Burnley FC, is an English football team based in the town of Burnley Lancashire.  Nicknamed The Clarets, after the colour of their shirts (adopted from Aston Villa in 1910) Burnley were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They started life as Burnley Rovers, a rugby club, before switching codes to association football in 1882 becoming Burney FC.  The club moved to their Turf Moor ground that same year at the invitation of the town’s cricket club which is still located next to the ground.  Burnley won the FA Cup in 1914 beating Liverpool FC 1-0 at the Crystal Palace and won  its first League title in 1920-21. They finished third the following season but thereafter followed a steady deterioration of their position, with only 5th place in 1926–27 offering respite from a series of near-relegations which culminated in demotion in 1929–30.  It was not until after the Second World War, that Burnley’s fortunes were restored.  After finishing third in 1947–48 the club began to assemble a team capable of regularly aiming for honours. The team of the 1950s revolved around the midfield duo of Jimmy Adamson and Jimmy McIlroy (a new stand was named after the latter in the 1990s) and these two were key to the championship-winning team of 1959–1960. The 1961–62 season saw them come close to winning the double finishing second in the league and losing to Tottenham in the FA Cup Final. The rest of the decade was spent in mid-table mediocrity before relegation in 1971.  

They returned to the First Division in 1973 for three seasons but team were relegated to the Third Division for the first time in 1979–80 and, although they gained promotion in 1982, relegation followed after one season and the club dropped into the Fourth Division for the first time at the end of the 1984–85 season.  Burnley won the Fourth Division in 1991–92 to became only the second club to win all four professional divisions of English football, after Wolverhampton Wanderers. Burnley won the Second Division play-offs in 1993–94 and gained promotion to the second tier. Relegation followed after one season, and in 1997–98 only a last-day victory over Plymouth Argyle prevented relegation back into the fourth tier.[Burnley finished second in 1999–2000 and won promotion to the second tier. They returned to the Premiership in 2009. However, their stay in the Premiership was sadly brief and they were relegated at the end of the 2009/10 season. After a period of consolidation they secured a return to the Premier League under Sean Dyche by finishing second in 2013-14. The difficulty of the task ahead was summed up in the Independent before the club’s game against Manchester United in October: 'United spent £59.7m on Angel Di Maria - Burnley have spent £45m on transfer fees... since 1882.’ Relegation followed, but they returned to the Premier League at the first attempt as champions.  The club went on to secure its place in the top tier and finished seventh, securing a place in the Europa League during the 2017-18 season. In 2021–22, Burnley were relegated back to the Championship after they lost on the final matchday and finished in 18th place. On 7 April 2023, Burnley, now managed by Vincent Kompany, beat Middlesbrough 2–1 to secure promotion back to the Premier League with seven games remaining. They secured the title shortly afterwards when they beat arch rivals Blackburn Rovers 1-0 .