Football Alliance

The Football Alliance was an association football league in England which ran for three seasons, from 1889–90 to 1891–92.

Football Alliance
Founded1889
Folded1892
CountryEngland
Number of teams12

History

In 1888, the same year the Football League was founded, The Combination was established by clubs who had been excluded from the Football League, initiated by Crewe Alexandra secretary J. G. Hall, and announced at the Royal Hotel in Crewe. However, while the Football League quickly proved a success, the Combination lacked central organisation, with poor planning and unfulfilled fixtures, and failed to complete its first season, finishing in April 1889 without a winner.[1][2]

Several of The Combination founders, with others, then established the 12-strong Football Alliance, to begin in the 1889–90 season. The Alliance covered a similar area to the League, stretching from the English Midlands to the North West, but also further east in Sheffield, Grimsby and Sunderland. The president of the Football Alliance was John Holmes, also the president of The Wednesday who were the first champions winning fifteen games out of twenty-two.

At the end of the Alliance's first season, when Stoke dropped out of the Football League to be replaced by Sunderland, the Alliance accepted them as a new member. The following year, Stoke and Darwen, another Alliance club, were accepted into the Football League, taking its membership to 14 clubs.

In 1892 it was decided to merge the two leagues, and so the Football League Second Division was formed, consisting mostly of Football Alliance clubs. The existing League clubs, plus three of the strongest Alliance clubs, comprised the Football League First Division.

Member clubs

ClubAdmittedResigned
Ardwick189118922
Birmingham St George's18891892
Bootle188918922
Burton Swifts189118922
Crewe Alexandra188918922
Darwen188918911
Grimsby Town188918922
Lincoln City189118922
Long Eaton Rangers18891890
Newton Heath188918921
Nottingham Forest188918921
Small Heath188918922
Stoke189018911
Sunderland Albion18891891
The Wednesday188918921
Walsall Town Swifts188918922
Notes

1 Elected to Football League First Division
2 Elected to Football League Second Division

Football Alliance champions

Season Winners
1889–90The Wednesday
1890–91Stoke
1891–92Nottingham Forest

References

  1. Whittle, Paul (4 April 2020). "The Football Alliance: Teams Who Didn't Make the League". THE 1888 LETTER: Football Then And Now. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  2. Shury, Alan; Brian Landamore (2005) [2002]. "History of Newton Heath F.C.". The Definitive Newton Heath F.C. 'Definitive' Club Histories. with Allen Kristensen and Tony Brown (2nd ed.). Nottingham: SoccerData. p. 11. ISBN 1-899468-16-1.
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