Emily Graves spoke with author Peter Lupson about 12 Premier League football clubs that owe their existence to a church

Few people are aware that of the 38 clubs that have played in the English Premier League since its inception in the 1992-3 season, 12 can trace their origin directly to a church. However, the fact is that many of these 12 famous football clubs know little about their origins or founders either.

Peter Lupson, a man who started a football team on the Wirral for young people in 1994, has written the book 'Thank God for Football!', which features chapters on: Aston Villa, Barnsley, Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Queen's Park Rangers, Southampton, Swindon Town and Tottenham Hotspur, looking into their Christian heritage.

To hear some of the inspiring stories and to find out more about how the book came about, Emily Graves spoke with Peter.

Emily: So first of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Peter: I was born in 1946 in Vienna, Austria, while my father was in the forces at the end of the war there. I grew up in Ely, Cambridgeshire and then went to university in Bangor in North Wales, where I met my wife and also became a Christian. I then went into teaching modern languages, French and German and at the same time I started writing school textbooks in French and German. I became the chief examiner for A-Level German for the University of Oxford and I've been worshipping at the Longcroft Christian Fellowship in Barnston on the Wirral, which is near Liverpool, since 1977. I started a football team there for youngsters in 1994 and that really was the launch pad for everything we are going to talk about next.

Emily: It sounds like you've had a jam-packed life.

Peter: It's been great.

Emily: So tell us about what Thank God For Football! is.

Peter: It's the story of 12 Premier League football clubs, or clubs that have played in the Premier League, that owe their existence to a church. My research brought to light that some of these clubs are honouring the wrong founder and that one club was actually celebrating the wrong year of its foundation and has subsequently changed its club badge to reflect the true date.

Emily: Wow, that's quite a discovery!

Peter: They were certainly pleased about it.

Emily: I bet! So tell us about these stories.

Peter: First of all, there were three main reasons why football clubs, church football clubs, started off in this way. The first was that the churches wanted to give healthy exercise in fresh air to these youngsters, many of whom lived in squalid parts of big industrial cities. Another motive was recreation and good fellowship; we call that fun and friendship today. That was the motive of Fulham's founder, the Reverend John Henry Cardwell.

Another key element was the development of Christian character. It was felt that qualities such as fair-play, courage, unselfishness - you play for the team, not for yourself - and self-control, could all be developed through the game of football.