Think You Know The First World Champions? Think Again

Mar

Think You Know The First World Champions? Think Again

Posted by bianconeri4ever

The

Date: 19th of May 1888

Place: Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland

Renton FC the Scottish FA Cup champions trounced the English FA cup champion West Bromwich Albion 4 to 1. But what does this have to do with the World Cup?

Well Renton FC were the first world champions! Or at least according to the fantasy merchants of Renton FC.

Back then, it was customary for the champions of Scotland and England to play a friendly match at the end of the season. The legend has it on that murky day in Glasgow a thunderstorm ravaged the city and 4 people died. The game almost never took place, but the Rentonions chugged on and insisted on playing in the foulest of conditions. The game ended 4-1 for the Scots, that should have been it. A meaningless game on a dreary Scottish Saturday.

But the Rentonions begged to differ; their logic was pretty simple. British football was king, other nations barely had football associations. They were the chapions of the United Kingdom, so by definition they were champions of the world!

After proclaiming their world domination to the press, they hung a sign over their clubhouse door: CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD. They also needed a trophy. Solution? They made one!

10 years later, and after 5 matches in the Scottish league, they dropped out, and subsequently vanished in 1922. But they never were deprived from that title!

Next time when someone tells that the first world champions were Uruguay, silence them with “not according to the Rentonions!”