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So on Monday the 26th of October 1863 The Football Association was formed. The first and therefore oldest football association in the world, often referred to simply as The F.A. and with no 'English' prefix. Today the F.A. oversees all aspects of the amateur and Professional game and is responsible for the management of the men's, women's, youth and national football teams. It is based at Wembley Stadium, London. All English professional teams are members of The F.A though it does not control day to day running of The Premier League. In the early days the F.A's membership (about 50) was quite small and its authority was often challenged or ignored completely. It's main rival in Sheffield had a membership of 26. Throughout the country though, new clubs were being formed, playing F.A.,Sheffield or mixed rules. The game of football was evolving quickly now with formations and tactics gradually being introduced. On the 20th of July 1871 a meeting was held at the offices of The Sportsman newspaper when Charles Alcock (F.A. Secretary,1870-1895) proposed a knockout competition open to all F.A. member teams, partly in an effort to promote the F.A. The first ever cup competition however was The Youdan cup held in Sheffield and played under Sheffield rules It was named after and sponsored by Thomas Youdan,a Sheffield theatre owner who provided a trophy and a prize of £2. The final was held at Bramall Lane on the 5th of March 1867 in front of 3000 spectators paying 3d admission and won by Hallam F.C. The cup was lost until 1997 when Scottish antique dealer contacted Hallam F.C. who subsequently paid £2000 for it. The F.A cup is the oldest national football association tournament in the world.The first matches were played 11/11/1871 with only 15 clubs entering. There were only 12 matches played in total, with many byes and walkovers and contested by teams from the London area only due to the cost of travel. The final was held at the Kennington Oval, London with 2000 spectators paying 1 shilling. Wanderers, an amateur team made up mostly of ex public school and university members and founder members of the F.A. beat the Royal Engineers, a British Army team, 1-0. The Royal Engineers were considered favourites but one of their players broke his collar bone and substitutes weren't allowed in those days. The Royal Engineers were the first football team to 'tour', playing games in Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby in 1873. The following year 26 Teams entered, though 6 withdrew and Wanderers were given a bye to the final. In the1875/6 season the number of entrants rose to 29. The competition was slowly growing with teams throughout the UK now taking part. One very important factor now was that for a team to take part it had to agree to play under Association rules. The popularity of football as a participation and spectator sport was now becoming evident as by the 1888 final it was watched by 22000 people. In the 2011/12 season there were 763 teams entered making it the largest such competition in the world. This is a convenient point to close for now as we have reached the point of my next subject, which will be the formation of the Football League and professionalism. I've tried to limit the article to the main aspects of the development and history of football and if any member has any questions or comments please feel free to do so on the links below and I will do my best to give a satisfactory response. In the mean time here are a few random statistics; Most F.A. Cup Final appearances and wins - Manchester United - 18 apps, 12 wins. Most appearances in final without winning - Leicester City. Biggest win in tournament - Preston North End 26 - Hyde (1st round 1887). Biggest away win in tournament - Clapton 0 - Nottingham Forest 14 (1st round 1891). Highest attendance - 126,047 Bolton Wanderers v West Ham - Wembley - 28/4/1923. Preston N. E. achieved the first double (league and cup) beating Wolves 3-0 in 1889. Notts County have appeared in 2 F.A. cup finals, losing the first on 23/3/1891 3-1 to BLackburn Rovers at The Oval, even though they had beaten Blackburn 7 - 1 only one week previously. Notts did win the cup, though, on 31/3/1894, beating Bolton wanderers 4 - 1 at Goodison park.Jimmy Logan became the second player to score a hat trick in the final and Notts becoming the first team outside the top division to win having finished 3rd in Division 2. Henry 'Harry' Cursham scored the most F.A. goals in a career period from 1877-18, a total of 49 goals whilst playing for........Notts. Biggest cup final score - Bury 6 - Derby County 0. The Rams had appeared in 2 finals previously, losing 3 - 1 to Nottingham Forest in 1898 (another unwanted statistic) and again losing 4 - 1 to Sheffield United. The 1945/6 season had no league programme so for the only time in its history the F.A. cup was played over 2 legs up to the semi final and final. In a semi final replay at Maine Road, Manchester, Derby beat Birmingham City 4 - 0 in front of 80,407 spectators, a midweek record attendance between league clubs. The Rams went on to beat Charlton Athletic 4 - 1 after extra time. So to make up for all the unwanted records I would like to claim that Derby County are the only true winners of the F.A. cup. Discuss the Series - Super Rams Articles in the Community. Previous Article | 150 Years of Football

