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AFC Bournemouth | Club History

Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and we are starting a new series of videos, discussing the history of soccer clubs around the world. We’re starting in England with the Premier League and going in alphabetical order. So, first up is AFC Bournemouth. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.

AFC Bournemouth, which stands for Association Football Club Bournemouth, is located in the Northeastern part of the town of Bournemouth. The town is located on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. Bournemouth currently play in the Premier League. The club’s home ground or stadium, is called the Vitality Stadium and holds 11,464 people. Vitality is the stadium’s corporate name. It used to be called Dean Court, which was opened in 1910.

Origin

The present club can trace its roots to 1890 when Boscombe St. Johns Institute Football Club were playing locally. Boscombe is the town right next to Bournemouth. That club disbanded in 1899 and from its remains, Boscombe FC were formed at a meeting on Gladstone Road in Boscombe. The club changed names a handful of times over the years before making their final change from Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic to AFC Bournemouth in 1972. The logic behind this change? They would be first in any alphabetical list of English clubs.

Nickname

The club’s nickname is ‘The Cherries’. That nickname comes from 1910 where there are 2 possible explanations.

The first is that the club simply wore cherry red striped shirts and the nickname comes from that.

The second is that Dean Court was built next to the Cooper-Dean estate which included many cherry orchards.

Side note: the club actually switched from their original kit color of cherry red to plain red from the mid-1930s to 60s but switched back to cherry red in the 70s and have been wearing it ever since.

Crest

Now let’s talk about the club’s crest.

Versions of today’s crest were first used from 1971 until 1981. It resembles a computer animation of a player’s head and a ball. There have been subtle tweaks to the crest over the years, but it’s basically been the same crest since 1983. The silhouette is that of Dicky Dowsett, the former striker and commercial manager of the club who was instrumental in dropping the Boscombe suffix in 1972. The black and red vertical stripes on the right side of the crest are a reference to the club’s kit. And obviously the club’s name is at the top. Overall, a pretty simple crest.

Personally, I don’t love the current crest. Instead, let’s talk about the Bournemouth Coat of Arms, which was the club’s crest from 1923 until 1971.

The tree and roses at the top symbolize the city of Bournemouth’s award-winning gardens and parks. The center section is a shield based on the Arms of King Edward the Confessor, whose royal estate was in the area that became Bournemouth. The four salmon in the lower left corner, represent fish from the local river. Each of the lions on Bournemouth’s crest holds a rose between its paws symbolizing England. What look like six birds in the upper right corner are martlets. Martlets have no legs and are mythical but they do kinda look like Sand Martins, which are real birds that can be found close to the city. And the town’s motto at the bottom is, “Pulchritudo et Salubritas” which is Latin for “beautiful and healthy”.

Important Events

Now let’s discuss 3 important events in the club’s history

(1) In January 1997, the club was £4.5M in debt. Specifically, they had to pay the Inland Revenue Department (British Tax department) £350K or they’d receive a winding up order. A winding up order is a British term for the forced closure & liquidation of a business. Fans set up a supporters trust and became Europe’s first community-owned club. The fans & players raised £300K partially helped by a bucket collection. Only 5 minutes before the noon press conference on January 28, 1997, did the club executives have enough money to pay the tax bill & save the club.

(2) About 10 years later, the second event I’d like to discuss happened. In the 2007-2008 season, the club went into administration (bankruptcy). The club just couldn’t get it together financially… Bournemouth was seconds away from liquidation until chairman Jeff Mostyn wrote a check for £100K to pay off the debt. That saved the club financially, but the English Football league administrators had serious doubts about letting the club play the following season in League 2 (England’s 4th division and its last full professional division). The league decided the club could play, but would need to start the season with -17 points in the standings.

Quick reminder a win is worth 3 points, so they basically spotted every other club in the league 6 wins.

During the season, the club went through 2 managers before being forced into hiring Eddie Howe on New Year’s Ever 2008. Howe was a 31 year-old former club legend who had no managerial experience at all. He turned the club’s fortunes around and on April 25, 2009, Bournemouth recorded a dramatic 2-1 home win over Grimsby Town to save the club from relegation to semi-professional soccer. It was likely the most important season in the club’s history.

(3) The third event happened on May 2, 2015. After waiting 125 years to play first division soccer in England, Bournemouth won 3-0 away against Charlton Athletic to seal their promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history.

