BUBurnley

BUBurnley has reached the english top-flight champions decider 4 times on record, first in 1919-20 and most recently in 1961-62. 2 wins against 2 runner-up finishes are recorded below, sourced from our full english top-flight champions list.

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

BUBurnley — 2 english top-flight champions (1920-21, 1959-60).

Club history

Burnley Football Club was founded on 18 May 1882 by members of Burnley Rovers, a local rugby club that switched codes to association football, subsequently dropping "Rovers" from its name. The club has played at Turf Moor since February 1883, making it one of the longest continuously used grounds in English professional football. Originally playing in green and later other colours, Burnley adopted claret and blue in 1910, in tribute to the recently crowned league champions Aston Villa, and have been known as "the Clarets" ever since.

Burnley were one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888. Their first major honour came with FA Cup victory in 1914, the first FA Cup final attended by a reigning monarch, and they won their first league championship in 1920-21. A second title arrived in 1959-60 under manager Harry Potts, achieved with a squad built substantially through the club's own youth system despite Burnley's status as a small-town club, a triumph often cited as one of the last by a provincial club before football's finances became dominated by the biggest cities.

The following decades brought severe decline: Burnley dropped through the divisions and by 1987 faced relegation to non-league football, surviving only on the final day of the 1986-87 season with a win over Orient in front of a nervous Turf Moor crowd, a match still regarded as one of the club's most significant. Financial recovery was slow, but under Sean Dyche from 2012 Burnley twice earned promotion to the Premier League on limited budgets, and under Vincent Kompany won the Championship title in 2022-23. In December 2020, American investment firm ALK Capital acquired an 84% stake for around 170 million pounds, the first outside ownership in the club's history, and Burnley have continued to move between the Premier League and Championship in the years since.

Sources

English Top-Flight Champions won (2)

  • 1920-21
  • 1959-60

Runner-up finishes (2)

  • 1919-20
  • 1961-62

See the full english top-flight champions list for the winner each of these years.

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