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How Many Trophies Have Leeds United Won? The Complete Silverware Cabinet
A complete guide to Leeds United’s silverware: three First Division titles, the FA Cup, League Cup, two Fairs Cups, two Charity Shields and five second-tier championships, with the near-misses that shaped the club’s history.
Leeds United have won three top-flight league titles, the FA Cup, the League Cup, two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, two Charity Shields and five second-tier championships. That is 14 senior titles across the categories on the club’s official honours list, although different definitions of “major trophy” produce different totals.
How many trophies have Leeds United won? The answer depends on what you count, which is precisely why the question deserves a proper answer rather than a number lifted from a pub argument. Leeds United’s official honours list records 14 senior title wins across the main categories: three First Division championships, one FA Cup, one League Cup, two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, two Charity Shields and five Second Division or Championship titles.
That total includes second-tier league championships and the Charity Shield. If you mean the biggest prizes at the top of the English game and in Europe, the more focused list is seven: three English top-flight titles, the FA Cup, the League Cup and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups. Both totals are useful, provided the definition is stated. The confusion begins when people add some competitions and quietly leave others out.
There is an additional distinction worth keeping clear. Leeds have finished runners-up in major competitions on many occasions, including the European Cup final of 1975 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup final of 1973. Those campaigns belong in any honest telling of the club’s history, but they are not trophy wins. Football’s silverware cabinet is measured by what was lifted, not by how close a team came to lifting it.
The complete Leeds United honours list
| Competition | Titles | Seasons / years |
|---|---|---|
| First Division / English top flight | 3 | 1968–69, 1973–74, 1991–92 |
| FA Cup | 1 | 1971–72 |
| League Cup | 1 | 1967–68 |
| Inter-Cities Fairs Cup | 2 | 1967–68, 1970–71 |
| Charity Shield | 2 | 1969, 1992 |
| Second Division / Championship | 5 | 1923–24, 1963–64, 1989–90, 2019–20, 2024–25 |
| Total across those categories | 14 | Counting each title listed above |
The list follows the club’s official honours record. A few online lists describe the club’s total differently because they restrict the count to major senior competitions, omit the second tier, or treat the Charity Shield separately. The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup also needs historical context: it was a prestigious European competition won before the UEFA Cup was established. It is part of Leeds’ European history, but it should not casually be renamed a UEFA Cup or Europa League title.
Three times champions of England
The three top-flight titles are the centrepiece of the cabinet. Each was won by a different version of Leeds United, and each tells a different story about how the club reached the summit.
1968–69: Revie’s plan comes together
Don Revie inherited a struggling Second Division side in 1961 and spent years turning it into a disciplined, ambitious and technically accomplished team. Leeds had finished second in 1964–65 and 1965–66, then won the League Cup and Fairs Cup in 1968. Allan Clarke’s arrival strengthened the attack, and the 1968–69 league campaign was exceptionally consistent: 27 wins, 13 draws and just two defeats from 42 matches. Leeds secured the championship with a 0–0 draw at Liverpool and went unbeaten at Elland Road in the league all season.
It was not a surprise title in the sense of a team appearing from nowhere. It was the payoff for years of near-misses, recruitment, coaching and insistence on standards. The medal completed a project that had been building for almost a decade.
1973–74: The second championship
Five years later, Revie’s Leeds did it again. After the anguish of the 1973 FA Cup final defeat to Sunderland and the controversial European Cup Winners’ Cup final loss to AC Milan, Leeds opened the 1973–74 league season with a 29-match unbeaten run. They finished five points clear of Liverpool, with Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles setting the tone in midfield and Allan Clarke and Mick Jones contributing the goals.
The second title confirmed that Leeds’ first had not been a one-off. This was a team capable of sustaining excellence over years, even as the weight of expectation and the argument over the club’s reputation followed it everywhere.
1991–92: The last champions of the old First Division
Howard Wilkinson’s title had a different starting point. Leeds had only returned to the top flight in 1990, after winning the Second Division, and finished fourth in 1990–91. In 1991–92, Gordon Strachan’s leadership, Lee Chapman’s goals, the midfield work of David Batty and Gary Speed, and the creativity of Gary McAllister gave Leeds the consistency to finish above Manchester United. Leeds won 3–2 at Sheffield United in their penultimate match; United’s defeat at Liverpool then confirmed the title. Leeds became the final champions of the old First Division before the Premier League began.
