120 years ago, clubs came together to found the first foot-ball league in Brazil

Anyone who accesses Rua São Bento, in the center of São Paulo, and looks at the building on the right on the corner of Rua José Bonifácio, may not know that the first league of clubs in Brazilian football was founded there.

120 years ago, on December 18 (or 19, depending on the source) of December 1901, five clubs in the city of São Paulo gathered in the manor built by Brigadier Luiz Antonio to ratify the creation of the Liga Paulista de Foot-ball, an entity that would organize , in the following year, the inaugural edition of the Campeonato Paulista.

The address chosen for the founding meeting of the league functioned as the headquarters of Sport Club Internacional, one of the founding members of the collective.

In addition to the hosts of the house, Club Athletico Paulistano, Sport Club Germânia, Associação Athletica Mackenzie College and São Paulo Athletic Club (SPAC) were represented at the foundational meeting, with the presence of Charles Miller, team captain.

“The building had vast outbuildings – reading room, games room, fencing room, gymnastics terrace, fixed bar, darts throwing, etc. It was there that the sportsmen huddled together; the Liga Paulista was founded there, of fond memory . It was there that foot-ball was founded (allow the expression) in São Paulo”, wrote journalist Antonio Figueiredo in the book “História do Foot-ball in São Paulo”, published in 1918.

Three of these associations had already met at the same address on December 13, in order to put the creation of the Liga Paulista on paper, but both Mackenzie and São Paulo Athletic did not participate in the first meeting.

“At the headquarters of Sport Club Internacional, a meeting was held at 8 1/2 hours at night, with the aim of forming a league called: Liga Paulista de Foot-ball. The League will be composed of different clubs, which will compete for the first championship, which will be organized by this one. As only 3 clubs attended this meeting, it was decided that the definitive meeting will take place on Wednesday, March 18”, informed Estado de S. Paulo in its edition of the day 14.

On the 18th, therefore, the original version of the statute that would guide club football in São Paulo was drafted in front of all the founders. Each club received a copy of the document.

However, according to journalist Thomaz Mazzoni in his book “Soccer History in Brazil 1894-1950”, the election of the board was held – unlike what was reported in the newspaper at the time – on December 19, the date that would mark the foundation at that time. of the league, according to the author.

Regardless of the differences in dates, this meeting with all five clubs resulted in the appointment of Antônio Casemiro da Costa, director of Internacional and one of the biggest enthusiasts of the creation of the entity, as the first president of the league.

Upon assuming command of the still incipient São Paulo football, Costa ordered balls from a shoemaker on Rua Ipiranga and a silver cup, which would be handed over to the 1902 state champion, to a French goldsmith on Rua São Bento. The trophy would even bear the name of the entity’s representative.

The following year, the state of São Paulo (or rather, the city of São Paulo) attended the first São Paulo Championship in history, also the first state football championship in Brazil.

Played by the five founding teams of the league, the tournament had its kick-off given on May 3, 1902, in Parque da Antarctica Paulista, with a 2-1 victory by Germânia over Mackenzie.

Played in straight points, the championship won the São Paulo Athletic Club, which won the tie-breaker against Paulistano on October 26, by a score of 2-1, with two goals from Charles Miller, which would end Paulista as top scorer, scorer of ten goals in the competition.