Dundalk F.C.

Dundalk

Full name	Dundalk Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Lilywhites[1] The Railwaymen (original)[2]
Short name	DFC
Founded	September 1903; 120 years ago (1903-09) as Dundalk G.N.R. Association Football Club
Ground	Oriel Park
Capacity	4,500 (3,100 seated)
Coordinates	54°00′00″N 6°25′00″W / 54.0000°N 6.4166°W / 54.0000; -6.4166
Owner	Brian Ainscough[3]
Chairman	Brian Ainscough
Manager	Jon Daly
League	League of Ireland Premier Division
2023	League of Ireland Premier Division, 5th of 10
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Dundalk Football Club (/dʌnˈdɔː(l)k/ dun-DAW(L)K; Irish: Cumann Peile Dhún Dealgan) is a professional association football club that competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division, the top tier of football in the Republic of Ireland. The club is based in Dundalk and its home ground is Oriel Park. The club crest is three martlets on a shield, which was adopted from the town's old coat of arms, and the team colours are white shirts and black shorts.

Founded in 1903 as Dundalk G.N.R., the works-team of the Great Northern Railway, they were a junior club until they were invited to join the Leinster Senior League in 1922–23. After playing at that level for four seasons, they were elected to the League of Ireland for the 1926–27 season. Six seasons later, they became the first club from outside Dublin to win the league title. They have won 49 trophies at national and all-Ireland level as of 2023,^[a] including four League and Cup 'Doubles', and are the only club to have won a league title or an FAI Cup in every decade since the 1930s. They are the second most successful club in the League's history, with 14 league titles as of 2023.

Dundalk are the highest-ranked Irish club in European football as measured by UEFA club coefficients. They made their European debut in the 1963–64 European Cup and became the first Irish side to win an away match in Europe in that campaign. Their best performance in the European Cup was in 1979–80, when they reached the last 16, and they reached the last 16 of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1981–82. They are the only Irish club to have qualified for the Europa League group stage twice and in 2016–17, they became the first team from Ireland to both win points and win a match at that level of European competition. They remain the only Irish team to have done so as of the 2023–24 European season.

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