[3] The FA awarded Cambridge a plaque in 2006 in honour of its "150th anniversary", giving its foundation date official recognition.

Naturally, children who had learnt these games at school now sought to play them at university, but this was problematic because they were used to so many different sets of rules.

Eton, Harrow and Winchester, in particular, developed codes which revolved around a roughly spherical ball being kicked along the ground (Weir, 2004).

The foundation date of 1856 is based upon the 1856 copy of the Cambridge Rules held by Shrewsbury School which is entitled: "The Laws of the University Foot Ball Club".

Colin Weir asserted in his history of CUAFC that: "it would be hard to exaggerate the influence that the University footballers of Cambridge have had on the game in England and subsequently all over the world".

Nationally, with the new social legislation of the early 20th century that distributed more money to the working classes and increased leisure time (particularly on Saturday afternoons) and with new technological advances, such as the expanse of railways, which facilitated the nationalisation of leagues, the game of football was truly blooming.

With the support of the Three Crowns, Newton Heath was founded in 1878, soon joining with another side to become Manchester United, while Aston Villa grew out of the Bible Class at a Wesleyan Chapel in 1874.

The pride in this history and tradition within the club held the celebrations of its 150th anniversary in 2006: there was a lunch at the new Wembley Stadium, attended by officials of the FA, UEFA and FIFA.

[3] There was also a match against an FA XI on 1 May 2006, and a German TV documentary in which current players helped re-created that first game on Parker's Piece in 1866.

[18] In a detailed investigation into the evolution of football tactics based upon contemporary accounts, Adrian Harvey refers to the teams responsible for the early development of the passing game (including Sheffield, The Royal Engineers[19] and Queens Park) but comes to the following conclusion about the finished, modern team product: "Curiously, the side that was generally credited with transforming the tactics of association football and almost single-handedly inventing the modern game was not a professional team but the Cambridge University XI of 1882.

[20] In a discussion by CW Alcock on the history of a "definite scheme of attack" and "elaborate combination" in football playing style, he states in 1891: "The perfection of the system which is in vogue at the present time however is in a very great measure the creation of the last few years.

The Cambridge University eleven of 1882 were the first to illustrate the full possibilities of a systematic combination giving full scope to the defence as well as the attack"[21] Although there is some disagreement over whether the innovation began with the team of 1882 or 3, other historians have backed up this view,[22] including the football historian Sir Montague Shearman.

The full list of England players (with the number of caps received whilst registered with Cambridge University A.F.C.)