Falkirk F.C.

Falkirk F.C.

Falkirk Football Club is a Scottish professional association football club based in the town of Falkirk. The club was founded in c.1876 and competes in the Scottish First Division as a member of the Scottish Football League. The club was elected to the Second Division of the Scottish Football League in 1902–03, was promoted to the First Division after two seasons and achieved its highest league position in the early 1900s when it was runner-up to Celtic in 1907–08 and 1909–10. Falkirk won the Scottish Cup for the first time in 1913. After 1945, Falkirk was promoted and demoted between the Premier and First Divisions seven times until 1995–96, and during the 1970s spent three seasons in the Second Division. In 2005, Falkirk was promoted to the Scottish Premier League (SPL).

Falkirk won the Scottish Cup again in 1957 and came second in that competition in 1997 and 2009. The club was relegated to the First Division in 2009–10 after spending five successive seasons in the SPL. As a result of its performance in the 2009 Scottish Cup, the club qualified for the inaugural season of the UEFA Europa League in 2009–10. Falkirk has won the second tier of Scottish football a record seven times, an honour it shares with St. Johnstone. It has also won the Scottish Football League's flagship cup competition, the Scottish Challenge Cup, more than any other club, which it won for the fourth time in 2012.

In its early years, Falkirk played at three venues: Hope Street, Randyford Park and Blinkbonny Park. Between 1885 and 2003, the club was based at Brockville Park, built on the former Hope Street ground. After the creation of the SPL in 1998, its strict stadium criteria – to which Brockville Park did not conform – were enforced, and the club was denied promotion on three occasions. The club's present home ground since 2003 is the Falkirk Stadium, a 9,200 all-seater stadium on the outskirts of Falkirk.