Ipswich Town FC

Ipswich Town play in the Premier League at Portman Road (29,737) in Ipswich, Suffolk, England.

Ipswich are one of English football’s most improbable stories of both fall and return. The club won the First Division title in 1962 under Alf Ramsey, who left the following year to manage England and win the 1966 World Cup. Bobby Robson took over in 1969 and built a team that won the FA Cup in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981, beating AZ Alkmaar in the final. John Wark, Arnold Muhren, Frans Thijssen, and Mick Mills were the core of that side. Ipswich finished second in the league in 1981 and 1982. The drop to the second tier in 1986 began a decline that ended only in 2024.

Twenty-two years in the Championship and League One separated the 2002 relegation from the return. Kieran McKenna, the Northern Irish former Manchester United coach, was appointed in December 2021 when Ipswich were mid-table in League One. He won promotion to the Championship in 2023, then promotion to the Premier League in 2024, becoming the first manager to win back-to-back promotions at the club since 1961. The pace of the rebuild is without precedent in the modern era.

Portman Road is one of the oldest Premier League grounds. The stands are close to the pitch in the way that grounds built before the 1990s tend to be, which generates an enclosed atmosphere that the club’s return to the top flight has restored to its full volume. Liam Delap, signed from Manchester City, provides the central striking threat. Omari Hutchinson has given the attack directness from wide positions.

The local rivalry with Norwich City, the East Anglian derby, is one of English football’s longest-standing regional fixtures. The 75 miles between the two clubs becomes one of English football’s great distances on match day.

Ipswich play on GMT in winter and BST (UTC+1) in summer. A Saturday 15:00 kickoff at Portman Road is 16:00 in Berlin, 23:00 in Singapore, and 10:00 in Toronto. Supporters checking Ipswich time will find it identical to London time.