Salford City F.C.

Overview

Salford City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded as Salford Central in 1940, the club initially competed in local amateur football leagues before being admitted to the Manchester League in 1963. During the 1970s, the club achieved success in regional competitions, winning the Lancashire Amateur Cup in 1971, 1973, and 1975, and the Manchester Premier Cup in 1978 and 1979. In 1980, Salford joined the Cheshire County League, which merged with the North West Counties Football League (NWCFL) in 1982. The club adopted the name Salford City in 1989 and gained promotion to the Northern Premier League (NPL) in 2008. In the club's first season at that level, it avoided relegation by securing its league status on the final day of the season. In 2014, the club was acquired by former Manchester United players Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, and Paul Scholes, alongside Singaporean businessman Peter Lim. David Beckham subsequently acquired a 10% stake in the club from Lim in 2019. In August 2024, Gary Neville purchased Lim's remaining shareholding. On 8 May 2025, the club announced that it had been acquired by a new ownership group led by Beckham and Neville, which also included US businessman Declan Kelly and Mervyn Davies, Baron Davies of Abersoch. Salford City play their home matches at Moor Lane, a stadium that underwent extensive redevelopment between 2016 and 2017. The ground is currently known as the AIG Stadium under a sponsorship agreement. Throughout much of the club's history, the team has worn tangerine shirts and black shorts, although the club played in red shirts and white shorts from 2014 until 2026. The club's nickname, "The Ammies", derives from its former name, Salford Amateurs, which was used from the early 1960s until the early 1970s. The club's anthem is "Dirty Old Town", written by Salford-born songwriter Ewan MacColl and popularised by The Pogues.