When City Fell Foul of Edwardian Financial Fair Play (Pt 2)
Part Two: Knocking United Off Their Perch
Two weeks after City’s 1904 FA Cup final victory, a pair of unexpected visitors arrived at the club’s Hyde Road ground. FA secretary Frederick Wall and FA Council member John Lewis were there to demand access to the club's books. It was the start of a summer-long trawling exercise, and what they were hoping to find was evidence that City had breached the FA’s maximum wage rules.
City had indeed broken those rules, as had most First Division clubs at that time. To understand why, we need to go back four years, to May 1900, when the FA introduced a £4 a week maximum wage for footballers and outlawed match bonuses.
The new maximum wage was barely double what a skilled tradesman earned at this time, and represented a substantial cut in income for many. Players at League champions Liverpool, for instance, had been earning £7 a week plus up to £3 a week in bonuses in the 1899-00 season, while some Aston Villa players were on £6 10s a week.
A month before the maximum wage’s introduction, City had signed centre-forward Joe Cassidy from Newton Heath for a club-record fee of £250. It was a huge blow for City’s Manchester rivals, who were then in the Second Division. The skilful 27-year-old had scored 100 goals in 172 games at Newton Heath, and his move to Hyde Road was the greatest indication yet that City had become Manchester’s premier club.
Cassidy was City's leading scorer the following season, his 14 goals in 31 league games helping secure a respectable eleventh place in the First Division. But in May 1901 he was sold to Middlesbrough, then in the Second Division, for just £75.
And the reason was the FA’s maximum wage rule.
Worried about falling foul of the new rule, City only offered Cassidy £3 10s a week for the 1901-02 season (in those days players were all on season-long contracts). He turned the offer down and instead requested a move to Middlesbrough, an ambitious club that appeared willing to break the rules. Faced with the age-old problem of keeping an unhappy player or selling at a loss, City reluctantly parted ways with their leading goalscorer.
City shareholder John Allison, a key figure in the club’s early years, questioned the sale at the club's annual meeting in June, warning that the loss of Cassidy could prove disastrous. His concerns were well-founded. By January 1902, City were rooted to the bottom of the table with 13 defeats and just three wins in 20 matches.
Money was not a problem for City, who were now of the best supported clubs in the country. They had made a net profit of £923 in the 1900-01 season and had a reported £1,000 available to spend on the playing squad.
But the club was now trapped in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” dilemma. Abiding by the rules had made them uncompetitive, but ignoring them risked incurring the wrath of the FA.
And City had more reason to be cautious than others.
In June 1894, the club had tabled a motion at the FA’s annual meeting calling for its ruling council to be made up entirely of representatives of League clubs. The proposal ‘ruffled the feathers’ of FA bigwigs according to one newspaper report, something of an understatement as it would have stripped the FA of its power over League football. City weren’t allowed to take part in the FA Cup in the 1894-95 season and, eight years on, the bad blood remained.
However, City were about to get a chairman who wasn’t afraid to take on the FA.
Manchester press baron Edward Hulton had joined the City board at the start of the season. Fantasticly rich, he injected new ambition into the club—and the determination never to lose a player like Cassidy again.
In January 1902, City signed Burnley’s star goalkeeper Jack Hillman for a club-record £350 fee. Hulton then sent John Allison up to Glasgow with a blank chequebook. Allison, who had assembed City’s 1891 Manchester Cup winning side, returned with Celtic’s two most promising forwards, 20-year-olds William McOustra and James Drummond. The combined fee was £600, the record amount ever paid in a single transfer deal in football.
The new signings produced instant dividends. City won seven and drew two of the remaining 13 games, a points-per-game ratio that would have earned a second place finish over the course of the season. It wasn’t enough to avoid relegation (Middlesbrough, in contrast, were promoted that season, thanks in part to Cassidy’s 15 goals in 32 games), but Hulton was just getting started.
In June, following a relentless string of attacks in Hulton’s Athletic News and Sporting Chronicle, John Chapman stood down as chairman and was replaced by the press baron. Hulton’s allies John Allison and Joshua Parlby (who had proposed the motion at the FA’s 1894 AGM) also joined the board.
That summer, Allison’s Celtic connections (he was also a shareholder in the Glasgow club) resulted in another arrival at Hyde Road—a man who would transform City’s playing style and lead them to their first major trophy.
His name was Tom Maley, and he was the Pep Guardiola of his day.
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Interesting stuff indeed , I read a while back about the Preston North End invincible team of the late 19th century ( the last team to go through a season unbeaten before arsenal did it in 2004 ) they didn’t break payment rules ( or at last they were not caught doing so ) but being run by a board of directors who were rich mill owners ,they basically brought some of the best Scottish players down to Lancashire with promises of jobs for life for players families and themselves when they retired from football. The coalfields and industries associated with them around western Scotland were closing rapidly and it was definitely a huge attraction.