History
Beginnings
The idea mainly started among young unemployed men in the 1920s in the Greater London area, with kick-abouts taking place in open spaces on Sunday afternoon. Soon, the first matches were organised but under difficult conditions for the players and the clubs: there were no changing rooms, no nets or corner flags and pitch markings. In the early 1930s a large percentage of workers were brought in London from Ireland, Manchester and Wales and these new immigrants formed their own Sunday football clubs. [1]
The first Sunday League to be formed in England was the Edmonton & District Sunday Football League of North London in 1925. [2] The East London Sunday League followed in 1930, the Metropolitan Sunday League in 1934, the West Fulham in 1936 and the Essex Corinthian in 1937.
Despite the fact that businessmen helped the clubs financially the new Leagues could not affiliate to the local County Football Association. Sunday league football was not recognised by any County FA and footballers who were under contract by a Saturday side or referees had to play under assumed names or risk being suspended.
FA's hostile stance
Sunday leisure and entertainment activities had long been constrained by successive Sunday Observance Acts which also prohibited the charging for admission to such events. Additionally, in the religious areas of society it was considered unacceptable to partake in such activities on a Sunday, which was deemed a "day of rest". However, for those fans that worked on Saturdays and supported their local teams later in the day, Sundays were the only days to play football.
The Football Association went along with the traditional view and would refuse to officially recognise Sunday football, and thus place restrictions on it. However, many players and officials used false names when participating on a Sunday. [3]
In August 1939 the FA finally decided to appoint a Sub-Committee to review the situation and potentially recognise Sunday league football, but the World War II intervened.
Post war
With the parks being turned into anti-aircraft gun sites and with most young people becoming involved in the war effort and going into the services, very little football was played. On 24 September 1943 the Sub-Committee members were actually appointed and of these was Edward "Teddy" Eden, the F.A. Councillor for Birmingham, who was to spend the next 17 years persuading other F.A. Councillors to recognise Sunday football.
After end of the World War II football activities were resumed and Sunday league football attracted interest again with more London leagues being founded: the Southern Sunday League in 1944, Hackney and Leyton, and Hampstead & District (later renamed to Camden Sunday League) in 1947, Wandsworth and District in 1949 with most matches played at Hackney Marshes.[ citation needed ] In 1947 the Manchester Amateur Sunday League became the first one to start outside the area of Greater London, while the FA via its Sub-Committee had already made a few recommendations Sunday football restrictions since October 1945. When those recommendations were reviewed in July 1946 it was decided that no changes in the restrictions against Sunday football would be made.
Despite that, large crowds with an attendance of 300 to 400 were very common in the mid 1940s. Nearly every pub in London used to have and sponsor a football team, while other teams were funded by working men's clubs. Another reason for the creation of Sunday teams was the fact that many amateur football players had work commitments on a Saturday and they could only play football on Sundays. Sunday football's popularity rose rapidly in the 1950s with many more leagues starting to form around England: the Watford Sunday League was founded in 1955, the South Birmingham Sunday League in 1957, the Wolverhampton & District in 1958 and the Middleton & District in 1959.
The Football Association saw this development as a threat to the legitimate Saturday football. But, by the late 1950s several Sunday leagues were getting unofficially recognised by the local County Associations. One of the first leagues was the Essex Sunday league which was unofficially recognised by the Essex County FA in 1955. Moreover, many young talents of the time would start of their careers playing Sunday league football and Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Moore were among them before joining amateur or professional youth sides.
In 1959 the FA announced that any players or referees participating in the Sunday leagues would be banned from the official Saturday football, after noticing that many professionals - including England's and Wolves' outside left, Jimmy Mullen were also playing Sunday league football. [4]
Nevertheless, that announcement resulted in the creation of a national knock-out competition by the Sunday league Committees, the Sunday Cup between teams from the various Sunday leagues in 1960 and soon after the FA changed its policy and allowed Sunday leagues to become affiliated to County Associations.
