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Facts and History of English Football

The English Football League started its first matches on September 8th 1888. It was thought of some 6 months earlier in a hotel in London, they chose 12 teams from the Midlands and the North started the attempt to become the nation's first champions.

In the first season Preston North End became the first champions having won the competition without losing a game. Then as well as the league title they also won the FA Cup that same season, which made them the first side to win the double. It took 73 years before a double was won again and this was when Tottenham Hotspur did it during the 1960 - 1961 season, and although Preston North End kept the league championship the following season, the most successful team during the 19th century was Aston Villa who at the turn of the century had won 5 titles.

During the 20th century no particular side dominated the scene, with 10 teams having won the championship by 1923. That changed when starting in the 1923 - 1924 season Huddersfield Town won 3 successive championship victories, the first two of these were won when Herbert Chapman was in charge, he then however moved to Arsenal to build a team that emulated this success in the 1930's. Unfortunately Herbert never saw how great the team would become, when he died from pneumonia in January 1934 midway through Arsenal's hat trick of titles that concluded with Arsenal winning the 1934 - 1935 season.

Due to world war 2 the competition started again after 7 years, at that time Matt Busby took charge of Manchester United and built a team that will be forever known as the Busby Babes. However in 1958 having won the league the two previous seasons, tragedy struck when 8 team members plus 15 passengers and crew were killed in the Munich air crash. Busby barely survived the crash, but eventually recovered and brought on another championship winning team in the 1960s. Their success in 1966 - 1967 was United's last with the league in that format.

In the 1970 - 1971 season Arsenal became the third double winning side , however in the 70s and 80s Liverpool dominated the scene and in the 15 seasons up to 1989 - 1990 they took the trophy back to Anfield on ten occasions with the team managed by Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, and Kenny Dalglish who's first success during Liverpool's double winning season was as a player manager. Also during this time Brian Clough firstly with Derby County and then later with Nottingham Forest was only the second manager to win the league with two different clubs.

Unfortunately these times were also the darkest for English Football with rising hooliganism both inside and outside the grounds, and also racism on the terraces. The two disasters at Bradford and Hillsborough saw both attendances and sponsorship dwindled.

It took the start of all seater stadium's, plus England's thrilling but heartbreaking World Cup semi final in 1990 to spark the publics attention back to football. The resurgence was quicker than anybody would have imagined. Inspired by Gazza's tears the country regained it's love of the game, and by the time Leeds United became champions in 1991 - 1992 business sponsorship took off in a big way and the game in England began it big change.

For more facts about the history of football we suggest that you click onto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football or talk football . On both these sites you will find the most interesting facts going back throughout the years..