Sevi

A very heroic photograph.
Severino Minelli  represented Switzerland 80 times (1930-43).

He played for Servette and Grasshopper Club Zürich. When he left home to join Servette as a 19 year old it entailed a 350km cycle ride.
Minelli was the 'verrou' (bolt) in Karl Rappan's system, playing as a sweeper up behind the other defenders. 

The Welsh League

Wrexham Advertiser  01.03.90 

 The Welsh Football League was formed in Wrexham in May 1890. Initially 8 teams had expressed an interest in joining. Bangor were excluded on the grounds of distance (Bangor is in the north west corner of the Welsh mainland- about 70km from the bases of the other clubs). Mold did not carry through their plans to join. Wrexham were notable absentees, having joined the more lucrative Combination (Chirk followed their lead the following season).
The inaugural season therefore saw the league contested by:
Rhyl
Westminster Rovers
Rhostyllen (Victoria)
Rhos
Druids
Ruabon (Wynnstay)

The league kicked off on October 11th with the following 2 fixtures:

Westminster Rovers 2 Mold 1
Druids 8 Rhostyllen Vic 1

Westminster Rovers were doing well up until December - then they had 6 points deducted for playing ineligible players on 3 occasions (along with a 12s 6d fine)  and  a player suspended for a month for striking an opponent.
 On 25.04.91 the Wrexham Advertiser published the following table along with the statement that it was unlikely that the remaining games would be played.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	pts
Druids*	10	7	2	1	45	14	13
Rhos	9	5	4		26	17	10
Rhostyllen Victoria	8	4	4		18	16	8
Ruabon	7	3	4		18	22	6
Rhyl*	7	1	4	2	7	24	2
Westminster Rovers+	9	2	4	3	18	28	1

*2 pts deducted for playing ineligible player
+2 pts deducted for playing ineligible players (x3)


The Welsh League was revived for the 1892-93 season.
Chirk and Wrexham also fielded teams in the Combination.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	pts
Druids	14	9	2	3	46	21	21
Chirk	14	7	5	2	48	24	16
Brymbo	14	6	4	4	27	35	16
Rhostyllen	14	7	5	2	27	36	16
Rhos	14	6	7	1	24	24	13
Westminster Rovers	14	5	8	1	27	36	11
Denbigh	14	4	8	2	18	29	10
Wrexham*	14	4	9	1	22	36	7

*2 pts deducted ineligible player

Scotland's New Internationals

	Club	Position	Caps	Goals
George Wilson	Heart of Midlothian , Everton, Newcastle United	outside left	6 (1904-09)
Sarcastically known as Smiler, joined Newcastle United for £1,600.
Charles  Thomson	Heart of Midlothian , Sunderland	centre forward, centre half	21 (1904-14)	4
13 caps as captain.
Jimmy  Hay	Celtic, Newcastle United	half back	11 (1905-14)
Peter Somers	Celtic	inside left	4 (1905-09)
Somers created so many chances for others that Willie Maley named him Celtic's Powder Monkey.
Peter McWilliam	Newcastle United	left half	8 (1905-11)
Tom Fitchie	Woolwich Arsenal		4 (1905-07)	1
Fitchie moved to London as a boy. As an amateur he played for a number of clubs in London (West Norwood, Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham) as well as Queen's Park in Glasgow (1906). Woolwich Arsenal was his main club. He also toured the USA with The Pilgrims.
John Lyall	The Wednesday	goalkeeper	1 (1905)
Lyall made a solitary performance against England in 1905.
Sandy Young	Everton	inside right	2 (1905-07)
Young's international appearances were  both on the losing side A very prolific scorer with Everton, he scored the only goal to win the 1906 FA Cup Final.
Jimmy Howie	Newcastle United	inside right	3 (1905-08)	2
Very highly, rated, but being a contemporary of Bobby Walker limited Howie to 3 caps, all against England. He scored twice in 1906 to win the game 2-1.

The Post Football Guide 1905

From the Nottingham Evening Post, August 1905. 

