Southend United F.C. is a professional football club formed in 1906 and based in Southend-on-Sea. Initially playing in the Southern League, the club joined the Football League in 1920 and then competed in the third tier of English football for most subsequent seasons. The side reached the second tier Championship level in the 1990s and again in the early 2000s, but by 2009 the club had major financial difficulties and narrowly avoided administration on several occasions. The financial problems continued through to the early 2020s, during which it was relegated from the Football League to the fifth tier National League, with the club subject to numerous winding-up petitions before it was sold to its current owners in 2024.

1906–1958 Prior to the formation of United, football in the town had been played by amateur teams, with the strongest being Southend Athletic. There was a strong clamour for the town to have a professional club, and at Athletic's AGM on the 16 May 1906, club president Robert Jones put forward the idea of going semi-professional which was rejected.

Southend United F.C. was founded on 19 May 1906 in the Blue Boar Hotel after landlord Oliver Trigg invited a group of footballers and businessmen to discuss setting up a new professional club. A prospectus for shares in the club issued in August 1906 noted the club had been elected to complete in the Second Division of the Southern League and in the South Eastern League, and a seven-year lease had been agreed to play at Roots Hall Field in Prittlewell. Robert Jack ("late of Plymouth Argyle Football Club") was appointed as manager, secretary and player, and 12 professional players were recruited, including two - outside left Alfred Ernest Watkins (formerly at Millwall) and back George Molyneux (formerly at Portsmouth) - listed as internationals (Watkins had played for Wales, Molyneux for England). Other signings included goalkeeper Charles Cotton from West Ham, outside right Arthur Holden from Portsmouth, and centre-forward Harold Halse from Wanstead, plus players from Southend Athletic, Grays United, South Weald and Leigh Ramblers.

In their first season under Jack's management, Southend won the Southern League Second Division title for 1906–07, then repeated the feat the following season, gaining election to the Southern League First Division in 1908. When Jack left Southend in 1910, he was succeeded as player-manager by Molyneux. Southend were relegated back to the Second Division after the 1910–11 season, but returned to the First Division two seasons later.

The club remained in the Southern League until the first post-World War I season of 1919–20. The club then joined the Football League's new Third Division and finished 17th in their first season. In 1921, the Third Division was regionalised with Southend United joining the southern section and here they remained until the league re-structured in 1958. Southend came close to promotion twice when they finished 3rd in 1932 and 1950, the club's highest league positions until 1991.

1958–1981

Southend United joined the new national Third Division in 1958, where they remained until 1966 when they suffered their first relegation, into the Fourth Division. The club had to wait six seasons until 1972 to experience the club's first Football League promotion, as runners-up behind Grimsby Town. In 1976 Southend suffered relegation again before taking another runners-up spot behind Watford in 1978. Another relegation in 1980 was directly followed by one of the most successful seasons in the club's history as they won the Fourth Division Championship in 1981, breaking a series of club records in the process. Despite success on the pitch and low admission prices, the club's gates were low and condemned as "a bad reflection on the town".

1981–1987 Many of Southend United's most gifted players were sold due to a financial strain. In June 1983 Anton Johnson, a local butcher who was also chairman of Rotherham United, bought 44.9% of the club from the Rubin brothers. The club was already £250,000 in debt. By August 1983 Dave Smith had been replaced as manager by Peter Morris who lasted until February 1984. On his arrival, Morris discovered that he had a squad of only ten players. Bobby Moore was installed as chief executive with Andrew MacHutcheon as chairman. The club were relegated into the Fourth Division in 1984 with Bobby Moore as manager. One of the club's darkest hours saw a season average attendance of barely above 2,000. Vic Jobson was elected as a director in the 1984 close-season, only to be forced out, along with MacHutcheon, months later. On the pitch, the team finished in 20th place, narrowly avoiding the need to seek re-election to the Football League.

Johnson was arrested on 23 October 1984. Two weeks before Christmas, fans discovered that £70,000 of the club's Christmas savings scheme had gone missing. While the fraud squad investigated, Robert Maxwell and Ken Bates stepped in, at Jobson's request, to lend the necessary money to the club to repay its Christmas savers. The club was now over £800,000 in debt. Johnson was banned by the FA from any future involvement in football, having simultaneously been in control of Southend, Rotherham and Bournemouth. Johnson was cleared of all charges at Chelmsford Crown Court and has never received the monies he personally invested in the misplaced Christmas fund and lost his shares in a further court case to the SUFC board. Over a decade later, Ceefax reported that Johnson was seeking to take over Doncaster Rovers.

1987–1992

Promotion in 1987 was the beginning of a golden era for Southend United. Relegation in 1989 was a mere blip as two successive promotions in 1990 and 1991 saw Southend United become "full members" of the Football League for the first time in the club's history, and in 1992 Southend United finished 12th in the old Second Division, their highest ever position in the Football League to date. On New Year's Day, 1992, the club briefly topped the Second Division but their dreary late season form stopped any hopes of a unique third successive promotion that would have given them a place as a Premier League founder member. Manager David Webb then stepped down.

