Tottenham Hotspur

The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane.Tottenham Hotspur were the first club in the 20th century to achieve the League and FA Cup Double, winning both competitions in the 1960–61 season. In 1963 they became the first British club to win a major European trophy — the European Cup Winners' Cup. In the 1970s, they won the League Cup on two occasions and were the inaugural winners of the UEFA Cup in 1972. In the 1980s, Spurs won several trophies: the FA Cup twice, FA Community Shield and the UEFA Cup 1983–84. In the 1990s, they won the FA Cup and the League Cup. In 2008 they won the League Cup once more, meaning that they have won a trophy in each of the last six decades — an achievement only matched by Manchester United.

The club's Latin motto is Audere est Facere (lit: "To Dare Is to Do"), and its emblem is a cockerel standing upon a football. The club has a long-standing rivalry with near neighbours Arsenal, and matches between the two teams are known as the North London derby.

Stadium
Tottenham Marshes

Tottenham played their first matches at Tottenham Marshes on the available public pitches and remained there for six years. It was at this ground that Spurs first played arch rivals Arsenal (then known as Royal Arsenal). Spurs were winning 2-1 until the match got called off due to poor light after the away team arrived late.[1] There were occasions on which fights would break out on the marshes, in dispute of the teams that were allowed to use the best pitches. Crowds were increasing and a new site was needed to accommodate these supporters.

Northumberland Park

In 1898 the club moved from the marshes to Northumberland Park and charged an admission fee of 3d. They only remained at this ground for a year as in April 1899 14,000 fans turned up to watch Spurs play Woolwich Arsenal. The ground was no longer able to cope with the larger crowds and Tottenham Hotspur were forced to move to a new larger site. They moved 100 yards down the road to their current ground.

White Hart Lane
 
White Hart Lane was originally a disused nursery owned by the brewery Charringtons and located behind a public house. The landlord realised the increased revenues he could enjoy if Tottenham played their matches behind his pub and the club moved in. They brought with them the stand they used at Northumberland Park which gave shelter to 2,500 fans. Notts County were the first visitors to 'the Lane' in a friendly watched by 5,000 people and bringing in £115 in receipts, Spurs won 4-1. QPR became the first competitive visitors to the ground and 11,000 people saw them lose 1-0 to Tottenham.

In 1905 Tottenham raised enough money to buy the freehold to the land and became the permanent owners of the ground. As the club grew new stands were added. A new main stand was added in 1909, the East stand was also covered this year and extended further two years later. The profits from the 1921 FA Cup win were used to build a covered terrace at the Paxton Road end and the Park Lane end was built at a cost of over £3,000 some two years later. This increased the ground's capacity to around 58,000 with room for 40,000 under cover. The East Stand development was finishing in 1934 which increased the capacity to around 80,000 spectators and cost £60,000. The pitch was renovated in 1952 which uncovered a number of items from the old nursery on the site and one year later the first floodlights were introduced. These lights were upgraded in 1957 which required the cockerel to be moved from the West Stand to the East and then in 1961 floodlight pylons were installed.

The West Stand was replaced by an expensive (and far behind schedule) new structure and the stadium started its long modernisation process. Various developments and upgrades were implemented over the years and in 1992 the lower terraces of the south and east stand were converted to seating and the whole of the North stand followed to become all-seater the following season. The South Stand re-development was completed in March 1995 and included the first giant Sony Jumbotron TV screen for live game coverage and away match screenings. The capacity of the stadium increased to just over 33,000. In 1997/98 season the Paxton Road stand had a new upper tier added which included the second Jumbotron screen and increased capacity to 36,240 and was funded by a rights issue in 1996.[2]

Minor amendments to the seating configuration were made in 2006 bringing the current capacity of the stadium to 36,310.

CREST

Since the 1901 FA Cup final the Tottenham Hotspur crest has featured a cockerel. Harry Hotspur (from whom the club is said to take its name) was famed for his riding spurs and his fighting cocks were fitted with spurs which can be seen in the crests.  In 1909 a former player named William James Scott made a bronze cast of a cockerel standing on a football to be placed on top of the West Stand and since then the cockerel and ball have been the major part of the club's identity.

Between 1956 and 2006 Spurs used a coat of arms featuring a number of landmarks and associations linked to local area. The lions flanking the shield came from the Northumberland family's arms. They owned large areas of Tottenham and Sir Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur) was a family member. The castle alludes to Bruce Castle located 400 yards from the ground and which now houses a museum. The trees are those of Seven Sisters which were planted at Page Green by the Seven Sisters of Tottenham and after whom a railway/tube station and main road are named. The arms featured the Latin motto "Audere Est Facere".

In 1983, to overcome unauthorised "pirate" merchandising, the club's badge was altered by adding the two red lions as heraldic and the motto scroll. This device appeared on most Spurs' playing kits for the next 23 years.

To rebrand and modernise the club's image, in 2006 both this club badge and the coat of arms gave way to a professionally designed logo/emblem. This revamp features a leaner/fitter cockerel and an old-time football together with the club name. The club claims that the rebranding kept much of the original meaning of the name, and emphasised its originality.

Ownership

Since 2001 the key shareholder has been ENIC International Ltd, an investment company established by the British billionaire Joe Lewis. Daniel Levy, Lewis's partner at ENIC, is Executive Chairman of the club.

By June 2007 ENIC had increased its direct holding to 68% by purchasing all of former chairman Alan Sugar's remaining 14.7% holding. Stelios Haji-Ioannou held a 9.9 per cent stake through Hodram Inc in June 2006, but has since either sold all, or at least 70 per cent, of his holding. Apart from the majority shareholder ENIC, Michael Ashcroft the businessman and Deputy Chairman of the UK Conservative Party has around a 4 percent holding (comprising 3% Ordinary shares and 2% preference shares) which he acquired in April 2008  On 21 August 2009 the club reported that it had issued a further 30 million shares to fund the initial development costs of the new stadium project, and that 27.8 million of these new shares had been purchased by ENIC, increasing its overall share holding in the club to around 85%.  The Annual Report for the year ending 30 June 2009 also indicates that ENIC now directly holds convertible redeemable preference shares giving it a combined overall 85% (2008: 82%) beneficial interest in Tottenham Hotspur plc.
Social responsibility

The club through its Community Programme has, since 2006, been working with Haringey Council and the Metropolitan Housing Trust and the local community on developing sports facilities and social programmes which have also been financially supported by Barclays Spaces for Sport and the Football Foundation.  The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation received high-level political support from the Prime Minister when it was launched at 10 Downing Street in February 2007.

In March 2007 the Club announced a partnership with the charity SOS Children's Villages UK. Player fines will go towards this charity’s children’s village in Rustenburg, South Africa with the funds being used to cover the running costs as well as in support of a variety of community development projects in and around Rustenburg. In the financial year 2006-07, Tottenham topped a league of Premier League charitable donations when viewed both in overall terms[26] and as a percentage of turnover by giving £4,545,889, including a one-off contribution of £4.5 million over four years, to set up the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.[27] This compared to donations of £9,763 in 2005-06

Tottenham Hotspur ladies

Tottenham's ladies team was founded in 1985 as Broxbourne Ladies. They started using the Tottenham Hotspur name for the 1991/1992 season and played in the South-East & London Regional Women's League (the fourth tier of the game). They won promotion after topping the league in 2007/08, and are currently play in the South East Combination Women's Football League (the third tier of the game).