The appetite of working class and lower middle class men and boys for football in the media was as great then as it is now. The difference, of course, was the limited means of providing the information. Newspapers and magazines were always ready to milk a few pounds out of the game by publishing special editions and yearbooks. 

Nottingham readers had just endured a fairly miserable season.

1904-05 Forest  had finished 16th in Division 1, while County were bottom in 18th, escaping relegation only by the expansion of the league. 

1905-06 was little better for County. They claimed 16th spot whilst Forest were relegated in 19th.

The Low Countries

Intrepid spectators at a Belgium v Netherlands match, Antwerp, 1913.

During our era (pre 1937) the neighbours from the Low Countries played each other 54 times. (Argentina and Uruguay had played each other an incredible 132 times during this period, Austria and Hungary 81 and the originators, England and Scotland  met 61 times). 
The first meeting was Belgium's 2nd international, first for the Netherlands. Both countries were founding members of FIFA.
In the very first meeting The Coupe van den Abeele was contested, having previously been played for by representative XIs of the 2 countries in matches that are nor recognized as full internationals. The 'cup tie' status of these matches explains why extra time was played on 3 occasions .  The Coupe van den Abeele was played for when the teams met in Belgium. When the Netherlands were hosts the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad Beker was the prize. 
The high scoring first meeting  (Netherlands winning 4-1 in extra time) set the tone-  the first 54 fixtures produced an average 3.9 goals a game. 

	Wins	Goals
Belgium	16	89
Netherlands	28	122
Drawn	10

14.05.05- a newspaper illustration shows  Eric Thornton saving a shot.

Netherlands 1905- white shirts with a red white and blue sash motif.

14.05.05- Thornton in the Belgian goal- Netherlands attacking. 

Pre 1937 the 2 sides also met twice in Olympic Games matches. In 1920 at Antwerp Belgium, on their way to gold, beat Netherlands 3-0 in the semi final. In 1928 at Rotterdam in the consolation tournament  (recognized by FIFA but not by the IOC) Netherlands won 3-1.

Netherlands also came out on top of the World Cup qualifying match played in Antwerp in  1934, winning 4-2. Both teams qualified for the Finals out of a 3 team group.

Tehran

 1926

As was the case in so many countries, it was Britons who first played football in Persia.
1907 saw the first organized tournament in Tehran, founded by the was the British Ambassador and featuring 3 teams made up of European diplomats, civil servants and bankers.
.In the same year, Tehran Football Association Club was founded. It was an association rather than a single club- again, the participating teams were all British residents of Tehran.
Iranians were begining to take to the game. Karim Zandi is recognized as being the first Iranian footballer, beginning his career in 1908.
It was in the 1920s that Iranian football for Iranian people really got underway. 
1920 The  Iranian Football Association (Majmaa-i Football-i Iran) was founded in 1920, along with 
Iran Club (which morphed intoTehran Club in 1923).
Another noteworthy addition was  Armenian Sports Club (1922), the American College also featured.
The proto national team, the Tehran XI traveled to neighbouring Azerbaijan (then a part of the USSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR) in 1926. The squad featured 2 players with European experience- Dr. Amir Hossein Sadaghiani (who would later play in Belgium) had played for Fenerbahçe and Rapid Vienna, whilst goalkeeper and captain,  Hossein-Ali Khan Sardar had played for Servette and actually represented Switzerland in an international.

1926	Baku XI	2	0	Tehran XI	Baku
1926	Baku Polytechnical Institute	0	0	Tehran XI	Baku
1926	Baku Youth	3	4	Tehran XI	Baku
1926	Taraqi Baku	3	1	Tehran XI	Baku

When Baku vivisted Tehran for the return matches 3 years later it marked something of a disaster for the game in Iran. The visitors might have been  impressed by the fact that the national stadium had been given a grass pitch, but the football played by the hosts was far from spectacular.

Nov 1929	Baku XI	4	0	Tehran XI	Tehran
Nov 1929	Baku XI	4	1	Tehran XI	Tehran
Nov 1929	Baku XI	11	0	Tehran XI	Tehran

 Interest in the game in Iran faded for a while on the back of these defeats.