The 1871–72 season was the first season of competitive
association football in England
Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of ...
.
The Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...
introduced their Football Association Challenge Cup (now better known as the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
), a
knockout tournament which is the world's oldest national-level football competition.
FA Cup
The competition began on 11 November 1871 when four matches were played. Fifteen clubs had entered but three of those withdrew so there were just twelve actual participants. They included the leading Scottish club,
Queen's Park of Glasgow who reached the semi-final in which they drew 0–0 with the eventual winners
Wanderers. A replay was required but Queen's Park could not afford the travel costs and withdrew. The other semi-final between
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
and the original
Crystal Palace was also drawn and the Engineers won the replay 3–0. The
first-ever final was won by Wanderers who defeated Royal Engineers 1–0 at
Kennington Oval in south London. The goal was scored by
Morton Betts after 15 minutes' play. Under the original rules of the competition, Wanderers automatically qualified for the next season's final to defend their trophy.
Representative matches
During the season,
two matches between teams representing England and Scotland were played at the Kennington Oval. The first was on 18 November 1871 and England won 2–1 with both goals scored by
Robert Walker in the first half. Scotland's scorer, near the end of the match, was
Henry Renny-Tailyour
Henry Waugh Renny-Tailyour (9 October 1849 – 15 June 1920) was a British amateur all-round sportsman who appeared for Scotland in some of the earliest international football and rugby union matches, remaining to this day the only player to have ...
. The second match was on 24 February 1872 and England won 1–0 with a goal by
Charlie Clegg midway through the first half. The crowd was less than a thousand.
These matches are no longer recognised as full internationals because the Scotland team consisted entirely of
Anglo-Scot
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people o ...
s based in the London area, so there were no Scottish residents or players from Scottish clubs. Nevertheless, the games were the forerunners of international football which began the following season when
the first official match was played in Glasgow on 30 November 1872.
[''Glasgow Herald'' on 13 February 1872]
Honours
(
''Note'': figures in parentheses display the club's tournament record as winners/runners-up.)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1871-72 in English football