, Duke of Hanover
ManagerThomas Tuchel
LeaguePremier League
2021-20223rd of 20
WebsiteClub website

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 and of the Netherlands), 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 in 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 eight international competitions to date, with a single victory in the EFL Cup, three consecutive victories in the FA Cup, as well as two consecutive wins in the UEFA Champions League and in the Super Cup competition.

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.

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 the relegation zone, the club, to the surprise of many observers and commentators, 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 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 initially tied at 0-0, thereby winning them their first ever international trophy. In that same year, the club also successfully won that year's EFL Cup season, defeating Manchester City with a score of 1-0 in the finals thanks to a 49th-minute goal from midfielder, Thomas Partey, thereby securing them their second consecutive trophy. At the same time, their victory at the FA Cup that year allowed them to participate in the 97th FA Community Shield match, which they otherwise lost 0-2 to their traditional rival, Liverpool.

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, however, the club failed to defend EFL Cup title, which they lost to Tottenham Hotspur with a score of 2-0. However, in the FA Cup, the club was able to successfully defend its title achieved in the previous season when it defeated Chelsea in the finals through a penalty shootout, which they won 4-3 after both teams were initially tied at 1-1, with winger, Arnaut Danjuma, scoring the club's only goal in the match at the 28th minute.

Regardless, due to them having placed second in the previous season of the Premier League, the club had also qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its history. Remarkably, the club went on to win the championship in their debut participation, when, after an initial tie at 1-1 against Manchester City in the finals, Buckingham successfully won the championship through a penalty shootout, which they did so with a margin of 5-3, making this their fourth international trophy. This was then followed by a victory against the Spanish club, Villarreal at the 2021 Super Cup, whom they defeated 2-1, and an otherwise 1-2 loss to Saudi-club, Al Hilal at the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals, which they promptly compensated with a 1-0 victory over Egyptian club, Al Ahly to secure the third place in the competition, with winger, Jerry St. Juste, scoring a late goal at the 83rd minute. However, around a year later, it was then rumoured that Buckingham, having just won their second consecutive UEFA Champions League, would not potentially seek to compete in the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup in China, given that the country's government, in response to a controversial state visit to Taiwan by Britain's Queen Alexandra, had imposed sanctions on members of the British royal family, including the club's own owner, the Duke of Hanover, whom later opely declared in an interview with ESPN, "As the club chairman myself, I will always be with the players whenever they go to these major competitions, be it inside the country or abroad, and in this case, that tradition's staying, and absolutely no threats or sanctions could convince me otherwise, especially from an authoritarian regime such as China itself".

Despite the club's general advancement and success, concerns over the club's tendency to win their titles through mostly penalty shootouts reportedly led the club's Dutch-born manager, Ronald Koeman to depart the club sometime later that year, at which point, he was then replaced in his position by the German-born manager, Thomas Tuchel, whom had previously managed the illustrious Ligue 1 club, Paris Saint-Germain.

2021-22

In the subsequent 2021-22 season, following a dramatic transformation concerning the club's starting eleven, which notably saw, among others, a slight expansion concerning the club's original three-man striker team to a four-man striker team with the inclusion of German-born strikers, Kai Havertz and Joshua Kimmich from Beyer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich respectively, the club was nearly able to reach the semi-finals in the EFL Cup, but they were eventually defeated by Chelsea with an aggregate of 0-2. Nonetheless, the club otherwise made significant progress in the FA Cup, which they later won with a narrow 1-0 victory over Liverpool, thanks to a 68th-minute goal by winger, Marcus Rashford, thereby allowing them to retain the titles for three consecutive seasons straight. Furthermore, the club also went on to win a few more international titles, namely, the UEFA Champions League, which they won that year once more with a narrow 1-0 victory over their English rival, Liverpool, owing to a 26th-minute goal from Marcus Rashford once more.

Following a goalless match against 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, which they have continuously held for the past two seasons to date, while also looking forward to defending their FA Cup title, which they have otherwise held for the past three consecutive seasons.

With their victory in the UEFA Champions League that year, Buckingham then faced the German football club, Eintrach Frankfurt, whom had then won that year's UEFA Europa League in the follow-up Super Cup competition. In the ensuing match, Buckingham decisively defeated their German opponent with a score of 5-4 at the penalty shootouts, thereby giving them their seventh consecutive international trophy to date, causing Sky News to dub Buckingham a "spectacular trophy-winning machine", noting that in the span of just four years since their founding, the club has rapidly secured a total of eight trophies.

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 three instances, two 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, into the wider football world, it has so far earned eight trophies in total, while Liverpool, during that same time period, have otherwise accumulated a total of five trophies, notwithstanding their other past trophies accumulated long before Buckingham's arrival, stretching all the way back to the 1900s.

Players