Historic Tournaments
Leather balls that weighed twice as much in the rain, goals without nets, wooden stands a stone's throw from the houses. The first clubs, the first cups, the first leagues: back on the pitch, on the green cloth.
— Turnstiles this way —
McGregor's Twelve
Season 1888 – 89The world's first professional league: twelve clubs from Lancashire and the Midlands, and Preston's Invincibles.
Enter the ground →Mr. Youdan's Cup
February – March 1867The first organised football tournament in history, four years before the FA Cup. Twelve Sheffield clubs and Sheffield Rules: Hallam win it at Bramall Lane without scoring a goal, on rouges.
Enter the ground →Twelve Hooped Shirts
Clubs founded 1867 – 1902Twelve of football's oldest clubs, all in horizontal hoops: from Queen's Park to Sporting, eight Scottish, two English, one Danish and one Portuguese. (page in Italian)
Enter the ground →Shirt Heritage
Eight families · 1872 – 1910Clubs that took their colours from another club: Juventus and Notts County, Independiente and Nottingham Forest, Grasshopper and Blackburn. In the first round every heir meets its parent.
Enter the ground →Note
The historical notes are compiled from public sources, listed at the foot of each page. Where a fact is uncertain, it is flagged. Corrections and additions are welcome.