Leeds UnitedLeeds United was founded in 1919 under unusual circumstances — as the successor to Leeds City, a club disbanded by the English football authorities following a scandal over illegal payments to players during the First World War. The new club took over Leeds City's Elland Road ground and, within a few decades, became the leading football club in West Yorkshire.
A turning point in the club's history came with a decision by Don Revie, who, after taking charge as manager in 1961, changed the club's colours from blue and gold to all-white, inspired by the success of Real Madrid. The white kit, which gave rise to the nickname "The Whites", became a symbol of the club's greatest era. Under Revie, with players such as Billy Bremner, Jack Charlton and Eddie Gray at the core of the side, Leeds won the English league title twice (1968–69 and 1973–74), lifted the FA Cup in 1972, won the League Cup in 1968, and twice triumphed in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup — the forerunner of the UEFA Cup — in 1968 and 1971.
Revie's Leeds also regularly reached European finals, though not always with success. In 1973 they lost the European Cup Winners' Cup final to AC Milan, and the most memorable — if painful — European night in the club's history remains the 1975 European Cup final against Bayern Munich, a match marked by the controversial disallowing of a Peter Lorimer goal and a 0–2 defeat, played after Revie had already left the club.
Elland Road has long been regarded as one of the most intense grounds in English football, where the atmosphere generated by supporters regularly makes life difficult for visiting sides. That bond between the club and its stands survived even the hardest years, including relegation from the Premier League in 2004 and sixteen seasons spent outside the top flight. The club's return to the elite in 2020, achieved under Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa, reaffirmed Leeds United's status as one of the great football institutions of northern England.