Oxford United FC is an English association football team who play in the Conference National.tHE club was formed as amateur club Headington in 1893, adding the suffix United the following year. They were formed by Rev John Scott-Tucker, the vicar at Saint Andrew's church in Old Headington, and a local doctor named Robert Hitchings A football team was a way for the cricketers of Headington Cricket Club to maintain their fitness during the winter break. In 1899, six years after their formation, Headington United joined the Oxfordshire District League Second Division, where they competed until the outbreak of the First World War.  The Second Division was renamed the Oxfordshire Junior League after the resumption of football in 1919. In 1921 the club was admitted into the Oxon Senior League.  They joined the Southern League in 1949 and turned professional that same year. They won the Southern League title in 1953 and in 1960, in an effort to gain wider recognition, Headington became Oxford United and went on to win two more Southern League championships. They joined the Football League in 1962 occupying the place left vacant by Accrington Stanley. By 1968 they had reached the Second Division.  After eight years of relative stability the club was relegated from the Second Division in 1975–76. After five years languishing in the lower reaches of the Third Division and with financial problems crippling the club, millionaire publisher, Robert Maxwell bought Oxford United in January 1982 and saved them from bankruptcy.  Between 1984 and 1986 the club earned successive promotions into the First Division, and also won the League Cup beating QPR 3-0 in front of over 90,000 fans at Wembley. Oxford were unable to enter the 1987 UEFA Cup because of the UEFA ban on English clubs in European competitions. Relegation from the top flight in 1988 began an 18-year decline which saw the club relegated to the Conference in 2006. This was the first time in the history of English football a team that had won a major trophy was relegated from the Football League. Their stay in the Conference lasted just four seasons before they regained their place in the Football League via the play-offs and six seasons later achieved promotion to League One, after finishing 2nd in League Two in 2016.