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Football

10th Oct 2023

Fans are only just learning why no team has ‘London’ in its name

Callum Boyle

No clubs in the capital have London in their name

Most capital cities around the world have a football club that proudly wears the name of its birthplace, letting the world know that they represent that city.

In Madrid you have Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, in Paris you have Paris Saint-Germain, Hertha Berlin in Germany, the list goes on.

That’s the case for most places – except London and that’s for one particular reason that fans are only just now learning about.

London is one of the most densely populated capitals in Europe, with only Moscow and Istanbul boasting a higher number of inhabitants and according to the Daily Star, it’s vast population plays a role as to why no clubs have London in their name.

Even when football first started to gain popularity in the early 20th century, London was already one of the biggest cities in the world as private schools hosted games. That was before northern clubs began to form and adopt a level of professionalism to the game.

Due to London being so big, each club would represent a local borough or area as oppose to the whole city.

While Crystal Palace claim to be the oldest club to come from London, records show that Fulham are the first club to come from the capital in 1879, then known as Fulham Church St Andrews Sunday School FC.

One club who were very close to including London in their name were Chelsea as founder Gus Mears pondered calling them Blues London FC but opted not to for reasons that remain unknown.

Related links:

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10