An earlier feature on VINCIT examined the attempt to launch soccer at Park Avenue in 1895 and the first side in Bradford to compete in league football. The absence of a local competitive framework was one reason why the experiment was not successful and why it lasted only four years.

Ultimately, association football – that is soccer, as distinct from rugby football – did not make a breakthrough in Bradford or West Yorkshire until the twentieth century, notably with the formation of Bradford City AFC in 1903 which was the first club in the county to gain membership of the Football League.

The monopoly position of rugby in the nineteenth century owed much to its traditional popularity and the status of its clubs who controlled the sporting infrastructure by virtue of stadia development during the 1880s and 1890s. A major hurdle for any emergent association club with aspirations to compete at a senior level was to find a place to stage games. The financing of a new stadium from scratch represented a significant commitment, particularly alongside the assembly of a playing squad. The dilemma was that without the infrastructure, the chances of joining the Football League were slim and yet without membership of the Football League there was little chance of funding the expense in the absence of a benefactor.

Circumstances meant that rugby clubs were best placed to foster a soccer team through utilising existing resources which provided a crucial advantage. In 1895 when the Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds (rugby) football clubs diversified with the launch of soccer through new association football sections, it also meant that they could dictate the development of association football whilst denying any possibility of an emergent competitor.

In Bradford there was an additional constraint attributable to the physical geography of the town. For example, where could a new stadium have been developed in Bradford even if funding had been available. The shortage of available and affordable flat land that was not required for industry or housing had effectively crowded out the development of association football in the town. Quite literally there were few places for association football to be played at any level because all the available fields were already secured by rugby clubs.

Another resource consideration for a new-start football club was the availability of players who were actually familiar with the round ball code. The absence of a pool of talented players from which to recruit was an obstacle that persisted into the twentieth century and had implications for playing standards – a factor that also forced the reliance of Bradford City AFC upon transfer signings. For example, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that soccer was played in local schools, another area where rugby had monopoly control.

The lack of first hand familiarity with football was a challenge in itself. Although newspapers in West Yorkshire provided coverage of association football and there was a latent curiosity about the other code, in the absence of television few in West Yorkshire actually knew much about the round ball game and its rules. 

Hence if association football in West Yorkshire was to be a viable proposition at a professional level, not least to groom clubs capable of joining the Football League, it was imperative that a competitive framework existed to encourage public interest as well as to raise standards. A critical success factor therefore was membership of a league that would promote the round ball game and indeed the same issue has been relevant for the promotion of womens’ professional football in England this century.

West Yorkshire Association Football League, 1894-96

The formation of a West Yorkshire Association League in 1894 and the launch of Leeds AFC as founder members was a landmark event in the history of association football in West Yorkshire, influential in the formation of a soccer section at Park Avenue the following year.

The original competition had been confined to local sides and its bias towards Leeds districts confirmed that Leeds was originally the stronghold of soccer in West Yorkshire. However it was incongruous for Leeds AFC, based at Headingley, to be surrounded by the likes of Rothwell, Pontefract Garrison, Oulton or Altofts. Thus it was felt that the addition of other town clubs in 1895 – namely Bradford FC, Halifax and Huddersfield – with the status of established enclosures would provide the necessary civic rivalry for the competition to succeed.

In many ways the West Yorkshire League represents an interesting case study in launching a new sporting competition.  It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the promoters were naïve in what they considered necessary for the league to succeed: the impression is that they felt all that was necessary was to bring together a collection of teams from across the county.

The standard of play was generally acknowledged to be poor and public enthusiasm for the venture was always going to be tempered by the calibre of competitive rivalries. Fixtures between Bradford and Oulton, Pontefract Garrison or Rothwell were hardly the stuff to encourage interest and in the early years any rivalry between say, Bradford and Halifax would have owed more to rugby heritage. Neither was it possible to disguise the fact that the competition was a shallow imitation of the national Football League; it was peripheral at best and nor could it match the excitement and occasion of local rugby rivalries. In other words, it was a substandard product for the customer.