Supporters

An interesting fact about Bournemouth supporters is that the Cherries Supporters Trust, which goes back to the organization that helped save the club in 1997, still acts as the main voice in communications with the club for supporters both domestically & internationally.

Noteworthy Players

Due to Bournemouth’s relative infancy at playing at the top level, the 2 most famous players are likely Jermaine Defoe and Rio Ferdinand, who each only had short stints with the club.

Defoe had a loan stint in the 2000-2001 season and at the time of recording is back playing with the club, signing this past offseason. He’s scored over 100 goals in the Premier League for a number of different clubs and has many caps for the English National team.

Rio Ferdinand, then a West Ham player, spent two months on loan between December 1996 and January 1997, when he was 18 years old. He went on to have a legendary career with Manchester United and the English National team.

And the club certainly has legends and players who are important in the Cherries’ history, but these two are likely to be the most well-known.

Noteworthy Managers

The club’s 2 most famous managers are likely Harry Redknapp and Eddie Howe.

Harry Redknapp was the Cherries manager during some of the most exciting times in the club’s history. Bournemouth came close to promotion out of the old Second Division and even beat Manchester United in an FA Cup match under his tenure. Harry’s famous for his interactions with the press and has managed numerous clubs all over England’s different divisions.

The other manager, Eddie Howe, was a former player with 313 appearances for the club. Injuries forced him into management in 2008 (as youngest manager in all of English soccer). He proceeded to lead the club into League 1 before becoming manager of Burnley for a couple seasons. He came back in 2013, led the Cherries to promotion to the Championship before following up with a promotion campaign in 2015 into the Premier League. He is current manager of Bournemouth and is thought of as one of the best young managers in England.

Rivals

Now it’s time to talk about rivalries. Unfortunately, Bournemouth doesn’t have any true rivals.

Southampton would be the closest thing to a rival, but Southampton doesn’t really consider Bournemouth to be much of a rival.

Bournemouth also consider Portsmouth, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Reading as rivals.

The Reading supporter message boards dismiss Bournemouth as a rival, so I’m not going to discuss them too much since it appears to be a one-sided rivalry.

Southampton, Portsmouth & Brighton & Hove Albion are all down to proximity. All 4 clubs (including Bournemouth) are in towns located along England’s south coast. That’s where I’ll leave Portsmouth & Brighton since it doesn’t appear to be too much backstory to those rivals beyond just they play in a surrounding town.

Southampton is definitely Bournemouth’s main rival from the Cherries’ perspective. Both clubs faced liquidation in 2008 before being saved. Both play in the Premier League now but their rivalry stretches back to 2011 when both clubs were in League 1 (England’s 3rd division). Southampton went on a somewhat meteoric rise to the Premier League and Bournemouth followed suit a couple years later. The two towns get along extremely well. The clubs actually get along well too, which makes this whole rivalry a bit odd. Also, Bournemouth has only beaten Southampton a handful of times in the league dating back to 1958, so it’s not much of a rivalry in Southampton’s eyes. It’s definitely a weird, quirky rivalry but it is a rivalry to Bournemouth fans.

Stats & Records

Time to talk some stats & records as of February 2018, when I am recording this video.

Bournemouth have spent 3 seasons in the top flight in their history.

The Cherries have never won a major trophy in English soccer but they have won the Football League Trophy, which is a cup competition played only by lower league teams.

The club’s biggest success by far was winning the Championship (England’s second division) and promotion to the Premier League in the 2014-2015 season.

The club’s record league appearance holder is Steve Fletcher with 493 appearances.

Bournemouth’s record league goal scorer is Ron Eyre with 202 goals.

The club’s record transfer purchase was Nathan Ake from Chelsea FC on June 30, 2017 for about £20M.

The club’s record transfer sale was Matt Ritchie to Newcastle United on July 1, 2016 for about £10M initially with £2M in add-ons.

And one last fun fact about AFC Bournemouth: Dean Court/Vitality Stadium is the smallest ground ever in the Premier League’s history, which dates back to 1992.

So there you have it… a bit of history on AFC Bournemouth. Let’s continue the discussion in the comments section below this video.

Thanks for stopping by the Soccer Tavern. Hope to see you again sometime soon. Cheers!

