Sunderland Association Football Club

Sunderland Association Football Club is an English football club and an English Premier League team. Founded in 1879, its home stadium is located in the newly built Stadium of Light on the banks of the River Wear in Sunderland, northeast England. Sunderland's early home ground was located at Roker Park (1898-1997), so they were called the "Rokermen". In the early 20th century, Sunderland often spent huge sums of money to buy players. They were also nicknamed the "Bank of England club" and are currently nicknamed the "Black Cats". The club motto Consectatio Excellentiae means "the pursuit of excellence". Sunderland have won the First Division six times in total, but the most recent was in 1936, but they are still the last team to win the English League Championship wearing sword stripes. They also won two FA Cups, the most famous of which was defeating Leeds United in 1973 as a second-division team. Sunderland's traditional rival is Newcastle United, which also belongs to the northeast of England. Club History The club was founded in 1879 by a group of teachers called the Sunderland & District Teachers Association. Later, they joined players from other industries and officially competed under the name of Sunderland Football Club. They turned into a professional team in 1885. In the same year, they joined several Scottish players and became the first batch of foreign players. In 1890, they joined the Football League. Sunderland was the top club in northern England. In the next six years, they only lost one home game and became the first team to win three league championships. The league resumed after World War II, but Sunderland lost its glory. They were relegated in 1958 and bid farewell to their 68-year streak of competing in the top division (Arsenal later broke the record in 1979). In the following days, Sunderland has been hovering between the First and Second Divisions. However, in 1987, they were relegated to the C League for the first time in history. Under the leadership of new head coach Dennis Smith, they were promoted back to the C Division the following year as the C League champions. Two years later, despite losing the promotion play-off final at Wembley, victors Swindon lost their promotion spot to Sunderland due to financial problems (illegal payments). The season after being promoted to Group A, the team will be relegated to Group B (or Group A after the establishment of the Premier League). In 1992, Sunderland challenged Liverpool in the FA Cup final as a second-tier league team, but failed 0-2. Since then, the position of head coach has been like a wheel, with many head coaches replaced in a short period of time, including Malcolm Crosby, Terry Butcher and Mick Buxton. In 1995, the team's record plummeted and they were likely to be relegated again. With only seven games left, the Sunderland board appointed Peter Reid as head coach. As a result, he successfully helped the team stay in the league and win the championship the following year (1996) to advance to the Premier League. After Sunderland was promoted, due to lack of scoring ability, they lost to Wimbledon in the last round of the first Premier League season (1996-1997) and finally declared failure to avoid relegation. The Stadium of Light opened in the same year, with a capacity of 42