A meeting called by William McGregor to…
March 1888 CE
The oldest such competition in world football, it will remain the top-level football league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top twenty-two clubs will split away to form the Premier League.
McGregor, a director of Birmingham-based Aston Villa, had been first to set out to bring some order to a chaotic world where clubs arranged their own fixtures, along with various cup competitions.
On 22 March 1888, he wrote to the committee of his own club, Aston Villa, as well as to those of Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, Stoke and West Bromwich Albion; suggesting the creation of a league competition that would provide a number of guaranteed fixtures for its member clubs each season.
His idea might have been based upon a description of a proposal for an early American college football league, publicized in the English media in 1887 which stated: "measures would be taken to form a new football league ... [consisting of] a schedule containing two championship games between every two colleges composing the league".
The first meeting is held at Anderton's Hotel in London on the eve of the FA Cup Final.
The Football League will be formally created and named in Manchester at a further meeting on April 17 at the Royal Hotel.
The name "Association Football Union" proposed by McGregor is felt too close to "Rugby Football Union".
Instead, "The Football League", proposed by Major William Sudell, representing Preston, will be quickly agreed upon.
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North Europe
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