Dundalk F.C.

Dundalk F.C.

Dundalk Football Club is a professional association football club in Dundalk, Ireland. The club was founded in 1903 as Dundalk G. N. R. —the works-team of the Great Northern Railway. They were a junior club until they joined the Leinster Senior League in 1922–23. After four seasons in that division, they were elected to the League of Ireland for 1926–27. They became the first club from outside Dublin to win the league title in 1932–33, and won their first FAI Cup in 1941–42. They have qualified for Europe a total of 25 times, with their best performance in the European Cup UEFA Champions League coming in 1979–80.

About Dundalk F.C. in brief

Summary Dundalk F.C.Dundalk Football Club is a professional association football club in Dundalk, Ireland. The club was founded in 1903 as Dundalk G. N. R. —the works-team of the Great Northern Railway. They were a junior club until they joined the Leinster Senior League in 1922–23. After four seasons in that division, they were elected to the League of Ireland for 1926–27. They became the first club from outside Dublin to win the league title in 1932–33, and won their first FAI Cup in 1941–42. The team has played in white shirts since 1927 and adopted the present combination of white shirts with black shorts in 1940. They have qualified for Europe a total of 25 times, with their best performance in the European Cup UEFA Champions League coming in 1979–80. In 2016–17 they were the first team from Ireland to both win points and win a match at that level of European competition. They are the second most successful club in the League’s history, and the most successful in the Premier Division era. Dundalk made their European debut in the 1963–64 European Cup as League Champions, and are the highest ranked Irish side in European football as measured by UEFA club coefficients. They won their most recent League title in 2019 and their most recently FAI cup in 2018. They moved to their present home ground, Oriel Park, in 1936, having mostly played at the Athletic Grounds in the town centre before that. They finished as runners-up in both the League and the FAI Cups in 1930–31 and 1930-31, and finished as both the league runners-ups in the Cup in 1930 and 1930.

They also won the League Cup in 2002-03 and 2003-04, as well as the Irish League Championship in 2004-05 and the Irish FA Cup in 2005-06. They play their home games at the Oriel Stadium in the centre of the town. The current manager is Steve Wright, who has been in charge of the club since 2008. The first team was formed in 1885 as a rugby football club. In September 1903 it switched codes to association football, setting in motion its journey to become the modern-day Dundalk Football club. They played challenge matches at first, then became founder members of the first Dundalk and District League formed in 1906. They re-formed for 1919–20, affiliated with the Leonster Football Association, and joined both the revived DDL, and Newry and District league. They spent three seasons in the DDL winning it twice, and also qualified to represent the district in both Junior Cup competitions each season. They reached their first final in 1920, a Leinsters Junior Cup Final, losing out to Avonmore in a second replay. In 1926, the club joined the Free State League and finished eighth in the 1926-27 season. On 21 August 1926 they travelled to Cork to face Fordsons for their league debut, eventually finishing eighth in that season. By the end of the 1928–29 season the club’s management committee decided to make it independent of the company.