Early years ' at
Olive Grove. , J. Forrest, R. Birtwistle (umpire) Front row (left to right): J. Douglas, J. E. Sowerbutts, J. Brown, G. Avery, J. Hargreaves. The club was founded following a meeting, at the Leger Hotel, Blackburn, on 5 November 1875. The meeting was organised by two young men, namely
John Lewis and Arthur Constantine, two old-boys of
Shrewsbury School. The purpose of the meeting was "to discuss the possibility of forming a football club to play under Association rules". The first match played by Blackburn Rovers took place in
Church, Lancashire on 18 December 1875 and was a 1–1 draw. On 28 September 1878, Blackburn Rovers became one of 23 clubs to form the Lancashire Football Association. On 1 November 1879 the club played in the FA Cup for the first time, beating the Tyne Association Football Club 5–1. On 25 March 1882 the club won through to the final of the FA Cup against the
Old Etonians. Blackburn Rovers was the first provincial team to reach the final, but the result was a 1–0 defeat by the Old Etonians. Rovers finally won the FA Cup on 29 March 1884 with a 2–1 victory over the Scottish team
Queen's Park. The same teams played the FA Cup final again the next season, with Blackburn Rovers again emerging victorious, with a 2–0 score.
Football League commences Blackburn Rovers were founder members of the
Football League in 1888. Their first ever league match was played on 15 September 1888 against
Accrington, in which they were held to a 5-5 draw. Blackburn Rovers eventually finished 4th in the inaugural Football League table. The following season they finished 3rd winning 12 of their 22 matches and scoring more goals than any other club in the competition, including home victories of 7-0 against
Aston Villa and 7-1 against
Burnley in October, a 9-1 thrashing of
Notts County in November, 7-1 against
Bolton in December, and an 8-0 win over
Stoke in January. Blackburn Rovers again reached the
FA Cup final on 29 March 1890 at the
Kennington Oval. The club claimed the trophy for the fourth time, by beating
Sheffield Wednesday a hefty 6–1 with left forward
William Townley scoring three goals and becoming the first player to achieve a
hat-trick in the FA Cup final. The 1890–91 season saw Blackburn Rovers win the FA Cup for the fifth time against
Notts County with a 3–1 victory. During the 1897–98 season the club were relegated but were elected back into the first division at the Football League's AGM along with
Newcastle United. The season marked the beginning of
Bob Crompton's 45-year association with the club, as a player and later an FA Cup-winning manager.
Early 20th century Blackburn Rovers continued to struggle during the early years of the 20th century, but the results began a gradual improvement. Major renovations were made to Ewood Park: in 1905 the Darwen End was covered at a cost of £1680 and the new Nuttall Stand was opened on New Year's Day 1907. During the first three decades of the 20th century, Blackburn Rovers were still considered a top side in the English league. They were First Division champions in 1911–12 and 1913–14, and F.A Cup winners in
1927–28 with a 3–1 victory against
Huddersfield Town, but the F.A Cup win was their last major trophy for nearly 70 years.
Mid 20th century from the inaugural season in
1888–89 to present Blackburn Rovers maintained a respectable mid-table position in the First Division until they were finally relegated (along with Aston Villa) from the top flight (for the first time since the foundation of the league) in the 1935–36 season. When the league resumed after the war, Blackburn Rovers were relegated in their second season (1947–48). At this time the tradition of
burying a coffin began. The club remained in the second division for the following ten years. After promotion in 1958, they again returned to the mid-table position they had occupied in the earlier part of the century. During this time, they seldom made a serious challenge for a major trophy – although they did reach the
1960 FA Cup Final when managed by Scot
Dally Duncan. Rovers lost this game 3–0 to
Wolverhampton Wanderers after playing most of the game with only 10 men on the field following an injury to
Dave Whelan, who broke a leg. There were brief hopes of a return to glory in the
1963–64 season, when a remarkable 8–2 away win over
West Ham United in east London on
Boxing Day took them to the top of the league. Their lead of the league was short-lived, and they finished the season some way down the table, as the title was seized by a
Liverpool side who would record a further 12 league titles over the next 26 years, while Blackburn's fortunes took a very different route. They were relegated from the First Division in 1966 and began a 26-year exile from the top division.
1970s and 1980s During the 1970s, Blackburn Rovers bounced between the Second and Third Divisions, winning the Third Division title in 1975, but never mounted a challenge for promotion to the First Division despite the efforts of successive managers to put the club back on track, and fell back into the Third Division in 1979. They went up as runners-up in the Third Division in 1980 and, save for one season in League One in
2017–18, have remained in the upper two tiers of the English league ever since. A second successive promotion was nearly achieved the following year, but the club missed out on
goal difference, and promotion-winning manager
Howard Kendall moved to Everton that summer. Kendall's successor,
Bobby Saxton only managed mid-table finishes for the next three seasons, then nearly achieved promotion in the 1984–85 season, but a poor finish the following year (just one place above relegation) followed by an abysmal start to the 1986–87 season cost Saxton his job. Saxton was replaced by
Don Mackay, who steered them to a decent finish that season and also victory in the
Full Members Cup. In the following three seasons Mackay re-established Rovers as promotion contenders, but they fell just short of promotion each time; the closest they came was in 1988–89 reached the Second Division play-off final in its last season of the home-away two-legged format – but lost to Crystal Palace. A defeat in the 1989–90 Second Division playoff semi-finals brought more frustration to Ewood Park, but the following season saw the club taken over by local steelworks owner and lifelong supporter
Jack Walker (1929–2000).
