Back to the Soccer Newsfeed

On This Day in Football: War in the Middle East forces football on Sundays

On this day in 1974, Cambridge United hosted Oldham Athletic in an FA Cup third round tie in what was the first official senior English football fixture to be played on a Sunday.

How did it all come about? All because of a war in the Middle East.

In October 1973, an Arab coalition launched attacks on Israel occupied territories which subsequently resulted in the ‘Yom Kippur War’. As the war intensified, the Arab members of The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) suspended oil deliveries to all western countries that supported Israel.