The Northern Scot: Spanish soccer shocker

UNEARTHING a piece of sporting history lost in time for more than a century, Spain’s oldest football club has made the remarkable discovery that it was founded by a man from Moray.

Investigation reveals Moray man played pivotal role in creation of Seville Football Club in 1890

Sevilla Football Club, which currently plays in Spain’s top flight ‘La Liga’, will be forever indebted to Newmill-born Edward Farquharson Johnston for his pivotal role in establishing the team.

Sevilla celebrated what it thought was its centenary in 2005. However, a recent search in the British Newspaper Archive by the club’s history department uncovered an article that was published in the ‘Dundee Courier’ in March 1890.

Hidden for almost 123 years, the article pointed out that Sevilla, in Andalucia, was actually legally founded on January 25, 1890, by Mr Johnston, making it Spain’s oldest football club.

Researchers found that Mr Johnston, also the club’s first president, was born in Newmill on October 14, 1854.

Also known as Ned, he was the son of James Johnston and Margaret Miller Farquharson.

According to Mr Johnston’s obituary, he was educated first at Weston House – once a noted seminary in Elgin, which at the same time taught Alexander Graham Bell – and afterwards at Mill Hill, the famous English public school near London.

On completing his education, Mr Johnston entered the business house of Messrs. Robert McAndrew & Co, London, who were connected with his mother’s family, and who had extensive business connections in Spain and Asia.

The MacAndrew family provided him with his start in life, and Mr Johnston, being co-owner of the firm McAndrew & Co., was sent to Seville as their representative in the early 1870s.

At that time, the shipping company had an important commercial line between Seville and Scotland. In fact, Dundee harbour every year received tons of Seville oranges to help manufacture marmalade.

In 1879, Mr Johnston married Mary Crombie in Balgownie Lodge, Aberdeen. The couple had three sons, who were all born in Seville.

First son, Gilbert, died in infancy. Their second son Edward died in the trenches in France during World War One.

The Johnston’s third son, James, joined his father in business.

On January 23, 1879, Mr Johnston was appointed as British vice-consul in Seville until his retirement on October 5, 1906.

From the first, he became a prominent figure in Seville’s social and economic life.

However, it was his founding of the city’s football club which made the most permanent impact on the city.

On January 25, 1890, a group of young residents of British origin in Seville met at a café and formed the current Sevilla FC.

Mr Johnston was elected as president, while Glasgow man Hugh Maccoll became first captain.

A few weeks after founding the club, its members wrote a letter to a recreation club in Huelva asking them if they could form an 11 and come to Seville to play a match.

Although, according to the ‘Dundee Courier’ article, the team from Huelva had never played together, they decided to accept the invitation, and the match took place on March 8, 1890.

Unknown to the players at the time, they were creating history as the match became the first ever on Spanish soil. Sevilla won 2-0. After that initial match, the club went from strength to strength.

At the turn of the century, members of Sevilla Football Club sourced striped red and white strips to play in.

It is thought that they may have wanted to use the same colours as Sunderland AFC, since Sevilla’s first captain, Hugh Maccoll, lived there at the time.

Coincidentally in 2007, Sevilla Football Club headed to Mr Maccoll’s home town of Glasgow to see new club captain Javi Navarro lift Sevilla’s second UEFA Cup.

The club’s fascinating link to Moray went undiscovered for many decades.

It was only recently when the club founded a history department, under the leadership of current club president Jose Maria del Nido, that its origins became apparent.

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Published by The Northern Scot on December 21, 2012