Sunday league football in England

The idea mainly started among young unemployed men in the 1920s in the Greater London area, with kick-abouts taking place in open spaces on Sunday afternoon.

Soon, the first matches were organised but under difficult conditions for the players and the clubs: there were no changing rooms, no nets or corner flags and pitch markings.

In the early 1930s a large percentage of workers were brought in London from Ireland, Manchester and Wales and these new immigrants formed their own Sunday football clubs.

Additionally, in the religious areas of society it was considered unacceptable to partake in such activities on a Sunday, which was deemed a "day of rest".

[3] In August 1939 the FA finally decided to appoint a Sub-Committee to review the situation and potentially recognise Sunday league football, but the World War II intervened.

With the parks being turned into anti-aircraft gun sites and with most young people becoming involved in the war effort and going into the services, very little football was played.

When those recommendations were reviewed in July 1946 it was decided that no changes in the restrictions against Sunday football would be made.Despite that, large crowds with an attendance of 300 to 400 were very common in the mid 1940s.

A few months earlier, on 26 January 1966, Teddy Eden, died, aged 86, just two days after presiding at what was to be his final Sunday Football committee meeting.

The majority of those amateur players eventually signed professional forms and that had a domino effect on some of the smaller Sunday sides of that time, all over the country.

In 2010 Lionel Messi had expressed the desire to play at the Hackney Marshes and he flew into the spiritual home of English Sunday football via helicopter from London City Airport.

Messi travelled to London on 15 September 2010 and was expected to come on as a substitute during a match of the Hackney and Leyton Sunday League, as part of a publicity stunt by Adidas.

Several new clubs reflect different ethnic backgrounds such as Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Ghanaian, Arabic, Nigerian, Turkish, Caribbean, Brazilian and others.

[9] Most of these ethnic teams consist of football players who had previously competed in semi-professional or even professional leagues in their countries before migrating to England.

Sunday league football has been financially supported to a certain extent by pubs and working men's clubs throughout its long history.

[12] The increase of those costs resulted into the demise of many clubs which has drastically brought down the total number of Sunday teams registered in the local counties.