The creation of the national Sunday Cup
The big step that the Committees of the various Sunday leagues across England took was the launch of a national cup competition in the 1960–61 season, similar to the FA Amateur Cup which had commenced in 1893. The inaugural final saw Walsall Waflers from the Lichfield & Walsall Sunday league facing the Stamford Rovers of the Grantham & District. Forest Gate Mount Athletic from the Essex Sunday Corinthian Sunday League won the next 3 finals until 1964 when The Football Association persuaded by Teddy Eden who had become the Chairman of the Committee decided to sanction the competition and rename it to FA Sunday Cup. [5]
The format under the FA's jurisdiction would change in the 1964–65 season with a new trophy presented to the F.A. by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the King of Iran was allocated to this new revamped competition which was held on a County basis. Counties could enter either a representative XI league side or nominate one of their clubs to represent them. Only London used a nominated club, the Summerstown Athletic from Wimbledon. At the end 16 counties entered the new competition, with London (Summerstown Athletic) being crowned the winners against Hertfordshire (3-0). [6]
The rise in the 1960s
After the FA allowed all Sunday leagues to be affiliated to the County Associations, there was a rapid increase in the creation of more leagues. Burton & District was founded in 1964, Gloucester & District and the Tameside Sunday League in 1965, Barnet & District, Coventry & District, Bletchley & District, Leamington & District, Nuneaton & District, Sutton & District in 1966, Cheltenham Sunday League and Hyde & District in 1968 etc. That unprecedented boom was also coupled up with England winning the FIFA World Cup in the summer of 1966. A few months earlier, on 26 January 1966, Teddy Eden, died, aged 86, just two days after presiding at what was to be his final Sunday Football committee meeting.
The 1980s
Amateur players continued to also feature in the Sunday league. On several occasions key players for amateur sides picked up injuries sustained whilst playing Sunday league football and many senior Saturday clubs not only followed suit against the Sunday League, but also encouraged their players to sign professional forms. Such a development would automatically exclude them from playing Sunday league football and it meant that several Sunday League clubs would lose their quality players. The majority of those amateur players eventually signed professional forms and that had a domino effect on some of the smaller Sunday sides of that time, all over the country. [4]
The importance of Hackney Marshes
The Hackney Marshes pitch complex was formed in 1946 with some rubble from the Blitz used as part of the sub-surface. The Marshes located in Stratford, East London were divided into north, south, east and west, and at its peak in the 1950s and 60s there were 120 full-size pitches bringing over 2,500 local footballers down to the area every Sunday morning. [7] The number of football pitches was down to 106 by 1990 and the hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics by London meant that 12 pitches were converted to a car park. There are 88 left today, of which 60 are described as full-size adult pitches.
In 2010 Lionel Messi had expressed the desire to play at the Hackney Marshes and he flew into the spiritual home of English Sunday football via helicopter from London City Airport. Messi travelled to London on 15 September 2010 and was expected to come on as a substitute during a match of the Hackney and Leyton Sunday League, as part of a publicity stunt by Adidas. However, the exhibition event was cancelled due to security fears, after being surrounded by fans just moments after stepping out of the helicopter. [8]
21st century: diversity of clubs and social media rise
In the 1950s there were various Sunday teams formed by Irish or Italian immigrants. With the turn of the century the scene has changed. Several new clubs reflect different ethnic backgrounds such as Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Ghanaian, Arabic, Nigerian, Turkish, Caribbean, Brazilian and others. [9] Most of these ethnic teams consist of football players who had previously competed in semi-professional or even professional leagues in their countries before migrating to England. A great example is F.C. Romania a Sunday club that switched to Saturday football and currently plays in the Isthmian League or ethnic-Ukrainian Niva FC of the Hackney and Leyton Sunday Football League.
Along with the bolstering of their squads has come the rise of the popularity of English Sunday league clubs who not only operate on higher standards with many of them recording their matches but also seem to have a great amount of following on social media and Youtube [10] and some great examples are Baiteze (40k subscribers), Rebel FC (110k subscribers), Hashtag United (476k subscribers), and SE Dons (139k subscribers) who also signed former Arsenal player, Zak Ansah and ex-Cyprus U-21 international Jack Sammoutis.
