The Oldest Soccer Club in History-Sheffield F.C.

The Oldest Soccer Club in History-Sheffield F.C. (1857)

Logo of Sheffield F.C.

   Sheffield F.C. (Sheffield Football Club) is an English football club from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. This oldest soccer club was founded in 1857 and this club is officially recognized by the FIFA and the FA as being the oldest soccer club in the world. Sheffield F.C.  was given the FIFA Order of Merit award given in 2004; only one other club “Real Madrid” got this same award from the FIFA. Sheffield F.C. had won the FA Amateur Cup in 1903-04 season and finished as runners-up in the 1977 in the FA. In 2007 this soccer club was inducted into the English football Hall of fame, to memorialize (celebrate) their 150th anniversary of their establishment.

History of this Oldest Soccer Club:

   In 1855, members of a Sheffield Cricket club organized informal kick-about without any official rules. Two members of that Sheffield Cricket club, Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, founded the Sheffield Football Club afterward.

   The introductory meeting of the club took place on 24 October 1857 at Parkfield House in the suburb of Highfield. The original headquarters was a greenhouse on East Bank Road. Initially, Sheffield F.C. games were played among the club members themselves and took the format of "Married v Singles" or "Professionals v the Rest".

The Sheffield Rules

   The two founder members of the Sheffield F.C., Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest were responsible for drawing up the club's rules of play, which were decided upon at the club's AGM on 21 October 1858. They were referred to as the Sheffield Rules and this Sheffield Rules were the first official set of rules and laws for the game of football in history.

   There are many different kinds of football were popular in England, before the formation of the Football Association (The FA). For example, each of the various public schools was played football according to their own individual rules, and these were differed widely from one to another. The Sheffield Rules were later adopted by the Sheffield Football Association, when it was formed in 1867.

The Sheffield F.C. team in 1857

   Sheffield's near neighbor club was “Hallam F.C.”, and it was formed in 1860. In the same year, the two clubs first met each other in a local derby, which is still contested today. By 1862 there were 15 clubs in the Sheffield area.

   Sheffield F.C. became a member of The Football Association (The FA) in 30 November 1863 but they continued to use their own set of rules at that time. On 2 January 1865, the club played its first fixture outside Sheffield against Nottingham, playing eighteen players in a side under Nottingham Rules.

   By this time the club had decided only to play teams outside Sheffield in order to seek a bigger test. On 31 March 1866, there was a match between a team representing the city of Sheffield and one representing London, at Battersea Park. Rules that differed only slightly from the FA rules were used. The game was played as an eleven aside, and this game was won by London by 2 goals. However the matter of rules remained a problem with Sheffield clubs continuing to play by their own rules. A number of rule proposals by the club were rejected by the Football Association (The FA) in February 1867 and the London Committee were unwilling to commit to further fixtures over Sheffield's refusal to play harshly to the FA rules. The Sheffield clubs were finally adopted the FA rules in 1878.

Sheffield V Inter Milan in 2007

   In 1873 the club entered the FA Cup for the first time. Sheffield's decline from the top level of football began with the introduction of their professionalism in July 1885, with the amateurs of Sheffield failing to compete with professional teams. They were suffered a huge defeat against Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Notts Country. After their very poor performance in professional football, the Sheffield suggested to the FA the creation of a cup exclusively for amateur clubs. The FA Amateur Cup was launched in 1904 and Sheffield F.C. was the first winners of the new competition.

   2007 was a historic year for the club as they entered their 150th year. They finished as runners-up in the league to safe promotion to the Northern Premier League (NPL) for the first time, and later in the year played two anniversary celebration matches against Internazionale (Inter Milan, Italian Soccer Club) and Ajax (Dutch Soccer Club) at Bramall Lane. Football legend Pele was guest of honour at the first game and was introduced to the teams and the fans before the game. The match ended 5–2 to Inter, with 18,741 supporters attending the match. Inter's side included 2006 World Cup winner Marco Materazzi and a young footballer Mario Balotelli.

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