Founded in 1882, Tottenham Hotspur's emblem is a cockerel standing upon a football, with the Latin motto Audere est Facere ("to dare is to do").

In 1912, Peter McWilliam became manager; Tottenham finished bottom of the league at the end of the 1914–15 season when football was suspended due to the First World War.

[29] Nicholson signed Dave Mackay and John White in 1959, two influential players of the Double-winning team, and Jimmy Greaves in 1961, the most prolific goal-scorer in the history of the top tier of English football.

Burkinshaw quickly returned the club to the top flight, building a team that included Glenn Hoddle as well as two Argentinians, Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa, which was unusual as players from outside the British Isles were rare at that time.

[43][44] Debt at the club would again lead to a change in the boardroom, and Terry Venables teamed up with businessman Alan Sugar in June 1991 to take control of Tottenham Hotspur plc.

[49] Despite a succession of managers and players such as Teddy Sheringham, Jürgen Klinsmann and David Ginola, for a long period in the Premier League until the late 2000s, Spurs finished mid-table most seasons with few trophies won.

Performance improved under Harry Redknapp with players such as Gareth Bale and Luka Modrić, and the club finished in the top five in the early 2010s.

[50][51] In February 2001, Sugar sold his shareholding in Spurs to ENIC Sports plc, run by Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy, and stepped down as chairman.

Spurs played their early matches on public land at the Park Lane end of Tottenham Marshes, where they had to mark out and prepare their own pitch.

[68] As they played on public parkland, the club could not charge admission fees and, while the number of spectators grew to a few thousand, it yielded no gate receipts.

In 1888, the club rented a pitch between numbers 69 and 75 Northumberland Park[69] at a cost of £17 per annum, where spectators were charged 3d a game, raised to 6d for cup ties.

[73] After Spurs were admitted to the Football League, the club started to build a new stadium, with stands designed by Archibald Leitch being constructed over the next two and a half decades.

[76][77] Eventually the club settled on the Northumberland Development Project, whereby a new stadium would be built on a larger piece of land that incorporated the existing site.

[91] After two successful test events, Tottenham Hotspur officially moved into the new ground on 3 April 2019[92] with a Premier League match against Crystal Palace which Spurs won 2–0.

[66] In 1983, to overcome unauthorised "pirate" merchandising, the club's badge was altered by adding the two red heraldic lions to flank the shield (which came from the arms of the Northumberland family, of which Harry Hotspur was a member), as well as the motto scroll.

The first Tottenham kit recorded in 1883 included a navy blue shirt with a letter H on a scarlet shield on the left breast, and white breeches.

Although Umbro kits in generic colours had been sold to football fans since 1959, it was with the Admiral deal that the market for replica shirts started to take off.

[122] Admiral changed the plain colours of earlier strips to shirts with more elaborate designs, which included manufacturer's logos, stripes down the arms and trims on the edges.

[127] In March 2011, Under Armour announced a five-year deal to supply Spurs with shirts and other apparel from the start of 2012–13,[128][129] with the home, away and the third kits revealed in July and August 2012.

[130][131] The shirts incorporate technology that can monitor the players' heart rate and temperature and send the biometric data to the coaching staff.

[137] When Thomson was chosen as kit sponsor in 2002 some Tottenham fans were unhappy as the shirt-front logo was red, the colour of their closest rivals, Arsenal.

[140] A month later they unveiled a £5 million deal with leading specialist bank and asset management firm Investec as shirt sponsor for the Champions League and domestic cup competitions for the next two years.

[145][146] In 2023, Tottenham provisionally agreed a three-year shirt sponsorship deal with South Africa Tourism (SAT) starting in 2023/24 and ending in the 2026/27 season.

[160] However, ill-judged business decisions under Scholar led to financial difficulties,[155] and in June 1991 Terry Venables teamed up with businessman Alan Sugar to buy the club, initially as equal partner with each investing £3.25 million.

[163] Shareholding by ENIC increased over the decade through the purchase of the remaining 12% holding of Alan Sugar in 2007 for £25m,[164][165] and the 9.9% stake belonging to Stelios Haji-Ioannou through Hodram Inc. in 2009.

Following an announcement at the 2011 AGM, in January 2012 Tottenham Hotspur confirmed that the club had delisted its shares from the stock market, taking it into private ownership.

[211] The club however argued that the project, when completed, would support 3,500 jobs and inject an estimated £293 million into the local economy annually,[212] and that it would serve as the catalyst for a wider 20-year regeneration programme for the Tottenham area.

[229] Sources: Tottenham Hotspur – History[230] Steve Perryman holds the appearance record for Spurs, having played 854 games for the club between 1969 and 1986, of which 655 were league matches.

They started using the Tottenham Hotspur name for the 1991–92 season and played in the London and South East Women's Regional Football League (then fourth tier of the game).

[258] On 1 May 2019, Tottenham Hotspur Ladies won promotion to the FA Women's Super League with a 1–1 draw at Aston Villa, which confirmed they would finish second in the Championship.