Football's Pioneers: Charles Alcock

The 1880s were tumultuous times in the history of association football. No one played a more important role in shaping future events than Charles William Alcock (1842-1907). 

Born in Sunderland, he followed his brother, John, to Harrow School (1855-59). In 1859, they formed the Forest club with John attending the Football Association’s inaugural meeting in 1863. Charles was an early sports journalist writing for specialist football and cricket magazines. In 1890 his book, Football: the Association Game, was published.

Alcock took a lead in founding the Wanderers FC in 1863, an Old Harrovian side, which won the FA Cup five times between 1872 and 1878. He also captained England against Scotland in 1875 while refereeing the cup final a week later. Alcock was also a talented cricketer who played for the Gentlemen of Essex.

However, his main contribution to football and sport in general was as an administrator. He was elected to the FA committee in 1866, and became its secretary in 1870, a position he held for 25 years, the first 17 of which were unpaid.

Alcock also took a lead in organising the first unofficial international match between England and Scotland at the Oval in November 1870 and umpired the first official encounter two years later in Glasgow. In 1872, he was also appointed secretary of Surrey County Cricket Club, a post he retained for the rest of his life.

Alcock was instrumental in the Oval, Surrey’s home ground, hosting major sporting events including the FA Cup final from 1872 to 1892. He also arranged the first cricket test match held in England, against Australia in 1880.

Two years later, again at the Oval, the Australians’ victory inspired the legend of the Ashes. Alcock's first love though was football, and it had been he who devised the rules for the FA Cup, apparently based of Harrow school’s knock-out house competitions. 

Alcock was an amateur. However, when in the 1880s the FA had to face up to the spectre of professionalism, Alcock took a much more pragmatic approach than other gentlemen amateurs on the organisation’s committee. Faced with the prospect of a breakaway British Football Association in 1884, Alcock drew on his cricketing experience and anticipated the inevitability of the professional footballer.

He twice proposed legalising professionalism under certain conditions before it was accepted in July 1885, thus averting a schism of the kind that afflicted rugby 10 years later. 

When, in 1888, a professional football league was proposed, Alcock proved agreeable, his journalistic instinct for the commercial spectacle overcoming his residual amateur scruples. It was thus that distinctive and durable dual feature of English football was born: a professional game within an amateur governing structure.