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The FA Cup Scandal

The scheduling of the 1901 FA Cup Final replay causes uproar in Liverpool.

When the 1901 FA Cup Final, played between Sheffield United and Tottenham Hotspur, ended in a draw, it caused repercussions that rocked the City of Liverpool to its very foundations. The game had taken place at Crystal Palace in London where the FA committee, the previous evening, had decided that – should the match end all square – then the replay would take place at Goodison Park in Liverpool. The deputation from Liverpool FC, who was present at the meeting, later made a protest.

They informed the committee that the replay clashed with their home game against Nottingham Forest and, if they staged the game in Liverpool, it would severely affect their gate money. The FA committee accepted the protest and decided to move the game to Burnden Park in Bolton. This decision, when it hit the streets of Liverpool, caused mayhem.

The business community was ”up in arms” at the news of the cancellation, claiming the action of the Liverpool club was detrimental to the local economy  and a deluge of protest letters began to flood into the offices of all the Liverpool newspapers. These objections, which poured in for days, were finally collected together by the Liverpool Review (now defunct) which published the following article that explained to their readers, who were not football fans, just how much the game had altered since its formation in 1863. It was also very critical of the actions implemented by the Liverpool club.

…Football, at one time, was considered a sport, and its adherents were entitled to be called sportsmen. But the introduction of professionalism in to the pursuit of the game has changed all that. It is now a business (with a capital B) and its promoters are businessmen. We have known for some time but never fully relished it until last Saturday. Then it was brought home to us in all its sordid reality. We learnt then that the football business, like most other businesses – only more so – that there is no such thing as reciprocity or patriotic sentiment, or consideration for other people's interests. None of these matters must be allowed to weigh in the football business against the interests of Number One. When Football was a sport, and footballers were sportsmen, it would have been considered chivalrous for one club to go out of its way to assist another; today it is the right and proper thing (for have we not had newspapers correspondents supporting it?) for one club to go out of its way to deal a left handed blow to another, rather than suffer the slightest financial risk to affect the sacred constitution of Number One

It is the Liverpool Football Club which has assisted us towards the realisation of these unpalatable facts. This Saturday the best English Cup Final in football history is to be played at Bolton. It might have been played in Liverpool, on the Everton Club's ground at Goodison Park, but for the Liverpool Football Club. When the directors of the Liverpool Football Club heard that the FA had decided to re-play the tie at Everton, what was the first thought that occurred to them? – the pleasure the match would give to thousands of Liverpolitans? – the very substantial profit that would accrue to the city at large from the consequent influx of hordes of excursionists, each with half a guinea or so to spend? – the value of such a match recruiting agency to local football patronage? – or the financial advantage it would be to their fellow club across the park? A “good sport” would undoubtedly have considered these things, but, bless you, the Liverpool Football Club could lay claim to a more exalted title than “good sports” – they can lay claim to be considered Business Men.

Therefore, as Business Men, the first idea that occurred to them was how the playing of a football match in Liverpool would affect their particular Precious Purse – capitals again if you please Mr Printer – in fact the history of the whole miserable affair deserves to be printed in capitals – on the Liverpool Football Club flag. Therefore as Business Men and not as “good sports,” the Liverpool Football Club directors promptly protested against the playing of the match in Liverpool. The club, you see, had a match of their own to play that day, and from their point of view (from the top of the office safe) the Liverpool footballing community had no right to exist that day except to patronise their match and their match alone. A detrimental influence like bad weather they could tolerate with equanimity, but an opposite attraction they could not and would not stomach. Their finances would stand a bad weather gate without a quiver, but a bad gate brought about by a counter-attraction would be calculated to break the bank. Consequently the Liverpool Club were determined that the English Cup Final should be kept out of Liverpool, and kept out of Liverpool it is. Can you imagine the “sportsmen” of Anfield grinning across to their professional brethren at Goodison and chuckling, with their pockets buttoned down, “We’ve bested you this time, old boys”. For football, bear in mind, is a business not a sport.

The Liverpool public, however, had a word to say. To their credit, they could not stand by in cold blood and see the reputation of a beloved one-time sport dragged through the mire. Letters of protest poured in to the newspaper offices in shoals, and even the editors had an indignant word to utter. Liverpool rose to the occasion, and garnished the transaction with a series of the choicest adjectives available. A superficial examination of the newspaper correspondence reveals the depth of public feeling on the subject.

Witness these extracts –  
“It is enough to make all Liverpool weep”.
"It is the greatest shame that they should have the power.”
“A Shylock-like trick.”
“It is scarcely conceivable that the opportunity of witnessing the English Cup Final in Liverpool, should be deliberately thrown away."   

From the tone of these communications, it must be seen that, from the point of view of the public generally, we are justified in stigmatising the actions of the Liverpool club in this matter as a scandal. The average footballer, who possesses a copious and expressive vocabulary, has been using much stronger language. The affair is all the more aggravating because an expert consideration of all the possibilities goes to show that the Liverpool Club would have been benefited rather than injured in playing the final here.

The time of the match at Anfield might have been altered so as to not clash with that of the match at Goodison and the result would probably have been that more spectators, instead of fewer, would have been attracted to the Liverpool ground. We have known two league matches in Liverpool in one afternoon, and both finely attended, and there is no reason why this should not happen again, especially with the additional community to draw upon created by the enormous influx of outside footballers who would have invaded the city for the Cup Final. Moreover, Liverpool might have earned golden prestige, instead of reaping ignominy, over this opportunity, had they gone the right way about it.

Suppose they said to the FA and the public: “We are glad the Liverpool public are to have this treat, and we don’t want to spoil it, although we could if we liked. Let the match go to Goodison by all means, but don’t forget to pop in to good old Anfield when it’s all over.” The effect of that attitude would have weighed with the football public like solid gold. But, then, the Liverpool Football Club directors are not diplomats as they are Business Men.

The match at Anfield attracted a crowd of 20,000 people and the Liverpool directorate, it must be assumed, were happy at the outcome. Their happiness however was not shared by the FA committee over at Bolton. There, just 20,400 watched a match that was a financial disaster for the both organisers and the local economy. The game became known as the “Pork Pie Final” because of the amount of food that went to waste owing to the small number of visitors who came to Bolton. Meanwhile, over in Liverpool, things slowly got back to normal and the great Cup Final Scandal vanished into local folklore.

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