1990s Following the Walker takeover Rovers finished 19th in the Second Division at the end of the
1990–91 season, but the new owner had made millions of pounds available to spend on new players and appointed
Kenny Dalglish as manager in October 1991. Rovers secured promotion to the new
FA Premier League at the end of
1991–92 season as play-off winners, ending 26 years outside the top flight. Rovers made headlines in the summer of 1992 by paying an English record fee of £3.5million for the 22-year-old Southampton and England centre forward
Alan Shearer. After finishing fourth in
1992–93 and runners-up in
1993–94, they went on to win the Premier League title in
1994–95. The title chase went down to the last game of the season, but despite Rovers losing to
Liverpool they edged out rivals
Manchester United to win the championship. Kenny Dalglish moved upstairs to the position of Director of Football at the end of the Premier League winning season, and handed over the reins to his assistant
Ray Harford. Blackburn Rovers made a poor start to the
1995–96 season, and found themselves in the bottom half for most of the first half of the season. Rovers also struggled in the
Champions League and finished bottom of their group with just four points. A poor start to the
1996–97 Premier League campaign saw Harford resign in late October with the club bottom of the division, having failed to win any of their first ten games. Relegation looked a real possibility, just two seasons after winning the league. After an abortive attempt to bring in
Sven-Göran Eriksson as manager, long-serving coach
Tony Parkes took over as manager for the rest of the campaign, narrowly steering the side to survival. That summer, the manager's job was taken by
Roy Hodgson, who joined the club from
Internazionale.
UEFA Cup football was secured with a 6th-place finish. Rovers made a poor start to the 1998–99 campaign and Hodgson was sacked in December less than an hour after a 2–0 home defeat by bottom side
Southampton, a result that locked Rovers in the relegation zone. He was replaced as manager by
Brian Kidd. Kidd failed to save Rovers from relegation.
2000s ) In
1999–2000 Rovers began the season as promotion favourites, but with the club hovering just above the Division One relegation zone Brian Kidd was sacked in October and replaced in March by
Graeme Souness.
Jack Walker died just after the start of the
2000–01 season, and the club dedicated its promotion challenge in memory of their benefactor. Fittingly, they returned to the Premier League after a much improved season, finishing second behind
Fulham. In
2001–02, record signing
Andy Cole was bought in for £8million, and Rovers won their first-ever
League Cup by beating
Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 at the
Millennium Stadium in
Cardiff, Cole scoring the winner in the 69th minute. The following season Rovers finished sixth to qualify for the UEFA Cup for the second season running. Souness left just after the start of
2004–05 to take charge at
Newcastle, and he was replaced by Welsh national coach
Mark Hughes. Hughes secured Rovers' Premier League survival for the 2004–05 season as well as an
FA Cup semi-final against
Arsenal, with Rovers finishing 15th once again. He led the team to sixth the following season and Rovers's third European qualification in five years. Rovers reached the semi-final of the
2006–07 FA Cup, but lost to
Chelsea in extra time, and finished that season's league in tenth, qualifying for the
Intertoto Cup, which led to a short run in the
2007–08 UEFA Cup. In May 2008, Mark Hughes left Blackburn Rovers for the vacancy at
Manchester City. He was replaced by
Paul Ince, whose first job was to persuade some of the wantaway players to stay. with
Archie Knox coming in as his assistant. Ince's time in charge started well, but following a run of eleven games without a win he was sacked in December 2008.
Sam Allardyce was appointed as Ince's replacement and in 2009–10 he led the team to a tenth-place finish and a League Cup semi-final.
2010 onwards In November 2010, the Indian company
V H Group bought Blackburn Rovers under the name of Venky's London Limited for £23 million. The new owners immediately sacked manager Sam Allardyce and replaced him with first-team coach
Steve Kean, initially on a temporary basis, but by January 2011 he had been awarded a full-time contract until June 2013. Kean's appointment was shrouded in controversy since his agent
Jerome Anderson had earlier played a major role in advising Venky's during the takeover of the club in the preceding months. In December 2011, Blackburn Rovers posted an annual pre-tax loss of £18.6m for the year ending 30 June 2011. Despite this, the owners of Blackburn Rovers provided assurances over the continued funding of the club, even if they were relegated. On 7 May 2012, Blackburn were relegated to the
Championship after being defeated at home by
Wigan Athletic in the penultimate game of the season, ending eleven years in the Premier League. At the start of the 2012–2013 season, Kean was given a chance by the owners to win promotion and kept his job as the manager. Ultimately though, pressure from the supporters who had been calling for the manager's removal for months resulted in his resignation as manager on 29 September 2012. On 7 May 2017, Blackburn were relegated to League One. On 24 April 2018, the club were promoted back to the second tier with a 1–0 win at
Doncaster Rovers. In recent years, they have finished 15th (2018–2019), 11th (2019–2020), 15th (2020–2021), 8th (2021–2022), and 7th (2022–2023) in the Championship. In the 2023–2024 season, Blackburn narrowly avoided relegation on the final matchday, finishing in 19th place after a 2–0 win against title winners
Leicester City, their lowest finish since their promotion back to the Championship in 2018. ==Players==