Cardiff Football Club was formed on the evening of Friday 22nd September, 1876, when over fifty young men attended a special meeting held at Cardiff’s Swiss Hall in Queen Street.
Western Mail 21st September 1876
The new side was formed by a unification of the town’s Glamorgan and Cardiff Wanders clubs and was driven primarily by the desire to produce a team which would better represent Cardiff in matches with its Welsh rivals. Though an ‘amalgamation’ took place at the Swiss Hall meeting, the merger was effectively a take-over by the more successful Glamorgan Football Club,
which absorbed the smaller membership of the Wanderers.
The former supplied most of the new committee as well as Cardiff’s first captain, Thomas Donaldson Selby. Like the captain, many of the forty-three original members had been to public school and all were middle class and employed in the professions or business, though that would quickly change to become more representative of those now plying their trade in the booming port.
Cardiff's First Kit
The first season opened on 14th October, 1876, with an internal match between the Captain’s XV and The Rest. Cardiff played eight ‘external’ games against other sides in 1876/77 though the results of only four these have survived. The first ever inter-club match took place on 2nd December, 1876, in Newport in front of 200 spectators, a match won by the home side. The first game at the Arms Park, a victory against Swansea, took place two weeks later, though the remainder of the club’s home games for the next two seasons were played at Sophia Gardens.
Western Mail 21st September 1876The new side was formed by a unification of the town’s Glamorgan and Cardiff Wanders clubs and was driven primarily by the desire to produce a team which would better represent Cardiff in matches with its Welsh rivals. Though an ‘amalgamation’ took place at the Swiss Hall meeting, the merger was effectively a take-over by the more successful Glamorgan Football Club,
which absorbed the smaller membership of the Wanderers.
The former supplied most of the new committee as well as Cardiff’s first captain, Thomas Donaldson Selby. Like the captain, many of the forty-three original members had been to public school and all were middle class and employed in the professions or business, though that would quickly change to become more representative of those now plying their trade in the booming port.
Cardiff's First KitThe first season opened on 14th October, 1876, with an internal match between the Captain’s XV and The Rest. Cardiff played eight ‘external’ games against other sides in 1876/77 though the results of only four these have survived. The first ever inter-club match took place on 2nd December, 1876, in Newport in front of 200 spectators, a match won by the home side. The first game at the Arms Park, a victory against Swansea, took place two weeks later, though the remainder of the club’s home games for the next two seasons were played at Sophia Gardens.