Cardiff A.F.C.

Not to be confused with Cardiff City F.C..

Cardiff A.F.C.
Full nameCardiff Association Football Club
Founded1891
Dissolved1896
GroundGrange Athletic Ground
ChairmanJohn Sandiford
SecretaryHarry Rose

Cardiff Association Football Club was an association football club from Cardiff, Wales, active in the 19th century.

History

The club was founded in 1891, by John Sandiford (later chairman of the South Wales League)[1] and Fred Ricketts,[2] to provide an association side in the city;[3] the only previous club of any note, Tredegarville, had not been active since 1872,[4] and an attempt in 1887 had foundered.[5]

The club was successful at a local level, and won the South Wales League in 1892–93,[6] in doing so largely clearing the club's £40 debt from its first season.[7] On the national scale, the club was less prominent - after withdrawing from the Welsh Cup in 1891–92 and 1892–93, the club finally made its debut with a 4–0 win over Mountain Ash in the first round in 1893–94, but lost 4–1 to Ironbridge in the second.[8]

At the beginning of the 1894–95 season, the club merged with Cardiff Harlequins RFC, to form Cardiff Association Football and Harlequins' Athletic Club, often just referred to as Cardiff Association Football Club.[9] However, the arrangement only lasted one season,[10] the rugby playing members resurrecting Harlequins in late 1895,[11] and the 1895–96 season was the AFC's last. The club joined the Western Football League for the season, and was considered a possible "surprise packet" with a rumoured strong team.[12] but the season was derailed by confusion; W. H. Becker, the club's secretary at the start of the season, wrote to the League committee in September to withdraw the club from the competition, resulting in a match being postponed.[13]

Although the club committee quickly had the supposed resignation overturned in short order, with a new secretary in place of Becker,[14] the pressure of league matches meant the club was forced to scratch to Aberdare in the 1895–96 Welsh Cup.[15] Worse, the club was fined for not turning up to a pair of fixtures in December 1895,[16] and, after not paying the fine, was expelled from the league.[17] The club's final match was a 4–0 home defeat to Warmley on New Year's Day 1896,[18] which left the club 10th in the 12 club table, with 3 wins and 6 defeats from its 9 matches,[19] before its results were expunged.

The name Cardiff Association was later revived by the Cardiff Y.M.C.A. football club.[20]

Ground

The club's first ground was at Tynycoed.[21] Before the 1893–94 season the club moved to a new home, a cricket ground on top of Park Place,[22] which the club christened St Andrew's.[23] In August 1895 the club moved once more, to the Grange Athletic Ground,[24] in Grangetown.[25]

References

  1. ^ "South Wales League". South Wales Daily News: 7. 19 September 1892.
  2. ^ "Cardiff Association Club". South Wales Echo: 2. 28 September 1895.
  3. ^ "An association club for Cardiff". Western Mail: 7. 7 August 1891.
  4. ^ Alcock, Charles (1873). Football Annual. London: Virtue. pp. 65, 83.
  5. ^ "Cardiff Association Football Club". Western Mail: 3. 13 December 1887.
  6. ^ "Football dinner at Cardiff". Western Mail: 6. 14 June 1893.
  7. ^ "Cardiff Association Club Annual Meeting". Western Mail: 6. 10 August 1893.
  8. ^ "SEASON 1893/94". Welsh Soccer Archive. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
  9. ^ "Cardiff Association Football Club". South Wales Daily News: 7. 8 September 1894.
  10. ^ "Local sport". Western Mail: 7. 22 August 1895.
  11. ^ "Cardiff Harlequins v Llanelly". Western Mail: 7. 5 October 1895.
  12. ^ "Association football". Bristol Mercury and Daily Post: 6. 31 August 1895.
  13. ^ "The alleged retirement of Cardiff". Bristol Mercury and Daily Post: 6. 14 September 1895.
  14. ^ "Football - Association". Bristol Mercury and Daily Post: 3. 20 September 1895.
  15. ^ Rose, Harry (24 October 1895). "Local Sport". Western Post: 7.
  16. ^ "The Western League". South Wales Echo: 4. 4 January 1896.
  17. ^ "The Western League, Cardiff Expelled". Bristol Mercury and Daily Post: 3. 16 January 1896.
  18. ^ "Warmley become the league leaders". Bristol Mercury and Daily Post: 6. 2 January 1896.
  19. ^ "Results to date". Western Daily Press: 7. 13 January 1896.
  20. ^ "Football". Gloucestershire Echo: 3. 28 August 1901.
  21. ^ "Cardiff Reserves v Cardiff United Press". Western Mail: 7. 2 November 1891.
  22. ^ "Local sport". Western Mail: 8. 1 September 1893.
  23. ^ "Local sport". Western Mail: 8. 11 August 1893.
  24. ^ "Local sport". Western Mail: 7. 22 August 1895.
  25. ^ "Cardiff Association players dine together". Western Mail: 3. 20 September 1895.
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