Hungary 1901

Budapesti Torna Club

The Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség was founded in January 1900, and the 
 first Hungarian league match was played on February 17th 1901. All five teams were  from Budapest
 Budapesti Torna Club (founded 1897) won the first championship, with a 100% record and a goal difference of 37 for and 5 against. 



1.Budapesti Torna Club                                                     p 8 w 8      for 37 against  5   
2.MUE (Magyar Uszó Egyesület)                                     p 8 w 5 l 3   for 17 against 20  
3.Ferencvárosi TC                                                       p 8 w 3 d 1 l 4  for 20 against 28 
4.MAFC (Műegyetemi Atlétikai és Football Club)          p 8 w 2 d 1 l 5    for 11 against 8  
5.Budapesti Sport Club                                                p 8 w 1 l 7     for 7  against 31

Soviet Union 1936

Here are some team photographs from the 1936 seasons of the Soviet Union league.

 Spartak Moscow  (Autumn winners)

 Dinamo Moscow (Spring winners)

Lokomotiv Moscow

 Torpedo Moscow-  Группа Б (Group B)

Malta

1st Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, winners of the football league, Malta, 1903.


Football was, of course, introduced to Malta by British servicemen. As such, Association was played on the island from its earliest days. The competitive football played was confined to British regimental and naval teams, although Maltese teams such as  Malta Athletic Club (founded 1886) and St George's Square (founded c.1901) did play friendlies against the military teams.
In 1899, a competition known as the Soldiers Cup was organised by the Services. Eleven teams took part, among them the Royal Malta Artillery. This was the first time a Maltese team participated in a competitive match.

Army-Daily Malta Chronicle Cup winners 1908

Army and Navy shared the trophy in 1910

The Maltese FA was founded in 1900, but it was another nine years before a league was organised. During this interim period the  biggest game on the local football calendar was an annual match played between the Army and the Navy for the Daily Malta Chronicle Cup. The competition, started in 1904, was hugely popular with the Maltese public, with both Army and Navy having very partisan groups of followers among the locals.

Floriana, 1909-10

The first Maltese championship, played  in the 1909-1910 season,  was won by Floriana, (founded 1894). Long time rivals Sliema Wanderers  (1909) were runners up. Floriana were undefeated and didn't concede a goal in their 4 matches. Conversely Malta University didn't score a single goal in losing all four of their matches. The influence of the armed forces on football in Malta is shown by the fact that this competition was popularly known as the Civilian league.
The following teams contested the first championship:
Floriana FC
Sliema Wanderers
St. Joseph's United
Boys' Empire League
Malta University


When England played Italy in May 1933 a number of Maltese supporters traveled to Rome to support England.
In recognition, the Football Association donated a silver trophy, commonly  known as the F.A. Trophy, to the Maltese FA.  Sliema Wanderers won first 3 editions.

Sliema Wanderers 1933

Netherlands Football League Championship

There had been embryonic national championships in the Netherlands in the two previous seasons, but their credibility as true championships is dented by the fact that the teams in the 'league' played an unequal number of matches.
The 1890-91 season was the first in which fixtures were arranged with appropriate symmetry.
5 teams entered, drawn from  Amsterdam, Den Haag, Haarlem and Rotterdam. For this reason the championship is often referred to not as a National league, but as a forerunner of the Eerste Klasse West. 
Taking part were:
Koninklijke HFC (Haarlem) It is the oldest club in the Netherlands. Originally a rugby club, they switched to association in 1883 and  played in the first official football match in the Netherlands  in 1886
HVV Den Haag founded in 1883 as an extension of HCC (a cricket club).
RAP (Amsterdam)  founded in  1887 by the members of three cricket clubs.
Olympia Rotterdam
W Concordia (Rotterdam)
HVV Den Haag emerged as champions.


When the Eerste Klasse Oost came into being in 1897 a play off for the National championship was held between Oost champions, Vitesse (Arnhem) and West champions, RAP Amsterdam.

RAP

The final was played in front of 750 spectators at Utrecht, RAP winning 4-2

Mexico-Liga de Football Association Amateur 1902-03

The Liga de Football Association Amateur was founded in June 1902, and a national Mexican championship was held during the 1902/03 season , each team playing each other once. The league was formed by Duncan Macomish, Thomas Hanghey and Percy Clifford . Five clubs took part,  three from the capital and two the provinces. All of these clubs were essentially English in origin, and it was a few years before Mexican players began to make an impact.


