Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. The club's home ground is the 31,800-capacity Falmer Stadium, situated in Falmer to the north east of the city.
Founded in 1901, and nicknamed the "Seagulls" or "Albion", Brighton played their early professional football in the Southern League, before being elected to the Football League in 1920. Prior to the current, continuing stint in the Premier League, the club enjoyed greatest prominence between 1979 and 1983 when they played in the First Division and reached the 1983 FA Cup Final, losing to Manchester United after a replay.They were relegated from the First Division in the same season.
By the late 1990s, Brighton were in the fourth tier of English football and were having financial difficulties. After narrowly avoiding relegation from the Football League to the Conference in 1997, a boardroom takeover saved the club from liquidation. Successive promotions in 2001 and 2002 brought Brighton back to the second tier, and in 2011, the club moved into the Falmer Stadium after 14 years without a permanent home ground. In the 2016–17 season, Brighton finished second in the EFL Championship and were thus promoted to the Premier League, ending a 34-year absence from the top flight.
