They were previously known as NEC Harlequins for sponsorship reasons, but their primary sponsors are now DHL and Adidas. The Hampstead Football Club was created in 1866, and the first game was documented in 1867. This makes them the oldest football club in England and the second-oldest in Europe (after Ulm United).
Their first home was at Barnard’s Field, and they moved to St Albans City Ground in 1872 when that ground was donated to the club by the city’s mayor. In 1883, the club acquired land on Finch’s Hill near Ickham and built their own stadium called Quaker Street which opened in 1884. In 1890, the club became a limited company, and in 1897 they changed their name to Harlequin F.C. to reflect their new identity as a sporting organization rather than just a football team. By this time, they had become one of the most successful clubs in England with three league titles to their name.
After World War I, a new breed of player emerged who were able to handle the ball at speed, and this led to an increase in scoring opportunities. The 1920s saw Harlequin dominate the English game, winning four more championships during that period.
Pre-World War I Harlequin F.C. squad. In 1867, a disagreement between Club Secretary William Titchener and William Alford ended in Alford leaving with half of the membership to join the Wasps. The remaining members then chose another secretary - John Henry Brett - who had played for the Club before quitting to work as a clerk at the Bank of England.
Brett is said to have chosen the name “Harlequin” because he liked the sound of it and it could be heard above the noise of the cricket season which was beginning at the time. However, there is some evidence that points toward an alternative origin for the name. It has been suggested that the name comes from the fact that one of the original members, Edward Harold, had red hair and wore a harlequin costume when playing football. There are also reports that after leaving the club he went to America where he started a new team called the New York Harlequins but neither of these stories have been confirmed by other sources.
Whatever the case may be, Harlequin Football Club was founded in 1866 by a group of ex-cricketers who were angry about a change in policy at their former club, the Marylebone Cricket Club or MCC for short. They decided to take action by forming their own club whose only aim would be to play football.
The Football Association, the world’s oldest football organization, was established in a London public house. The F.A. was created because each team was playing by different rules, therefore its first objective was to create a set of game regulations. There were no set regulations for playing football in the early nineteenth century. Each club decided how it wanted to play and what rules it wanted to use. This caused many problems for the early clubs who could not agree on anything other than that they did not want to play each other.
The first official match of the F.A. was on 15 November 1869 between the Royal Engineers and a team called The Blackheaths. It was not considered a legal match because neither team had officially joined the F.A. Yet they still tried their best against each other using whatever rules they could come up with. The Engineers won this match 2-1 but there are no records of whether or not they agreed to play by these “rules”.
After this first match the F.A. held another series of games between all the newly formed teams. These games served as tests of strength to see which teams were ready to join the league. The F.A. also needed more information about how players moved around the field so it asked some former professionals from other leagues to give advice about good team tactics. This is how the F.A. started making decisions about how it wanted its league to be played.
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