History Of Position Numbers In Soccer

Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and in this video, we’re discussing the history of position numbers in soccer.

Specifically, what does an announcer mean when you’re watching a match and he or she refers to a center forward as a #9 or a defensive midfielder as a #6, even though those players may not be wearing that number on their jersey? Well, that’s what we’ll cover in this video. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.

The story of position numbers in soccer starts in the 1920’s with Arsenal manager, Herbert Chapman. He was one of the most outspoken proponents of putting numbers on players’ shirts. Numbers made it easier for his players to recognize teammates and their relative position on the pitch.

Chapman’s original numbering system would evolve into the player position numbers we know today. So what were the original player position numbers? As crazy as this may seem to fans of modern soccer, the popular formation at the time was an attack heavy 2-3-5, meaning two defensive players, three midfielders and five attackers.

Chapman labelled his players in ascending order, right to left, starting with the goalkeeper and ending at the forwards:

GK – 1
Right Fullback – 2
Left Fullback – 3
Right halfback – 4
Center halfback – 5
Left halfback – 6
Outside-right forward – 7
Inside-right forward – 8
Center forward – 9
Inside-left forward – 10
Outside-left forward – 11

Shortly after Chapman decided to number his players in the 2-3-5 formation, he began developing a new formation called the W-M in response to the new offside law change. With this new formation, teams played with 3 defenders, 2 defensive midfielders, 2 attacking midfielders, and 3 attackers.

As you will see, rather than renumbering the players in the new system, players in previous roles simply moved positions:

In England, the #5 player from the original formation dropped to be a fullback. And the #2 and #3 players split wider. The #4 and #6 players became defensive midfielders. And the #8 and #10 players dropped back off the forward line to become attacking midfielders.

Over in South America and Continental Europe, the #4 player was generally the one to become an additional fullback with the #5 staying in midfield.

By 1939 English players were required to wear the number of their position on their jersey during matches. This requirement led to the 1940s and ’50s when player numbers and positions became so synonymous that they were used interchangeably by fans and media.

In South America, by the 50s, the 4-2-4 formation became popular. In this formation, another midfielder dropped to be a fullback. But, the backline shuffle differed from country to country.

For example, in Uruguay, the #6 player dropped to be a left fullback and the #3 player became the left CB with #2 being the right CB and #4 being the right fullback

In Argentina, the #6 and #3 positions were swapped with the #3 being the left full back and the #6 being the left CB.

In most of the South American countries, the midfield and forwards were the same. So, the #8 player dropped further into central midfield. And the #10 player pushed up into the forward line as another striker.

England and Europe used the 4-2-4 formation as well with some slight variations.

In England the #6 dropped to be the left CB and the #3 player moved out wide. Additionally, the right fullback remained #2 with the right CB being #5.

Over in continental Europe the additional CB was most often the #5 player. This led to most European formations with a backline from left to right reading as #3, #5, #4, #2.

After the 4-2-4 formation came the 4-3-3 as a popular formation.

In the 4-3-3, the #10 dropped off the forward line to become an additional central midfielder. He was given the role of a playmaker, dropping into pockets of space and creating opportunities for the forwards, mainly through passing.

The #9 slid back into more of a central role. He was tasked with winning long balls and maintaining possession for teammates to get involved in the attack. He was also responsible for scoring headers, usually from crosses that were sent in by the wingers.

Wingers wore #7 and #11 and generally stayed very wide to create space and serve crosses into the box.

The #8 played as a box to box central midfielder (meaning he was expected to both attack and defend in equal measure),

And the #4/5/6, depending on which geographic region you are in, was more focused on defending from the midfield and maintaining defensive shape. He wasn’t too concerned with attacking.

4-3-3 with continental European numbering

Formations continued to evolve but this 4-3-3 numbering system is the one most widely recognized & used today.

From an American perspective, the most common numbering system referenced is generally the continental European one with #6 as a defensive center midfielder.

But if you’re in England or South America and they reference a different numbering system, you now have some background on why it’s different.

So now, when you’re watching a match and an announcer refers to a #8, you know he or she means a box to box center midfielder who’s all over the pitch in attack and defense, even though that player may not be wearing #8 on his or her jersey.

That’s the history of position numbers in soccer. Thanks for stopping by The Soccer Tavern. We’ll be back with another video soon.

