Foot-Ball Club

The Foot-Ball Club was a football club, in Edinburgh, Scotland, formed in 1824.[1] The club met in the summer months to play a form of football.[1] Nevertheless, the organisation can claim to be the earliest recorded club playing football of any kind.[2] A modern association football club with the same name was formed in 2007, in an attempt to revive the legacy of the old club.

Foot-Ball Club
Full nameFoot-Ball Club
Founded1824; 200 years ago
Dissolvedc. 1841; 184 years ago (1841)
GroundDalry Park (1824–31)
Greenhill Park (1831–41)

History

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The Foot-Ball Club of Edinburgh is thought to be one of the oldest recorded football clubs in the world with records going back to 1824.[3][4] Membership lists and accounts of the club between 1824 and 1841 are held in the National Archives of Scotland (NAS).[1]

Founded by John Hope in 1824, the club played its games in the city's Dalry Park until 1831, when they moved to Greenhill Park.[3] The club appears to have met and played every summer, but there is no record of it after 1841.[3]

In 2017, a brief set of handwritten rules was found on the back of the club's 1833 budget statement. This has been described as the earliest known written rules of football.[5][6][7]

Reformation

In 2007, an association football club with the same name was formed by Kenny Cameron, a community coach at Spartans, after a tour of the Scottish Football Museum.[8] The club's men play in the Edinburgh Sunday Premier League and the Ladies play in the Scottish Women's Football League Second Division South East Division.

References

  1. ^ a b c "News: "Such kicking of shins and such tumbling"". The National Archives of Scotland. Archived from the original on 3 January 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  2. ^ Lambie, Derek (11 November 2007). "Football Club of Edinburgh in the News: Scottish Sunday Express". Sunday Express. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  3. ^ a b c Hughes, Mark (15 April 2008). "Edinburgh takes on Sheffield in 'oldest club' row". The Independent. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  4. ^ Boyle, Mark (15 April 2008). "Oldest football club". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  5. ^ Hope, John. Papers of Messrs D and JH Campbell, WS, solicitors, Edinburgh, ID: GD253/183/7/3. National Records of Scotland.
  6. ^ "Historic 'foot-ball' rulebook found". BBC News. 28 February 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  7. ^ "Playing the game in 1833 - the world's earliest known rules of football". Scottish Sport History. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  8. ^ Morris, Adam (2 February 2008). "Extra-time for the oldest club". Edinburgh Evening News. Archived from the original on 4 February 2008.

Sources

  • 1824: The World's First Foot-Ball Club, John Hutchinson and Andy Mitchell. Andy Mitchell Media, 2018. ISBN 978-1-9866-1244-9.