Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Spurs, are an English professional football club based in Tottenham, North London, which currently plays in the Premier League. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane.
Tottenham Hotspur were the first club in the 20th century to achieve the League and FA Cup Double, winning both competitions in the 1960–61 season. In 1963 they became the first British club to win a major European trophy—the European Cup Winners' Cup. In the 1970s, they won the League Cup on two occasions and were the inaugural winners of the UEFA Cup in 1972 (becoming the first British club to win two different major European trophies). In the 1980s Spurs won several trophies: the FA Cup twice, FA Community Shield and the UEFA Cup 1983–84. In the 1990s, they won the FA Cup and the League Cup. In 2008 they won the League Cup once more, meaning that they have won a trophy in each of the last six decades—an achievement only matched by Manchester United.
The club's Latin motto is Audere est Facere (lit: "To Dare Is to Do"), and its emblem is a gamecock standing upon a football. The club has a long-standing rivalry with near neighbours Arsenal, and matches between the two teams are known as the North London derby.
Since 2001 the key shareholder has been ENIC International Ltd, an investment company established by the British billionaire Joe Lewis. Daniel Levy, Lewis's partner at ENIC, is Executive Chairman of the club.
By June 2007 ENIC had increased its direct holding to 68% by purchasing all of former chairman Alan Sugar's remaining 14.7% holding. Stelios Haji-Ioannou held a 9.9 per cent stake through Hodram Inc in June 2006, but has since either sold all, or at least 70 per cent, of his holding. Apart from the majority shareholder ENIC, Michael Ashcroft the businessman and Deputy Chairman of the UK Conservative Party has around a 4 percent holding (comprising 3% Ordinary shares and 2% preference shares) which he acquired in April 2008. On 21 August 2009 the club reported that it had issued a further 30 million shares to fund the initial development costs of the new stadium project, and that 27.8 million of these new shares had been purchased by ENIC, increasing its overall share holding in the club to around 85%. The Annual Report for the year ending 30 June 2009 also indicates that ENIC now directly holds convertible redeemable preference shares giving it a combined overall 85% (2008: 82%) beneficial interest in Tottenham Hotspur plc.