The first champions, Orizaba Athletic Club (Albinegros de Orizaba) came from  Veracruz state.The club was founded by textile workers and European technicians in 1898. During the1902/03 season Orizaba had an exclusively  British squad . 
 The club was founded by a Scot, Duncan Macomish, who owned a  steel company. 

Reforma

Reforma was founded in 1894 by a group of Englishmen in Mexico City as a sports and social club.

British Football Club, based in Mexico City, was founded in 1902 by Percy Clifford, a Cornish immigrant, who at the time was a member of the Club Reforma.

Pachuca Athletic Club was founded in 1900 by Cornish mining engineers and workers of the Compañía Real del Monte. Pachuca is in Hidalgo state.
Pachuca was also an English dominated club- David Islas was the first  Mexican to play for them, in 1908.
Wikipedia credits Alfred C. Crowle as being  'the man who first introduced the sport to the mine workers, bringing the first footballs and the rules'. In fact Crowle, who was born in Mexico (his parents were from Cornwall), joined Pachuca in 1904 as a 13 year old. He played for the club for 23 seasons, and in 1935 became manager of the Mexican national team.


 Mexican National Cricket Club was founded in the small town San Pedro de los Pinos, now absorbed into the suburbs of Mexico City. The club was later known as Mexico Country Club (1906–08) and San Pedro Golf (1905–06).



1. Orizaba AC                                              4 3 1 0  5- 2     7
2. Reforma AC México                                  4 2 2 0 11- 5    6
3. British FC México                                     4 2 0 2   7- 3    4
4. Pachuca AC                                             4 0 2 2   2- 6    2
5. Mexican National Cricket Club                   4 0 1 3   2-11    1

France 1899

France received early exposure to football.
A presumably pre- association variant of the game caused much mirth when it was practiced by Englishmen in the Bois de Boulogne in 1863, and as early as 1872 the Association game was being played by British sailors in Le Havre.
Strange to relate, then, how as late as 1899 that the French game could still be in such a state of infancy that a semi final of its putative championship was reduced to a game of  45 minutes for want of a ball.
The Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA) organized a cup competition as early as 1893-94. A league format was introduced for the 1895-96 season. The winners were billed as National champions, although the competitions were not representative of the whole country, drawing exclusively on Paris clubs. 
The winners of these early competitions were:
1893-94 Standard Athletic Club
1894-95 Standard Athletic Club
1895-96 Club Français de Paris
1896-97 Standard Athletic Club
1897-98 Standard Athletic Club
1898-99 Club Français de Paris

Havre Athletic Club - champions under unusual circumstances.

In 1899 the USFSA introduced a national championship. Notionally at least. In reality it was something of a farce.

Six regional champions were invited to compete. Three declined due to the expense of travelling to Paris (where the entire tournament was to be held).
This left Club Français de Paris, Havre Athletic Club and Iris Club Lillois.

Club Français de Paris

Club Français de Paris was founded in 1890. The club was dissolved in 1935.

Le Havre Athletic Club was founded (by Englishmen) as a Rugby club in 1872. They began to play Association rules in 1894.

Iris Club Lillois was founded in 1898 as a multi- sport club that later favoured Rugby. 

Havre and Lillois were to play a 'semi-final' to decide who played  Club Français  in the final.
They met at Paris on February 28th 1899. But there was no ball. It took some time to procure one. 45 minutes was played, Havre were winning 1-0. The pitch was booked for a hockey match, so the game had to be abandoned. A replay, to take place in Amiens, was scheduled, but Lillois did not turn up.
The USFSA awarded the match to Havre.
Club Français then refused to play Havre in the final, questioning their opponents' right to play for the championship.
The  USFSA then awarded the championship to Havre.

