A Bit Of Chelsea History
Chelsea Football Club…
…was the first English club ever to qualify for the Champions League (then the European Cup), in 1955, only for Alan Hardaker, then the Chairman of the Football League, to refuse our entry “in the interests of football”.
…won a major European trophy (the Cup Winners’ Cup, in 1971) before Liverpool (the UEFA Cup in ’73).
…was the first ever English club to fly to a domestic game…Newcastle away, 1964.
…was the first ever English club to have “executive boxes”…six…in the old West Stand, opened in January, 1966, two of which ended up being used by the OB.
…was the first ever English club to have a magazine-style match programme.
…featured in the first ever drawn FA Cup Final at Wembley.
…had the fattest ever footballer…Willie Foulke…22 stone. He was 6’3” though.
…produced the highest ever charting club football record, “Blue is the Colour”, number 5, in March, ’72
…was the first English club to field an “all-foreign” XI…Boxing Day, 1999…V Southampton, away: De Goey, Ferrer, Thome, Leboeuf, Babayaro, Petrescu, Deschamps, Poyet, Di Matteo, Ambrosetti, Flo.
Always cosmopolitan.
…had the best away support in England throughout the ’70s and 80s…subjective, I realise, but they know it’s true.
…was the first club ever to install electric fences. Although they never got switched on.
…was the club whose fans were the first to sing “Always look on the bright side of life.”. 0-7 at Nottingham Forest…the only game I have ever left before the end. At 0-6. “Bobby Campbell’s blue and white army…”
…has more celebrity fans than any other club, including a host of old ’60s and ’70s faces, such as Michael Caine, Vidal Sassoon, Bill Oddie and Rodney Bewes ; transatlantic stars such as Renée Zellweger, who, alledgedley was taken to Gillingham away in the FA Cup in January 2001 when over here filiming Bridget Jones’ Diary; through to modern day icons like Phil Daniels, and half the Sex Pistols.
…was the only club Raquel Welch regularly came to watch.
…is the only club where a vegetable is regularly brought into the game.
Proper history.
F*ck ’em all…
Posted by John Drewitt
