The Dawn of the Football League Quiz

Answer:

Although the Football Association, which served as the governing body of football, had founded the FA Cup in 1872, up to the mid 1880s there was still no set fixture list for clubs; outside the FA Cup competition, clubs generally arranged their own fixtures on an inter-county and friendly basis. However, in 1885, the Football Association, which had previously outlawed the practice, finally relented and allowed professionalism into the game. As a result, clubs, which now had to pay their players, sought ways to bring in more guaranteed income, and began looking at the idea of setting up league competitions, which would ensure a minimum number of fixtures.

In March 1888, William McGregor, a director of the Birmingham based football club Aston Villa, wrote to the club's committee, alongside the committees of five other clubs - Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, Stoke and West Bromwich Albion - suggesting the creation of a league competition. Representatives of the clubs met for the first time the same month at a hotel in London, while, at a second meeting in Manchester in April, the new organisation was formally founded, with a total of twelve members. The name initially proposed was the Association Football Union, although this was rejected as being to close to Rugby Football Union, with instead the name selected being The Football League.

The initial success of The Football League led to rival competitions being founded by other clubs who had not gained entry into the pioneering competition. One of these was called the Football Alliance, which was founded in 1889. This rival to The Football League ultimately lasted a total of three seasons until 1892. At that point, The Football League, which had expanded to 14 clubs that year, sought a merger with the Alliance, which led to the formation of a Second Division. This saw the majority of the clubs of the Football Alliance enter The Football League into its new division, while the existing division expanded again from 14 to 16 clubs through three of the Alliance sides - Newton Heath (later Manchester United), The Wednesday (later Sheffield Wednesday) and Nottingham Forest - also joining what was now known as the First Division (Darwen FC were reallocated to the Second Division).