The Early Beginnings
In the 1860s, so the story
goes, a group of young men, mainly from Argyllshire and beyond, regularly
gathered on Saturday afternoons in a corner of Queen’s Park in Glasgow for
sport and recreation amongst themselves. These men were said to have been well
educated and had migrated from the Highlands to Glasgow in search of work away
from toiling on the land or the burden of heavy industry. It was in the
white-collar field of administration these men were employed. Given that they
had all come from similar areas it was only natural that they banded together
in friendship and through recreation.
Looking for something
different to occupy their free Saturday afternoons, they came across an
evolving game called association football. This was a version of rugby football
but with the major difference that the game was played with a round ball
instead of an oval one. Association football was mainly played in English
public schools and universities and the rules varied from school to school. In
1863 the Football Association was formed and adopted the “Cambridge Rules”,
which became the “London Rules”; thereafter all member clubs played under a
uniform set of rules. In the north of England, however, clubs played under a
slightly different set of rules known as the “Sheffield Rules”. It was not
until 1877 that a completely uniform set of rules was formally adopted across
the whole of the United Kingdom. The friends therefore decided to try out this
“new” game and in 1867 formed themselves into a club called Queen’s Park
Football Club.
Whilst much enjoyment was
experienced and, indeed, people started to watch the men play this “new” sport,
it soon became apparent that playing amongst themselves was not enough so they
started to look for other opponents. Initially, this took the form of public
challenges against other sporting clubs to play against Queen’s Park under the
rules they had drawn up and then a series of exhibition games took place in an
effort to spread the game. Gradually, over the next 5 years, other clubs were
formed. These varied from participants of other sporting activities such as
athletics and cricket clubs looking for a sport to occupy the winter months,
villagers banding together to form a team, through to factory workers’ teams
and even army volunteer groups. Swimming clubs, rowing clubs and YMCA clubs had
all dabbled in association football.
By the early 1870s things were
looking rather bleak for Queen’s Park and for the establishment of association
football in Scotland. The difficulty in persuading teams not to handle the ball
made finding opponents hard. However, the publicity of several events suddenly
changed the overall outlook. In 1870 Queen’s Park joined the Football
Association and in 1871 contributed one guinea towards the cost of purchasing a
cup. The F. A. Challenge Cup was launched for the 1871/72 season. Queen’s Park
entered the inaugural competition and were exempted from playing until the
semi-finals where they were drawn against the Wanderers. The tie, played in
London, ended goalless but a lack of funds meant they could not remain for the
replay and had to scratch i.e. forfeit the match. This sparked interest,
particularly in Dunbartonshire, with 6 new clubs including: Dumbarton, Renton
and Vale of Leven; and Glasgow with 7 new clubs including: Clydesdale, Rangers
and Third Lanark Rifle Volunteers.
In November 1872 the first
International football match between Scotland and England took place at
Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow. Scotland was entirely represented by players from
Queen’s Park and, although England were clear favourites, they played out a
creditable goalless draw. This sparked another surge of interest and more teams
were formed during 1873, including over 20 in Glasgow alone. March 1873 saw representatives
of Queen’s Park, Clydesdale, Dumbreck, Eastern, Granville, Third Lanark and
Vale of Leven attend a meeting and form the Scottish Football Association.
Kilmarnock did not attend but sent a message of support. At the end of the
meeting a statement was issued: “The clubs here represented form themselves
into an association for the promotion of football according to the rules of The
Football Association and that the clubs connected with this association
subscribe for a challenge cup to be played annually, the committee to propose
the laws of the competition.” Other clubs soon became members and a
subscription for a trophy raised £56 12s 11d. That trophy is still used today
and is the oldest trophy still competed for in the world of football. 16 teams
entered the competition that began in October 1873 with Queen’s Park becoming
the first winners after defeating Clydesdale 2-0 in the final, held on March
1874.
After a five-year struggle to
establish the new game, suddenly the concept grew legs and by the end of the
decade 140 teams competed for the 1879/80 Scottish Cup. During this period
local associations began to form and with it then launch their own
competitions. First off the mark was the Edinburgh Football Association, formed
in 1875 and with it the Edinburgh Cup. The Ayrshire Football Association
(Ayrshire Cup) followed in 1877 with the Renfrewshire Football Association
(Renfrewhire Cup) next, a year later. The Lanarkshire Football Association and
Cup was formed in 1879.
