On September 8, 1888, the first football championship ever began. It was obviously played in England. and it might seem like a coincidence, given the eight recurring ones. It was a Saturday in early September in England, when the tournament began, with five matches and twelve teams registered, twenty-three goals scored. On that day the first round of the First Division was being played, the current Premier League, the first national tournament in the history of world football. At the end of the year there will be twenty-two matches – home and away for each of the twelve teams – chosen thanks to the patron of Aston Villa, William McGregor.
The First League was born earlier, on 17 April of the same year at the Royal Hotel in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester. The idea was to create a single national championship with the best clubs of the time: there were Everton, Notts County (which would inspire the Juventus shirt), Blackburn, West Bromwich, Burnley, Stoke City, Derby County, Bolton, Wolverhampton and Preston North End. The twelfth was Accrington FC, which had already disappeared before the end of the nineteenth century.
The results of September 8, 1888
Bolton Derby Count 3-6
Everton 2-1 Accrington FC
Preston North End 5-2 Burnley
Stoke City 0-2 WBA
Wolverhampton 1-1 Aston Villa
Notts County-Blackburn 3-3 (but it was played in early October).
Preston North End will win the first championship with 40 points in 22 games, 18 wins and 4 draws, 74 goals scored and 11 conceded. Behind Aston Villa, eleven points behind, and Wolverhampton, twelve. No relegation, top scorer Goodall of Preston. Only Arsenal will manage to finish a season unbeaten like them, but well over a century later, in 2003-04 with Wenger.