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Sheffield F.C. is the oldest English football club and was established by members of the popular Sheffield cricket club in 1857. The football club was the first independent institution of its kind in England and was formally established by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest.
The popularity of football in England skyrocketed in the 1850s and several informal clubs and competitions were set up to promote the sport as a form of leisure for the working public. Many of these football clubs are no longer in existence and were unable to stand the test of time.
Sheffield F.C., however, is the oldest living football institution in England and was established in South Yorkshire to promote the sport.
Sheffield is the birthplace of the beautiful game
Sheffield F.C. was the first established institution that brought about the formalisation of the game. The club was the primary driving force behind the official competitions in the country that would go on to define modern football.
In the early 1860s, however, the football clubs of Sheffield played the game on their own terms. Sheffield F.C., in particular, took charge of the new sporting alliance and established a framework of laws known as the 'Sheffield Rules' in 1862.
The rules served as a precursor to the laws of modern football and determined the dimensions of the goalposts as well as the guidelines that defined the reasoning behind refereeing decisions.
A few years after Sheffield F.C. made the rules of the game official, associations in London gathered together to make the English FA. The FA, which is still the official regulatory body for football in England, created a new set of laws that would go on to cause the end of Sheffield's dominance over the laws of the English game.
The famous clubs of Sheffield eventually went on to adopt the laws proposed by the FA in 1877. Sheffield F.C. was eventually overshadowed by its neighbours Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday after the league system was adopted in England in the early 20th century.
After Sheffield F.C.'s initial success, the English were quick to realise that football clubs make for excellent entertainment and by extension, can result in excellent profits. The first French football club was established in Paris in 1863 by a group of English football enthusiasts.
Italy and Germany also followed suit soon after, with English versions of football clubs in their local cities. Genoa was the first city in Italy to witness an official and independent football club.
The Dresden English football club was established in 1874 and is Germany's oldest football club. The rest of the world also seemed to follow Europe's example as successful football clubs were soon established in Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Calcutta, and Sao Paulo.
Sheffield F.C. currently plays in the Eastern Division of the Northern Premier League that acts as a feeder league to the English football league system.
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