1887 World Championship (football)

The Scottish FA's Hibernian, 1886–87 Scottish Cup winners, and The FA's Aston Villa, the 1886–87 FA Cup winners, met in a match billed by the Birmingham Daily Mail in their 7 April 1887 edition as a "Great International Match". Aston Villa won the match 3–0 to become association football's very first "world club champions". [1]

1887 World Club Championship
EventFootball World Championship
Hibernian Aston Villa
0 3
Date9 April 1887
VenuePerry Barr, Birmingham

On 9 April 1887, Scottish Cup holders Hibernian, from Edinburgh, took on FA Cup winners in the Football World Championship at Aston Villa's Perry Barr ground. The Birmingham Daily Mail in their 7 April 1887 edition billed the game as a de facto world championship game. Aston Villa won the match 3–0 to become what is believed to be the very first association football world club champions. Therefore, Villa can lay claim to have been domestic, European and world club winners.

This is believed to have been the first "World Championship" game between English and Scottish sides, although further research is required to confirm this. In this series of matches Sunderland and Aston Villa were the only known English winners, with both teams being powerhouses in English football in the pre 1900s era. Indeed, The National Football Museum, now based in Manchester, England, referred to both sides as forming world football's first great club rivalry.

Later in 1887, Hibernian won a friendly against 1887 FA Cup semi-finalists Preston North End that was billed as 'The Association Football Championship of the World'.[2][3][4]

Participant teams
Team Qualification
Aston Villa 1886–87 FA Cup winners
Hibernian 1886–87 Scottish Cup winners

Match details
Aston Villa3–0Hibernian

References
  • Lugton, Alan (1999). The Making of Hibernian 1. John Donald Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-85976-509-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Mackay, John (1986). The Hibees. John Donald Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-85976-144-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Birmingham Daily Mail, 7 & 9 April 1887
  1. Birmingham Daily Mail, 7 & 9 April 1887
  2. Scott Murray and Rowan Walker (2008). Day of the Match: A History of Football in 365 Days. Boxtree. ISBN 978-0-7522-2678-1. Retrieved 17 August 2010. In August 1887, Scottish Cup holders Hibernian took on FA Cup winners Preston North End in a friendly at Hibs' Hibernian Park ground. Posters appeared all over Edinburgh billing the encounter as 'The Association Football Championship of the World'. Hibernian won the match 2–1 and therefore had the right (whichever way you look at it, as nobody else had bothered to stage such an event) to call themselves the first world champions, beating Uruguay to it by 43 years.
  3. Mackay 1986, p. 40
  4. Lugton 1999, p. 121
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