Football's World Cup is always held in the same year but the sport has never been included in the Commonwealth Games. Yet, three of the most revered football arenas in Glasgow - Celtic Park, Ibrox and Hampden Park - will all play an important part in this year's event. 

A century ago, events staged at other famous football grounds paved the way for the foundation of what became known as "the Friendly Games".

As early as 1891 an Englishman called Astley Cooper had suggested a "Pan Britannic festival" only for his suggestions to fall on deaf ears.

In the new century, London staged the Olympic Games for the first time. The 1908 Games, opened by King Edward VII, were the longest in history. Within two years England had a new monarch, George V and in 1911, a grand "Festival of Empire" was planned in  London to mark his coronation. As part of the great celebrations there was to be an Inter-Empire sports competition. This was to be staged at Crystal Palace, the stadium which was the home of the FA Cup Final, showpiece of the English football season.

Competition at the Festival took place in athletics, swimming, boxing and wrestling and was contested by teams from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australasia, a combined Australian and New Zealand squad. The Organising Committee included Lord Desborough, mastermind of those 1908 Olympics.

A tennis competition was also planned but organisational problems meant that it never got off the ground.

The Wimbledon champion and future Olympic medallist, a New Zealander called Tony Wilding, was ready to take on all comers. They never did come and he returned sadly to his college without raising his racquet in anger, though he did win Olympic bronze in Stockholm the following year. It would be a century before tennis finally made its Commonwealth Games debut at Delhi 2010, only to be dropped for Glasgow 2014 when the competitors might have included Scotland's Andy Wimbledon. 

At Crystal Palace, the Canadians set the pace.Sprinter Frank Halbhaus, who won both the 100 and 220 yards, setting them on their way to overall victory. To mark their success they received a trophy, standing two foot six inches high and weighing 340 ounces, presented by Lord Lonsdale.

"Lasting good will be the outcome of our participation," wrote Richard Coombes  the Australasian team manager.

The "Festival of Empire", an early forerunner to the Commonwealth Games, was held at Crystal Palace in 1911 to celebrate the accession of George V to the throne ©Wikipedia

There was certainly an appetite for sport within the Empire and in 1912 the cricketers of England, Australia and South Africa met in England to contest a "Triangular Series". The three nations had been founder members of the ICCl which, in those days, stood for "Imperial Cricket Conference". Rain ruined that particular experiment. Although the weather was much better at the Stockholm Olympics, the British did not perform which caused consternation. Some even suggested that Britain should withdraw from the Olympics altogether.

A terrible World War followed in which many Olympians lost their lives. When the Games resumed in Antwerp in 1920 Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all competed in their own right. After the Games, they joined forces for a special challenge match against the United States at Queen's Club in West London.

The organisation owed much to two distinguished Olympians, Philip Noel Baker and Arnold Strode Jackson. It was exactly 300 years since the Mayflower had taken the Pilgrim Fathers to America. "There is an appropriateness of date which makes this contest between  the champions of the two branches of the English-speaking peoples more than an athletic duel," said an editorial in The Times.

The crowds were huge and many were locked outside. It was even claimed  that many who did make it inside failed to see much of the competition. Some only heard the sound of the starting pistol, it was reported. This had been borrowed from a theatrical prop store and arrived just in time for the first race. 

It helped that the teams were well matched and the contest itself finished in a tie. The Times described as a "great afternoon worth ten Olympics." Then the athletes and officials made their way to the ImperialHotel in Russell Square for the inevitable celebratory banquet.

The whole enterprise had been such a success that it was repeated after the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Queen's Club had proved far too small so this time, the match was staged at Chelsea's football ground, Stamford Bridge.

Many had read about the exploits of the great stars at the "Chariots of Fire" Games in Paris and now wanted to see them perform in person. Eric Liddell , the flying Scotsman who had won the Olympic 400 metres, electrified the huge gathering with a superb effort in the 4x440y relay. 

This time, the Americans won the fixture but when the Canadians returned home, Norton Hervey Crow, the outgoing secretary of their Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) made a plea. "I would again bring before the Union, the advisability of taking the initiative in all British Empire Games, to be held between Olympic Games," he wrote.

