Corinthian Spirit
The Corinthian Football Club was established by Nicholas Lane ‘Pa’ Jackson in London in 1882 as a bastion of the amateur spirit to counter the rise of professional soccer. The name ‘Corinthian’ derives from the Greek city Corinth, but became synonymous with sportsmen playing for the sake of enjoyment, and so was adopted by a club that insisted sports should be played for enjoyment and personal betterment but not for profit.
Wrote Jackson: “He is one who has not merely developed his endurance by the exercise of some great sport, but has learnt to control his anger, to be considerate to his fellow men, to take no mean advantage, to resent as dishonour the suspicion of trickery, to bear a cheerful countenance under disappointment, and never to own himself defeated until the last breath is out of his body.”
Penalties were introduced to “football” in 1891 but Corinthian C.B. Fry objected, writing (in strongest Victorian terms): “[It is] a standing insult to sportsmen to play under a rule which assumes that players intend toe tip, hack and push opponents and behave like cads of the first kidney”.
While pragmatism dictated Corinthians adhere to universal rules, during a tour of South Africa in 1903, when the Corinthians team believed a penalty had been awarded against them unfairly, rather than try to save the spot-kick, the Corinthian goalkeeper stood to one side to allow an open goal.
Years later, when the Corinthians were awarded an undeserved penalty, the captain stepped up and gently passed the ball to the opposition goalkeeper.
The Corinthian spirit thrives in London to this day in the form of the Corinthian-Casuals amateur side, after Corinthians merged with the like-minded Casuals in 1939.