Toelichting:
In the beginning, soccer was an amateur sport.
Early organised versions of the game were encouraged in the great schools, colleges and Universities of England - based mainly in the south of the country.
In Scotland and the north of England it was a sport of the masses.
On the 1st of January 1878, Partick Thistle, a leading Scottish soccer club traveled south to England to play Darwen, a Lancashire mill-workers' team.
The Darwen club had been founded around 1870 by a prosperous mill owner (J.C.Ashton) and the three sons of Nathaniel Walsh, another mill owner.
The Walsh boys had attended the famous Harrow school - and no doubt their interest in soccer had been nurtured there.
On his return to Glasgow, one of Partick's star players- a stonemason named Fergus Suter - wrote to the Darwen club secretary saying he thought he would like to settle in Lancashire and would be prepared to play soccer for the club.
Shortly after Fergus Suter moved to England along with one of his relatives - John Love, a goalkeeper.
Both became Darwen FC players.
Under their instruction, Darwen adopted the Scottish style of play which involved several players in a passing movement during attacking play rather than the furious kick and chase rushes favoured by the English clubs.
In the 1879 FA cup, Darwen, was drawn against the rich amateur club - Old Etonians - considered unbeatable at the time.
The new-found skill of the Darwen players passing game saw them achieve two drawn matches before being beaten in the third and deciding encounter.
Suspicions were voiced that Suter and Love were being paid for their soccer skills and although the Darwen secretary always denied the fact - Suter gave up working as a stonemason (he said the Lancashire stone was too hard!) - and with no visible means of support, Love and he continued to play for the club.
As clubs sought success, the number of undeclared professional players continued to grow.
By 1885 the practice had become so widespread - the Football Association was forced to legalise it - so changing the face of soccer forever - and setting the game on its way to becoming the biggest spectator sport on the planet.
Ibi.bibliotheek.nl |
05-01-2009 |
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