A short while ago I wrote an article about Notts County's 150 year existance, which I will link to at the bottom of this article for any readers to catch up on (if you choose to do so). Here is the second in the series of posts, where I've tried to describe the development of 'football'. Of course there are other codes of 'football' that grew out of 'mob football' in the mid/late 19th century. I've concentrated on the growth of football as we now know it in England, I hope you all find it interesting and any comments are again most welcome, so please get posting. In 1857 Sheffield FC was formed by members of Sheffield Cricket Club as a way of keeping fit during the winter months, so becoming the worlds oldest club playing Association football. (Notts now being a professional league side) They began just playing games between club members and in 1858 laid down the rules by which they would play, these became known as The Sheffield Rules. Hallam FC was formed in 1860 and soon there were at least 15 teams playing in the Sheffield area. Now inter club games were being organised and it became necessary to have a governing body to administrate these clubs. Thus in 1867 The Sheffield F.A. was created, becoming the first county association in England. Sheffield FC v Hallam FC is the oldest derby match still being played. Sheffield FC played an eighteen a side game in Nottingham under Nottingham rules on the 2nd of January 1865, their first game outside the Sheffield area. Football was also developing all over the country particularly in the London area and in public schools, however when inter-team matches were arranged there was a good deal of confusion regarding rules of play, One way round this was to play one half of a game using one teams rules and then use the other teams rules for the second half. This was obviously unsatisfactory. Also when pupils moved from school to university there was confusion about the rules of play. So in 1848 a compromise set of rules was formulated. These became known as The Cambridge Rules and were revised in1856.The rules included throw ins, goal kicks, forward passing and no running while carrying the ball. In 1862 Ebeneezer Cobb Morley founded Barnes FC (London) and being concerned about disputes over rules wrote a letter in 1863 to the Bell's Life newspaper suggesting that an association similar to the MCC in cricket be formed to decide set rules and govern football. So on the 26th of October 1863 a meeting was arranged at The Freemasons Tavern, Great Queens Street, London,with representative of several public schools and interested parties in attendance. Over a series of 6 meetings rules were drawn up by Mr. Morley using the Cambridge rules as a basis but also incorporating some of The Sheffield rules and others and favouring dribbling and kicking the ball rather than handling and running whilst holding the ball. As a result of the handling and other rules being removed the representative of Blackheath withdrew his team from the FA. Several other clubs soon followed suit and later in 1871 formed The Rugby Football Union. So now we have Rugby football and Association football or 'Soccer', a corruption of association. Sheffield FC joined the FA in November 1863 but continued to use their own rules until 1878 when the FA incorporated some further Sheffield rules. The game of football (Soccer) was now becoming recognizable as the game we know today but there was still quite a way to go. To be continued soon. Discuss the Series - Super Rams Articles in the Community. Previous Article | Notts County - 1862

I have now written a brief introductory article about football up to the time of Notts formation in 1862 and will continue with more:-i.e. The formation of the F.A. and Football League and come up to date with, hopefully, interesting and informative articles. I enjoy reading about the history, players, and ups and downs of other clubs. I hope other site member do also and will add their own comments to give us all a better insight into football's rich history. Notts-Joe has asked me to write up about the history of football, not just relating to Notts County. On 28th of November 2012 Notts County celebrated 150 years of existance. Notts formation came about 50 years before The Titanic sank, 26 years before Jack the Ripper found notoriety. Across the Atlantic the American Civil war was being fought(1862-1865), Here in England, in the middle of Queen Victoria's reign, great things were happening.The lives of people in England were soon to be changed and then the whole world. The phenomenon we call Football was about to explode. Football was much different back in Dickensian Britain. Games involving ball like objects have been played for centuries. Football evolved as Mob Football and in the Middle ages every town or village would play it's own version, usually on public holidays. A good but watered down example of this is still played in Ashbourne each Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. There were no set rules and often resulted in injury and damage to property. Many Kings have tried to prohibit football over the centuries, for various reasons, but football in some form would not go away. The industrial revolution in the 1700's brought about improved methods of manufacture and production It also helped change Britain from a rural to an urban country with rapid growth of populations in cities and towns particularly in Lancashire, Yorkshire and The Midlands. The workers were now being employed in large factories instead of their own homes and it's not too difficult to imagine impromptu games taking place after work. Public schools also had developed differing styles of ball games. These were often more like Rugby with a mixture of kicking and throwing and encouraged as character building. The first signs of teams being formed were beginning to be seen and with the coming of the railways by the mid 1800's, cheaper public transport was available.Another revolution was about to take place and NOTTS COUNTY would be at the forefront. To be continued - Discuss Super Rams Series in the Community.