The idea was taken up by John H Crocker, who became President of the Canadian AAU. He encouraged the manager of the Canadian track and field team, MM Robinson, known to his friends as "Bobby" to sound out his counterparts on the idea when they came together at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

Bobby Robinson, the man considered to be the founder of the Commonwealth Games
©Philip Barker

The press talked of "favourable preliminary discussions"to set up an Olympiad for the Empire. There was certainly a will to see more of athletes from the Commonwealth in competition.

No sooner had Lord Burghley won the 400m hurdles and Douglas Lowe retained his 800m gold in Amsterdam, the New Zealand authorities had invited them to tour that winter. If this proved impossible, Canada's 100m and 200m champion Percy Williams and 400m silver medallist Jimmy Ball were to be invited.

In the meantime, the Americans arrived in London .Although facilities in Battersea Park had been laid on for them to train,their chief coach Lawson Robertson decided that they would spend the day resting.

Another huge crowd of 41,000 packed into Stamford Bridge to see the competition,where despite the presence of Olympic champions Burghley, Lowe and the New Zealand javelin star Stan Lay, the Americans again won the match.

There was already a head of steam for the Games to take place in Hamilton Ontario, an idea supported by the Australians and South Africans.

According to the organisers, They would come "trailing clouds of glory from their Olympic origins".

The following January Amateur Athletics Association President Lord Desborough presided over a meeting of the major sporting bodies to consider arrangements for the Games. The competition "would be designed on the Olympic model, both in general construction and its stern definition of the amateur."

When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met in Lausanne in 1929 President Henry Baillet Latour was moved to reassure his colleagues. "Fears expressed in certain quarters that the proposed organisation by Canada in 1930 might seriously prejudice the Olympic Games were groundless," he said. In fact Baillet Latour went further. "They are clearly pro-Olympic," he said.

The IOC were no doubt reassured that the Empire Games committee set down general rules which called for each governing body to "certify on the entry forms that each contestant is an amateur withining the meaning of the definitions laid down."

It added: "Anyone having been classed as a professional at any time in any sport cannot compete."

The first British Empire Games, held in Hamilton in 1930, were acclaimed as a great success ©Philip Barker

At precisely 2.30 pm on Saturday August 16 the teams marched into the stadium in Hamilton and heard a message of greeting from King George V before Lord Willingdon, Governor General of Canada, opened the Games. Within half-an-hour or so, the first competitions were underway.

Shortly afterwards, Lord Burghley won the first heat of the 440y and later that day became the first Olympic champion to also win gold at the new Empire Games. When he received his medal, he stood on a victory rostrum. IOC President Baillet Latour took note of this innovation and at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles medallists were acclaimed for the first time on a podium.

The following year in Barcelona he added the IOC seal of approval to the entire enterprise. "I cannot praise sufficiently the wonderful organisation and the admirable sporting spirit " he wrote. "I was happy to find myself once again amongst these young men. Many were old acquaintances from Antwerp, Paris and Amsterdam. I found out with pleasure their regard for Olympism."

The new Games were here to stay. In 1934 they took place in London with cycling staged in Manchester and have always been held at the mid-point between Olympic Games. That is appropriate for they have so often been a stepping stone to Olympic glory. Jamaican sprinter Don Quarrie, English decathlete Daley Thompson and middle-distance runner Kelly Holmes,all won Commonwealth gold before becoming Olympic Champions. Many from Glasgow 2014 will surely follow in their footsteps.

Philip Barker has worked as a television journalist for 25 years. He began his career with Trans World Sport, then as a reporter for Skysports News and the ITV breakfast programme. A regular Olympic pundit on BBC Radio, Sky News and Talksport, he is associate editor of the Journal of Olympic History, has lectured at the National Olympic Academy and contributed extensively to Team GB publications. His latest book, Lord's First: 200 Years of Making History at Lord's Cricket Ground, has recently been published. To follow him on Twitter click here.