The formation of the West Yorkshire Football Association (WYFA) in 1896 was intended to provide greater impetus to the sport. Paradoxically, it withdrew support from the West Yorkshire League at the end of 1895/96 which therefore disappeared after only two seasons of existence. The reason cited was that the WYFA refused to constitute a competition whilst several of its constituent clubs would not form association sides – that is, organisations competing in the Northern Union including Manningham FC who were considered to have their own agenda.

The collapse of the league was unfortunate in that it prevented the association section at Park Avenue – ‘Bradford AFC’ – developing momentum and consolidating on the achievements of the club’s first season. It also represented a significant financial set back with receipts falling from £268 in 1895/96 to £156 in 1896/97 with a corresponding deficit of £185. Sadly the revenues never recovered and even in the Yorkshire League in 1897/98 amounted to only £173. My estimate is that average attendances were no more than two thousand in 1895/96 and less than a thousand by 1897/98. To put this into perspective, in 1895/96 the soccer revenues were less than one eighth those generated by rugby at Park Avenue. Not only that, the soccer gates were also skewed by a couple of high profile fixtures.

Notable is that Bradford AFC generated a surplus of £3 in 1897/98 which would suggest that operating costs were cut in half compared to the previous season. Those cost savings would have been achieved by reducing player payments, a measure that may explain the team’s poor performances. In the final season, 1898/99 the receipts had collapsed to only £80 and the average number of paying customers could not have been much more than seven hundred.

Yorkshire League, 1897-99

Whilst encouragement was given to the West Yorkshire Challenge Cup competition, the suspension of league competition in 1896 appears to have stemmed from a fall-out within the organisation about members of the WYFA who did not participate in the sport. Specifically, Northern Union clubs including Brighouse, Castleford and Manningham were members of the WYFA yet did not have teams. The WYFA leadership therefore appears to have taken the view that it was simply not possible to establish a meaningful and representative West Yorkshire league. As a consequence, in 1897/88 the WYFA co-ordinated with the Sheffield & Hallamshire FA to establish the Yorkshire League. A West Yorkshire League was revived in 1897/98 however to cater for junior sides including the Bradford AFC ‘A’ team.

The introduction of the Yorkshire League in 1897 was designed to provide higher-profile competition as well as raise standards by introducing West Yorkshire clubs to competition from South Yorkshire. Thus, the Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds clubs joined Hunslet to compete with the reserve teams of five South Yorkshire clubs – Sheffield United, The Wednesday, Doncaster Rovers, Mexborough and Barnsley St Peters – who were members of the Football and Midland Leagues

Before long the weakness of the new competition was becoming apparent in that it was only as strong as its weakest clubs. The West Yorkshire clubs were consistently struggling at the foot of the league and unable to provide much of a challenge to the South Yorkshire sides. At the end of 18997/98 all five of the West Yorkshire clubs finished in the bottom half of the league and the fact that they were unable to compete with the reserve teams of the South Yorkshire clubs only underlined the gulf in standards. This disparity impacted on the enthusiasm of both spectators and players and by the start of the 1898/99 season it was reported that Bradford FC struggled to raise a side. In 1898 Leeds AFC disbanded, faced with demands from its landlords at Headingley landlord for a rental contribution. Halifax similarly withdrew and in 1898/99 the two were replaced by Dewsbury (the soccer section had been formed by the rugby club in 1896) and Wombwell Town (who finished as champions). Additionally, Sheffield FC had replaced Barnsley St Peters.

As an entertainment product the Yorkshire League was no more appealing than the predecessor West Yorkshire League and there was an inevitability that it would not continue for long. At the end of the 1898/99 season the South Yorkshire clubs resigned to join a newly-formed South Yorkshire League. As Pullin observed, ‘their defection is not to be wondered at, for whilst they were undoubtedly assisting their weaker brethren north of Sheffield they were getting practically nothing in return.’ However, a rumoured attempt by Sheffield United to poach one of Hunslet’s leading players in 1898 suggests that the South Yorkshire clubs looked upon the Yorkshire League as a means to identify local talent.

