Football’s first loan players

Owing to the lack of information (far too few detailed match reports to check in effect) it has proved very hard to trace the first footballers ever to be signed ‘on loan’ by another football club/ team.

However, this is interesting and may well be a ‘first’ in this category.

Back in 1885, for their quarter-final FA Cup-tie against West Bromwich Albion, Blackburn Rovers named three players in their line-up who were all seemingly ‘on loan’ from nearby Lancashire clubs.

They were Great Lever’s captain ‘Tot’ Rostron, the Preston North End inside forward Fred Dewhurst and Accrington’s half-back George Haworth.

However, after a ‘quickly-arranged meeting’ in Blackburn, a few hours before the scheduled kick-off, the FA intervened and banned these three ‘loan’ players from taking part in the match.

Nevertheless, even without the trio, Rovers triumphed 2-0 and progressed into the semifinal, then onto the final, where they played and beat the Scottish trailblazing amateurs Queen’s Park from Glasgow 2-0 to retain the coveted trophy and, indeed, claim it for the third year in succession

For the record Haworth was allowed to play in the final.

Also this has to be considered… To all spectators who collected a team-sheet ahead of the very first FA Cup final between the Wanderers and the Royal Engineers in March 1872, they saw an unfamiliar name listed in the Wanderers team.

The unknown player was printed on the sheet as ‘A.H. Chequer’. However, this turned out to be a pseudonym for Morton Betts, who usually played for Harrow Chequers (hence ‘A H. Chequer’).

Betts had appeared for the Chequers in the first round of the competition but then the club decided to pull out of the tournament. Although seemingly ‘cup-tied’ Betts was still allowed to play in the final, and surprise, surprise, he scored the game’s only goal!

Was he on loan or was he signed officially, or indeed should he have appeared in the final at all?

FACT: It transpired that the FA/Football League finally agreed to allow official loan signings to take place on a wider scale in the mid-1970s. Nowadays at least 600 players are loaned out by Football League clubs in England and Scotland alone.