Civil Service F.C. is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
club based in the city of London. The club originally played both association football and
rugby footballRugby football may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of the United Kingdom. Today it refers to either rugby league or rugby union.- History :...
and the Civil Service, along with Blackheath F.C., is one of the two clubs that can claim to be a founder member of both the Football Association and the
Rugby Football UnionThe Rugby Football Union is the rugby union governing body for men's rugby in England - women's rugby is currently administered by the Rugby Football Union for Women . Among the Union's chief activities are conferences, organising international matches, and educating and training players and...
. However, the rugby club is now a distinct entity and appears to have been so since the late nineteenth century.
In 1863 the newly formed Civil Service club was playing football under both Association and Rugby rules and sources suggest that the club was similar to
Clapham RoversClapham Rovers was from its foundation in 1869 a leading English sports organisation in the two dominant codes of football, association football and rugby union. It was a prominent club in the late 19th century but is now defunct...
in that it was a single club playing both codes.
Civil Service F.C. is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
club based in the city of London. The club originally played both association football and
rugby footballRugby football may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of the United Kingdom. Today it refers to either rugby league or rugby union.- History :...
and the Civil Service, along with Blackheath F.C., is one of the two clubs that can claim to be a founder member of both the Football Association and the
Rugby Football UnionThe Rugby Football Union is the rugby union governing body for men's rugby in England - women's rugby is currently administered by the Rugby Football Union for Women . Among the Union's chief activities are conferences, organising international matches, and educating and training players and...
. However, the rugby club is now a distinct entity and appears to have been so since the late nineteenth century.
Two football codes at its foundation
In 1863 the newly formed Civil Service club was playing football under both Association and Rugby rules and sources suggest that the club was similar to
Clapham RoversClapham Rovers was from its foundation in 1869 a leading English sports organisation in the two dominant codes of football, association football and rugby union. It was a prominent club in the late 19th century but is now defunct...
in that it was a single club playing both codes. At what point the Civil Service Rugby Club became a distinct entity from the Football Club (Association football) is unclear. Certainly, the histories published by the official Football and Rugby clubs respectively do not refer to a joint history past even 1863. However, the club was still a unified entity when it became a founding member of the
Rugby Football UnionThe Rugby Football Union is the rugby union governing body for men's rugby in England - women's rugby is currently administered by the Rugby Football Union for Women . Among the Union's chief activities are conferences, organising international matches, and educating and training players and...
in 1871, although notably it did not provide a member to the inaugural committee. However, in 1892 contemporary sources refer to Clapham Rovers as being unique in the respect that it played both codes, suggesting that the Civil Service had distinct teams by that point.
Association Football
The club was one of the dozen founding sides of
the Football AssociationThe Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...
on 28 October 1863, and lays claim to an earlier, but uncertain, date of origin. It was represented at the founder's meeting by Mr. Warne of the War Office, leading to the side often being identified as the
War Office Club in historical accounts of the founding of the FA. Civil Service was also one of the fifteen entrants to the first ever
FA CupThe Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association. The name "FA Cup" usually refers to the English men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held...
competition in
1871-72The 1871–72 Football Association Challenge Cup was the first organised association football competition in the world. Fifteen clubs entered that first competition, although three withdrew without playing a game...
.
Civil Service played a significant role in the introduction and popularization of the game of football in Europe early in the 1900s through touring, undertaking their first continental tour in 1901. In recognition of their contributions the club is an honorary life member of
Real MadridReal Madrid Club de Fútbol is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. It is the most successful team in Spanish football and was voted by FIFA as the most successful club of the 20th century, having won a record thirty-one La Liga titles, seventeen Spanish Cups, a record nine European...
and Slavia Prague.
Early in the club's history the decision was taken to remain an amateur side in the face of the emergence of the professional game. Civil Service was subsequently active in the formation of several amateur leagues including the
Amateur Football AllianceThe Amateur Football Alliance is a County Football Association in England. It is unusual among County FAs in not being based around a particular geographical area. It was founded in 1907, as the Amateur Football Defence Foundation, quickly changed to Amateur Football Association, when The FA...
, the
Isthmian LeagueThe Isthmian League is a regional football league covering London and South East England. It is sponsored by Ryman, and therefore officially known as the Ryman League.-History:...
(1906), and the
Southern Amateur Football LeagueThe Southern Amateur League is an association football league affiliated to the Amateur Football Alliance . It is based in and around Greater London and was formed in 1907. The league admits only fully amateur clubs which are a mixture of 'old boys' associations from schools and colleges, business...
(1907).
CSFC enjoyed its greatest success in the years leading up to World War I with several wins in other cup competitions to its credit including the London Senior Cup (1901), the Middlesex Senior Cup (1908 and 1913), and the Amateur Football Association Cup (1910, and again later in 1920 and 1930). They also captured the Southern Amateur League title in 1913 and 1914. In later years club's accumulation of honours was modest with a SAL title in 1939 and two more league triumphs in 1969 and 1971.
More recently the club has seen the return of a greater measure of success. They captured the AFA Senior Cup in 1997 with a 4-3 win over Lensbury, securing the trophy for the first time in 67 years. The 2001-02 season saw a return to Division 1 play in the Southern Amateur League and a respectable third place result.
Notable players
For notable Rugby players please see Civil Service Rugby Club
- C.W Herbridge, four caps for England amateurs in 1920 in matches against Wales, France, Ireland and Belgium.
External links