Football: The Association Game/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
THE PROGRESS OF THE ASSOCIATION.
The withdrawal of the party which affected the Rugby game, following so closely as it did on the well-meant attempt of those who were chiefly responsible for the foundation of the Football Association to devise a code which should be acceptable to both parties, naturally retarded the advance of the Association. For some time the policy of those who guided its destinies in its infancy was mainly of a passive kind. The first object was to conciliate the different schools which had shown themselves averse to the adoption of Rugby rules. It was not an easy task to incorporate the many different varieties of the dribbling game then in vogue in one comprehensive scheme. The work was necessarily slow, and for several years the history of the Association was singularly uneventful. By degrees, though, the process of absorption took effect; and as year by year the influence of the Association extended, there was a corresponding willingness among those who had before adhered to their own particular variation of the game to recognize the importance, if not the necessity, of a uniform set of rules
Prominent among those who helped to consolidate the Association in its early days, and to establish it on a permanent basis, may be mentioned three keen football players—Messrs. Arthur Pember, the captain of the N.N.'s; E. C. Morley, the ruling spirit of the Barnes club; and J. Forster Alcock, captain of the Forest club, Leytonstone. It was in a great measure, indeed, to the indefatigable efforts of these three gentlemen at the outset of its career that the Association was able to surmount the numerous difficulties which interfered for a time with its advancement. The requirements of more important work soon compelled Mr. Morley to give up the position of Hon. Secretary, to which he had been elected at the inaugural meeting, in favour of Mr. R. W. Willis, as previously stated. The former, though, continued to do good work as one of the committee, and, on the retirement of Mr. Pember, he was unanimously elected to fill the highest office, that of President At that time the committee only consisted of four members, and in the early part of 1867 the affairs of the Association were managed by a directorate of six, composed of the President; the Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, a dual office; and the committee, consisting of Messrs. C. W, Alcock, of the Wanderers; W. J. Cutbill, of the Crystal Palace; W. Chesterman, of Sheffield and R. W. Willis, of Barnes, who had just before given up the post of Hon. Secretary.
The earliest revision of the rules saw the abolition of the free kick, and though a provision was at first inserted allowing a player to stop the ball with his hands, it was soon afterwards removed, as was, indeed, everything that could by any chance be considered to savour of the Rugby game. An attempt by the Sheffield club to introduce rouges, after the fashion of the Eton field game, met with no favour; and a modification of the strict off-side rule «o as to make any one on side provided the goal-keeper alone was between them and the opposite goal, also proposed by Sheffield, was equally unsuccessful Though the proposition of the Sheffield club just mentioned, which practically did away with on side altogether, was not in sympathy with the feelings of the majority of the clubs which at that time constituted the Football Association, it none the less for a long time retained its popularity with those who were responsible for the management of the Sheffield Association. For nearly ten winters, indeed, it formed perhaps the only important point of divergence between the rules of the parent society and the oldest, as well as the most loyal, of its affiliated Associations. The matches between London and Sheffield were originally played twice during the season, in London and Sheffield, according to the respective rules in force in each district. Subsequently, though, the fixtures became so popular, that it was deemed advisable to add still a third contest of a mixed character, in one half of which London rules—i.e. those of the Football Association—governed the play, and the other conducted in accordance with the code of the Sheffield Association. Such an anomalous and unsatisfactory arrangement one would have thought could only have been of brief duration. Still, the Sheffield players were not easily persuaded to yield the few points in which their game differed from that of the central and administrative body of Association football. It was not, in fact, till the year 1876 that the rules of the Sheffield Association were brought into complete agreement with those of the original foundation, and the last obstacle in the way of a universal code for the regulation of Association players was removed.
