England the Home of the Oldest Football Clubs in the World
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By Paul Yarden | 5th MAY 2021
The modern global game of Football was first codified in 1863 in London. The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university football games.
There is evidence for refereed, team football games being played in English schools since at least 1581.
The modern passing game is believed to have been innovated in London and England is home to the oldest football clubs in the world (dating from at least 1857), the world’s oldest competition (the FA Cup founded in 1871) and the first ever association Football League (1888).
For these reasons England is considered the home of the game of football.
The Football League Cup was added in 1960 and together with the FA Cup and the League Championship, these three competitions make-up the major English domestic honours.
MyFootballFacts section English Domestic Football combines these competitions, as well as the major European trophies, to give a concise overview of the success of English clubs during the pre- and post-war years.
General football statistics relating to English domestic football are also included in English Domestic Football. The British Football Transfers Records table lists every new player transfer record from 1893 to date.
Details about the various English League Football Player of the Year awards can be found in it’s own dedicated table, which also includes the European and FIFA World Player of the Year awards.
The Football Association Community Shield (formerly and colloquially known as the Charity Shield) is an English association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of the FA Premier League and the winners of the FA Cup. It is equivalent to the Super Cups found in many countries. The Shield was first played for in 1908-09, replacing the Sheriff of London Charity Shield that had been introduced in 1898-99. The match is contested at the beginning of the following season, and has traditionally been played at Wembley Stadium, although it was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales while Wembley was being rebuilt. If a team wins The Double (both the Premiership and the FA Cup), then the Double winner plays the Premier League runner-up. Generally speaking, Charity/Community Shield wins are not usually counted in a team’s major honours list although in many foreign countries the “Super Cup” is.
The Watney Cup was a pre-season competition for the two highest goalscorers in each of the four Divisions of the Football League. It had many innovative features and ran from 1970 to 1973.
The Texaco Cup was a competition which brought together clubs from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland and ran from 1970-71 to 1974-75. It was open to teams who failed to qualify for any of the three major UEFA tournaments. English clubs won all 5 editions.
British clubs have a fine record in the Major European competitions and teams from England have won Europe’s top prize – the European Cup/Champions League 13 times over the years (up to season 2019-20). The last English team to to win the Champions League was Liverpool in 2018-19. Two English teams, Manchester City and Chelsea, are competing in the Champions League Final 2020-21.
By Paul Yarden, Founder and Editor of MyFootballFacts
