164 years ago, a small festive event changed the history of the world. When on December 26, 1860, the Sheffield F.C. and the Hallam FC in it Sandygate Cricket Groundno one imagined at that very moment that the soccerthe most popular sport on the planet. This Tuesday, more than a century and a half later, the same clubs met again, now without so much media attention, with networks and globalization as engines.
The Senior Cup It is a totally amateur English football competition. The two institutions in the north of the country went through their entire history without reaching professionalism, which did not prevent them from being protagonists of the news of the week. Hallam won 2-1 and qualified for the semi-finals, in a different result than the match that changed everything, but on the same stage that stands today and still houses around 1,500 people.
FIFA recognizes that duel as the first in the history of club football. You could say, then, that it is also the origin of all the classics. The last time they had seen each other on a playing field was in 2012 and perhaps that is why this Tuesday the fans exceeded the capacity of the stadium, also noted as the original of this sport.
Sheffield FC stands as the first club in history and emerged among cricket athletes in 1857, according to its official website. The founders convinced rival Hallam FC to do the same so they could have regular matches. The contest was agreed for December 26, 1860, the day of the Boxing Daya centuries-old British tradition that was born the day after Christmas in which, according to different legends, all sectors went out with boxes (box, in English) to distribute food, clothes or collect money and donate it to needy people. Newspapers were the medium chosen to inform the population.
As of today, the Premier League and other British categories play on Boxing Day, December 26. That time it was Sheffield who won 2-0. Those were times when the same institution was in charge of providing the regulatory framework for the new sport of the upper classes. As the ball got rolling more and more, the need to create an organization to control the activity became evident. At the same time, the Football Associationwhich took the original regulations and made them official, although both coexisted for more than a decade.
What came next is history. This week both clubs met again after 12 years and the news spread more through social networks than through the mainstream media, another huge difference from that legendary match. Sport is also another. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the passion.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