It must not be assumed, though, that the committee of the Football Association were directly or indirectly responsible, as might perhaps be inferred from my remarks, for the arrangement or control of these early matches between London and Sheffield. They had systematically declined to recognize any modification of the rules. An offer of the Sheffield Association for a home and home match was, indeed, refused solely for this reason; and a challenge from the Cambridge University Association Football Club, to play a match under the rules of that Association, was also declined. On similar ground, overtures had also been made in 1871, on behalf of the South Derbyshire Association, for a conference of the two bodies with a view to amalgamation; but this proposition met with the same lack of encouragement. Until the fusion of the Sheffield Association with the parent society, the selection and management of the London team was wholly and solely in private hands, and the fixtures had in no way the official impress of the Football Association.
Meanwhile, the establishment of a Challenge Cup, open to all clubs belonging to the Association, had, as already stated, given a great stimulus to the game. Instituted in 1871, through the initiative mainly of a few of the more influential of the Metropolitan clubs, it was not long before the Cup took a much wider scope. In the first code of rules the holders were only required to take part in the final match; but this provision was only in force for one year, and, subsequently, the club winning the Cup had to fight its way through the competition the same as the other entrants, until quite recently, when a qualifying competition was instituted to weed out the smaller clubs.
Though the introduction of Association football into Lancashire about the same period as the establishment of the Cup, the first of an innumerable succession of trophies of a similar kind, was a mere coincidence and in no way connected, it is curious, considering the conspicuous part Lancashire clubs have played in the competition of late years, that their origin should have been coeval.
The paternity of the Association game in Lancashire may be claimed by Mr. J. C. Kay, an old Harrovian, who subsequently made himself a reputation in another branch of sport, as a lawn tennis player of no small ability, as well as manager of perhaps the best organized lawn tennis meeting in the kingdom— that which takes place annually on the ground of the Liverpool Cricket Club. Educated at Harrow, it was only natural that the primitive game in use in Lancashire should have been based very , much on the eccentric admixture of different codes to which young Harrow had been used for generation after generation. The introduction of the Association game into Lancashire was, in fact, in a very great measure the work of an old Harrovian, as, some twenty years before, the initiation of the movement which practically led to the revival of football on a proper basis was to a considerable extent the work of a few keen athletes who had graduated at his School. To East Lancashire, in particular, belongs the credit of fostering the game in its infancy, as well as of assisting in the development which has resulted in making Lancashire one of the most powerful influences in Association football Bolton, I believe, was the first place which took at all kindly to the new sport, and, under Mr. Kay's watchful eye, the Harrow game, or perhaps as near a reproduction as could be devised to suit local requirements, for a time supplied all the wants of the lads who were undergoing their novitiate in football. Practice took place in the evenings, and, in fact, the game was of a very primitive kind, followed after the hard work of the day had been {hyphenated word end|pleted|completed}}. It was not long, though, before an attempt was made to evolve something like system out of the rough efforts of these pioneers of Lancashire football. The first result of this organization, I have reason to believe, was the Bolton Wanderers club, which has outlived the many, and some of them excellent, changes through which football has gone during the last quarter of a century, and still remains a power in the land; in fact, one of the most influential combinations of the same kind in the north of England.
But to return to the Cup, which has had such a material effect on the development of the Association. There has been, and still is, a large section, even of the best friends and supporters of football, who take exception to Cup competitions. Their objection of course is, not to the Cup itself, but to its surroundings, or rather to its accompaniments, or to what they are used to call its incidental evils. The good folk who hold these opinions have, it must be admitted, a certain amount of reason to support their arguments. But their policy is at the best one of ultramarine, the bluest of the blue, the policy of Conservatism of the most pronounced type.