Unsurprisingly Queen’s Park
were the dominant team in Scotland and won the first three Scottish Cups –
Clydesdale, Renton and Third Lanark, respectively, the beaten finalists. This
dominance was about to be challenged though it would not come from Glasgow but
from the Dunbartonshire villages of Alexandria (Vale of Leven), Dumbarton and
Renton. Vale of Leven knocked out Queen’s Park in the quarter-finals of the
fourth edition and carried on to win that seasons competition, as well as the
next two, thereby emulating Queen’s Park. Rangers, Third Lanark and Rangers,
respectively, the beaten finalists. Stung by their lack of success in the
Scottish Cup (although they did win the first two editions of the newly
launched Glasgow Merchants’ Charity Cup), Queen’s Park reasserted their authority
by winning the next three Scottish Cups, Thornliebank, Dumbarton and Dumbarton
again being the beaten finalists. They also won the Charity Cup twice in that
period.
The early 1880s saw football
across Scotland continue to grow. This can be demonstrated that by 1881 the
north-eastern area of Glasgow had enough interest and support to form the
Glasgow North Eastern Football Association and with it its own cup competition.
1882 saw the Fifeshire Football Association formed and in 1883 Forfarshire and
Stirlingshire followed suit. Until this point Glasgow’s football interests were
effectively administered by the SFA but this had now become too onerous for
them and the Glasgow Football Association was formed in 1883. Surprisingly,
however, for one reason or another, they did not launch their own cup
competition until 1887. In 1884 another three association and cup competitions
were launched – Dunbartonshire, Linlithgowshire and Perthshire.
During the mid 1880s Queen’s
Park once more entered the FA Cup in England and in 1884 went all the way to
the final where they lost out narrowly, 2-1, to Blackburn Rovers. They repeated
the feat the following year, again losing out to Blackburn Rovers, this time by
2-0. In the 1885/86 season Queen’s Park were joined by Heart of Midlothian,
Partick Thistle, Rangers and Third Lanark but none progressed further than the
Second Round. The next season saw Cowlairs and Renton also participate. Hearts
and Queen’s Park fell in the first round and Third Lanark in the second. In the
third round Cowlairs lost out to Rangers, and Renton, who defeated holders
Blackburn Rovers in the previous round, lost to Preston North End. Partick
Thistle defeated Cliftonville of Ireland 11-0 in the third round and eventually
lost out in the fifth round but Rangers reached the semi-finals, losing out to
Aston Villa by 3-0. This was the last time Scottish clubs played in the FA Cup
as the SFA, perceiving a threat to their own competition, banned Scottish clubs
from participating in the FA Cup from season 1887/88 onwards.
Background
Football in Scotland in the
1880s grew year on year, not only by participants but also by those willing to
pay to watch. Although there was a lot of fluidity at this time as clubs folded
for one reason or another, these were replaced by other clubs that were formed.
The only real competitive matches were Scottish Cup ties and local cup games,
“ordinary” matches – games that nowadays are classed as friendlies; filled the
rest of the season’s calendar. Interest in these ordinary games fluctuated
depending on the level of the opposition and an early exit from a cup
competitions could often lead to “blank” Saturdays i.e. a Saturday without a
game because a fixture could not be arranged. Scotland also started to lose
players to England and this “poaching” of players was starting to cause serious
concerns amongst most Scottish clubs.
At this time football clubs in
both Scotland and England was amateur. Players were not paid for playing
football but expenses for loss of earnings was permitted. Mostly players stayed
with a particular club because it was local and close to their place of work.
However, if a player moved area in order to secure a better-paid job it often
led to a change of club particularly if he was of a certain standard. Clubs in
the towns and cities, although not immune, had a better chance of holding on to
their better players than those in the counties due to the higher availability
of employment. Movement of players between Scottish clubs was frequent but at
least they stayed in Scotland, the loss of players to England was not welcome.
Scotland had become a nursery for the clubs in the industrial north of England
– the prospect of better-paid employment being the incentive.