Belgium 1895-96

 The multi-sport governing body Union Belge des Sociétés de Sports Athlétiques came into being on August 4th, 1895. The decision was made to play a national football league championship in the upcoming season.
The following teams took part:
Antwerp FC- the oldest club in Belgium, founded 1880 (matricule #1).*
 FC Liègeois - founded 1892 (matricule #4). 
Sporting Club de Bruxelles - founded 1894  dissolved during the season 1897.
Racing  Club de Bruxelles - founded 1894 (matricule # 6).
Leopold Club de Bruxelles - founded 1893 (matricule # 5). 
FC Brugeois  - founded 1891 (matricule # 3).
Union FC Ixelles  - founded 1892 dissolved 1901. 

 The first ever league match in the Belgian championship was played on November 10th, 1895. Antwerp Football Club (the oldest in Belgium, founded in 1880) played Sporting Club de Bruxelles.
The league was eventually won by FC Liègeois, who benefited from being awarded wins on 3 occasions (out of 12 matches) when opponents didn't show up. They finished with the record of nine wins, one defeat and two draws, 32 goals for and 11 against.
 The influence of British players was strong throughout the league-  Liègeois had five English players.

* Every club in the Belgian league system has a matricule number. This practice dates from 1926, when the Royal Belgian Football Association numbered each club in order of registration.

Switzerland 1897–1898

Grasshopper Club Zürich

The Swiss league in the 1897–1898 season was contested by 9 teams divided into 3 groups.It was a curious arrangement.

In group A  Grasshopper Club Zurich and FC Zurich played each other once and Grasshopper won 7-2

Group B saw Villa Longchamp Lausanne beat FC Yverdon, who then took no further part. Lausanne Football and Cricket Club then eliminated Maison Neuve Vevey and Villa D'Ouchy  before losing to Villa Longchamp Lausanne.

In group C Le Château de Lancy beat Racing Club de Geneve and were then themselves beaten by La Châtelaine Genève.

There then followed two play off matches.

 Grasshopper beat Villa Longchamp Lausanne and then  La Châtelaine Genève to emerge as champions.

Uruguay League 1900

C.U.R.C.C.

1900 

1. C.U.R.C.C.                  6   6  0  0  36- 2  12 
2. Albion                      6   4  0  2  22- 6   8 
3. Uruguay Athletic            6   1  0  5   3-25   2 
4. Deutscher                   6   1  0  5   3-31   2 

 

The first Uruguayan league was contested in 1900 between four Montevideo based sides.

C.U.R.C.C. came out on top with a 100% record and a goal difference of plus 34.

Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club - was established in 1891 (football first being played in 1892) by workers of the eponymous British owned railway company. 72 of the original 118 members were British. In 1913 CU.R.C.C., having severed their links with the railway company, changed their name to that of the suburb where they were based- Penarol.

Estadio Gran Parque Central - Deutscher v C.U.R.C.C., 1900

Albion- William Leslie Poole, the father of Uruguayan football, was the founder of The English High school in Montevideo. In 1891 his students, led by the splendidly named 18 year old,  Henry Candid Lichtenberger, founded a club that they called Football Association, intended to be exclusively for Uruguayan born players. Their earliest games were against Poole's own club, Montevideo Cricket, who stuffed them. The youngsters changed the name of their club to Albion in honour of the English origins of the Association game.

Uruguay Athletic - founded in the suburb of Punta Carretas in1898. Their 3rd place (of 4) in 1900 was their joint best ever. Folding in 1903 they chalked up an unenviable:
Played: 36,Won: 9,Drawn: 2, Lost : 25, For: 26, Against: 91.

 Deutscher- unsurprisingly founded by the German community in Montevideo, they were active from 1896 to 1909.

Turkey-The Istanbul Sunday League

HMS Imogene FC 1904-05

 Cadi-keuy FC 1905-06

Cadi-keuy FC 1906-07

 

 Moda FC 1907-1908

Galatasaray SK 1908-09

Galatasaray SK 1909-10

 

Galatasaray SK 1910-11

 Fenerbahçe SK 1911-12

 

 Fenerbahçe SK 1913-14

The Istanbul Sunday League was started in 1904 and was the first football league in Turkey. With Turks legally barred from playing football, foreign influence, particularly British and Greek, was great. In fact, the first ever winners of the Istanbul Sunday League were HMS Imogene FC, drawn from the crew of a British naval vessel. By 1906 more familiar names were appearing: Galatasaray won 3 titles in a row up to 1911, followed by the first triumph of their arch rivals Fenerbahçe. 