The strongest West Yorkshire based side was routinely Hunslet AFC which can probably be explained by the fact that it was the longest established, originally formed in 1889 and founder members of the West Yorkshire League in 1894. Subsequent to their cup defeat at Park Avenue in December, 1895 it was claimed that Hunslet did not lose a cup game until February, 1902 and in that period won the West Yorkshire FA Cup four times in succession. After the eventual collapse of the reincarnated West Yorkshire League in 1900 Hunslet were invited to join the Sheffield & Hallamshire League which was a measure of their stature. In 1900, if you were going to bet on a West Yorkshire club achieving Football League status, it would have been Hunslet AFC.

Under the shadow of rugby

The collapse of the Yorkshire League after only two seasons in 1899 was followed by the collapse of the West Yorkshire League in 1900 which had managed no more than three seasons after being revived in 1897. By 1899 therefore the situation that existed in West Yorkshire with regards to association football was akin to the modern day experience of soccer in the USA. In both cases there was strong grass roots enthusiasm for the game, particularly at secondary school / college level (although corresponding womens football was distinctly undeveloped in West Yorkshire). In both cases there had been limited success with introducing senior leagues.

There was an inclination on the part of associationists to blame the Northern Union clubs for the plight of their sport but the Yorkshire rugby clubs had every reason to look upon association football as a competitive threat. Pullin recognised that if West Yorkshire was to achieve prominence in English soccer it would need the injection of monies to ensure that it was self-sufficient. Writing in the Yorkshire Evening Post on 2 September, 1899 he commented: ‘It is unfortunate that some of the best local clubs in the large towns should have got into the hands of the Rugby organisations, for without a doubt this step has been against the interests of those concerned in the ‘socker’ (sic) code.’

Later, on 23 September, 1899 Pullin wrote: ‘They say that although the Leeds, Bradford and Halifax clubs have abandoned ‘socker’ after an experiment, the failure has been, to a large extent, due to the half-hearted support that was given to the game. As a matter of fact, as has been previously pointed out in this column, it is a fact that ‘Rugger’ and ‘Socker’ cannot be run by one club side by side for the interests of the ‘socker’ team have always to be subservient to those of the Rugby fifteen. The only way to make an Association team a success in Leeds would be to secure a good ground in a central position and to have sufficient money behind the venture to ensure the responsible authorities against loss in securing the services of a really first-class eleven.’

At the time that Alfred Pullin was writing, the junior rugby clubs in Yorkshire were still bitter towards the seniors for the schism in 1895 and the financial predicament that they now found themselves in. Just as popular opinion was critical about what had happened to junior rugby after 1895 the Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds senior rugby clubs were similarly blamed for the impact that they had had upon the advancement of association football.

Soccer abandoned at Park Avenue

Despite growing grass roots enthusiasm for association football in Bradford (which contrasted to the relative apathy felt towards junior rugby), soccer was abandoned at Park Avenue. It seemed inexcusable and convinced critics that by acting according to self-interest, the senior clubs had not only failed to nurture rugby in West Yorkshire, but also association football. Whilst it is difficult to prove, it may go a long way to explain how the nascent Bradford City was successful in capturing public sympathies. When rugby was abandoned in 1903 there was no ambiguity about the commitment of the Manningham FC leadership to soccer.

The West Yorkshire FA believed that the Yorkshire League helped promote the game and valued the exposure to the South Yorkshire clubs. Its viability however had been questioned in April, 1898 and the venture was continued for another season in the hope that somehow things might improve. In this regard Bradford FC persisted and the decision to disband was not in isolation of what was happening elsewhere. At Huddersfield there was a similar situation and in December, 1899 it too struggled to raise a team. For reasons of cost saving Leeds and Halifax had also exited in 1898.