If the prospects of
better-paid employment alone was really the case then things might have
stabilised, but for "amateurism" read “shamateurism”; as the more
ambitious clubs in both countries were increasingly coming up with more
ingenious ways to effectively pay players. To the clubs who could afford to pay
players, amateurism was just a veneer and unless it was blatant the authorities
were largely impotent. The not so urban myth was that clubs had two sets of
account books, one for the SFA and one containing the real accounts.
Furthermore, the clubs themselves rarely called each other out for fear of
being exposed for doing the same thing. The game changer came in 1885, when the
FA in England could no longer hide the hypocrisy and accepted the inevitable
and legalised professional football.
Attempts for Scottish football
to follow suit failed repeatedly. The SFA, driven by Queen’s Park, refused to
endorse professionalism and were ably supported by the press. They held the
view that “professionalism" was a dirty word, that football was an amateur
sport that should remain pure in Scotland, and they backed the SFA’s stance
with an almost evangelic attitude. In some ways, this attitude bordered on
bigotry given the majority of players came from a working class background
employed in menial through to heavy industrial and dangerous mining tasks, they
should not have the opportunity to better themselves. The middle class
administered football, the press was middle class and the working man should
know his place and do as he was told. And yet the irony of the situation was
lost on the administrators and the press – they complained about the loss of
talent yet refused to accept the solution.
English football at this time
was the same as Scotland – the season comprised of national and local cup
competitions “filled-out” by ordinary fixtures and the randomness this entailed
with clubs having to arrange fixtures amongst themselves. From a professional
aspect a more formal structure was needed if clubs were to survive and, more
importantly, make a profit. In early 1888, William McGregor, an exiled Scot and
director of Aston Villa FC based in Birmingham, formulated a plan that would
guarantee clubs a set number of fixtures throughout the season. It would take
the form of a league and each member club would play each other twice, home and
away, with the winners of this competition becoming champions. McGregor wrote
to other clubs, mainly based in the northwest and midlands of England and
invited them to discuss his plan. In April 1888 the Football League was formally
adopted with 12 member clubs and the first season kicked off in September of
that year.
The Football League was such a
success that the following season saw three regional leagues being formed in
England, the Alliance League, the Midland League and the Northern League. This,
in effect, exacerbated the problem of Scottish players leaving for England.
Such was their reputation for being skilful footballers, that this made the
demand for Scottish players even higher and reached a point where there was a high
disproportionate amount of Scots playing football in England. This reputation
was not unfounded. Between the first recognised international in 1872 and 1890,
19 annual matches had been played between the two countries. Scotland had won
11 of them losing only three times.
Despite the loss of players,
Scottish football was still flourishing. By 1890 another 4 regional
associations had been established – Aberdeenshire (1887), Clackmannanshire
(1887), Wigtownshire (1889) and Banffshire (1890). This meant there were now 17
regional associations covering just about the whole of the country and this had
an impact on the Scottish Cup. The first competition in 1873 saw just 16 clubs
enter, by the 1888/89 season a record 162 clubs entered. In season 1876/77, the
draw for the early rounds became regionalised, thus clubs in local associations
were drawn against each other. The upside to this was local clubs faced each
other, thereby cutting down on travel time and expenses; the downside was that
two top regional teams could meet in the first round with one inevitably
knocked out. This left the loser, relying on a decent cup run for fixtures,
with empty fixture dates in their calendar – and a potential reduction to their
finances.
It is often reported in the
press today that the SFA is a collection of self interested parties with those
who shout loudly and often enough getting their way mostly to the detriment of
the game as a whole. It was no different 130 years ago as it is today. In the
late 1880s and early 1890s there was a clear demarcation between the successful
and ambitious clubs (supported by those clubs who had pretensions of joining
them) and those who were content to survive and trundle along as social clubs.
Presiding over all this was Queen’s Park who believed that as the founders and
introducers of association football into Scotland, they were the sole arbiters
of all that was good for the game. The battle lines were now drawn.
In early 1890, Renton, one of
Scotland’s top clubs, made it known that they would push for qualifying rounds
in the Scottish Cup. The top clubs in each region would be exempt from the
early rounds. Renton had previous with this proposal. Two years earlier they
demanded that a qualifying round be introduced for the Dunbartonshire Cup. On
that occasion they did not get the required support and the proposal was
defeated. Renton withdrew from the competition as a result and did not play in
it again until 1894. When this plan became publicly known, the sporting press
were fully supportive as they saw it as a way to spike any attempt to form a
league. They urged the SFA to get behind any such proposal. Anything that would
halt a league and by extension, professionalism was a good thing in their eyes.
