On 24 October 1857, football was born in England. It was the city of Sheffield that first encountered the football shirt, at Parkfield House, a suburb of Highfield. Sheffield Football Club is the first football club ever, the oldest, also recognized by FIFA. At the moment of birth, a first regulation was also drawn up thanks to the lawyer Nathaniel Crewick, assisted by William Perst. A decade later it was adopted by the Sheffield Football Association, later expanding to the Midlands. In 1877, however, an agreement was reached to regulate the sport at a national level, also including free kicks, corner kicks and throw-ins which were not initially there.
In fact, football derives from cricket, because the members of Sheffield decided to kick a ball two years earlier, in 1855. The rules didn’t exist, it was just some members of the local cricket club passing the ball around. The inaugural challenge took place on 24 October 1857, at Parkfield House in the Sheffield suburb of Highfield.
Sheffield has never been professional, not even when – in 1885 – the first English championship was played. The first team in the world, although a precursor, was not strong enough to play with other better clubs, so Sheffield joined an amateur team, never had its own stadium and also played at Bramall Lane, home of the most emblazoned Sheffield United.