A search by the Football Association (FA) to find the eight founding fathers of football has proved fruitless.

In its 150th anniversary year, The FA has called upon the public to come forward with any information about the eight men who established the world’s most popular sport, one of whom founded Barnes Football Club.

Any living descendants that can found will be invited to a special ceremony at Wembley to honour their ancestors in October, but Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who died aged 93 in 1924 in Richmond, did not have any children.

The lawyer came to Barnes in 1858 aged 27 before he founded the Barnes and Mortlake Regatta in 1862.

Morley was founder captain of Barnes Football Club, and a player who strived to make the game better.

He arranged a meeting of interested parties at the Freemason’s Tavern in Holborn, on October 26, 1863 and The FA was born.

He was appointed the first FA Secretary, with his role being to make the game’s rules, before he became FA president in 1867.

Newsletter editor of the Barnes and Mortlake History Society, Murray Hedgcock, said: “He was very supportive of the poor and helped working men’s activities and did just that.

"He was a very involved man and represented Barnes on Surrey county council.

"Sadly, he never had any children so there is not going to be much joy in this part of the world.”

He said there were talks of English Heritage putting up a blue plaque on the house where Morley lived in The Terrace from 1903 to 1919.