Small% Villa- Manchester claims to have founded the football league

[robbo1874]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/12/manchester-united-city-premier-league

I was reading this article on the guardian website earlier about the shift of power between manchester city and united and was surprised to hear that the mancs are laying claim to founding the football league. I've always been led to believe it was largely down to Wm McGregor and the Villa, but it seems those cheeky northern scamps are looking to re-write history?

[villanic]

Get use to this kind of bull shite reporting, I get the feeling that Manchester is going to be the London in footballing terms, with the press wanking them selves stupid over everything those two clubs do.

[PeterWithesShin]

Wasn't the second (or third) meeting where they officially formed the league held in Manchester?

[Dave]

Having read the article, I can't find that claim anywhere.

[PeterWithesShin]

But if City succeed against QPR, who have their own survival interests at stake, the resurgence, rise and riches of sky blue Manchester will have not only transformed the Premier League, but blown a hurricane of change through the city in which the football league was founded in 1888.

But as a Mancunian, he qualifies his partisanship at least this far: "I do think Manchester as a city needs two teams competing at this level. Manchester is not Newcastle or Stoke: this is not a one-team town. This is the city where the football league was born. You can buy the league – Blackburn Rovers did in 1995 and look at the sorry state they're in now – but you can't buy legacy. City will never have the history that United has, but they shouldn't beat themselves up too much about it … neither have Liverpool or Real Madrid."

[saunders_heroes]

It's true. There was a meeting in Manchester where the league was formally founded.

[Brend'Watkins]

It's true. There was a meeting in Manchester where the league was formally founded.

I bet it took place in a theatre.  And was so boring most of the attendees dozed off. 

[timeoutbigbar]

But if City succeed against QPR, who have their own survival interests at stake, the resurgence, rise and riches of sky blue Manchester will have not only transformed the Premier League, but blown a hurricane of change through the city in which the football league was founded in 1888.

But as a Mancunian, he qualifies his partisanship at least this far: "I do think Manchester as a city needs two teams competing at this level. Manchester is not Newcastle or Stoke: this is not a one-team town. This is the city where the football league was born. You can buy the league – Blackburn Rovers did in 1995 and look at the sorry state they're in now – but you can't buy legacy. City will never have the history that United has, but they shouldn't beat themselves up too much about it … neither have Liverpool or Real Madrid."

Did that just say Real Madrid will never have the history Man United do?  My word.

[tomd2103]

But if City succeed against QPR, who have their own survival interests at stake, the resurgence, rise and riches of sky blue Manchester will have not only transformed the Premier League, but blown a hurricane of change through the city in which the football league was founded in 1888.

But as a Mancunian, he qualifies his partisanship at least this far: "I do think Manchester as a city needs two teams competing at this level. Manchester is not Newcastle or Stoke: this is not a one-team town. This is the city where the football league was born. You can buy the league – Blackburn Rovers did in 1995 and look at the sorry state they're in now – but you can't buy legacy. City will never have the history that United has, but they shouldn't beat themselves up too much about it … neither have Liverpool or Real Madrid."

Did that just say Real Madrid will never have the history Man United do?  My word.

I was thinking that too.  Says it all about the person being interviewed to be honest. 

[Dave Cooper please]

However they try to rewrite history, we know the truth.
Be proud fellow Villans.

[PeterWithe]

1. Have they forgotten Port Vale?
2. Real Madrid and Liverpool being compared unfavourably with Utd history wise?

Silly sausage.

[Greg N'Ash]

They've always had an inferiority complex frankly. You only have to look at their assimulation of Newton Heath, a club with no connection to them but useful to make them look older than they are, and therefore with some "history" comparable to the clubs round them. Obviously going down the "if you say it enough times, its true" route.

[cdbearsfan]

For such a big club, it's amazing how small time Manure are. About 90% of their songs are about Liverpool, Man City or, occasionally, Leeds. In fairness to Racistpool, they virtually never sing about anyone but themselves.

[Dave]

Having read the article, I can't find that claim anywhere.

I clearly wasn't reading it particularly well.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

The second meeting was indeed at a hotel in Manchester. McGregor would presumably have opted for Manchester as there would be good railway links for representatives of all 12 founding clubs to attend.
In my younger days I was a student in Huddersfield. I am not a Rugby fan in any sense but The Station Hotel stands to this day as the place where The Rugby League was founded. It is something the inhabitants of Huddersfield are quite rightly proud of and there is a very interesting and substantial museum within the hotel.
The good folk of Manchester attached such importance to Association football being properly formalised in their back yard that the hotel used was pulled down in 1908 to allow the adjoining Lewis's department store to extend.

A director of Aston Villa, William McGregor, was the first to set out to bring some order to a chaotic world where clubs arranged their own fixtures. On 2 March 1888, he wrote to the committee of his own club, Aston Villa, as well as to those of Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion, Stoke F.C. suggesting the creation of a league competition that would provide a number of guaranteed fixtures for its member clubs each season. 
The first meeting was held at Anderson's Hotel in London on 23 March 1888 on the eve of the FA Cup Final. The Football League was formally created and named in Manchester at a further meeting on 17 April at the Royal Hotel. Although the hotel is long gone, the site is marked with a commemorative red plaque on The Royal Buildings in Market Street. The first season of the Football League began a few months later on 8 September with 12 member clubs from the Midlands and North of England: Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke F.C. (renamed Stoke City in 1928), West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Ardwick (City) and Newton Heath (United) existed as entities in 1888 but would not have been competing at anything like the level of the above 12 clubs.  One of them had managed to arrange a fixture against a Bolton Reserve XI and kept the score down to 6-0.