Calling at Manchester Central

Back in 1931, in a closed meeting room at the Football League headquarters in Preston there was a monumental debate raging.

At the time there was no automatic promotion between the Non Leagues and the Football League. In fact the 88 team Football League was basically a closed shop, with no team ever “elected” to join the league at the annual end of season vote. The process used to be that any non league club could throw their hat into the ring to be elected as a new member club but it would require a majority vote from the Football League club chairman. And unsurprisingly they were a close knit group who didn’t like outsiders. In fact it wasn’t until 1951 that Workington became the first club to join the Football League in this way, at the expense of New Brighton. Occasionally, an incidence would occur when they found themselves a team short and they would send a telegram to a non league club and ask if they wanted to join the party.

You didn’t have to even prove you were a successful club to apply for election. Take the case of The Argonauts in 1928, who applied for entry to the league without ever actually playing a game. The one thing they had going for them, apart from having an eccentric chairman, was that they had agreed a lease to play at Wembley Stadium.

In the same year that the Argonauts were making their audacious bid, a new team was being formed in Manchester. Manchester Central were formed by Manchester City director, John Ayrton (at the time there were no rules about having a stake in more than one club), and John Iles, who saw an opportunity to utilise the Belle Vue Stadium, which he owned in the east part of the city, for more than just a weekly speedway meeting. In their first season they joined the Lancashire Combination League, finishing a disappointing seventh.

However, this didn’t stop Ayrton applying to take the club into the Football League at the end of their first season. Unsurprisingly their bid failed, alongside a bid from Prescot Cables.

In 1929/30 Central finished as runners up in the Combination and made another application for League status, but failed again, so too, did another bid from Prescot Cables. A third application was made by Central the following season, but they were rejected again. The 1931/32 season was just two months old when Wigan Borough were forced to resign from the Third Division North after they ran out of money. So faced with playing the league with one club short the Football League convened an emergency meeting and looked at who could immediately step up into the league. Up stepped Ayrton with a 34,000 stadium in one hand and a master plan in the other. He believed that Manchester Central was to be the next footballing force in the North West. The Football League committee were suitably impressed and offered them the vacant spot with immediate effect.

However, before a ball could be kicked both Manchester City and Manchester United raised an objection. This town ain’t big enough for the three of us, they cried. Despite United playing in the west of the city at Old Trafford, and City at Maine Road, they were worried of the influence Central could have on their very livelihoods. At that time United were a struggling 2nd division team who played in front of crowds of less than 27,000. So they put pressure on the league to re-think their decision.

No-one knows what went on in that Committee room at Preston, but whatever was said potentially changed the face of English football forever. Manchester Central’s invitation was withdrawn and despite Prescot Cables and Macclesfield Town applying to fill the vacancy, the league played with one less team until Mansfield Town could move the following season. The two Manchester clubs, in particular United, received significantly negative media coverage as a result.

The blow was enough to make Manchester Central realise that they could never prosper, and they continued on for a few more seasons in the Manchester Amateur League, before disbanding.

Despite the huge catchment area of East Manchester, the local area would do without a league club until, ironically, Manchester City moved into Eastlands in 2003, just over a mile away from the Belle Vue stadium

Belle Vue continued to host greyhound racing and speedway until it’s closure in 1987. For several years, it also became the home stadium of the famous amateur team, Northern Nomads, after they moved from Stalybridge in 1957.

Since that fateful day in 1931 the two Manchester clubs have gone on to win numerous league titles as well as cabinets of silverware across the globe. Today they are two of the richest clubs in the world. But what might have been if those fine gentlemen of the Football League on that October afternoon back in 1931 would have stuck to their guns?