How dare the working class aspire to better themselves!
Going Forward
Renton was the driving force
behind Scottish Cup reform and they were also the prime movers for the creation
of a Scottish League. In February 1890 they issued invitations to
Dunbartonshire, Paisley and Edinburgh clubs to an informal meeting to discuss
forming a league. Third Lanark were tasked with drumming up support in Glasgow
with St.Bernard’s tasked with the same in Edinburgh. The outcome of this
meeting would decide the viability of moving forward. From this point it did
not take long for outrage to hit the pages of newspapers. Typical was a letter
published in the Glasgow Evening News on Monday, 3rd March 1890:
“Football League for Scotland
Sir – Allow me, through the
medium of your paper, to enter a protest against the formation of the above.
Why should a league be formed in Scotland? Is there a need for it? The English
Football League was formed by professional clubs, so that those who composed
the league might draw large ‘gates’ and thus manage to keep themselves afloat.
But we have no professional clubs in Scotland – at least I hope not. Again what
about the time which would require to be devoted to this competition? Cup ties
take up so many of our Saturdays that most of the matches would require to be
played on other days. But few could find the time to play on these days, and it
is therefore clear that if a league was formed professionalism would
immediately follow. Would true Scotchmen, then, like to see professionalism
rampant in Scotland? I think not – trusting that by a general outcry this
proposed league will be crushed. I am, etc,
J. Fergus Stirling
Glasgow, 1st March,
1890."
Professionalism, with its
subsequent drain of Scottish players to England, was the hot topic discussed at
a meeting in Derby between the SFA and the FA on the 7th March 1890.
The SFA raised real concerns regarding the exportation of Scottish players to
professional English clubs. Unfortunately, as was becoming more usual, the
conference was held in private so we have no way of knowing how strong a case
the SFA put forward. The only information available is a press statement issued
by the FA:
“That the President (Major
Marindin) of the English Association be requested to convey to the
representatives of the Scottish Association the assurance that the members of
the conference belonging to the Football Association appreciate the evils
complained of by the SFA with reference to the importation of players from
Scotland, and will be glad to give any suggestions which may be conveyed to them
with a view to the same being reminded their most careful consideration.”
I am sure the SFA took comfort
in that two-fingered gesture from the FA. The only real action offered by the
SFA was to hammer players who went to England only to return fairly soon after
because they could not settle, with long bans from the game. A classic cutting
your nose off to spite your face.
Following the informal meeting
in February, a more formal meeting was held in Holton’s Hotel, Glasgow on 20th
March 1890 for all clubs interested in forming a league. The meeting was
chaired by Mr Lawrance of Dumbarton FC and the clubs represented were:
Dumbarton, Renton and Vale of Leven from Dunbartonshire, Celtic, Cowlairs,
Rangers and Third Lanark from Glasgow, Heart of Midlothian and St.Bernard’s
from Edinburgh, Abercorn and St.Mirren from Paisley and Cambuslang from
Lanarkshire.
The delegates spoke strongly
advocating the formation of the league, as being beneficial to the best
interests of the game and the clubs financially. Great stress was put on the
fact that the league was to be conducted on purely amateur lines and in
harmony, if possible, with the SFA. They agreed that the formation of a league
meant a qualifying competition for the Scottish Cup would be necessary. A
motion by J.H. McLaughlin (Celtic) and seconded by Mr Richardson (Heart of
Midlothian) was put to the delegates:
“That a committee be appointed
from this meeting to draft the rules and constitution of this proposed league,
and submit them to the various clubs deterring upon at this meeting; and that
those clubs be requested to send representatives with full powers to a meeting
to be afterwards convened."
The motion was passed
unanimously. The appointed committee was Messrs Henderson (Cowlairs), Lawrance
(Dumbarton), Graham (Renton), Towns (St.Mirren), Thomson (Third Lanark),
McLaughlin (Celtic) and Wilton (Rangers). Lawrance acting as interim Secretary
and McLaughlin as Convener. A Scottish league was now becoming a reality and it
did not take long for the press to come out strongly against it.
