The UFWC tracks an alternative route through football history beginning with the first official international match, played between Scotland and England on 30 November 1872. However, there were also a series of unofficial international matches played between 1870 and 1872. In this exclusive extract from new book The Victorian Football Miscellany we look at those unofficial Victorian football matches:
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In January 1870, a notice appeared in the Field magazine inviting players to participate in an association football match ‘between the leading representatives of the Scotch and English sections’. The match was billed as a ‘great International Football Match’, although it has not come to be regarded as such. It was the first of five so-called ‘Alcock Internationals’ � a series of England versus Scotland games organised by FA secretary CW Alcock. The matches aren’t considered official international matches, but they were important stepping stones towards establishing proper England versus Scotland fixtures.
For the first Alcock match, only one member of the Scottish team, Kenneth Muir Mackenzie, was actually born in Scotland, and all of those selected were London-based. So the ‘London Scottish’ side was not regarded as being truly representative of Scotland. In fact, all of the ‘London Scottish’ players had roots that would have qualified them to play for Scotland under modern rules. Nevertheless, Alcock regarded the team as ‘counterfeit’, and made efforts to improve matters for subsequent matches.
He wrote to the Glasgow Herald, appealing for Scottish players to represent their country. ‘In Scotland, once essentially the land of football, there should still be a spark left of the old fire,’ he wrote. The appeal had limited success, however, attracting only one Scottish player, Robert Smith of Queen’s Park, who in any case lived in London.
Defeat for the Scots in the second match brought derision from north of the border. ‘It must not be supposed that the 11 who represented us in their defeat involved our national reputation as athletes,’ wrote a correspondent to the Scotsman. Alcock responded, pointing out that he had invited Scottish players to participate. ‘The fault lies on the heads of the players of the north,’ he wrote, ‘not on the management who sought the services of all alike impartially.’ However, despite further appeals, no Scotland-based players came forward for the subsequent games, and it would be 1872 before an ‘official’ international match was played.
In January 1870, a notice appeared in the Field magazine inviting players to participate in an association football match ‘between the leading representatives of the Scotch and English sections’. The match was billed as a ‘great International Football Match’, although it has not come to be regarded as such. It was the first of five so-called ‘Alcock Internationals’ � a series of England versus Scotland games organised by FA secretary CW Alcock. The matches aren’t considered official international matches, but they were important stepping stones towards establishing proper England versus Scotland fixtures.
For the first Alcock match, only one member of the Scottish team, Kenneth Muir Mackenzie, was actually born in Scotland, and all of those selected were London-based. So the ‘London Scottish’ side was not regarded as being truly representative of Scotland. In fact, all of the ‘London Scottish’ players had roots that would have qualified them to play for Scotland under modern rules. Nevertheless, Alcock regarded the team as ‘counterfeit’, and made efforts to improve matters for subsequent matches.
He wrote to the Glasgow Herald, appealing for Scottish players to represent their country. ‘In Scotland, once essentially the land of football, there should still be a spark left of the old fire,’ he wrote. The appeal had limited success, however, attracting only one Scottish player, Robert Smith of Queen’s Park, who in any case lived in London.
Defeat for the Scots in the second match brought derision from north of the border. ‘It must not be supposed that the 11 who represented us in their defeat involved our national reputation as athletes,’ wrote a correspondent to the Scotsman. Alcock responded, pointing out that he had invited Scottish players to participate. ‘The fault lies on the heads of the players of the north,’ he wrote, ‘not on the management who sought the services of all alike impartially.’ However, despite further appeals, no Scotland-based players came forward for the subsequent games, and it would be 1872 before an ‘official’ international match was played.
