POPortsmouth

Club history

Portsmouth Football Club was founded on 5 April 1898, filling a footballing void in a city dominated by the Royal Navy, and has played at Fratton Park, its Milton home, since the club's earliest days. The nickname 'Pompey' predates the club itself and was already an established nickname for the city and its naval dockyard; its precise etymology is disputed, with rival theories citing sailors' slang, the naval signal-book abbreviation 'Pom. P.' for Portsmouth Point, and a folk tale involving Napoleonic-era prisoners mispronouncing 'Portsmouth' as 'Pompey'.

Portsmouth won the FA Cup in 1939, then held the trophy for an unprecedented seven years because the Second World War suspended the competition until 1946. The club's peak came immediately after, with back-to-back First Division championships in 1948-49 and 1949-50 under manager Bob Jackson, briefly the strongest side in England. Relegation from the top flight in 1959 began decades of decline and yo-yoing between divisions.

A revival under owner Milan Mandaric and manager Harry Redknapp brought Premier League football back in 2003 and an FA Cup triumph in 2008, Portsmouth's second and most recent major trophy. Reckless post-Cup spending under subsequent owners, however, triggered two spells in administration between 2010 and 2013 and three relegations in four years, dropping Portsmouth to League Two. The Pompey Supporters' Trust bought the club in 2013 to secure its survival, before selling to American businessman Michael Eisner's Tornante Company in 2017; Portsmouth has since climbed back to League One and won promotion campaigns through 2017 and 2024.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• Wikipedia - History of Portsmouth F.C.

English Top-Flight Champions won (2)

• 1948-49
• 1949-50