Associationists might argue that their code had been given no encouragement by rugby clubs but it was hardly to be expected otherwise that members of Bradford FC would contemplate rugby being undermined by its association rival. Exactly the same prejudice existed among rugby members about soccer in the 1890s as in 1882 and this played its part in the minimal investment afforded to the sport. In 1897/98 Halifax had similarly been denied signing (more) professional players and it was this sort of veto that effectively handicapped the West Yorkshire teams from matching those from South Yorkshire. However, even if such spending could be afforded (which was questionable at Park Avenue anyway) it would have been difficult to make an investment case in terms of what it would achieve. 

What could the clubs of Northern Union pedigree have done differently? Success in the Yorkshire League was hardly a blue ribbon achievement and it is unlikely that success in a national competition such as the FA Cup could be secured. In February, 1897 the West Yorkshire FA had requested the Football Association to stage an FA Cup semi-final in West Yorkshire to give the game a fillip but it is unclear whether any of the clubs made the effort to do so. Given that Aston Villa played Liverpool at Bramall Lane, Sheffield and Everton played Derby County at the Victoria Ground, Stoke it is not implausible that Park Avenue could have been adopted. I wonder if Bradford FC ever made the effort?

Grass roots interest

Undeniably the West Yorkshire clubs were handicapped by a dearth of local (amateur) talent. It is telling that Bradford AFC struggled to raise a team at a time when the sport was enjoying a boom in popularity. Why was this? The immediate suspicion is that of a disconnect between those involved with Bradford AFC and local players, possibly a throw-back to the accusations of elitism twenty years previously when team selection of Bradford FC at Park Avenue had been relatively exclusive and dominated by cliques and favouritism. However, this was not unique to Bradford with Huddersfield also reported to have struggled to raise a team in 1898. Maybe local enthusiasts failed to engage with the club out of a preference to play the game or watch their own friends do so. There is a good chance local sides were more entertaining than Bradford AFC and whereas a season ticket for Bradford AFC games cost 5s, I suspect that there was no charge to attend local soccer matches. My conclusion is that the public were just not attracted to attend county league football. Had the West Yorkshire League continued in 1896/97 and the Bradford FC side continued to be successful then possibly the enthusiasm could have been nurtured but it would still not have been sufficient to bridge the gap in talent with association clubs outside the county.

In practical terms the club may have lacked the means to select available talent. The boom in soccer participation was fairly recent and it would have been easier said than done to identify suitable recruits in the absence of established scouting networks. The club could hardly invite every enthusiast for a selection procedure. The reality was that the standard of play at a local level was actually pretty poor and there were few local players available to bridge the gap between junior football and the standard corresponding to that of Football League reservists. Indeed, this is why Halifax would have sought to engage professionals. Therefore, whilst association football was popular it didn’t guarantee the success of the county league.

The Yorkshire Evening Post of 3 January, 1903 questioned whether the standard of soccer was better than it had been four years before when Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, Castleford and Hunslet were playing: ‘Although in point of general excellence the game has undoubtedly advanced, we are of the opinion that the best five clubs in West Yorkshire today are unable to produce talent equal to that contained in the best clubs of a few years ago. The reason is easily explained. Years ago clubs were recruited from players who had already learnt the game before coming into the district, and could play good football, whereas at the present time a representative eleven is almost wholly made up of the home-grown article, possessing but a vague idea of the finer points of the game though want of an ideal.’

The Yorkshire (association) League was disbanded in the same year as the West Riding and West Yorkshire Cricket Leagues which had been launched in 1893. The failure of these competitions contrasted with the success of the Bradford & District Association League that was formed in 1899 and that of the Bradford Cricket League established in 1903.

If a generalisation is to be made, it seems that as far as soccer and cricket was concerned, local rivalries were far more attractive and emotionally engaging than those between town clubs. Why this was so is difficult to explain. After all, spectators could identify with civic rivalries in the Football League. I suspect that as far as soccer in West Yorkshire was concerned, the civic rivalries were a poor imitation of what people were familiar with in respect of rugby competition where the dynamics were longer established and where there was more pride at stake. It was therefore unrealistic to believe that rivalries could be generated after only four years with fluid league structures.