An editorial by the Glasgow
Herald on the 24th March 1890 pointed out that proposals for a
Scottish league modelled on the lines of the English one was met favourably in
some quarters but unfavourably in many others. The opinion expressed was that a
league would be a clear threat to the Association despite claiming it would not
run counter to the SFA. It went on to claim there was need for a league as the
game was amateur. If professionalism existed and clubs were crippled with want
of funds then a league would revive them. According to the Herald, as Scottish
football was amateur it therefore has little expense, it would be a disastrous
for the game and the SFA should strongly oppose its formation. Queen’s Park
would have to stand against this.
Any thoughts that qualifying
rounds for the Scottish Cup would halt the formation of a league were soon
dashed at a meeting of the League Committee held on 26th March 1890.
They drew up a petition requesting the SFA to grant a cup qualifying round
exempting leading clubs. In doing so they emphasised that a refusal by the SFA
would not halt the League’s programme. The committee also drew up a code of
rules for the league competition itself. So the battle lines for the coming SFA
AGM in May were set. This prompted another editorial from the Glasgow Herald.
On 31st March 1890 it voiced that the proposed league attracted
little public favour and urged the SFA to use every legitimate means in its
power to crush it. League clubs rebelling against the SFA could have
international complications. It still held the belief that a qualifying cup
competition would placate the clubs saying leading clubs want a “qualifying
clause” by which they are precluded from the first and second rounds. The SFA should
therefore take the initiative to remove the grievance. Such a move would take
from under the feet of the league, a primary reason for which it is called into
existence. Clearly the opinion of the Glasgow Herald and other newspapers ran
contrary to that of the clubs pushing for a league.
At the Scottish Football
Association Annual General Meeting held on Tuesday, 6th May 1890,
the first order of business was professionalism. It reported that 46 players
had been suspended the previous season for periods of between 1 and 18 months
for professionalism. 21 players, after satisfying the committee, were granted
reinstatement and permission to play under SFA jurisdiction. It was becoming a
losing battle and the only solution they saw was to harden their attitude
against those players who sought payment for playing football. The SFA adopted
a rule to the effect that “any registered professional who has played under the
jurisdiction of another association shall be suspended for a period of not less
than one year.” Players now knew exactly what the penalty was. In their hatred
of professionalism it seemed to pass over the SFA and their vocal supporters in
the media that punitive consequences against the individuals was also hurting
the game itself.
The other contentious item on
the agenda was that of qualifying rounds in the Scottish Cup. A motion proposed
by Mr Graham (Renton) and seconded by Mr Lawrance (Dumbarton) was as follows:
“The competition for the cup shall be divided into two parts – a
preliminary and a final competition. The committee shall select 16 clubs,
composed of the semi-finalists of the preceding season, and the 12 others they
consider as next in merit; and those 16 shall be exempted from the preliminary
competition should they so desire. The committee shall then proceed with the
preliminary competition until 16 clubs are left. These 16, with the 16
selected, shall then be placed in one lot, and drawn in the final competition.
Should any of the 16 selected clubs elect to play in the preliminary competition
the number of clubs left from the preliminary competition shall be increased,
so that the number of clubs in the final shall always be 32.”
This was a sensible proposal
for the improvement of a competition that had become bloated by the increasing
number of clubs participating. Furthermore, it gave a selected club the choice
of still entering the preliminary rounds if it chose to do so. However the
following amendment to the motion was proposed by Mr Campbell (Greenock
Abstainers) and seconded by Mr Charles Campbell (SFA Chairman):
“There was no reason for
departing from the old rules regarding the cup competition. There should be
absolute equality among clubs regarding the national competition.”
This was a classic example of
the tail wagging the dog. The reality for these clubs was that they had little
chance of winning the competition and what they saw in the main motion was a
reduction in the chance of securing a financial windfall. It was ironic the
voices that shouted against professionalism were the same voices that shouted
for money for their clubs. The clubs wanted as much “gate" money as
possible but they were adamant they would not pay players without whom there
would be no "gate" money. Not surprisingly the above amendment was
carried by 105 votes to 31 and it was reported that this result was greeted
with loud cheers. As a footnote the number of entrants for the 1890/91 Scottish
Cup competition rose to a record 172.