1992–2003 Southend United were managed by Colin Murphy, Barry Fry and then Peter Taylor over the next three seasons. In 1995, former Liverpool player Ronnie Whelan agreed to become player-manager, and Southend finished 14th in Division One in his first season as a manager, a year later the club suffered relegation after finishing bottom of Division One. Ronnie Whelan left the club, claiming a lack of support from the fans and a lack of money from the chairman. Subsequently, Whelan won a case for wrongful dismissal.

Alvin Martin was named Whelan's replacement. Martin was unable to avoid a second consecutive relegation which Southend once again finishing bottom of the table and were duly relegated to Division Three. First team regulars Simon Royce, Jeroen Boere, Andy Thomson and Andy Rammell all left the club and were replaced by Martyn Margetson, Mark Beard, Mark Stimson and Rob Newman. Alvin Martin left in April 1999, with Southend fifth from bottom in the Football League.

Alan Little took charge of his first game away to Leyton Orient, a game Southend lost 3–0. Alan Little, who had previously managed York City, signed former York City players Mark Tinkler and Martin Curruthers. With limited success gates were barely getting above the 3,000 mark and a crowd of only 2,403 showed up to watch the game against Kidderminster and Alan Little's reign had come to an end.

David Webb left Yeovil Town and was appointed the new manager, signing players Darryl Flahavan, Leon Cort, Tes Bramble and Mark Rawle. During the season David Webb became ill and Rob Newman took temporary charge, being appointed permanently when Webb quit the club. Southend suffered straight defeats to Lincoln, Swansea, Kidderminster and Hartlepool, and Newman was dismissed shortly after. Steve Wignall took over as manager and signed Drewe Broughton, Mark Gower, Mark Warren and Che Wilson. He released goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan after he deemed him too small to play in the League, but re-signed him after a poor run of results. Two more defeats followed and Wignall was sacked. In late 2003 former Southend United midfielder Steve Tilson was appointed manager and named former Leyton Orient boss Paul Brush as his assistant.

During this period, Martin Dawn PLC and Delancey Estates, together forming South Eastern Leisure (SEL), had taken control of Southend United in November 1998, buying the club and its centrally located Roots Hall ground for £4m from then chairman Vic Jobson, who at the time owned 55% of the issued share capital of the club. Jobson had previously sold part of the ground's South Bank for housing, and SEL's plan was to continue the redevelopment and move the club to a proposed 16,000-seat stadium in a leisure redevelopment in the northern part of Southend.

2003–2005

Southend reached their first ever national cup final in 2004 when they met Blackpool in the final of the LDV Vans Trophy at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Over 20,000 Southend fans travelled, but the team did not rise to the occasion and Blackpool won 2–0.

In 2004 Tilson and Brush were installed as a permanent management / coaching duo and led Southend to promotion to League One in 2005, while making a second successive appearance in the Football League Trophy final, which the Shrimpers lost 2–0 to Wrexham, but the third appearance at the Millennium Stadium in the League Two play-off final against Lincoln City brought success as Freddy Eastwood and Duncan Jupp scored the goals that gave the club their first ever taste of promotion via the play-off system and their first major piece of silverware since 1981.

2006–2010 On 29 April 2006, the Shrimpers were promoted to the Football League Championship after a 2–2 draw with Swansea City at the Welsh club's new Liberty Stadium. Southend were crowned League One champions on 6 May 2006 after beating Bristol City 1–0 at Roots Hall in front of over 11,000 fans. This was the last professional appearance of Shaun Goater; fans from his former club Manchester City came to give him a special send-off at the end of a long and distinguished career. For Southend United, the title was the club's first in 25 years. On 6 May 2006, Tilson was named as the League Manager Association's Manager-of-the-Season for League One.

2006 League Cup win over Manchester United Southend beat Leeds United in the third round of the League Cup and the draw for the fourth round set up a home tie against trophy holders and Premier League Champions Manchester United on 7 November 2006. The away side fielded a strong team, which included 10 players capped at international level. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney were amongst the starting line up, along with Gabriel Heinze, Darren Fletcher, Wes Brown and Alan Smith. Southend had injuries to strikers Billy Paynter and Lee Bradbury while Matt Harrold was cup tied so boss Steve Tilson partnered Gary Hooper up front with Freddy Eastwood. After 25 minutes Jamal Campbell-Ryce was fouled by David Jones 30 yards from goal; Kevin Maher, Steven Hammell and Freddy Eastwood stood over the free kick, then Eastwood curled "a wonderful free-kick around the wall and into the top corner past Tomasz Kuszczak" as the BBC reported. Southend held on for one of the most famous victories in the club's history. As this is the only meeting between the two sides to date, Southend are one of four sides with a 100% record against the Red Devils (along with Zenit St Petersburg, Vasco de Gama and Bootle Reserves - who defeated Newton Heath, the original name of Manchester United, in the 1890/91 FA Cup 2nd qualifying round).

Relegation to League One