SEASONAL FOOTBALL

Professional football is only a relatively recent invention - the first of the British Football Associations, the FA, was only formally created in 1863 - but we’ve been having festive public games for hundreds of years. Variations of the game known as medieval football, or mob football, are documented as far back as 1170. Games were often put on at Christmas and Easter and some of these ancient games are played today, such as The Orkney Ba game on Christmas Day and The Royal Shrovetide village game in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Ba’ day 2022 is finally here! 

Almost three years on from the last time the ancient game was played, players and spectators will return to Kirkwall’s street this Boxing Day morning, on a Covid free day.. Four games in total will be contested over the course of the season between the Uppies and Doonies. This Monday morning will see the launch of the first Boys’ match at 10am outside St Magnus Cathedral, followed by the Men’s at 1pm.

In 1913, Liverpool beat Manchester City 4-2 at home on Christmas Day, lost the return game 1-0 on Boxing Day, before drawing 3-3 at home with Blackburn Rovers the next day! While Liverpool's fixture list won't be quite so intense this Christmas, one guarantee is that football will be played on Boxing Day. “Football shifts just to Boxing Day, as Christmas Day becomes more family orientated and more importantly public transport becomes more and more limited.” 

The last Christmas Day game in England was in 1965, when Blackburn beat Blackpool 1-0 at home in the old first division and Coventry beat Wrexham 5-3 in the third. The last Christmas Day game in Scotland was Saturday December 25, 1976. Clydebank and St Mirren drew 2-2 in a top-of-the-table first division clash and Alloa beat Cowdenbeath 2-1 at home in the second division. 

Northern Ireland still hosts the Steels of Sons Cup Final, every Christmas Day - although it shifts to Christmas Eve if Christmas is on a Sunday. This season, Bangor beat Dunmarry Rec 2-1 at Seaview, home of Crusaders. Glentoran II has won the final 13 times, more than any others. Linfield Swifts of Belfast, has won it 11 times and Dundela (Wilgar Park, Belfast) 10.

Even though local derbies were often scheduled for Christmas, the demanding schedule put a strain on the players with all the travelling that would have been involved. If a club misses a game today, severe penalties can be administered, but FA rules at the time stated “no club shall be compelled to play any match on Good Friday or Christmas Day”. Swindon Town’s Harold Fleming (who played from 1907 to 1924) and Sunderland’s Arthur Bridgett (1902 to 1924) were high profile England International players who refused to play on Christmas Day on religious grounds.