LASSES MORE IN EUROPE
MANCHESTER has a proud history when it comes to European football – from Matt Busby’s Babes to Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions.
Yet despite the success that Manchester United and Manchester City have enjoyed down the years, it is a team of women who can proudly lay claim to winning their home town’s first-ever continental trophy.
Manchester Corinthians were pioneers in more ways than one.
Founded in 1949, the Corinthians evoked the bloody-minded spirit of the city that had played a huge role in the suffragette movement by defying the Football Association ban on women playing football.
And, in 1957, just as the brilliant young United team built by Busby was capturing the imagination of fans around the world, the Corinthians travelled to Germany to play in a tournament billed as an unofficial European championship.
The women played games in
Berlin and Stuttgart as England’s representatives – and prevailed 4-0 in the final to lift the trophy.
And while the achievements barely registered in their home country, they were later invited to play in tournaments in the Caribbean and South
America, which drew crowds in excess of 50,000.
Margaret ‘Whitty’ Whitworth, who was voted player of the tournament when Corinthians lifted another trophy in a competition in Reims, France, recalled: “We stayed in all the best hotels and it was quite glamorous.
“There were lots of scrapes along the way. We were young women and loved every minute of it.
“What a great experience for us all! The stadiums, the reception from the crowd, it was all incredible but we all just took it in our stride. It’s only afterwards that you look back and realise how significant it was.”
Manchester football historian
Gary James has written an authorised book detailing the Corinthians’ exploits. Some of the club’s former players are now in their 90s.
James said: “We rightly recognise men’s clubs like Liverpool for their successes outside of the UK but the Corinthians were winning trophies in South America and in Europe many years before Liverpool’s first European trophies.”
Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History can be ordered now for £19.95 with all pre-publication subscribers having their name published in the book.
See www.GJFootballArchive.com for details.