Fulham FC is an English professional football club based in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (nicknamed ‘The Cottagers’ or ‘The Badgers’). The club was founded in 1879 as Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School F.C., on Star Road, West Kensington (St Andrew's, Fulham Fields) making it the oldest professional club in London.  They won the West London Amateur Cup in 1887 and, having shortened the name from Fulham Excelsior to its present form in 1888, they then won the West London League in 1893 at the first attempt.  The club gained professional status in 1898, and  in the same year they were admitted into the Southern League's second division. Fulham joined The Football League after a second Southern League triumph in 1907.    Fulham's first season in Division Two turned out to be the highest that the club would finish for 21 years, until in 1927–28 when the club were relegated to the third Division South, which had been created in 1920. They remained in the Second Division until relegated to the Third Division at the end of the  1927–28 season.   Fulham won the division in the 1931–32 season and remained in the Second Division until 1949 when they  finally gaining promotion to the top tier of English football in 1949. By 1953 they were back in the Second Division, and did not return to the First Division until 1959.   

Fulham  remained in the top tier until 1968 enjoying crowds of 30,000 plus crowds at Craven Cottage, despite struggling in the League. They suffered back to back relegations after 1968 but were back in the Second Division when they appeared in the 1975 FA Cup final against West Ham which they lost 2-0.  In the mid-1990s they had a brief spell in the former Fourth Division, but the club’s fortunes were restored in 1997 when millionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed purchased the club.  They returned to the top flight, now the Premier League, in the 2000-01 season. Several brushes with relegation followed before the arrival of Roy Hodgson as the new manager in December 2007.  He took them to a comfortable mid-table position in the League and to the UEFA Europa Cup Final in 2010 which they lost to Athletico Madrid.

Fulham struggled to retain their position in the top flight since Hodgson’s departure to become England manager in 2012 and were relegated from the Premier League in 2013–14 after 13 consecutive seasons. The club finally returned to the top tier of English football after defeating Aston Villa in the play-off Final at Wembley on 26 May 2018.  A series of managers the following season couldn’t prevent relegation, but the last of these, Scott Parker, led them straight back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.Once again the club was relegated after one season. Manager Marco Silva led them back to the top tier in 2022, this time firmly establishing them as a Premier League side.