Football Rewind How Arsenal benefited from a Spurs carve-up to become the dominant force of 1930s
IT was a scandal that rocked English football a century ago.
Manchester United and Liverpool were heavily involved. So too were Arsenal and Chelsea.
Tottenham were the big losers.
Five of football’s biggest clubs, embroiled in match-fixing and fraud.
And the kind of political machinations that reared their ugly head again during the week when it emerged that the same famous names have been allegedly colluding to have Manchester City kicked out of next season’s Champions League.
At least at City, owner Sheikh Mansour can comfort himself with knowing that, as eight Premier League clubs use a global health crisis to turn against the champions, it is nothing personal.
It’s strictly business.
Just as it was when the so-called big five were at the centre of another carve-up back in 1919.
It began four years earlier, during the early months of the First World War, when football was preparing to shut down so that many of its players could be sent to fight in the trenches of Flanders and France.
When United beat Liverpool 2-0 in front of 18,000 at Old Trafford on Easter Monday 1915, it was a victory that was to eventually secure their place in the top flight.
But the game had been fixed.
The United-Liverpool rivalry is now one of the Premier League’s global attractions.
But within days of this game, one bookmaker offered a £50 reward to anyone who could provide evidence on how the sting had been organised.
United finished a point above the relegation zone. Chelsea and Spurs occupied the bottom two places and would be in the second division when peacetime came.
In December 1915, a Football League commission ruled that collusion between the players had taken place for financial gain – and eight were banned for life.
One of the guilty men was Sandy Turnbull, the United striker who was killed at the Battle of Arras.
After the Armistice had been signed, a decision was taken to extend the old First Division from 20 to 22 clubs.
With officials of both United and Liverpool cleared of any blame over the match-fixing scandal, there was never any suggestion that either club should be relegated.
Derby and Preston were promoted after finishing in the top two of the Second Division.
And influential Liverpool owner John McKenna successfully argued in his role as Football League chairman that Chelsea should remain in the top flight as the London club had missed out on safety by just a single point.
Then came the stitch-up.
Tottenham’s relegation was confirmed. And when a vote was taken to decide which club would take their place, it was north London rivals Arsenal who topped the poll.
The Gunners had finished a lowly fifth in the Second Division in 1915, but chairman Sir Henry Norris (below) knew how to win friends and influence people. He was a Conservative MP, a highranking Freemason and the man who had taken Arsenal from Woolwich to Highbury.
Liverpool chairman McKenna also happened to be a close associate.
Rumours that Norris had bribed his way into the top flight have never been proved. But the Kennington-born property developer was banned from football in 1927 for making an illegal financial approach to sign Sunderland’s Charlie Buchan.
By then, Norris had appointed Herbert Chapman as manager – and the Yorkshireman would build Arsenal’s first great team.
During the inter-war years, a club that had never previously lifted a trophy were champions five times and won the FA Cup twice. The Gunners have remained in the top flight of English football ever since.
But, 101 years on, they are once again relying on backroom agreements to get them back to the top table.
Once again, they are not alone. Manchester City’s appeal against the two-year European ban handed down by UEFA over FFP offences is unlikely to be heard until the Covid-19 crisis is over.
But that hasn’t stopped the Gunners joining United, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, Wolves, Leicester and Burnley from asking the Court of Arbitration for Sport to ensure the suspension is not delayed.
A Champions League place is up for grabs, potentially worth £120million.
And old habits die hard.