AFC Richmond is a fictional Premier League club that was created by Jason Sudeikis, the main brain behind the award-winning Apple TV series Ted Lasso.
The series is centered around the series’ protagonist named coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) who was given the gigantic task of coaching the fictional AFC Richmond in the Premier League.
In the movie, the task of coach Lasso was to preside over AFC Richmond which have to battle against top Premier League clubs like Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and others.
He was given this job even without any prior experience in the business of coaching but had to depend on his intuition to lead the team.
Is AFC Richmond a real team?
As mentioned earlier, AFC Richmond is a fictional Premier League club. It was created specifically for the award-winning Apple TV series Ted Lasso.
The brains behind the creation include Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, and Joe Kelly.
Though the football team is purely fictional, the developers of the team took inspiration from real-life football teams especially the Premier League side, Crystal Palace.
Just like Crystal Palace’s jersey, the jersey of the football team comes with red and blue with a hint of yellow. More so, the name of the fictional team is similar to Hampton & Richmond Borough FC, a football team that plays in the English football pyramid.
Just like real football teams, AFC Richmond has an official twitter page and sells its team’s kits to fans of the show. The team’s jersey cost nothing less than $69.95.
BREAKING: Roy Kent discusses the team’s win and the meaning of life. pic.twitter.com/Ene9VQkm8I
— AFC Richmond (@AFCRichmond) September 28, 2021
Are there real football stars in Ted Lasso?
Just as explained above, almost everything in Ted Lasso TV series is fictional. The players and coaches in AFC Richmond are all actors who were given roles to act like footballers.
However, a character like Roy Kent which was played by Brett Goldstein attempted to depict the personality of a real-life retired footballer, Roy Keane who was a captain at Manchester United.
Just like Roy Kent in the series, Roy Keane sustained a career-ending injury and thereafter switched to being a pundit and an assistant coach.
On the other hand, there were a couple of camera appearances by real footballers (mostly retired) in the series. The notable football stars that made an appearance in the movie include Gary Lineker, Chris Powell, Eni Aluko, Thierry Henry, and Peter Crouch.
Aside from that, famous Premier League referee, Mike Dean made an appearance in the FA Cup semi-final game against Manchester City in the series.
What is the stadium AFC Richmond uses
Though the football team in Ted Lasso is not real, the stadium AFC Richmond uses is real. However, the name of the stadium is fictional. In the series, the stadium is known as Nelson Road Stadium.
But in reality, the name of the stadium is Selhurst Park, the home stadium of Crystal Palace which goes to show how much the Premier League club inspired the developers of the series.
The stadium was built in 1924 and came with a seating capacity which is about 25,000. Aside from Crystal Palace, clubs like Charlton Athletic and Wimbledon used the football ground in the 80s and the 90s respectively before they moved to permanent grounds.
The filming location of Ted Lasso
Though Ted Lasso is an American sports comedy-drama, the filming location is generally set in London and they are generally real locations.
To be specific, most of the filming took place in Richmond Green, London at Crystal Palace home ground, Selhurst Park, Wembley Stadium, and Craven Cottage.
In the series, AFC Richmond uses SkyEx Community Stadium, home of non-league club Hayes & Yeading, as the club’s training ground and office scenes.
Real-life streets of Twickenham, and The Prince’s Head pub in Richmond Green which is called The Crown and Anchor pub in the series, was used.
In the scene in which AFC Richmond played Everton, Craven Cottage, the home ground of Fulham, was used as Everton’s home ground instead of their real home ground, Everton.
How many seasons is Ted Lasso?
The Ted Lasso series is currently in its second season. It has a combined 22 episodes when you combine first and second seasons.
Each of the episodes has a running time between 29 and 49 minutes. All the scenes are in the English language.
When is the next season coming out?
At the time of publishing this report, it has not been confirmed when the brains behind the series will release the next season.
Recall that the first season of 10 episodes was premiered on Apple TV+ on August 14, 2020, with three episodes, followed by weekly installments. While the second season of 12 episodes was premiered on July 23, 2021.
Where to watch Ted Lasso?
Ted Lasso was specially created to be aired on Apple TV+. But it is available on a couple of streaming platforms on 4K (Ultra HD) and Dolby Vision formats.