The gap between those championships is part of their emotional force. Leeds did not win the league every few years. They had to build, wait, fall short and rebuild again. Supporters who had watched the decline after Revie’s departure saw Wilkinson’s side return the club to the top of English football.
The cups: Wembley, Europe and the nights that changed the club
The League Cup and the first European triumph, 1968
Leeds’ first League Cup arrived in 1967–68, when Terry Cooper’s goal beat Arsenal 1–0 at Wembley. The club also won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup that season, beating Ferencváros in the final. It was an important shift: Leeds were no longer merely a rising league side; they had begun converting domestic promise into trophies and European reputation.
The Fairs Cup again in 1971
The second Fairs Cup was won in 1970–71 against Juventus. The final became one of the competition’s memorable ties, with the first attempt at playing the opening leg abandoned because of a waterlogged pitch. Leeds eventually earned a 2–2 draw in Turin and a 1–1 draw at Elland Road, winning on away goals. It was not a simple, comfortable final. It was a European trophy earned through a bruising, complicated tie.
The FA Cup, 1972
Leeds’ only FA Cup triumph came in 1972, when Allan Clarke’s second-half header beat Arsenal 1–0 at Wembley. For a club that had already suffered several painful cup-final defeats, the significance was immense. Revie’s team had proved itself over league seasons and in Europe; now it had the domestic knockout prize that had eluded it.
The Charity Shield
Leeds won the Charity Shield in 1969 and 1992. It is generally treated separately from the league and major cup competitions, and readers may reasonably choose not to include it in a personal “major trophies” tally. For completeness, though, it belongs in the official honours record and in the count of 14 used here.
The second-tier titles: trophies that changed the direction of the club
A history of Leeds silverware would be incomplete without the five second-tier championships. The first came in 1923–24; the 1963–64 title took Revie’s team into the First Division and set the stage for the golden era. Wilkinson’s 1989–90 championship restored Leeds to the top flight after eight years away. Marcelo Bielsa’s 2019–20 side ended a 16-year Premier League absence, and Daniel Farke’s 2024–25 team returned as champions with 100 points.
They are not equivalent to winning the First Division, but each trophy mattered enormously at the time. Promotion changes the scale of a club’s ambition, its finances, its recruitment and its supporters’ expectations. At Leeds, these second-tier titles have also been acts of recovery: a way back from years when the club’s place among England’s leading sides no longer looked secure.
The trophies that got away
Any list of Leeds trophies has to sit beside the list of finals and seasons that ended in second place. Leeds were First Division runners-up in 1964–65, 1965–66, 1969–70, 1970–71 and 1971–72. They lost FA Cup finals in 1965, 1970 and 1973; reached the European Cup final in 1975; and lost the European Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1973. The side was often close enough to greatness to make the defeats feel like personal history.
Those near-misses are not hidden silverware. They belong in a different column, one that explains the emotional texture of Leeds’ story. The Revie teams won two league championships, two Fairs Cups, a League Cup and an FA Cup, yet their history is still punctuated by moments when a final decision, a missed chance or an opponent’s goalkeeper denied them another prize. Supporters remember both sides of that ledger.
There is a temptation to view the club’s limited top-flight title count as a shortcoming. It can also be understood as the reason each championship has remained so vivid. There has never been a conveyor belt of titles at Elland Road. Each one demanded years of construction or reconstruction, and each came to represent far more than a line in the honours table.
So, how many trophies have Leeds United won?
Counting the categories on the club’s official honours list, Leeds United have won 14 senior titles: three First Division championships, one FA Cup, one League Cup, two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, two Charity Shields and five Second Division or Championship titles. If you restrict the tally to top-flight league titles, domestic cups and European Fairs Cups, the number is seven. The most important point is to state clearly what is being counted.
The silverware tells the factual story. The wider history tells you why it matters. Leeds have been champions of England three times, cup winners at Wembley, winners in Europe and champions on the way back from the lower divisions. They have also been runners-up, disappointed, relegated and rebuilt. At Elland Road, the cabinet is a record of the highest moments; the loyalty that fills the ground has survived everything else as well.