Scandinavia and the Nordic Nations: Foreign Players in the Football League
Scandinavia and the Nordic nations have a long history of providing players to the Football League. As they remained amateurs in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, they were able to escape the effective historic ban on foreign footballers in England. It was natural that players would continue to move after restrictions were formally lifted…
Inter-League Matches: A Century of Football League Fixtures 1891- 1991
Inter-league matches were introduced in the very first set of rules published by the Football League in January 1889: “A match shall be played each season between teams selected by the Management Committee of the League, the proceeds of which shall be devoted to the funds of the League.” After many years in which they…
Centenary Celebrations: The Football League 1987-88
The Football League began its Centenary celebrations in the 1987-88 season. After a hundred eventful years, there were ninety-two clubs in four national divisions. The 1980s had been a turbulent decade of falling attendances, financial crises and high-profile tragedies, but the League was determined to celebrate a century in style. Secretary Graham Kelly saw the…
The Football League Jubilee 1938
The Football League celebrated its Jubilee in 1938. A number of events and matches were staged to commemorate William McGregor’s historic founding of the world’s first professional league fifty years earlier. The original twelve clubs had grown to eighty-eight across four divisions, reflecting the league’s steady rise in popularity since 1888. The 1937-38 season saw…
Poland: Foreign Players in the Football League
Poland was one of the strongest European football nations of the 1970s. Olympic Champions in 1972, they knocked England out in qualifying for the 1974 World Cup, where they finished third. Olympic silver followed in 1976, ahead of a strong showing at the 1978 World Cup and another third-place finish in Spain 1982. These squads…
The Netherlands: Foreign Players in the Football League – Part Five
The supply of players from the Netherlands to England began to slow towards the end of the 1980s. With financial problems, hooliganism and the European ban on English clubs after Heysel in 1985, the Football League became a less attractive destination. Few Dutch internationals moved to the First Division. Hans Kraay Jr. had one of…
Play-Off Facts & Figures 1987-2023 – Appendix
The 2023 play-offs were the 37th time the end-of-season fixtures have been played since the system was (re)introduced in 1987. In that time, a number of clubs, managers and players have set notable records. This post gathers a few of the Football League play-off facts and figures over the past five decades. In 2023, Salford…
Bristol Rovers v Cardiff City, 1983
Bristol Rovers welcomed Cardiff City to Eastville for the final game of the 1982-83 season. The fixture included many famous football names of the past, and future. Cardiff were already promoted and a point secured second place behind Portsmouth, and an immediate return to the Second Division. Bristol Rovers finished in 7th place. There was…
The Play-Offs (Part Two): 1987-1992
The play-offs were re-introduced to the Football League almost a century after the ‘test matches’ of the 1890s. The measure was agreed at a League meeting in December 1985 as part of a package of compromise measures to prevent a ‘Super League’ breakaway of the First Division clubs. Initially the play-offs were proposed to run…
‘Test Matches’: The First Football League Play-Offs
With the rapid evolution and expansion of the Football League from its twelve founder members in 1888, came the question of promotion and relegation. ‘Test matches’ were the League’s solution, introduced in April 1893. The clubs which had formed the rival Football Alliance were absorbed into the League at the start of the 1892-93 season,…
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