Their contention is, in the main, that Cup competitions give rise to an excessive rivalry. According to their notions the stimulus they give is not conducive to the real interests of the game. On the contrary, the desire to secure possession of, or even to gain a.prominent place in the struggle for, the Cup, they impute, introduces an unhealthy feeling, which not only tempts the clubs to make the well-being of the game subservient to their own particular interests, but tends to lower the general standard of morality among those who compete. There could hardly be a more sweeping indictment, and were there any real justification, public opinion, one would have thought, would have asserted itself in unmistakable terms in disapproval. The evils which are supposed to follow in the train of Cup competitions, according to those who view them with disfavour, had they been actual, would indeed have long since produced the abolition instead of the increase of Cups all over the kingdom. As a matter of fact, though, the dangers of which these good people prate are more visionary than real; at least, they have not as yet assumed a tangible shape. The opponents of this class of football call to mind Hamlet's familiar expression, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
That Cups give rise to more than ordinary interest is a practical truth of which those who assisted in the institution of the original trophy have had abundant and increasing evidence year after year. It is only the excessive multiplication of Cups which seems to have produced any general feeling of dissatisfaction. The fear of inordinate betting, which it was predicted would inevitably follow the establishment of such competitions, has, as far as a lengthy and intimate knowledge of the working of one of the most important of them gives any weight, not by any means been realized. Nor has there been shown to have been any reason for the assumption that participation in a Cup competition would tend ipso facto to deaden the sensibilities or susceptibilities of either the managers of clubs or the players. So far at least as the experience of over thirty years goes, the trial of the Football Association Cup has been a complete refutation of the arguments of those who were opposed to its inception from the reasons referred to. The disadvantages have been few; the advantages, on the other hand, many and undeniable. No one, of course, will deny that, were the supervision lax, the outcome of the keen rivalry engendered would be abuses of the kind indicated by those who cannot see any good in developing the game by such means.
Whatever, however, may be urged to their disadvantage, the fact remains beyond dispute that where Cup competitions have been introduced football has not only increased in popularity, but new clubs have sprung up and, as a natural consequence, players have multiplied. The extraordinary development of the Association game during the last fifteen years is beyond all doubt attributable in a very great measure to the influence of the Cup. It is something more than a coincidence, too, that the Rugby game is nowhere more popular than in the Midlands, one of the few districts where Rugby rules are predominant in which a Cup competition has been carried on with any energy.
Whether after a time Cups do not outlive the good they originally did, is a point outside the scope of the general argument that they have a material effect in encouraging the game, and stimulating the players when encouragement and stimulant are needed. If you seek the measure of the good the Football Association Cup has done to disseminate as well as to consolidate the game, you have only to look around. Nor, as far as one can see, is there the smallest evidence to show that either those who play or the public which support football are suffering from a surfeit in this particular direction. On the contrary, where such competitions have been conducted on proper lines there has been no diminution of interest, and indeed the older trophies, though insignificant by comparison with those of recent date, both in value and appearance, still hold their own with the best of those of later growth. The development of the game in Hampshire, and still more recently in Kent, would not have been so rapid, or have attained such proportions so quickly, had it not been for the spirit of rivalry engendered by the judicious introduction of a spirit of competition, which not only gave a stimulus to the clubs already formed in populous towns like Chatham and Woolwich, but also emboldened the more ardent spirits in the outlying districts to form aggregations of players not unfrequently scattered over a wide area who would probably have had no chance of consolidation, unless by very slow process, but for the extraneous influences which necessitated the adoption of a system of combination, the outcome of the same spirit of rivalry which has made Inter-County or International matches the keenest of all contests.
I have gone into the subject of Cup competitions and their effects on the game at some length, because it must be conceded that for good or evil they have played an important part in the history of Association football. Nor will any one, I fancy, be bold enough to dispute that the institution of the parent Cup in 1863 was practically the initiation of a new policy which had very important bearings on the future of the game.
A record of Association football without some attempt to revive the memories of those who worked so hard to assure the early success of the Football Association Cup, and thereby to lay the foundation of the prosperity of the Association, would be utterly incomplete. The events which led to the inception of the trophy have been already referred to, the names of the clubs to whom its institution was practically due have been given. At that time the Wanderers monopolized the cream of the public school and University players for some years. To have graduated at one of the leading schools or at one of the two great Universities was an essential qualification for membership, though the rules were subsequently relaxed so as to admit of the introduction of a limited number of outsiders.
