International Football History and Statistics

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On this day in football history

1897 Aston Villa play their first match at a new stadium, Villa Park. The first division match against Blackburn Rovers ends in a 3-0 win for the home side.

1909 At the end of the Scottish Cup Final between Rangers and Celtic at Hampden Park the score stood at 2-2. The crowd anticipated extra time and when this was not forthcoming they rioted destroying both goals and generally damaging the ground. At a subsequent inquiry it was decided that the trophy would be witheld for that season. There had been no instruction prior to the match that extra time should be played.

1922 When Swansea Town beat Bristol Rovers 8-1 in Division Three South Jimmy Collins scored four of Swansea's goals. This tally represented exactly half of his total for the club in a career which lasted from 1919 until 1930. He was normally a half-back but had appeared at inside-right for this match.

1925 Centre-forward Bobby Gurney signed for Sunderland from Bishop Aukland. He had to wait until 1929, when Halliday left for Arsenal, to establish himself in the side but once he did he was the club's leading scorer for seven consecutive seasons. Won a League Championship medal in 1936 and a Cup winners' medal the following year. Gurney made his only England appearance in 1935 against Scotland. When the Second War began he had played in 348 League matches and scored 205 goals. After the War he had spells as manager of both Harlepools United and Darlington.

1937 A crowd of 149,547 saw Scotland beat England 3-1 at Hampden Park. This figure has never been officially exceeded in Britain although it is estimated that there were some 200,000 at Wembley in 1923 when the crowd broke in for the Cup Final. The Hampden Park attendance was a world record at the time but was beaten in 1950 when 200,000 watched the World Cup Final between Brazil and Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro. England led the Hampden match 1-0 at half time with a Freddie Steele goal but Scotland came back with goals from Frank O'Donnell and Bob McPhail(2).

1948 The home nation - England win the first ever European Youth Tournament overcoming Holland 3-0 in the final played at White Hart Lane.

1990 Juventus urge UEFA not to ban Liverpool from European Competitions for three more years than the other English Clubs. The European ban on English clubs after the Heysel Stadium disaster is set to be lifted at the end of the season.

1997 To the chagrin of the German Football Federation England win the right to bid for the 2006 World Cup Finals. They maintain that there had been a gentlemans agreement that Germany would not bid against England to host the 1996 European Nations Finals in return for England not bidding for the 2006 World Cup Finals.