Argentine Association Football League 1891

British sport and games tend to physically develop the youth of the country and to impose an admiration for that fair play which sport breeds.
The Standard  (Buenos Aires English-language newspaper)

Between 1870 and 1914 six million Europeans arrived in Argentina, and with more than half settling permanently by 1914 a third of the population was foreign-born, including 30,000 British.
By 1867 there was already a large British community  in Buenos Aires,  some of whom decided to form a football team to practise the sport, founding the Buenos Aires Football Club on Thursday 9th May 1867.

Today there will be a football match at Palermo; we believe it will be the first kick ever given in Buenos Ayres, and we understand that half town will be there if the weather proves favourable. The kick at the Boca never came off owing to the floods ...
The Standard  25 May 1867

This game was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, being postponed for June 26th, when the first match in Argentine football history was played. The venue was the Buenos Aires Cricket Club's field. Both teams (of 8 players each), named Colorados and Blancos, were made up of members of the Buenos Aires Football Club.

Glaswegian schoolteacher Alexander Watson Hutton is often referred to as the father of Argentine football. Hutton first taught football at St Andrew's School in Buenos Aires in the early 1880s.In 1893 Hutton established The Argentine Association Football League.

This tournament was organized two years earlier by another, short lived, Argentine Association Football League (president, F.L. Wooley), the first football league outside Europe. Five clubs competed but only one season was ever played.

Saint Andrew's

Table:
1. Old Caledonians                   8   6   1   1     13 
2. Saint Andrew's                    8   6   1   1     13 
3. Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway  8   3   1   4     7
4. Belgrano FC                       8   2   1   5     5
5. Buenos Aires FC                   8   1   0   7     2

Playoff:

13.09.1891
Flores Polo Club.
Saint Andrew's                   3:1  Old Caledonians                  
goals: Moffatt (3)                    goal:Wilson

After extra time
Saint Andrew's:F.V.Carter;L.C.Penman;G.A.Waters;F.Francis;H.Barner;A.Buchanan;J.Caldwell;Charles Douglas Moffatt;A.Lamont;E.Morgan;J.Buchanan.
Old Caledonians: W.Gibson;M.Scott;J.Riggs;W.Angus;R.Phillips;R.Smith;H.White;J.Clark;R.Sutherland;E. L. Wilson;R.Corsner.
Referee:         J. Wilson.

Scottish League 1890-91, Irish League 1890-91

Following the example of England two other members of the International Football Association Board (founded 1886) inaugurated leagues in the 1890-91 season. 
In Scotland Dumbarton and Rangers were joint champions- they finished the league season level on points and a play-off game at Cathkin Park on 21st May ended in a 2-2 draw.
The giants of 19th century Scottish football, Queen's Park declined to join the League in a stand against illegal professionalism.
  In an eventful season Renton were  were expelled from the league  for professionalism (the result of them playing a match against Edinburgh Saints, who were actually St Bernard's, who had been banned by the Scottish FA for paying players) and  Celtic, Third Lanark and Cowlairs were all deducted  points for fielding ineligible players.


In Ireland seven of the eight teams who contested the league came from Belfast. The title went to Linfield, who were founded in 1886 in Sandy Row in south Belfast by workers at the Ulster Spinning Company's Linfield Mill. Linfield's record that season was played 14, won 12, drawn 1 , lost 1- goals for 89, goals against 18. Very healthy.

Linfield.

København A-Raeken 1889/90

The second oldest league competition in the world was contested in Denmark in the 1889/90 season. The competition was contested exclusively by Copenhagen clubs, with national championship playoffs being introduced in 1911/12. Seven teams entered, and all the matches were played at Nørrefælled park. All matches were played to a positive result, with extra time and replays if necessary.

The championship was won by Akademisk Boldklub (AB), a club formed in 1889 for University students, and the dominant force in early Danish football . They won the title via a rather protracted series of play offs. On March 30th 1890 they faced the other previously unbeaten team, Kjøbenhavns Boldklub (KB). AB emerged 2-1 winners. Due to this match being played in very bad weather conditions, a replay was arranged, which KB won 3-0. Each side having now won one game it was decided that they should play for a third time, and AB again won 2-1.