Queens Park Rangers F.C.
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Template:Football club infobox Queens Park Rangers are an English football team, from Shepherd's Bush, London. The team currently plays in the Football League Championship after finishing second in the Second Division.
Known as QPR and nicknamed Super Hoops, because of the team's kit of blue and white hoops, with white shorts. Home stadium is Loftus Road, which has a capacity of 19,148. Fulham shared the ground in the 02/03 and 03/04 seasons during the renovation of its Craven Cottage ground.
Formed in 1886 when a team known as St Jude's (formed 1882) merged with a team called Christchurch Rangers. The resulting team was called Queen's Park Rangers, because most of the players came from Queens Park. QPR became professional in 1889 and played in many different stadia before permanently settling in Loftus Road in 1933-34.
In 1966-67, QPR won Division Three and became the first Third Division club to win the League Cup, beating West Bromwich Albion 3-2, coming back from 0-2. This is the only time QPR have won a cup competition.
Dave Sexton is the most famous manager of Queens Park Rangers and in 1975-76 led them to runners-up spot in the First Division. The key player in this side, which was unbeaten in its 21 home league fixtures, was Gerry Francis. QPR only missed out on the league title because rivals Liverpool came from a goal behind to win 3-1 in their final game of the season against Wolves. In 1977, Sexton moved to Manchester United and two years later QPR slipped into the Second Division. They returned under Terry Venables in 1983, the year before winning promotion they reached the F.A Cup final for the only time in the club's history, losing to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Queens Park Rangers preserved their First Division status at the end of the 1983-84 season, but once the season was over Venables departed to become manager of Barcelona in Spain. In three years as manager at the Catalan club he led them to the league title and to the final of the European Cup. He later took Tottenham Hotspur to success in the F.A Cup and was England's national coach when they reached the semi finals of the 1996 European Football Championships.
Over the next seven years, various managers came and went from Loftus Road, including Don Howe, Frank Sibley and Trevor Francis. The club avoided relegation but failed to finish anywhere near the top of the division or win a major trophy.
Gerry Francis, a key player in the 1970s QPR side who had proved himself as a successful manager with Bristol Rovers, was appointed QPR manager in the summer of 1991. In the 1991-92 First Division campaign they finished mid table in the league and were members of the new Premier League which began in 1992-93. They finished the season in fifth place ahead of all the other London clubs, including Arsenal who won the F.A Cup/League Cup double. Francis guided QPR to a ninth place finish in the 1993-94 Premiership campaign but the following autumn moved to Tottenham and was replaced by 38-year-old captain Ray Wilkins.
In 1994-95, Wilkins guided QPR to a respectable eighth place finish in Premiership and fans had high hopes for a challenge for a European place the following season. But the £6million sale of goal machine Les Ferdinand to Newcastle United left a big gap in the side, and the 1995-96 ended in relegation for QPR after 13 years in the top division of English football. Wilkins was sacked soon afterwards, and replaced by Stewart Houston. Houston, a former assistant manager of Arsenal, was unable to mount a promotion challenge at QPR in the 1996-97 Division One campaign and he was sacked the following December with QPR hovering on the brink of their second relegation in two seasons.
His successor Ray Harford kept QPR clear of relegation but was dismissed after less than a year in charge following the club's bad start to the 1998-99 season. Gerry Francis, whose promising reign as Tottenham manager had ended in disappointment, returned to the Loftus Road hot seat and in 1999-2000 guided QPR to a promising tenth place finish. But financial problems set in and took their toll on the playing side. Francis was sacked in February 2001 with QPR struggling near the foot of Division One. Ian Holloway, a former QPR midfielder, returned to Loftus Road as manager after quitting Bristol Rovers, but was unable to save the club for relegation to Division Two. For the first time in more than 30 years, QPR were in the lower tier of the English league.
QPR spent the 2001-02 season in financial administration which meant a ban from the transfer market, but Holloway consolidated the playing side and the club finished eighth in Division Two - just missing out on the playoffs. In 2002-03, QPR qualified for the playoffs but missed out on promotion largely due to an off the field incident. They lost 1-0 to Cardiff City in extra time in the final, but early in the morning before the match, it was alleged that a Cardiff City director had set off a fire alarm in the QPR player's hotel and woken the whole team up so they would be tired at the next day's game.
2003-04 was QPR's first successful season for many years. They won promotion as Division Two runners-up and are now members of the Coca-Cola Football League Championship, and after an impressive start to the season they could well be just a few months away from gaining promotion to the Premiership.
The team is occasionally mistaken for the less well known Queens Park Football Club of the Scottish Third Division.
Honours
- Division Three (South) Champions 1947-48.
- Division Three Champions 1966-67.
- League Cup Winners 1966-67.
- Division Two Runners-up 1967-68, 1972-73.
- Division Two Champions 1982-83.
- Division One Runners-up 1975-76.
- FA Cup finallists 1981-82.
- Milk Cup finalists 1985-86.
- Nationwide Division Two Runners-up 2003-04.
Famous Players
- Evelyn Lintott (QPR's first England international)
- Stanley Bowles
- Rodney Marsh
- Gerry Francis
- Don Givens
- Phil Parkes
- Ray Wilkins
- Clive Allen
- Alan McDonald
- Paul Parker
- Les Ferdinand
- Trevor Sinclair
- David Seaman
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League competitions |
Cup competitions | |
| FA Premier League | FA Cup | |
| The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) | England (men) | League Cup |
| Football Conference (Nat, N, S) | FA Community Shield | |
| Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) | (women) | Football League Trophy |
| Southern League (Prem, 1W, 1E) | List of clubs | FA Trophy |
| Isthmian League (Prem, 1, 2) | FA Vase | |
| English football league system | Records | FA NLS Cup |
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fr:Queens Park Rangers FC nl:Queens Park Rangers simple:Queens Park Rangers F.C.