The Football League Jubilee 1938
The Football League celebrated its Jubilee in 1938. A number of events and matches were staged to commemorate William McGregor’s historic founding of the world’s first professional league fifty years earlier. The original twelve clubs had grown to eighty-eight across four divisions, reflecting the league’s steady rise in popularity since 1888. The 1937-38 season saw…
The Football League 1888-89 – Review
The very first season of the Football League concluded 130 years ago, on the 20th April, 1889. Managed by Major William Sudell, one of the leading advocates of professional football, Preston North End were the first League title winners, going through the 1888-89 season unbeaten. The ‘Invincibles’ also won the 1889 FA Cup to complete…
The Football League 1888 – Overview, Part Two
Playing kit, pitch markings and the rules of the game were all evolving, even as the world’s first professional football league came into being. Prior to the advent of the Football League, players had to buy their own kit, consisting of heavy jerseys without any ornament, ‘knickerbockers’ covering the knees, and socks. Each club was…
The Football League 1888 – Overview, Part One
When the fixtures for the first season of the Football League were drawn up at a meeting on 1 May 1888, the registration of players was “fixed for all clubs, so that every club will have equal chances in the kidnapping business”’, as the Accrington Times put it. All players had to register as professionals…
The Football League 1888 – Opening Day
Saturday 8th September is the 130th anniversary of the very first round of Football League fixtures, in 1888. The results on the opening day were: Bolton Wanderers 3 Derby County 6; Everton 2 Accrington 1; Preston North End 5 Burnley 2; Stoke 0 West Bromwich Albion 2; Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Aston Villa 1 (Blackburn and…
The Football League 1888 – Preview
Football in England grew steadily in popularity over the nineteenth century, from the public schools to the creation of a governing body, the Football Association, in 1863, and the codification of the rules. It continued to expand during the 1870s and 1880s but, while predominantly southern amateur clubs enjoyed success in the FA Cup (inaugurated…
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