The game of 'Association Football' undoubtedly originates in England. However the earliest records of man kicking something resembling a ball date back to the Chinese Han Dynasty, 2000 years ago. There are records of the ancient Greeks and Romans developing the pastime known as 'Harpastum', a curious mixture of association and rugby football. The Romans introduced this to Britain in the time of Julius Caesar. It was during the Middle Ages that the game took hold of the public with annual Shrovetide matches being played between neighbouring villages with teams of unlimited numbers. The ball was usually a pig's badder although on one infamous occasion in Chester the head of a dead Viking was used to celebrate a recent victory over the invaders.
In the late 13th century and early 14th century street matches were so popular in London that traders called on King Edward ll to outlaw the game in the city. Thus on 13th April 1314 the first ever football ban came into force. The ban proved quite ineffective despite the threat of prison. Kings Edward lll, Richard ll, Henry lV and James lll made subsequent attempts at bans, all with similar effectiveness. The only ban with any level of effectiveness was that imposed by Oliver Cromwell, the game briefly disappeared but reappeared with even greater popularity following the Restoration in 1660.
The popularity of the game continued to soar in Elizabethan times (picture left) , the author Strutt in his 'Sports and Pastimes' publication gave an insight into football in the 1700's. He described two teams of equal numbers who lined up between two goals made of sticks placed about 1 yard apart. The goals were between 80-100 yards from each other, he also wrote: The ball, which is commonly made of a blown bladder and cased in leather, is delivered in the midst of the ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the goal of their antagonists, which being achieved, the game is won.
Having survived the various attempts to ban the game, football remained a fairly lawless and unruly game until the mid-1840s when the desire of teams, particularly public schools, to play against each other made the lack of a generally accepted set of rules an issue, which needed resolving. So in 1848 Mr. H. de Winton and Mr. J.C. Thring, two football players from Cambridge University called a meeting with representatives from the major public schools, a 7hr 55min meeting produced the first formal set of rules for the game of association football.
Sheffield FC, the world's oldest football club came into existence in 1855. The oldest still existing league club is Notts County, which was formed in 1862. As more and more clubs were set up the lack of a governing body for the game began to cause problems. This gap was filled when; following a meeting in October 1863 at The Freemason's Tavern, Great Queen Street, London, 'The Football Association' was formed, with Mr. A. Pember, the first president, and ten other founder members present.
One of the FA's first priorities was to establish the rules of the game for all members to abide by. Initially there were some difficulties as at that stage the public schools were still playing by their own rules established at the 1848 meeting. Eventually they were persuaded and the first FA rules were published in December 1862. However there was still considerable ill feeling about the rules and many disagreements primarily between the 'Associationists' and the 'Rugby Unionists', this led to a split with the latter leaving the FA to develop their own game and 'The Rugby Football Union'. In 1871 the then FA secretary Mr. C.W. Alcock (pictured left) had the idea of a knockout competition for all the countries teams to play in, this signified the birth of the oldest football competition in the world the 'Football Association Cup'.
Coincidentally Mr. Alcock was the first person to be presented with the FA Cup as the captain of 'The Wanderers' who won the first ever FA Cup final 1-0 against 'The Royal Engineers' on 16th March 1872 at the Kennington Oval. Also in 1872 England played their first ever international match, it was against Scotland (picture right). It was played at Queen's Park in Scotland, and ended in a 0-0 draw. The year 1872 also saw the size of the ball fixed for the first time. Then in 1875 the solid crossbar replaced the tape that had previously been strung between the two goal posts.
In March 1873 the Scottish FA was formed to run the game north of the border and in 1876 the Welsh FA was formed to run the game in Wales.
By 1880 membership of the FA was up to 128 clubs and associations. Including 80 from the south of England, 41 from the north, 6 from Scotland and 1 from Australia. The year 1882 saw the introduction of the two-handed throw-in.
By 1888 the game was in desperate need of reorganisation. The FA Cup was a great success, however the weekly 'friendly' fixtures were often cancelled at the last minute due to injuries or transport difficulties. Fans were turning up to grounds to find the match cancelled. It was at this time that William McGregor (pictured left) a Perthshire born shopkeeper and member of Aston Villa took the initiative and wrote to the major English clubs of the time suggesting a structured league with each team playing each other home and away in a league during a structured season, with two points to the winning team and one point to each team in the event of a draw. There was an initial meeting between the clubs in London on March 22nd 1888. Then on April 17th 1888 at a meeting of the twelve most prominent clubs in England, at The Royal Hotel in Manchester, the 'Football League' was formed.
The twelve clubs were:
Accrington (Old Reds)
Aston Villa
Blackburn Rovers
Bolton Wanderers
Burnley
Derby County
Everton
Notts County
Preston North End
Stoke City
West Bromwich Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers
The football league kicked off on September 8th 1888 with Preston North End's Jack Gordon scoring the first league goal ever. That first season Preston North End (pictured above) were nicknamed 'The Old Invincibles' as they won the inaugural Football League Division One Championship, without losing a game. That season they also won the FA Cup without conceding a goal.
In 1891 the league was expanded to fourteen clubs, the umpire and referees were replaced with a referee and two linesmen, goal nets were first used and penalties were introduced.
In 1892 the league was expanded again with a new Division being added. The original league was named Division 1 and was expanded to sixteen clubs. A new twelve club Division two was introduced including the recently relegated Darwen and eleven new clubs. Movement between the two leagues was decided by "Test Matches" played between the bottom three clubs in Division One and the top three clubs in Division Two.
In 1893 Division Two was expanded to fifteen clubs, with Arsenal, Liverpool, Middlesbrough and Newcastle United being admitted to the football league for the first time.
In 1894 Division Two was expanded to sixteen clubs.
In 1898 both Divisions One and Two were expanded to eighteen clubs. Also in 1898 annual promotion and relegation between divisions was introduced, whereby the bottom two clubs in Division One were automatically replaced by the top two teams in Division Two. Also in 1908 'The Sheriff of London (Dewar) Charity Shield' was contested for the first time it was later to become 'The Charity Shield'.
In 1900 Football was included as an Olympic sport for the first time, England competed as part of the Great Britain team and won a gold medal.
In 1901 Liverpool won the Division One Championship for the first time, a title they have won a total of eighteen times which is a league record.
By the early 1900s the game's popularity had spread like wild fire across the globe, particularly in European countries, who had been introduced to association football by English schoolboys as early as 1865.
In the early part of 1904 Carl Anton Wilhelm Hirschmann, secretary of the Netherlands Football Association, approached the FA with his idea for an international governing body for association football, he wanted the FA, as the oldest football association, to take a leading role. The then FA secretary agreed in principle but required a little time to consult with the Executive Committee of the FA, the international FA Board and the Associations of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. However Robert Gu'rin, Secretary of the Football Department of the Union Francaise des Sociat's de Sports Athletiques did not want to wait. He wrote to the Football Associations on the continent and asked for their input regarding the formation of an international governing body.
After an intensive exchange of correspondence, on May 1st 1904, Guerin met with Louis Muhlinghaus, of the Union Belge des Societ's de Sports to discuss. At this meeting it was decided that the English Football Association, under its President Lord Kinnaird would not be participating in the foundation of an international federation. So Robert Guerin took the opportunity and sent out invitations to the founding assembly. Thus on May 21st 1904 at the headquarters of the Union Francaise de Sports Athletiques at 229 rue Saint Honor' in Paris the foundation act was signed, and the 'International Federation of Association Football' or FIFA was set up. There were six founding nations, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Thanks to The English Football Archive for providing this article.