Following the AGM, the press,
who had urged the SFA to accept the qualifying rounds as a means to halt the
formation of a league, now changed tact and gave the opinion that a league
would now be unworkable due to fixture congestion. However, the interested
clubs moved on regardless. There was nothing in the SFA rules preventing the
formation of a league. Providing they remained members of the SFA, abided by
its existing rules, and Scottish Cup fixtures had precedence over league
fixtures, there was nothing to stop league football taking place.
On the 13th May
1890 the committee of the Scottish Football League held a meeting in Glasgow.
They unanimously decided to go ahead with a league despite the fact that there
would be no qualifying competition in the Scottish Cup. They also unanimously
agreed that to avoid any friction league fixtures would be arranged on dates
not required by Scottish and other Association cup dates. The league would
therefore last throughout the season. The league aspirants did receive one
blow, however, as one of the original interested clubs, St.Bernard's, had
decided to drop out. This now left an odd number of 11 committed clubs and the
committee decided to carry on with that imbalance. The fact was many who were
involved in the project still felt privately that Queen’s Park would join them,
even at this late stage, and their addition would even up the numbers. As it
stood, therefore, the league would comprise of Abercorn, Cambuslang, Celtic,
Cowlairs, Dumbarton, Heart of Midlothian, Renton, Rangers, St.Mirren, Third
Lanark and Vale of Leven. A futher meeting would be held to elect office
bearers and arrange fixtures. A Scottish Football League was now a reality
despite all obstacles.
Interestingly, a report of
Rangers FC AGM held on Wednesday, 31st March 1890, caused a few
eyebrows to be raised. A motion was proposed that a paragraph in the
secretary’s report affiliating the club to the Scottish Football League be
deleted. It seems that there was some dissent within the ranks of the
membership in at least one club. In the end, however, the motion was roundly
defeated and Rangers remained committed to the new competition. A few days
later, on the 3rd June 1890, at a meeting of the league clubs the
fixtures for the coming season were arranged. Also, the following office
bearers were elected:
Chairman Mr
A. Lawrance – Dumbarton FC
Vice Chairman Mr George Henderson – Cowlairs FCSecretary Mr J. H. McLaughlin – Celtic FC
Treasurer Mr W. Wilton – Rangers FC
On the 10th June
1890 the full fixture list for season 1890/91 was issued.
The League Clubs and Queen’s Park
On the 30th June
1890, the Scottish Referee, a weekly (later bi-weekly) newspaper dedicated to
football and other major sports in Scotland, led with an article on the
relationship between the league clubs and Queen’s Park. For the first time a newspaper
gave some support to the league formation, albeit lukewarm as the main target
for criticism was Queen’s Park. Back in February 1890, when the league issue
was first raised, Third Lanark were tasked with gaining support of the Glasgow
clubs and, of course, Queen’s Park received a written request to send a
representative to a forthcoming meeting. The reply to Third Lanark was that the
question of a league had been put to the Queen’s Park committee but they would
not see their way to appointing a representative to attend a meeting.
According to the Scottish
Referee that was the first and last communication that had so far passed
between the league and Queen’s Park. This silence, they maintained, was taken
for granted as implying that Queen’s Park would have nothing to do with the
league. As a result the clubs that formed the league organisation went ahead
forming their fixtures. The position Queen’s Park now found themselves in was
if they wanted to accommodate a league club in their fixture list, they would
find that their opponents were unable to comply due to a full fixture list.
Furthermore, the league clubs had agreed that no match could be played (outside
cup ties) against any other team not in the league without the permission of
the other league members.
It was the attitude of Queen’s
Park FC that the Scottish Referee was really aiming towards. Queen's Park had
long held the mantle of the establishment club, the guardians of Scottish
football and that they "mothered" newly established clubs. In the
past years this position had been strongly questioned, not only in terms of on
field success, but also the teams they played. It had become the habit of
Queen’s Park to arrange matches with only those clubs they deemed worthy
enough. Indeed, it had become a common grumble that a “minnow" club, lucky
enough to secure a fixture, would find the match cancelled because Queen’s Park
had secured a more lucrative game to play. Of the league teams it is extremely
unlikely that they would have condescend to play at least half of them unless
drawn in a cup-tie.
The principle of the league
was to have guaranteed set fixtures. It was a principle that potentially killed
off the purpose for which Queen’s Park now existed - that of selecting certain
clubs for their favours and taking on or putting off fixtures as they choose.
