Valencia was founded in and has played its home games at the 49,seater Mestalla since its opening. Valencia were also members of the G group of leading European football clubs and since its end has been part of the original members of the European Club Association. Historically one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of number of associates registered paying supporters , with around 50, season ticket holders [ 4 ] at their peak, the club began to decline in the mids.
Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim acquired the team in In another match the day after, Valencia won 1β0 against the same opposition.
Valencia CF won the Regional Championship in , and was eligible to play in the domestic Copa del Rey cup competition for the first time in its history. In the β42 season, the club won its first Spanish La Liga championship title, although winning the Copa del Rey was more reputable than the championship at that time.
The club maintained its consistency to capture the league title again in the β44 season, as well as the β47 league edition. They would conclude their decade of success by winning the Copa del Rey; this meant Valencia ended the decade with a record of three La Liga and two Copa del Rey titles. This success would help cement the club's name in Spanish football.
In the s, Valencia failed to emulate the success of the previous decade, even though it grew as a club. A restructuring of Mestalla resulted in an increase in spectator capacity to 45,, while the club had a number of Spanish and foreign stars. While managing average league form in the early s, Valencia had its first European success in the form of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup the forerunner to the UEFA Cup , defeating Barcelona in the final of the β62 edition. The following edition of the tournament pitted Valencia against Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb in the final, which the Spanish side also won.