In the earlier da3rs of the Cup the Wanderers were really the most influential body in Association football, and their record was one of exceptional brilliance. In the first seven years after the Cup was constituted it was held by the Wanderers five times; and though they won it outright by three successive victories in 1876, 1877, and 1878, they returned it to the Association, which thereupon framed a rule enacting that it shall never become the permanent property of any team.
The gradual enrolment of clubs composed exclusively of old public school boys struck at the very roots of the Wanderers' constitution; and, though it still continues in name, it ceased to be a power, and, indeed, was practically disbanded some years ago. Since its disappearance, though the Old Etonians, Clapham Rovers, and Carthusians have each had the distinction of holding it, latterly the possession of the Cup has been in the hands of northern teams mainly composed of professional players. The Blackbum Rovers, emulating the achievement of the Wanderers, won it three times in succession (in 1884, 1885, and 1886); and that club secured it subsequently in 1890 and 1891, making five times in all, equalling in this, too, the record of the Wanderers. Since the latter year the Cup has, with one notable exception, been held by Midland or Northern clubs. Aston Villa's victory, in 1905, was their fourth up to date. Tottenham Hotspurs, who won in 1901 after a drawn game, is the only Southern team that has won it since 1882, although Southampton were the runners-up in 1900 and 1902, and in the latter year only went down after a drawn game.
Unfortunately, Aston Villa's recollections of the early Cup fights must always be dimmed by one unpleasant memory. This was the theft of the original Cup from a shop window in Birmingham while it was in their possession as holders in 1905. As all attempts to recover it or to trace those who stole it were futile, the only alternative for the Football Association was to provide a replica, which is the trophy (or which clubs compete and have competed for the last ten years. Though they did not get home in the first year of the new Cup, Aston Villa secured hold of it in 1897, and again in 1905. Of the winners in the middle ages of the cup, though comparisons are proverbially odious, the Preston North End team of 1889 stand out perhaps most conspicuously by reason of their all-round football. Like Aston Villa eight winters later, they won the League Championship, then just instituted, without losing a match, in 1889, and also the Football Association Cup without having a goal scored against them. Though latterly they have not been able to reproduce the brilliant form they showed under the watchful eye of their great supporter, Mr. Sudell, the memories of their consistently fine football two decades or so ago are still fresh. What a hold the Cup final has on the football public as a spectacle cannot be better illustrated than by a mere mention of the fact that no less than 110,802 persons visited the Crystal Palace in 1901 to see Tottenham Hotspurs, the ultimate winners, and Sheffield United play a drawn game.
Incidental reference to Preston North End's double first in 1889 recalls the formation of the Football League, the creation of a life long worker in Association football, Mr. W. McGregor, early that season. What an important part the League system has played in the economy of modern football can hardly be fully discussed in what is primarily a practical treatise on the game. It certainly came originally to supply a general and obvious want in the shape of a competition of continuous interest, and not like the F. A. Cup, with a glorious uncertainty to all the clubs concerned. No history of Association football would be complete if full justice were not done to the great influence of the League, and the hundreds of kindred combinations founded on the same lines and carried on with such remarkable success all over the country.
Another movement which has done much to consolidate the Association game was the institution of the Amateur Cup competition. For reasons best known to themselves, a section of the more influential of the southern amateur teams, notably the Old Boys' clubs, have latterly held aloof from the competition. One would have thought, in the interests of the game, they would have been the most keen to encourage. Still, there are signs that the Amateur Cup may yet thoroughly fulfil its mission, and the entries during the last two or three years have shown a great improvement in quality as well as quantity. The policy of the F. A. in instituting international matches for amateurs with the other European nations will, too, undoubtedly lead to the development and consolidation of amateur football.