Club histories

Burnley

The club

Burnley were founded on 18 May 1882 and have played at Turf Moor throughout, in the Lancashire town of Burnley. The ground holds 21,944. The club are the Clarets, and play in claret and blue.

Recent seasons

Burnley finished 17th in the Premier League in 2020/21 and 18th in 2021/22, which sent them down. They came straight back as Championship champions in 2022/23 with 101 points, the club's highest total under three points for a win. The return lasted one year: 19th in the Premier League in 2023/24 and relegated again.

The 2024/25 Championship season was the most statistically remarkable in the club's history. Burnley finished second with 100 points from 46 games, 28 wins, 16 draws and two defeats, and conceded 16 goals, the best defensive record in the history of English league football, an average of 0.35 a game. They kept 30 clean sheets, went 12 league matches in a row without conceding between 21 December 2024 and 4 March 2025, were unbeaten at home, and took 49 points away from home, a Championship record. Sources differ on the length of the unbeaten league run that ran from 7 November 2024 to 3 May 2025: Wikipedia's list of club records gives 33 matches, its 2024/25 season article 31. Despite the 100 points Burnley did not go up as champions, losing the title to Leeds United on goal difference, Leeds having scored 95 goals to Burnley's 69. They were the first side to reach 100 points in a season and not win the division.

The 2025/26 Premier League season went the other way. Burnley finished 19th of 20 and relegation was confirmed on 22 April 2026 with a 1-0 home defeat by Manchester City. It was the club's fifth relegation from the Premier League, a total bettered only by Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City. Scott Parker, who had taken the club up, left on 30 April 2026 and Mike Jackson finished the season as interim. Zian Flemming was top scorer with 11 league goals and 12 in all competitions. The heaviest defeat was 5-1 at Manchester City on 27 September 2025; the biggest win was 5-1 against Millwall in the FA Cup on 10 January 2026. Burnley reached the FA Cup fourth round and the League Cup third round, having beaten Derby County 2-1 at home on 26 August 2025. Average home league attendance was 21,005.

Honours and landmarks

Burnley have been champions of England twice, in 1920/21 and 1959/60, and won the FA Cup in 1913/14. They shared or won the Charity Shield in 1960 and 1973. Lower division titles are the Second Division in 1897/98, the Third Division in 1981/82, the Fourth Division in 1991/92 and the Championship in 2015/16 and 2022/23. Record home attendance is 54,775 against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup third round on 23 February 1924. Jerry Dawson made 569 appearances between 1907 and 1929, and George Beel scored 188 goals between 1923 and 1932, both club records. The record fee received is £31m for James Trafford to Manchester City in July 2025; the record paid is around £23m for Lesley Ugochukwu from Chelsea in August 2025.

Notable scorelines

Record win in all competitions: 15-0 against Haydock in the second round of the Lancashire Cup on 20 January 1890. Record league win: 9-0 against Darwen in the Football League on 9 January 1892. Record defeat: 11-0 away to Darwen Old Wanderers in the FA Cup first round on 17 October 1885. Record league defeat is 10-0, suffered twice, against Aston Villa in 1925 and Sheffield United in 1929, both in the First Division.

Head-to-head notes

All-time head-to-head records against 2026/27 Championship opponents could not be established; the usual published source, 11v11, refused automated access. What can be stated is that Burnley, West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers were the three clubs relegated from the Premier League in 2025/26 and so meet again in the Championship, and that Burnley open at home to West Ham. The Wikipedia article on Burnley's 2025/26 season is incomplete and does not carry the results of those Premier League meetings with West Ham, Wolves or the other clubs Burnley will now face, so no recent record against them is given here. Confirmed 2025/26 results are a 2-0 home win over Sunderland on 23 August 2025, a 3-2 defeat at Manchester United later that month, and a 1-0 home defeat by Liverpool on 14 September 2025, none of them against a club Burnley will meet in the Championship this season.

Right now (2026/27)

Nicky Hayen was appointed on 10 July 2026 on a three-year contract. The summer has been a heavy net sale. Out went Jaidon Anthony to Brentford on 7 July for £15m plus £2m in add-ons, Loum Tchaouna to Coventry City on 11 July for £20m, Maxime Estève to RB Leipzig on 17 July for £22m plus £6m in add-ons, and Luca Koleosho to Paris FC on 29 July for £12.7m. The signings are Florentino Luís from Benfica on 15 June for £20.8m, Jiaming Zhang from Voždovac on a free on 1 July, Lluc Castell from Espanyol on 12 July for an undisclosed fee, Jack Robinson from Bradford City on 24 July, Ugo Raghouber from Lille on 28 July for £4.275m and Blayz Borgesson from Radcliffe on 29 July, the last three all undisclosed or unstated.

Pre-season was poor. Burnley lost 3-1 at Cincinnati on 10 July, drew 1-1 with Columbus Crew on 12 July, lost 4-1 to Real Salt Lake on 15 July, lost 2-1 to Ajax on 26 July and drew 2-2 at home with Espanyol on 29 July, with Torino to come at Turf Moor on 2 August. The EFL Cup first round brings Notts County to Turf Moor; the competition's own fixture list gives 8 August 2026 at 15:00, while Burnley's season article says 7 August. The Championship campaign opens at home to West Ham United on 16 August 2026, followed by West Bromwich Albion away on 23 August, Norwich City away on 29 August and Middlesbrough at home on 2 September.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnley_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Burnley_F.C._records_and_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_Burnley_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Burnley_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Burnley_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_EFL_Cup

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.