Dudelange

F91 Dudelange, or F91 Diddeleng, (French: [ɛf katʁəvɛ̃.ɔ̃z dydlɑ̃ʒ]) is a Luxembourger professional football club based in Dudelange which plays in the Luxembourg National Division.

It was formed in 1991 as a merger between three teams in the city — Alliance Dudelange, Stade Dudelange and US Dudelange. Domestically, it has since won the National Division on 15 occasions and the Luxembourg Cup eight times.

F91 Dudelange qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, becoming the first club from the country to reach the group stage of a European competition. Dudelange also made the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage where they became the first team from Luxembourg to win a game in the group stage after a shock 4–3 victory over APOEL of Cyprus.

History

It was formed in 1991 from the clubs Alliance Dudelange, Stade Dudelange, and US Dudelange. All three clubs had won the National Division or the Luxembourg Cup before, but each had fallen upon hard times, and the amalgamated club was expected to be more stable, in both a sporting and financial sense.

Turning the club into a title-challenging team took a while. Stade Dudelange and US Dudelange had been in Luxembourg's third tier (the 1. Division), whilst Alliance Dudelange was struggling to remain in the second league (the Division of Honour). The new club would take Alliance's place in the Division of Honour in the 1991–92 season.

F91 was promoted in its first season, and soon established itself as a competent top-flight team, not finishing outside the top half of the table until 1996–97. Towards the end of the 1990s, Dudelange gradually improved, and brought to an end Jeunesse Esch's era of dominance by storming to the 1999–00 league title by eleven points.

In 2004–05, Dudelange won the title and competed in the UEFA Champions League for the 2005–06 season. In the competition Dudelange became the first club in Luxembourg's history to reach the second qualifying round, after a remarkable victory over NK Zrinjski (t