Association Football
England
- FA Cup final – Old Carthusians 3–0 Old Etonians at The Oval in the last final to be played between two southern amateur sides.
- Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers both change their venues to enclosed grounds where gate money can be charged, an increasing practice among clubs that are openly (or otherwise) professional.
- Preston North End is founded and plays from the start at Deepdale, which holds the world record for the length of time a venue has been in continuous use by one major league club.
- Burnley FC founded as Burnley Rovers RUFC which decides in May 1882 to switch codes. The Rovers suffix is dropped two years later and the club renamed as Burnley AFC.
- Newcastle United, which has a complicated early history, is founded as Stanley FC by a cricket club in the Byker area of Newcastle.
France
- Foundation of FC Girondins de Bordeaux.
Ireland
- Moyola Park F.C. wins the inaugural Irish Cup final
Scotland
- 12 March — Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut, becoming the world's first black international football player
- Scottish Cup final – Queen's Park 3–1 Dumbarton at Hampden Park (replay after Dumbarton protests about the original match which Queen's Park has won 2–1)
Read more about this topic: 1881 In Sports
Famous quotes containing the words association and/or football:
“A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)