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Let us begin when it all began with a character called Henry Norris, a London property developer. Norris was chairman of Fulham FC, but was aware that his club lacked the potential to take on the might of the northern and midland clubs who had dominated the The Football League since its inception. During 1910 he attempted to merge Fulham with another struggling club, Woolwich Arsenal, but the merger was opposed by the other London clubs and fell through.
Norris decided that he would have more control at Woolwich Arsenal, so he transfered his money south of the river and rescued the club when it went into liquidation. His investment was suitably rewarded in the 1912-13 season when they finished bottom of the league and were relegated to Division 2.
To increase the club's revenue, Norris decided to move from Plumstead to a more central location. He bought land next to Gillespie Road Tube station, a master stroke as it gave the club the advantage of the capital's public transport system and consequently a huge catchment area. Despite objections from Spurs and Clapton Orient, the League gave its approval to the move and The Arsenal kicked-off the 1913-14 season at their half-finished new ground.
The league positions at the end of the last pre-war season (1914-15) were:
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For the first post-war season (1919-20) the League decided to expand Division 1 to 22 clubs. In the past such expansions were effected by promoting clubs into the league and no relegations.
In a departure from the accepted practice, league president John McKenna of Liverpool (a good friend of one H. Norris) invited applications for Spurs' and Chelsea's positions. McKenna cited 'special reasons' why Chelsea should be elected unopposed (a court case proved that players had fixed the result of the Man. Utd. vs. Liverpool fixture which United had won and without those points United would have finished below Chelsea). Astonishingly the president then urged the meeting to vote for Arsenal for the spurious reason that they had been members of the League for longer then Spurs (true, but so had Wolves who were founder members and had finished above Arsenal). However, the committee did as they were told and Arsenal were elected to the top division and have been there ever since, the only club not to have earned the honour.
Spurs were promoted straight back as Division 2 champions and finished above The Arsenal in the following season. The rivalry has simmered nicely ever since.
Post Script: In 1927 Norris was censured by the FA for financial irregularities (sounds familiar) and lost the libel case he brought in response; it was effectively the end of his involvement with the game.
"They don't play your game, they play the attacking game." |
The principal source of this information is the 1985-86 edition of the centenary history of THFC 'And The Spurs Go Marching On' by Phil Soar published by Hamlyn in 1982, ISBN 0 600 5075 2. See pp213-218 for the full shocking tale.