Claim: Jordan Spence plays football.

West Ham United Football Club is a professional football club based in Stratford , East London , England . They compete in the Premier League , the top tier of English football . In 2016 the club re-located to the London Stadium .   The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United . They moved to the Boleyn Ground in 1904 , which remained their home ground for more than a century . The team initially competed in the Southern League and Western League before joining the Football League in 1919 . They were promoted to the top flight in 1923 , when they were also losing finalists in the first FA Cup Final held at Wembley . In 1940 , the club won the inaugural Football League War Cup .   West Ham have been winners of the FA Cup three times , in 1964 , 1975 , and 1980 , and have also been runners-up twice , in 1923 , and 2006 . The club have reached two major European finals , winning the European Cup Winners ' Cup in 1965 and finishing runners-up in the same competition in 1976 . West Ham also won the Intertoto Cup in 1999 . They are one of eight clubs never to have fallen below the second tier of English football , spending 59 of 91 league seasons in the top flight , up to and including the 2016 -- 17 season . The club 's highest league position to date came in 1985 -- 86 when they achieved third place in the then First Division .   Three West Ham players were members of the 1966 World Cup final-winning England team : captain Bobby Moore and goalscorers Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters .