"Timeline of association football This page indexes the individual year in association football pages. Each year is annotated with one or more significant events as a reference point. The Cambridge Rules are created in 1848. Official referees appear for the first time in a football match, at a match held in Cheltenham in 1849, two in field and one in tribune. Sheffield F.C., the first football club in the world, is founded in 1857. That same year the Sheffield Rules are also created. British railway builders introduce football to Argentina. The Football Association is founded in 1863 (the first football"
"British Football Association if the FA did not permit professionalism. A schism was avoided in July 1885 when professionalism was formally legalised in English football. The Football League was founded in 1888, and marked its independence from the London-based Football Association (FA) by establishing headquarters in Preston – the League retained a Northern identity even after it accepted several Southern teams into its ranks. Organised women's football followed as the workforces of majority-female factories of Northern England in the First World War entered the 1917–18 Tyne, Wear & Tees Munition Girls Cup – the world's first women's football tournament. However,"
"English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league competition featuring professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top-level football league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League. The three leagues below the Premier League are known as the Championship, League One and League Two, with 24 clubs in each division (72 in total). Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the"
"self–evident that crowds for friendly fixtures were much lower and of course this meant a reduction in revenue and consequent struggle to pay wages. Aston Villa’s Scottish director William McGregor sought a solution by asking the other professional clubs to arrange annual home and away fixtures on a competitive basis, with points to be awarded for winning and drawing. Following a conference between club directors on 23 March 1888, the English Football League was founded on 17 April 1888 as one division of 12 clubs: Accrington (founded in 1876; folded in 1896), Aston Villa (founded in 1874), Blackburn Rovers, Bolton"
"world's first football association, The Football Association (FA), was formed in 1863, its geographical remit was not clear: there was no specification of whether it covered just England, all of the United Kingdom, the British Empire or even the entire world. The question was answered when the Scottish Football Association (SFA) was founded in 1873. The third national football association, the Football Association of Wales (FAW) was founded in 1876 and a fourth, the Irish Football Association (IFA), was founded in 1880. Football therefore developed with separate associations and national teams for each of the countries of the United Kingdom"
"match. It is in this format that the play-offs continue today. A proposal to have six teams rather than four competing for the final place was defeated at the league's AGM in 2003. English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league competition featuring professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top-level football league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League. The three leagues below the"
"Association. Although it does not run the day-to-day operations of the Premier League, it has veto power over the appointment of the League Chairman and Chief Executive and over any changes to league rules. The English Football League, made up of the three fully professional divisions below the Premier League, is self-governing, subject to the FA's sanctions. For centuries before the first meeting of the Football Association in The Freemasons' Tavern on Great Queen Street, London on 26 October 1863, there were no universally accepted rules for playing football. Six meetings near London's Covent Garden, at 81-82 Long Acre, ended"
"History of football in England According to fifa, the world governing body of football, the contemporary history of the game began in 1863 in England, when rugby football and association football ""branched off on their different courses"" and the English Football Association (the FA) was formed as the sport's first governing body. Until the 19th century, football had been played in various forms using a multiplicity of rules under the general heading of ""folk football"". From about the 1820s, efforts were made at public schools and at the University of Cambridge to unify the rules. The split into two codes"
"English Schools' Football Association The English Schools' Football Association was founded in 1904 and is the governing body of Schools' Football in England. It is responsible for the running and development of Schools Competitions and Festivals for Boys and Girls at Primary and Secondary school age. The ESFA Headquarters is in Stafford. The Football Association (FA) works with ESFA to support high quality, coordinated Inter School Football competition programmes for all young people. The Association run national competitions from Under 11 to Under 19 age groups. This provides opportunities for young people to have the experience of playing at a"
"English Football Association (also referred to as the South British Football Soccer Association), the very first administrative governing body of soccer within Australia and one of the first to be established outside the United Kingdom. In 1883, Balgownie Rangers, the oldest existing club in Australia was founded; the club currently competes in the Illawarra regional league. Later that year, the first inter-colonial game was played at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, between a representative Victorian team and one from the neighbouring colony of New South Wales. As soccer continued to grow throughout Australia, John Fletcher's New South Wales soccer association"
"which operates the England team, the FA selected the British team, which could include players from across the United Kingdom. When the Football Association (FA) was formed in 1863, its geographical remit was not clear: there was no specification of whether it covered just England, the entire UK or even the entire world. The question was answered when the Scottish Football Association (SFA) was founded in 1873. The third national football association, the Football Association of Wales was founded in 1876 and a fourth, the Irish Football Association, (IFA), was founded in 1880. Football therefore developed with separate national teams"
"The Football Association The Football Association (FA) is the governing body of association football in England, the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in its territory. The FA sanctions all competitive football matches within its remit at national level, and indirectly at local level through the County Football Associations. It runs numerous competitions, the most famous of which is the FA Cup. It is also responsible for appointing the management of"
"of the United Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the home nations, has a national football association responsible for the overall management of football within their respective nation: The Football Association, (FA) is responsible for England and the Crown Dependencies and was founded in 1863, The Scottish Football Association (SFA) was founded in 1873 followed by the Football Association of Wales in 1876 and Irish Football Association (IFA) in 1880. They are the world's four oldest national football associations and play an important part in football worldwide as they take up four of the eight seats on the International Football Association"
"Executive. Taken from The FA's website on 29 September 2017 National Game representatives: Professional Game representatives: Independent Non-Executive directors: The Football Association The Football Association (FA) is the governing body of association football in England, the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in its territory. The FA sanctions all competitive football matches within its remit at national level, and indirectly at local level through the County Football Associations. It runs numerous"
"British Football Association The British Football Association was a short lived ruling body for the game of football. It was set up in 1884 in response to the attitude of the Football Association to the issue of professionalism. Until the employment of professionals by Darwen and their success in reaching the quarter finals of the FA Cup in 1879, all teams had been amateur. There was a proposal by a London club before the match that any side not consisting entirely of amateurs should be barred from the Cup. Professionalism spread throughout the northern clubs with Blackburn Olympic winning the"
"Football League First Division The Football League First Division is a former division of The Football League, now known as the English Football League. Between 1888 and 1992 it was the top-level division in the English football league system. Following the creation of the FA Premier League it was a second-level division. In 2004 it was rebranded as the Football League Championship, and in 2016 adopted its current name of EFL Championship. The Football League was founded in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor. It originally consisted of a single division of 12 clubs (Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers,"
"English Association The English Association is a British association dedicated to furthering the study of English language and literature in schools, higher education institutes and amongst the public in general. It was founded in 1906 by a group of English scholars including F. S. Boas, A.C. Bradley and Sir Israel Gollancz. Since December 1993, the association has been based at the University of Leicester. Past presidents have included John Galsworthy, Harley Granville-Barker, John Bailey, Sir Ernest Gowers, Sir Kenneth Clark, C.V. Wedgwood and George Steiner. The association elects Fellows in special recognition of their significant enrichment and promotion of English."
"league year after year would permit each club owner to monopolize fan bases in their respective exclusive territories and give them the confidence to invest in infrastructure, such as improved ballparks. This in turn would guarantee the revenues needed to support traveling across the continent. In contrast, the shorter distances between urban areas in England allowed more clubs to develop large fan bases without incurring the same travel costs as in North America. When The Football League, now known as the English Football League, was founded in 1888, it was not intended to be a rival of The Football Association"
"occasions. The Football Association, the governing body of the sport in England, had been formed in 1863, but for the first eight years of its existence, its member clubs played only friendly matches against each other, with no prizes at stake. In 1871, however, Charles Alcock, the association's secretary, conceived the idea for a knock-out tournament open to all member clubs, with a trophy to be awarded to the winners. Alcock's inspiration came from his days at Harrow School, where the houses which comprised the school competed each year for the title of ""Cock House"". Fifty clubs were eligible to"
"Football in England Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association football clubs, England has more clubs involved in the code than any other country as well as the world's first club (Sheffield F.C.), the world's oldest professional association football club (Notts County F.C), the oldest national governing body (the Football Association), the first national team, the oldest national knockout competition (the FA Cup) and the"
"to lead to the legalisation of professionalism on 20 July 1885 by the FA making the new body redundant. This action by the FA was eventually to lead to the break away and formation of the Amateur Football Association in 1907. A similar split in rugby led to the separate sports of rugby union and rugby league. British Football Association The British Football Association was a short lived ruling body for the game of football. It was set up in 1884 in response to the attitude of the Football Association to the issue of professionalism. Until the employment of professionals"
"1870s by the Royal Engineers A.F.C. Prior to the first meeting of the Football Association in the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, London on 26 October 1863, there were no universally accepted rules for the playing of the game of football. The founder members present at the first meeting were Barnes, Civil Service, Crusaders, Forest of Leytonstone (later to become Wanderers), N.N. (No Names) Club (Kilburn), the original Crystal Palace, Blackheath, Kensington School, Percival House (Blackheath), Surbiton and Blackheath Proprietary School; Charterhouse sent its captain, B.F. Hartshorne, but declined the offer to join. All of the 12 founding clubs"
"formed, consisting mostly of Football Alliance clubs. The existing League clubs, plus three of the strongest Alliance clubs, comprised the Football League First Division. The first international game was played in Scotland on 30 November 1872. Charles Alcock, who was elected to secretary of the FA at the age of 28, devised the idea of an international competition, inaugurating an annual Scotland-England fixture. In 1870 and 1871 he placed advertisements in Edinburgh and Glasgow newspapers, requesting players for an international between the two countries. The only response that he received stated: ""devotees of the ""association"" rules will find no foemen"
"football clubs still in existence and playing Association Football. There are only three institutions which have been continuous members of the F.A. since 1863, those being Civil Service, Forest School and King's College School, Wimbledon. Central to the creation of the Football Association and modern football was Ebenezer Cobb Morley. He was a founding member of the Football Association in 1863. In 1862, as captain of Barnes, he wrote to ""Bell's Life"" newspaper proposing a governing body for the sport that led to the first meeting at The Freemasons' Tavern that created the FA. He was the FA's first secretary"
"handle, a gradual flattening of the ball continued over the years as the emphasis of the game moved towards handling and away from dribbling. In 1892, the RFU included compulsory dimensions for the ball for the first time in the Laws of the Game. In the 1980s, leather-encased balls, which were prone to water-logging, were replaced with balls encased in synthetic waterproof materials. The Football Association (FA) was formed at the Freemason's Tavern, Great Queen Street, on Lincoln Inn Fields, London, on 26 October 1863, with the intention of framing a code of laws that would embrace the best and"
"governing body in English football survived the onset of professionalism, which it formally accepted in 1885. Perhaps the great geographical concentration of population and the corresponding short distances between urban centres was crucial. Certainly it provided the opportunity for more clubs' developing large fan bases without incurring great travel costs. Professional football did not gain acceptance until after the turn of the 20th century in most of Southern England. The earliest league members travelled only through the Midlands and North. When The Football League (now the English Football League) was founded in 1888, it was not intended to be a"
"of football were first drafted in 1863 by Ebenezer Cobb Morley, and England has the oldest football clubs in the world. Recognised by FIFA as the birthplace of club football, Sheffield F.C., founded in 1857, is the world's oldest football club. The first ever international football match was between England and Scotland in 1872. Referred to by the sport's governing body FIFA as the ""home of football"", England hosted the 1966 FIFA World Cup, and won the tournament. With a 32.3 million viewing audience, the 1966 final is the most watched television event ever in the United Kingdom. The English"
"by a seven member committee representing former pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster. At the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, London on the evening of October 26, 1863, representatives of several football clubs in the London Metropolitan area met for the inaugural meeting of The Football Association (FA). The aim of the Association was to establish a single unifying code and regulate the playing of the game among its members. Following the first meeting, the public schools were invited to join the association. All of them declined, except Charterhouse and Uppingham. In total, six meetings of the"
"or indeed whether running with the ball was illegal or not. Teams had to agree on rules before a match, or had to agree to play the code of each team for one half of the match each. In order to allow matches to take place without such constraints and problems, a number of captains and representatives from various London clubs met at Freemasons' Tavern in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 26 October 1863. Kensington School was one of the twelve teams represented, and thus became a founder member of the Football Association. The school was established at No. 31 Kensington"
"in English football's governing body as such associations as London, the Army and Women's football. Football in Cambridge was being played on Parker's Piece as far back as the 1830s. However it was not until 1855 that the University had a formal football club, Cambridge University Association Football Club, making it one of the oldest clubs in the world. Collegiate football helped spread the game in the 1870s, and the first competition for these teams was held in 1882–1883. The format was a knockout tournament based on the FA Challenge Cup, which had been created in 1871. The first entrants"
"1986 – 1985 – 1984 – 1983 – 1982 – 1981 – 1980 1979 – 1978 – 1977 – 1976 – 1975 – 1974 – 1973 – 1972 – 1971 – 1970 1969 – 1968 – 1967 – 1966 – 1965 – 1964 – 1963 – 1962 – 1961 – 1960 1959 – 1958 – 1957 – 1956 – 1955 – 1954 – 1953 Plymouth Argyle F.C are founded. Arsenal Football Club are founded Timeline of English football 1840s – 1850s – 1860s – 1870s – 1880s – 1890s – 1900s – 1910s – 1920s – 1930s – 1940s –"
"Ham United moved from the Boleyn Ground into the ~60,000 capacity Olympic Stadium at the end of the 2015-16 season. The English Football League, established in 1888 as The Football League by Aston Villa director William McGregor and renamed ""English Football League"" in 2016, was the first professional football league in the world. Since its founding, however, many other leagues have been founded in England. Sunday leagues are played each weekend by clubs, the study made by the FA sees to this. Over the years there has been an increasing effort to link all these leagues together in a Pyramidal"
"Saturday 9 January 1864. The members of the opposing teams for this game were chosen by the President of the FA (A. Pember) and the Secretary (E. C. Morley) and included many well-known footballers of the day. After the first match according to the new FA rules a toast was given ""Success to football, irrespective of class or creed"". Charles Alcock (of Harrow School) of the Wanderers was elected to the committee of the FA in 1866, becoming its first full-time secretary and treasurer in 1870. He masterminded the creation of the Football Association Cup—the longest-running association football competition in"