History Of The Word ‘Soccer’

Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and in this video, we’re discussing where the word “soccer” comes from. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.

Most cultures around the world know the game of soccer by the term football So, to understand where the term soccer comes from, we actually need to start with understanding where the term football comes from.

Most people assume that the sport is called football because the game is played mainly with the ball at your feet. This seems like a logical explanation, but the truth, is actually a bit different

Hundreds of years ago in Britain, where the sport of soccer originated, the aristocracy & upper classes played sports mainly on horseback and/or in the water.

Sports played by the lower classes were mainly on foot and therefore many of these games were referred to as football. This also helps explain why sports like American football, Gaelic football, and Australian rules football are named football even though they’re played predominantly with the players’ hands.

This explains why the word football actually has nothing to do with the players mainly using their feet to kick the ball during the match.

Now that we understand where the word football comes from, we can start understanding where the word soccer comes from.

For those that haven’t seen our ‘Origins of Soccer’ video, you first should watch that out here:

Origins of Soccer Video

In the ‘Origins of Soccer’ video, we talk about the sport’s creation story and the fact that rugby and soccer both evolved from the same game played throughout hundreds of years in Britain. In the late 1800s, the two sports split and widely accepted rules for each game were written.

The issue is both sports still used the term football to refer to their sport. To differentiate between the sports, Rugby adopted the name ‘Rugby Football’ in honor of the town where its rules were written. And soccer adopted the name ‘Association Football’ in honor of the Football Association, the organization who established the rules of soccer.

Rugby Football and Association Football are each mouthfuls to say and it was fashionable at the time to shorten words and add an ‘er on the end. So Rugby football was often referred to as rugger. And since people didn’t want to call Association football “Asser” for obvious reasons, they chose to shorten the second part of the word, which became soccer.

So, despite the popular belief that soccer is an American word, the term actually comes from Britain.

As soccer began to spread throughout the formal & informal British empire, most countries adopted the name of football for the sport. In some countries where they already had another sport referred to as football, the name of soccer was more widely used. This explains why the United States took to the term soccer for the sport because we already had a popular sport called American football.

Most interestingly, in Britain before WWII, soccer was a recognized term, but wasn’t widely used. Only after the end of WWII, did the word soccer actually became more widely used in Britain. The likely explanation for this is that American troops stationed in Britain called the sport soccer and there became a fascination with American culture after the war. So, soccer basically became the cool word for the sport for a few decades

But by the 1980s, for some reason the British started rebelling against the term soccer as the sport gained popularity in the United States. Since then, it’s been taboo in Britain to call the sport soccer even though the term is actually British.

So, there you have it. That’s the history of the term soccer.

Whether you call the sport soccer, football, or something else, I hope you enjoyed this video and learned something.

Thanks for stopping by The Soccer Tavern and we’ll be back with another video soon.

Origins of Soccer

Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and this is our very first episode where we’re discussing the origins of the sport we know as soccer today. Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, pull up a seat and lets start the discussion.

Before we get into things, I’m going to address this right up front. I’m an American, in case you can’t tell by my accent. I call the sport soccer, so I sincerely apologize if that offends or upsets you, but you’re going to be hearing a lot of the word soccer on this channel. Additionally, we’ll be making a video in the future about where the name soccer comes from and it actually may surprise you.

Now, back to the topic of this video. Where did the sport that we know as soccer today come from? Lots of different cultures around the world claim they laid the foundations of soccer. The Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Romans, and even Native Americans all played some form of sport that involved a ball and kicking.

The reality is none of them can really trace their sport’s lineage to the sport we know as soccer today. That honor belongs to the Celtic-speaking people on the western edge of Europe and in the British Isles from the Medieval Era.

As far back as the 8th century, these Celtic-speaking people played various forms of a ball game involving two large teams trying to get a ball to a specific location.

It was incredibly destructive with no rules and was basically was a giant riot. I’m only slightly exaggerating when I say the one rule was: ‘no murder.’

It was utter chaos.

The upper classes and business owners looked down on it because it was barbaric and destructive to property. For this reason, it was forbidden many times over the course of hundreds of years by those in control, but the game persisted.

Versions of this chaotic game went on for centuries up until the middle of the 1700s.

By the mid-1700s, most of the aristocracy & upper classes in Britain preferred horse racing, rowing, boxing, & cricket. Also, lower classes were being pressured by church and other Puritan culture that frowned upon entertainment, like theater & soccer.

