Founded | 1882 |
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Dissolved | 1939 (merged with Casuals F.C.) |
Ground | Queen's Club, Crystal Palace, The Oval |
League | none |
Corinthian Football Club was an English amateur football club based in London between 1882 and 1939.
The club was founded on 28 September 1882 by N. Lane Jackson, Assistant Secretary of the Football Association (The FA). His intention was to promote sportsmanship and fair play, champion the ideals of amateurism, and “establish a club side to improve the fortunes of a faltering national side” and thus help England challenge the supremacy of the then dominant Scotland national team.
"Within twenty years the Corinthians were to become the greatest and most attractive team that football had then known. With an intelligent nonchalance and in their tailored shirts and well-cut shorts that brought a quality and culture to the game".
Corinthian FC were famed, above all, for their ethos of “sportsmanship, fair play, [and] playing for the love of the game”.
‘Corinthian Spirit’, still understood as the highest standard of sportsmanship in any sport, is thought to have been coined in their honour. This spirit was famously summed up in their attitude to penalties; “As far as they were concerned, a gentleman would never commit a deliberate foul on an opponent. So, if a penalty was awarded against the Corinthians, their goalkeeper would stand aside, lean languidly on the goalpost and watch the ball being kicked into his own net. If the Corinthians themselves won a penalty, their captain took a short run-up and gave the ball a jolly good whack, chipping it over the crossbar”.
The club’s foreign tours are also credited with having popularised football around the world; they were the first club to take the sport outside Europe; the 2000 and 2012 FIFA Club World Champions, SC Corinthians Paulista, are named after the club (indeed, Charles Miller considered the father of football in Brazil, played for the club in 1892), and the 2015 FIFA Club World Champions, Real Madrid, wear white to this day in their honor.
The club played at various venues including the Queen's Club,The Oval, and the old Crystal Palace.