When City Fell Foul of Edwardian Financial Fair Play (Pt 8)
Eight: The Meredith Mystery
City’s Annual General Meeting in May 1905 was a much less cheery affair than the previous year’s. Profits had fallen to £648—from a record £2,428 in the 1903-04 season—thanks largely to City’s ground being closed for a month due to the FA ban.
But more ominously, in-fighting had now taken hold among the club’s directors.
Two months earlier chairman Waltham Forrest, who had reluctantly accepted the role in October 1904, had announced he would be standing down, telling shareholders that he “would be glad when I’m out of it”. Forrest confirmed his decision at the AGM, and was replaced by John Allison, who beat rival director J H Davies (not the United chairman of the same same) by just two votes.
Athletic News had described Allison as a ‘veritable Mark Tapley’, after the ever-cheerful character in Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. But the club he now chaired probably felt more like Bleak House.
The AGM also saw the return of director W. Pitfield. He had resigned from the board in December after being '‘grossly insulted and even assaulted by a member of the Manchester City team” following an away game at Arsenal. Pitfield had demanded action from his fellow directors at the time, but according to the Manchester Evening News:
‘Owing to some accountable misunderstanding as to the date of the meeting of directors, neither Mr. Pitfield or one or two of the other directors were present, and so the matter was, says Mr. Pitfield, allowed to drop.’
City did at least now have a chairman who was knowledgeable about the game, and who had a vision for the club. But as former Football League president John J Bentley noted in Umpire News on 28 May:
‘I have only met his vice-chairman, Mr J H Davies, about four times, but he seems to me the kind of man to cooly check any outbusts of zeal which Mr Allison, in his very enthusiasm for the club, may be guilty of.’
Brewer Alfred Jones, a founding shareholder of the Manchester City Football Club Company in 1894, was also elected to the board at the AGM. The appointment, which boosted the power of the brewing interests at the club, threatened further boardroom unrest.
And this was the worst possible time for the board to be divided.
On 9 June the FA set up a commission in Derby to investigate City’s games against Aston Villa and Everton during the title run-in. After all the players and staff from the three clubs were called in for questioning, fears of another “fishing” exercise grew. According to Bolton Football Field:
‘From what one can gather about the doings at Derby, the “fishing” was carried out with an amount of persistence and patience which would have put many expert anglers to shame. All sorts of bait—within the limits of the legitimate, of course—were brought into use.’
In July the Daily Dispatch revealed that City’s worst fears were in danger of being realised. It claimed that
‘Allegations of a very serious character have been brought against the Manchester City Football Club and one of their most prominent players.’
On 4 August the Commission produced its findings. It revealed that
‘The committee also reported upon statements brought to their notice with regard to W. Meredith, of Manchester City F.C., having offered a sum of money to a player of Aston Villa to let Manchester City F.C. win the match.’
Meredith, the greatest player of his generation, was suspended until 30 April 1906 with immediate effect. The FA also confirmed it would not be overturning its ban on City’s directors while Sandy Turnbull, whose 19 goals in 30 games had made him the second top scorer in the League the previous season, was suspended from 1 September to 1 October for his behaviour during the Villa game.
Meredith, now deprived of both his salary and the lucrative benefit match he was due that season for his ten years’ service, described the claim that he offered a £10 bribe as “preposterous”. He added:
“The fact is, there is too much Villa influence in the Football Association, and the sooner it is altered the better it will be for football. Manchester City have not many friends on the Football Council, and jealousy appears to underlie it all. Manchester City is becoming too popular to suit some other League clubs.”
Newspapers questioned the legality of the judgement. Athletic News’ correspondent “Tityrus” observed that
‘The Commissioners do not even mention names. They do not even say the witnesses who were called. They avoid expressing the opinion that the charge was substantiated or proved. They merely publish the conviction by suspending Meredith for a whole season. Is this official silence quite justifiable?’
Sporting Chonicle, dubbing the case the ‘Meredith Mystery’, noted that
‘The bribe seems strangely inadequate, remembering the object in view, and the people who would necessarily have to share the amount.’
Even the leader column of the Illustrated Police News admitted that the case was “wrapped in mystery”.
Villa’s Alec Leake, who did not receive a suspension despite reportedly giving Turnbull a “backhander” during the game, ‘stenuously denied’ he had reported Meredith to the Commission. According to Athletic News:
‘The actual informer was a Birmingham gentleman who overheard a conversation on the subject between other members of the team after the match was over. When Leake was examined originally in regard to his conduct and that of Turnbull nothing was said about the alleged attempt at bribery, but he was recalled, and was then forced to admit that an offer was made, although he said he looked on it as a joke, and did not treat it at all seriously.’
The paper’s Birmingham correspondent, who attended the game, added more context:
‘I knew that half-a-dozen members of the City team asked the Villa players why they were so keen, and said (in effect, if not in so many words), “What do you want to win for; it won’t do you any good?” But I did not credit that there had been any attempt at bribery, nor am I too willing to believe it even now.’
On 15 August the Manchester Courier revealed that Meredith had ‘sought legal advice’. However, City—and Meredith—were now caught it a carefully-laid legal trap. A week earlier Athletic News reported:
‘In order that the city, the shareholders, the public, and the Football Association may know the intentions of the club the directors have appointed Mr. T Hindle, of Darwen, the Football Association’s auditor, the auditor to the City club, with supreme authority to do as he likes with the books which are handed him tomorrow. The City will yet be officially stamped as a well-conducted club. They mean to be.’
Hindle, the driving force behind the creation of the Lancashire FA in 1878, would now be spending a lot of time at City’s Hyde Road ground.
The FA finally had a man on the inside—and would soon use him to full effect.
Part Nine will be published on Saturday 20th April.
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Fascinating reading again , I read a while ago that Meredith was singled out by the football authorities as a punishment for him being one of the main instigators of the PFA ( players union ) ? Is there any truth in that ?