Sunday 10 December 2017

859 Football League Centenary Tournament




First  viewed : 16  April  1988

This  was  a  weekend  football  festival  held  at  Wembley  to  celebrate  100  years  of  the  Football  League. The  League  decided  to  invite  16  teams  to  participate in  a  knockout  tournament  based  on  form  over  the  last  few  months  including  one  from  each  of  the  lower  divisions. This  had  the  unhappy  accident  of  excluding  the  four  biggest  London  clubs  with  a  consequent  effect  on  attendance. One  notable  absentee  was  Nottingham  Forest  manager  Brian  Clough  who  didn't  turn  up  to  see  his  side  in  action  on  the  Saturday.

The  undoubted  stars  were  Fourth  Division  Tranmere  Rovers  whose  qualifying  run  of  form  had  begun  with  a  6-1  thrashing  of  Rochdale  on  a  miserable  Friday  evening. Perhaps  helped  by  the  40  minute  format,  they  put  out  Wimbledon  and  Newcastle   on  their  run  to  the  semi-final  where  Forest  beat  them  on  penalties. A  majority  of  games  actually  went  to  penalties  in  the  opening  round.

With  only  four  teams  involved  on  the  Sunday, the  attendance  shrunk  to  a  miserable  17,000. It  boiled  down  to  a  60  minute  Final  between  Forest  and  Sheffield  Wednesday. With  the  atmosphere  akin  to  a  morgue, the  two  teams  played  the  most  boring  sterile  match  since  the  Germany v  Austria  stitch-up  in  1982. It  finished  0-0  and  Forest  won  on  penalties.

The  whole  thing  was  something  of  an  embarrassment  to  the  Football  League  and  it's  tempting  to  see  it  as  a  significant  milestone  on  the  road  to  the  formation  of  the  Premier  League  just  four  years  later



2 comments:

  1. Man United made the semis, though you'll struggle to find any records of our games in any official publication. I always get mixed up between this and the equally farcical "Football League Centenary Trophy" the following year.

    The late 80s really was the era of the "Waste of Time" tournament - see also the Screen Sports Super Cup and the Full Members' Trophy. You may be onto something by wondering if the big clubs began to question the judgement of the FL.

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  2. I suspect the attendances would have been even more dismal had United not qualified or made the semi's.

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