The First FA Cup Final

Back to 1872

The First FA Cup Final

The first FA Cup final took place on March 16, 1872 between Wanderers and the Royal Engineers.

It’s not easy to trace matches from the first FA Cup. Football matches weren’t generally reported the day after they were played in the British newspapers of the time, and what coverage did exist was spotty at best.

For the first final, though, we have this interesting article from The Morning Post:

From The Morning Post (London), March 16, 1872, page 5

However, that wasn’t all. The article continues to describe some of the challenges the Football Association faced in those early years:

A few things to note here:

• Not all football clubs were members of the Football Association. In fact, as those of you who know your trivia are well aware, only 14 clubs took place in the inaugural FA Cup.

• The difference between the “association” game and rugby was still very stark — and it wasn’t clear which sport should rightly be called “football.”

• “Football” was understood as “a game of ball played with the feet” among some people as early as 1872, if not earlier. The idea that “football” refered to games played on foot is almost certainly accurate — but there were certainly people who understood the distinction differently all those years ago.

• There were calls for standardized rules - and, yes, the laws of the game were still not fully developed or formalized in those days.