The only thing preserving soccer around this time was a version of the sport being played in English public schools (basically boarding high schools for male teenagers) where upper class children were being educated.

Games and athleticism were a critical part of education at the time in Britain.

The sport existed in silos with rules varying by school and the sport often combined different elements of the sports we know as rugby & soccer today.

The dribbling (with feet) schools were:
– Charterhouse
– Winchester

The hands & feet running schools were:
– Rugby
– Marlborough

And the kicking & running schools were:
– Eton
– Harrow

Finally, in 1845, the first try at writing a set of was attempted in the English town of Rugby with the rules, unsurprisingly, closely resembling the game we know as rugby today.

In 1848, at Cambridge University, teachers representing Shrewsbury, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster, produced what became known as the Cambridge Rules. These were closer to the rules of soccer including:
– Establishing the goal as two posts and a crossbar (at the time, it was a string)
– Offside as being beyond the last 3 defenders of the opposition
– When the ball was out of bounds and how it should re-enter the field of play

The Cambridge rules still allowed players to catch the ball and also stop it with their hands, but they could not run with the ball unless they were the goalkeeper.

As the schools played other schools and local towns, the Cambridge rules spread.

There was still a resistance to the Cambridge rules from some schools though. These other schools insisted on using differing sets of rules.

In 1862, John Charles Thring, who was involved in the meeting at Cambridge in 1848 but was now headmaster at Uppingham Grammar School, published a set of rules that he called, the “simplest game.”

It was 12 rules and closely resembled the Cambridge rules with some minor tweaks. His game also emphasized the non-violent aspects of the game.

The simplest game rules helped the game grow at Uppingham and some surrounding schools but, again, failed to generate widespread acceptance.

Finally in late 1863, at the Freemasons’ Tavern at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in central London, 11 representatives from old boys clubs gathered with the intent to establish a unified set of rules.

Quick aside: an old boys club is basically the alumni from an English public school. They’re high school graduates who still kinda hang out together.

Over a couple months, the representatives met and used the Cambridge Rules, as well as Thring’s simplest game rules, as a starting point to discuss a unified set of rules.

It wasn’t an easy process though.

Two biggest issues for the group to resolved were:
– The practice of running with the ball in a players hands
– And the process of hacking to stop players, which was kicking an opponent in the shins to halt their progress.

Eventually, the representative from Blackheath Club who couldn’t get over removing hacking from the game and left the group.

The remaining representatives eventually agreed on a set of 14 laws in December 1863. By that point, the group was referring to themselves as the Football Association.

These rules still allowed for the practice of catching the ball, but it resulted in a free kick and players could not run with the ball. The rule for offside with 3 players needing to be behind the player still remained. And a goalkeeper could use his hands anywhere in his own half.

The Football Association printed the set of rules and began distributing them throughout London and the country.

This is widely considered the founding of soccer, but you can see that there is plenty of history and efforts done before this founding.

Also, plenty of clubs & teams still disagreed on the FA rules, with most disputes involving Sheffield clubs who had their own set of rules written in 1857. This persisted into the 1870s, but the creation of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in the 1880s, finally established a uniform set of rules for everyone.

The IFAB had their first meeting on June 2, 1886 and included 2 representatives from each of:
– England
– Scotland
– Wales
– Ireland

Any IFAB rule changes required 75% majority to pass.

In 1913, FIFA joined the IFAB council and the weighting was changed to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland each getting 1 vote and all of FIFA getting 4 votes. This is still the system used today to set rules for the game of soccer.

Going back to the FA rules from 1863, there have been many tweaks and rule changes to those laws to get us to the modern version of soccer that we know today.

Hope you enjoyed this first ever episode of The Soccer Tavern. I hope you learned something. And we’ll be back with another video soon. See ya!

Welcome To The Soccer Tavern

Welcome to The Soccer Tavern, where we make videos about the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game.

My name is Dave and I’m the creator & host of The Soccer Tavern. I’m a lifelong soccer fan, who has a genuine curiosity about the game’s long and complex history. I like learning about that and making videos to share with other.

I hope you enjoy the blog and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you are notified when we have new videos.

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Thanks for stopping by The Soccer Tavern. Hope to see you again soon. Cheers!