Luton Town F.C.

Luton Town F.C.

Luton Town Football Club ( /ˈluːtən ˈtaʊn/) is an English professional football club based since 1905 at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Bedfordshire. Affiliated to the Bedfordshire County Football Association, it was founded in 1885. Its history includes major trophy wins, several financial crises, numerous promotions and relegations, and some spells of sustained success. The club was perhaps most prominent between 1982 and 1992, when it was a member of English football's top division, then the First Division; the team won its first major honour, the Football League Cup, in 1988. During the 2012–13 season, the team is contesting English football's fifth tier, the Conference National.

The club was the first in southern England to turn professional, making payments to players as early as 1890 and turning fully professional a year later. It joined The Football League before the 1897–98 season, left in 1900 because of financial problems, and rejoined in 1920. Luton reached the First Division in 1955–56, and contested a major final for the first time when playing Nottingham Forest in the 1959 FA Cup Final. The team was then relegated from the top division in 1959–60, and demoted twice more in the following five years, playing in the Fourth Division from the 1965–66 season. However, it was promoted back to the top level by 1974–75.

Luton Town's most recent successful period began in 1981–82, when the club won the Second Division, and thereby gained promotion to the First. Luton defeated Arsenal 3–2 in the 1988 Football League Cup Final, and remained in the First Division until relegation at the end of 1991–92. Between 2007 and 2009, financial difficulties caused the club to fall from the second tier of English football to the fifth in successive seasons. The last of these relegations came during the 2008–09 season, when 30 points were docked from Luton's record for various financial irregularities. This ended the club's 89-year spell as a member of The Football League; it has been in the Conference National since the start of the 2009–10 season.