Hibernian F.C.

Overview

Hibernian Football Club, commonly known as Hibs or the Hibees, is a professional football club based in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The club competes in the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. Founded in 1875 by members of Edinburgh's Irish community, the club takes its name from Hibernia, the Latin name for Ireland. Hibernian traditionally play in green shirts with white sleeves and have played their home matches at Easter Road since 1893. The stadium has a capacity of 20,421. Hibernian became the first British club to compete in the European Cup, reaching the semi-final of the inaugural 1955–56 competition. The club also reached the semi-final of the 1960–61 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, eliminating Barcelona in the quarter-final. Other notable European victories include those against Porto and Sporting CP. In 1967, Hibs overturned a 4–1 first-leg defeat against Napoli, scoring five goals past future World Cup winning goalkeeper Dino Zoff at Easter Road to progress 6–4 on aggregate. Domestically, Hibernian have won four Scottish league championships, three Scottish Cups and three Scottish League Cups. The club's most successful era came between 1948 and 1952, when Hibs won three league championships during the era of the celebrated Famous Five forward line. In 2016, the club ended a 114-year wait to win the Scottish Cup, defeating Rangers 3–2 in the final. Hibernian's history includes several notable football firsts. On 7 May 1881, the club's former ground, Hibernian Park, hosted the world's first recorded women's international football match, in which Scotland defeated England 3–0. The club became the first British top-flight team to display a shirt sponsor in 1977. Hibs also pioneered stadium innovations at Easter Road, installing Scotland's first major floodlighting system in 1954 and becoming the first Scottish club to introduce undersoil heating in 1980. The club's fans are renowned for their renditions of Sunshine on Leith, a song by Scottish duo the Proclaimers, which is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest anthems in world football. It won BBC Radio 6 Music’s Football Anthems World Cup in 2018, being voted the UK's favourite football anthem. Hibernian have a longstanding rivalry with Heart of Midlothian, with whom they contest the Edinburgh derby.