The Interesting Beginnings of Famous Clubs

Throughout history, soccer teams have been founded for many reasons. Many of the most prominent teams today were begun by groups of friends eager to find a source of amusement.

Dutch giants Ajax were founded by a young man named Floris Stempel, who, in 1900, invited several of his friends to join him in his new endeavor with a letter that read: “Hereby the undersigned invites you politely to grace us with your presence in one of the upper rooms of Café-Bar ‘Oost-Indië’, at number 2, Kalverstraat, on Sunday morning at 9 hours and 3 quarters, to discuss the establishment of an entirely new Football Club.” Were they alive today, Stempel and co. would probably be surprised to realize how big their club has become.

Many clubs throughout the world have their origins as teams formed by British expatriates. Such is the case with many teams in South America as well as Italian giants AC Milan.

The 1901 AC Milan team, made up mostly of British expats (photo: Wikipedia)

British expatriates were not the only ones to form teams outside of their homeland. Many prominent teams were founded to represent immigrants settling in foreign lands. So it was that Palmeiras initially represented the Italian community in Brazil (the original club name was Palestra Italia but was changed during World War II). AEK Athens was founded by Greek refugees fleeing Istanbul and oppression under the Ottoman Empire. Celtic quickly came to represent the Irish community in Scotland, founded by members of a Glasgow church with many Irish parishioners.

Celtic are far from the only team to have grown out of churches. So too did Everton, Birmingham City, Bolton, and Tottenham, among others. In France, Auxerre was founded in 1905 by a priest named Father Deschamps (I’m assuming that to be a common enough name to not indicate any relation to Didier).

Soccer today is big business, but at the time many teams were founded, they were intended simply to provide a recreational outlet for company workers. It was for this reason that Dutch electronics firm Philips started PSV. Similarly, Bayer Leverkusen was begun as team for workers of the aspirin-making firm (its logo includes lions surrounding a white pill with Bayer written on it), and Sochaux was established for workers at the Peugoet car factory.

The lions attack the aspirin (photo: UEFAclubs.com)

Living under capitalism is not a prerequisite for having soccer teams organized at work; several Russian teams were begun during communist times to represent workers of particular trades.

Given their prominence today, it’s hard to fathom, but several teams were founded as just another team at large, mulisport clubs. Brazil’s Flamengo, for instance, was originally a rowing club that only later developed a soccer team (its official name, Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, hints at this past). Argentina’s Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata were founded as a gymnastics and fencing club and only later developed a football wing. In the northeast of England, both Newcastle and Middlesbrough were originally cricket clubs, and their football teams were only founded to help players keep fit in the winter.

The rules of soccer were first codified at British schools in the middle of the 19th century. Since that time, the sport has been extremely popular in schools throughout the world (I have seen it played at recess in schools on several continents). Many prominent teams have their beginnings in educational institutions.

Turkey’s Galatasaray was founded by students at their school of the same name. The team logo and colors were clearly taken from that of the school. Real Madrid also have their origins in a school. “Football was introduced to Madrid by the professors and students of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza. They included several Oxbridge graduates. In 1895 they founded the club Football Sky, playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa.” From these humble beginnings arose one of the most successful club teams in the world.

Istanbul’s Glatasaray Lisei (photo: Wikipedia)

In Belgium, Standard Liege got their start at with students of the College of Saint-Servais in 1900. France’s Strausbourg was founded by several primary school students, whose efforts were coordinated by their school teacher. Germany’s Schalke was founded by high school students in the city of Gelsenkirchen.

The part of the world with the most student-founded teams, though, appears to be Latin America. Many teams in that part of the world have names that indicate their scholarly beginnings. They include Mexico’s Pumas, a team with its origins in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). The team began with students filling its roster, although this changed when the club went professional in 1954. Despite this shift, the club remains known as a producer of quality youth players. And to this day, Pumas draw much of their support from UNAM students and alums.

Many teams throughout Latin America have “Universidad” in their names. Most share a similar past with Pumas: founded as a university team though since having obtained professional status. Chile has Universidad de Chile and Universidad Catolica, teams whose fans indicate the type of student each attracts. The more left-leaning U de Chile fans attend that large public university while Universidad Catolica fans often come from wealthier backgrounds. (When American Jonny Walker played there, jokes were often made playing on his name and that of the eponymous scotch, which, it was claimed, only Catolica fans could afford to drink.)

Across the Andes, Argentina has Estudiantes de la Plata, which was formed by college students fed up with the gymnastics and fencing played at city rivals Gimnasia y Esgrima. And in Rosario, graduates of the English High School formed a team and named it after their former coach, Isaac Newell. And in Peru, Cienciano, winners of the 2003 Copa Sudamericana (South America’s equivalent of the UEFA Cup) were founded in 1901 by students at the National School of Science of Cusco.

An early Cienciano team (photo: Cienciano)

Students have been primarily responsible for founding teams at schools, but teachers have also gotten into the act. Sunderland was founded in 1879 as the Sunderland and District Teachers Association Football Club and drew its ranks from local teachers. A year later, they opened their ranks to outsiders and the Teachers bit was later dropped from the club name. Today Sunderland AFC find themselves in the Premier League with a full roster of professional players. But having taken only 17 points from 20 matches, Roy Keane’s men are sitting precariously close to the relegation zone. Historically-minded fans of the northeast team must have wondered at times this year whether the original teachers could have done much worse than the current crop of players.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Europe, History, Latin America, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.