Chelsea FC professional English football club from West London. Founded in 1905, it appears in the English Premier League and spent most of their history in the top flight of English football. One of the clubs founders of the English Premier League in 1992. Chelsea five times champion of England, seven times won the FA Cup five times and the Carling Cup. The club achieved success on the European stage, winning the UEFA Champions League, two UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup. Chelsea is one of the four clubs, along with Juventus, Ajax and Bavaria and the only British club to win all three major UEFA club competitions, as well as the only club who owned two major European competitions at the same time.
The club quickly gained popularity among fans, but failed to win a trophy in the first 50 years of its existence. For the very first success of Chelsea came in the FA Cup, he finished second in 1915 and was defeated in the semi-finals in 1911, 1920, 1932, 1950 and 1952.
A series of failures was finally destroyed by Coach Ted Drake, who made a number of changes in the structure of the club and brought Chelsea to the first championship in the 1954-55 season.
Football players of Chelsea always wore blue T-shirts. Initially the shirts were a lighter shade than the current version, and wore white shorts and dark blue socks. Lighter blue uniform was taken from the racing colors of then club President of Chelsea Viscount, Earl Cadogan. Blue T-shirts were short, they were replaced by the T-shirt royal blue in 1912. When Tommy Docherty became manager in the early 1960s, he changed the kit again, adding blue shorts and white socks, believing it will make the colors of the club more clear, as there was no other major clubs are to use this combination, the set was first used in the 1964/65 season.
During his Chelsea was replaced by the existence of four posters are considered major. The first was the emblem with Chelsea Pensioners, adopted in 1905. From her club got its nickname - Retired. In form it is used, appearing only in the program notes for the match. it was decided to change the logo in 1952 Ted Drake, in order to get rid of the Seniors image. Temporarily club enjoyed stylized logo letters CFC on a blue shield.
The song «Blue Is the Colour» was released as a single as an advertisement to the final of the Football League Cup in 1972, which became the official anthem of the club. The song was performed by the first players of Chelsea team, ranked fifth in the UK Singles Chart, and since then is one of the most famous football anthems in England, along with the anthem Liverpool - «You'll Never Walk Alone». Later the song was adapted into a «White is the Colour» and adopted as the national anthem of the Canadian football club Vancouver Whitecaps.
Since its founding in 1905, the Chelsea had a total of 10 presidents. The first club president was Claude Kirby, which in turn, is the president with the longest term - 30 years, from 1905 to 1935, but during his tenure, the club has not won any trophy. Other important presidents of the club were Joe Mears, son of the founder of the club Joseph Mears, Mears and Brian in turn the son of Joe and his grandson Joseph. During his presidency, Joe Mears, and is 26 years old, Chelsea won three trophies: the championship of the First Division, FA Community Shield and Carling Cup. Brian, in turn, managed the club for 12 years, when it was won FA Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Open public company with limited liability Chelsea is the owner of football club Chelsea, which in turn is part of Fordstam Limited holding company directly controlled by Roman Abramovich.