One for all football fans out there....
- Soccer - Football - as it is known in Europe and other countries
other than North America, is played on every continent.
- FIFA (The Federation of World Football) counts 204 member
countries.
- Soccer is a bigger sport than Baseball, Basketball and Football
(American) combined.
- Organised soccer was born in Britain. England and Scotland being
co-founders of the beautiful game.
- The World's First Football Club - Sheffield Football Club - was
founded in 1857 by Colonel Nathaniel Cresswick and Major William
Priest, two British Army officers.
- The oldest Football Associations are:
England - founded 1863.
Scotland - founded 1873.
Wales - founded 1875.
Ireland - founded 1880.
- The English League was founded in 1888.
- The founding clubs were:
Accrington (Old Reds) : Aston Villa : Blackburn Rovers : Bolton
Wanderers : Burnley : DerbyCounty : Everton : Notts County :
Preston North End : Stoke City : West Bromwich Albion :
Wolverhampton Wanderers.
- The First League Goal - ever - was scored on 8th. September 1888,
by Jack Gordon a Preston North End player.
- The First International Match was played in Glasgow, Scotland on
30th. November 1872 when Scotland played England. The Scottish FA
did not then exist - it was not founded until three months later.
The team England played that day was actually the oldest Scottish
club team, Queen's Park - founded 1863.
- The First Professional Players were reputedly two Scots -John
Love, and Fergus Suter, who played for a north of England club
called Darwen in the 1879 season - and were paid for their soccer
talent.