By John Dewhirst

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It is fascinating, albeit futile, to indulge in debate of how things might have turned out differently had history run a different course. With regards the history of professional football (association) in Bradford, the benefit of hindsight affords us the opportunity to consider alternate scenarios.

In the modern history of Bradford City AFC there remains the controversy about the nearly season of 1987/88 when a failure to strengthen the playing squad arguably cost promotion to Division One and the missed opportunity to consolidate at that level by the time the Premier League was launched in 1992. What if we had secured promotion in 1988? And then what if the club had been liquidated in 2004 and a phoenix had emerged? Or what if we’d defeated Millwall at Wembley in 2017? Invariably such debate has arisen in those all too frequent moments of despair and disappointment.

There have been key turning points in the history of both Bradford clubs that had a significant impact on their fortunes in succeeding decades. Bradford City AFC in particular was badly impacted by the outbreak of war in 1914 and 1939. Not only did wartime arrangements impact on the economics of football but hostilities also put a break on momentum. In the 1914 close season for example the club had increased its borrowings to invest heavily in team strengthening from which no benefit was derived and in 1939 there had been genuine optimism that City could successfully challenge for a return to the second division. Supporters at Park Avenue could also point to the leadership of their club in the late 1940s when the sale of star players resulted in the loss of second division status in 1950. Bradford thereby lost the opportunity to establish a major competitive advantage over its Valley Parade rivals that might have left it as the leading side in the post-war era.

In terms of the greatest seminal event for both clubs, surely this was the merger debate of 1907 and the decision of the Bradford City membership to reject amalgamation with Bradford FC and relocation to Park Avenue (the context of which is discussed in this feature on VINCIT about the history of BCAFC). The consequence of this was the emergence of a second professional football club in the district (Bradford Park Avenue) and the formation of a phoenix, Bradford Northern RFC who assumed the place of Bradford FC in the Northern Union which in turn resulted in the fragmentation of support and funding between the three competing entities. The obvious question to ponder is whether a single Bradford club at Park Avenue with a concentration of resources might have been able to establish itself as a leading side in the Football League.

The case for a single Bradford club likely to have been more successful than two rivals collectively is compelling but the events of 1907 were not necessarily the biggest missed opportunity in the history of Bradford football. The fact that a professional association football club was not established in the city until 1903 points to the disadvantage of timing. By that time the Football League – launched in 1888 – was already well-established and the existing hierarchy of clubs likewise. Of the twelve founder clubs, four are currently in the Premier League: Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton and Burnley and five play in the Championship: Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers, West Bromwich Albion, Derby County and Stoke City. (Bolton Wanderers in League One, Notts County in League Two and the original Accrington club are the remainder.) Notable is that in 1880 Burnley and Preston North End had adopted association football in preference to rugby union.

The tragedy for Bradford was that in 1888 its two senior football clubs were wedded to rugby and in 1895 Bradford FC and Manningham FC became founder members of the Northern Union (the predecessor of the Rugby League) in preference to rugby union. However, judged from the fact that within twelve and eight years respectively both had again converted to another code – association football – it could hardly have been described as a successful venture to persist with rugby.

I am tempted to see similarity with the position of Rangers and Celtic, trapped by geography and unable to compete with other leading clubs in Great Britain. The growth trajectory of the two Glasgow clubs has been severely curtailed by the isolation of Scottish football and neither has been able to realise the economic potential of its fan base. The same could be said of Bradford FC and Manningham FC in the nineteenth century in so far as their potential to be leading sports clubs on a national stage was ultimately curtailed by the fact that they played rugby – as opposed to association – football and that after 1895 they were stuck in a regional competition. Bradford FC went from being one of the wealthiest clubs in the country in 1890 to relative obscurity within ten years.

Had Bradford FC been established as an association club and been a member of the Football League much sooner I suspect that it would have been fairly successful. It seems a double tragedy that both Bradford clubs should have been trapped in this way; if history could have been rewritten the ideal outcome would have been that rugby football was played at one ground and association football at the other. The worst of both worlds was not only that the development of professional soccer was delayed in Bradford but that in 1907 it was hindered by the circumstances of the Bradford / Manningham rivalry which had been a product of rugby. For good reason it can be said that the heritage of rugby did no favours for association football in Bradford and indeed, during the 1880s and 1890s the local rugby establishment did its best to discourage the development of the round ball code in the district.

The growth in income of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers provides a good illustration of the economic forces in favour of soccer and the impact of joining the Football League in 1888. In 1887/88 their respective revenues were £821 and £1,424 compared to £3,481 at Park Avenue. Fast forward to 1892/93 and that had increased to £4,167 and £4,136 respectively whereas that of Bradford FC was £3,302. In 1897/98 it had grown to £5,522 and £5,431 but at Park Avenue it had fallen to £2,602. During the nine remaining seasons before conversion to association football, the average annual Bradford FC income was £3,200 – in other words, by the end of the nineteenth century it had already been left behind and stagnated. However, the marginalisation of rugby had occurred long before the split of 1895 and the formation of the Northern Union, arising from the formation of the Football League in 1888.

It is hardly difficult to work out why the differentials should have existed. For a start, Wolves and Blackburn had the monopoly of the Football League franchise in their towns (which were smaller than Bradford) and did not compete with a town rival. Furthermore, soccer was far more popular. Between them, the two Sheffield clubs generated aggregate income of £12,400 in 1897/98 – nearly three times the aggregate of Bradford FC and Manningham FC. The Northern Union was also disadvantaged by its regional confines. Whilst it needed a critical mass of clubs to provide a viable competition, too many clubs only diluted the financial rewards because of the limited catchment.

The Northern Union could never match the economic potential of soccer and the decision of Manningham FC and Bradford FC to eventually abandon rugby reflected this. Had conversion to soccer come much sooner (at Park Avenue) I am convinced that Bradford would have been known as a leading centre of the game in this country.

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Previously published on VINCIT by the same author an alternative history of BCAFC, 1903-2023: What would the Founders say?

John Dewhirst is author of ROOM AT THE TOP and LIFE AT THE TOP, volumes in the BANTAMSPAST History Revisited series that tell the story of the development of professional sport in Bradford.

You can find other features on the history of Bradford sport on this website – follow the links at the top of the page. Contributions welcome.