SUMMER OLYMPICS IN OCTOBER!

The English international football season ended in March until 1888 when the England fixture against Ireland at Ballynafeigh Park, Belfast was held on April 7th. England won 5-1 and Lindley (mentioned yesterday) scored in front of 7,000. PM Walters also played.
It was in this season that the word "Soccer" came into use, inevitably first used by Charles Wreford Brown, an Old Carthusian. The Soccer came from Association and he used it as a short phrase to counter the chaps at Oxford University going to play "rugger".

The first June international matches were during England tours, the first one twenty years later in 1908, when the team kicked off against Austria in Vienna on June 6th winning 6-1. The tour included another game v Austria on the 8th (11-1), then on the 10th in Budapest v Hungary (7-0) and on the 13th Bohemia in Prague (4-0). 12,000 watched this match.
Not that he had the car with him, but Bob Crompton of Blackburn Rovers who was capped 41 times was probably the first professional footballer to drive his own car to training in 1908.
Below is the GB Olympic Footy team.

London hosted the Olympics in the Summer and Autumn of 1908..........It was meant to be held at Rome but Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1906 and the Italians had no money to spare on Olympics. So London hosted at short notice offering 12 sports with the White City stadium holding 130,000, built by George Wimpey! The event ran from 27th April to 31st October and included winter sports! 22 nations took part with over 2000 competitors including women for the first time.
For the first time also, Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were awarded over certificates.

In October 1908, Britain hosted the Olympic football tournament at the White City. Great Britain won the Gold medal (for the second time) beating Denmark. Semi-finalists were also Netherlands and France. Other competitors included France B, Bohemia, Hungary, Sweden.

The French were beaten by Denmark in the semi-final 17-1 and were so embarrassed that they declined the invitation to play in the Bronze medal match and so the Neths played Sweden winning 2-0. Hungary withdrew due to the Bosnian Crisis and Bohemia lost its FIFA membership, also withdrawing, so only 6 contested the tournament. There were two French teams and a 17-1 defeat of France A by Denmark.