West Ham FC is an English football club from the London borough of Newham.  It was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC. Thames Ironworks were the first ever winners of the West Ham Charity Cup in 1895 contested by clubs in the locality, then won the London League in 1897. They turned professional in 1898 upon entering the Southern League Second Division, and were promoted to the First Division at the first attempt. Following growing disputes over the running and financing of the club in June 1900 Thames Ironworks F.C. was disbanded, then almost immediately relaunched on 5 July 1900 as West Ham United F.C.  After being made groundless in 1901 the team became transient, playing their home games on a number of local teams' grounds until moving to its home for more than a century, Upton Park (in the guise of the Boleyn Ground stadium), in 1904. They initially competed in the Southern League and Western League before eventually joining the full Football League in 1919.  They were promoted to Division One in 1923, also making the first ever FA Cup Final to be held at the old Wembley stadium|: West Ham lost 0-2 to Bolton Wanderers. The team enjoyed mixed success in Division One but retained their status for 10 years.  In 1932, the club was relegated to Division Two where they remained for nearly thirty years. In 1958 The Hammers won the Second Division championship in the season that the young Bobby Moore made his debut. 

Ron Greenwood was appointed manager in 1961 and led the club to two major trophies, winning the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1965.After a difficult start to the 1974–75 season, Greenwood moved himself "upstairs" to become General Manager and without informing the board, appointed his assistant John Lyall as team manager. The result was instant success – the team scored 20 goals in the their first four games combined and won the FA Cup, becoming the last team to win the FA Cup with an all English side when they beat Fulham 2–0 in the 1975 final. Lyall then guided West Ham to another European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1976, though the team lost the match 4–2 to Anderlecht. In 1978, West Ham were again relegated to Division Two, but Lyall was retained as manager and led the team to an FA Cup Final win against Arsenal in 1980. West Ham were promoted to Division One in 1981, and finished in the top ten of the first division for the next three seasons, before achieving their highest ever league finish of third in 1985/86. 

However, they were relegated again in 1989. This second relegation resulted in John Lyall's sacking. Between 1989 and 1993 West Ham were relegated twice and promoted twice, finally enjoying a settled period in the in the Premier league that lasted until 2003 when once again they were relegated.  The club was promoted in 2005 finishing 9th and reaching the FA Cup final against Liverpool which they lost on penalites after a thrilling 3-3 draw.  Since that date West Ham have had a number of brushes with relegation but remained in the top tier of English football until relegated in 2010-11. They returned to the Premier League the following season by defeating Blackpool in the play-offs but were relegated after only one year in the top flight. They returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking and in March 2013 and this signalled a prolonged period in the top flight and a move in 2016 from Upton Park to  the Olympic Stadium. Two spells under David Moyes, with an eighteen-month interlude under Manuel Pellegrini, saw West Ham qualify for Europe at the end of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.