Another explanation is that levels of participation in cricket and soccer seem likely to have exceeded that in rugby which may have created the mindset that these were games to play rather than watch. With regards to association football in West Yorkshire, the players and recent converts to the game in the 1890s were also relatively young and hence more active. Local competition, by contrast to county competition, would have increased opportunities for active engagement and involvement. Again, at the local level, even if you were not playing yourself you may have had friends, neighbours or family members who played which commanded interest. The same ingredient had sustained local rugby clubs for so long and the transfer of enthusiasm to local soccer in the second half of the 1890s would have therefore made it all the more difficult for those (rugby) clubs to survive.

Lessons learned

The collapse of the football experiment at Park Avenue in 1899 was hardly surprising. In the first instance, the Bradford Cricket, Athletic & Football Club had been half-hearted in its formation of an association football section in 1895 and there was never a major commitment of resources in soccer which was also due to the financial constraints that existed. Yet neither could Bradford take encouragement from an absence of commitment to soccer elsewhere in West Yorkshire with the Leeds, Halifax and Huddersfield clubs withdrawing their support. In the final event, established rugby organisations were never likely to encourage a competitor to challenge the dominance of rugby and this betrayed the fact that their original dalliance with soccer in 1895 had more to do with securing a contingency option that later proved to be unnecessary.

The failure to establish a competitive and durable league structure proved fatal although a West Yorkshire League was always going to be a poor relation to the national Football League and a lesser product. At a local level a critical mass of competitors didn’t exist and neither was there a pyramid of junior clubs who could have been feeders in the development of local talent.

Take for example the fact that in 1897 there were only three other association clubs in Bradford in addition to the soccer section at Park Avenue – Bradford Spartans (est 1895), Bowling (1897), Airedale (1897). Ironically, attempts by junior rugby clubs to launch their own association football sections were undermined by the launch of that at Park Avenue.

By 1899 the number of local clubs had expanded to around two dozen but these were all of junior stature and the leading proponents competed in the Bradford Junior League. In March of that year the original members of the Bradford & District Football Association comprised Airedale, Pudsey, Park Chapel, Girlington, Clayton, St Andrew’s, Bowling, St Jude’s, Sedgefield, Bradford Wanderers, Moorland United, Frizinghall Juniors, West View, Park View, St Columba Athletic and Wesley Place.

Pullin himself commented that it was unrealistic to expect that the development of the game could be hot-housed by establishing (county) leagues. He also highlighted the financial difficulties of the soccer section at Bowling FC (members of the West Yorkshire League north division) that had been forced to disband. The club had been unable to afford travel expenses, struggled to attract crowds and was unable to raise a team. Another member of the West Yorkshire League, Featherstone AFC had disbanded in 1897, similarly as a consequence of financial difficulty. Alfred Pullin argued that Bowling had tried to run before it could walk and cited this as an example of the danger of league competition for smaller clubs. Whether it says more about Pullin’s dislike of commercialised sport and the inadequacy of financial management at Usher Street is a matter of debate. However, the losses of the association section represented a final blow for (the parent) Bowling FC who were wound up shortly after.

Had there been an FA Cup semi-final staged in Bradford or Leeds it could have provided a catalyst for public interest. Whilst a finger could be pointed at the Football Association for not actively supporting the proposal it is far from clear that any of the rugby clubs at whose ground the game would have been staged had any enthusiasm. Likewise had there been greater leadership of the West Yorkshire FA it is possible that more could have been achieved.

Collectively these were lessons that were learned ahead of the successful launch of Bradford City AFC in 1903 that enjoyed the benefit of active support from the Football League management committee in conjunction with the leadership of Manningham FC who were committed to adopt soccer. Other critical success factors – that had not existed previously – were the leadership of prominent association evangelists (referred to as ‘associationists’) such as John Brunt and James Whyte as well as the popularity of soccer at a grass roots level that had been encouraged by the B&DFA formed in 1899, the same year that the association section at Park Avenue was dissolved.

John Dewhirst