Everton have won the top-flight title 9 times. However, they could easily have had another one under their belt. Bad judgement, bad weather and bad luck ended up costing Everton dearly.
On November 26th, 1904, Everton were playing newly-promoted Woolwich Arsenal at the Manor Ground. There was speculation whether the match would go ahead because it was very foggy. The fans and the players could hardly see a thing, and the ground was very slippery. The match, logically, could not be played. But it went ahead regardless.
Around 13,000 fans watched the match (to the best of their ability). Arsenal took the lead thanks to goal from future Everton player Tim Coleman after 10 minutes. Everton bounced back with Sandy Young scoring the equaliser 59 seconds later. Harold Hardman then scored a few minutes later and Everton went into half-time with a 2-1 lead. But the further the game went on, the thicker the fog became.
The game was played in a fog, and though at the commencement the varying stages of the contest could be followed with little difficulty, it soon became doubtful as to whether the game would be finished or not. As matters eventuated, the fog increased in density, so much so that when the last quarter of an hour was reached, it was quite impossible for the spectators to follow the run of the game.
Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury
On the 75th minute, Sandy Young headed in a third for Everton. But after the goal was scored, Arsenal captain Jimmy Jackson approached the referee Frederick Bye and talked about the “increasing darkness”, implying that the match shouldn’t continue. Bye then consulted the linesmen, and they came to mutual decision to abandon the game. Frederick Bye, who in the previous month saved a school pupil from drowning, went from hero to zero.
Everton were, unsurprisingly, furious with the decision.
The Everton players and officials were very indignant at the referee’s action, and the visitors’ secretary [Will Cuff] and a number of their directors walked onto the field and waited until time was up. They complained that the referee stopped the game prematurely, but it was admitted by all that he must have stopped it at least five minutes before full time had expired.
London Daily News
The annoyance with the decision was shown in the club’s programme.
The Everton players and directors were welcomed in London by a special sample of the green log for which the metropolis is noted, and which robbed them of the reward of a well-deserved victory. What is most annoying about the affair, is that the fog did not necessarily interfere with the proceedings at Woolwich, until about fifteen minutes from time, when Everton had their opponents’ guns pretty well spiked. Two points were in their possession as surely as it is possible to be certain about anything in football, and a more tantalising experience it is difficult to imagine. Of course, the game has to be completely replayed; and the gunners really ought to fire a salute in honour of their friend, the fog-fiend.
The Everton and Liverpool Official Match Programme
The London Daily News criticised Bye’s performance in the abandoned match.
Mr Bye, however, might have terminated the game a few minutes after the interval without displeasing an impartial spectator. Many of his decisions were faulty in consequence of his being unable to properly follow the play. On one occasion, he gave [William] McLoughlin, of Everton, offside when he had three opponents in front of him, and more than once he allowed forwards to go on when they were palpably offside to the spectators who happened to be in a line with them.
It was obvious that Frederick Bye’s decision to allow the game to be played was a disastrous decision. But what happened in the replay made it a lot worse.
The two met each other again at the Manor Ground on April 22nd, 1905 – over two weeks after their Goodison meeting, which Everton won 1-0. At that time, Everton were top of the First Division, one point ahead of their nearest rivals, Newcastle United and Manchester City. Everton took the lead after a Jimmy Settle penalty. However, Arsenal bounced back to win 2-1 courtesy of a goal from Andy Ducat and another five minutes from full-time by Charlie Sattherthwaite. Everton ended up with nothing, robbing them of two points. And to make matters worse, Everton eventually lost the First Division title to Newcastle United by ONE point. If the game hadn’t been abandoned, Everton would have been champions.
It just wasn’t meant to be for Everton. However, after what happened a couple of weeks prior to the abandoned match, luck was never on Everton’s side.
Nowadays, footballers leaving clubs for big money is commonplace. However, it was a novelty in the turn of the 1950s. A few Everton players were linked with a move to Colombian team Millonarios, who had future Real Madrid star Alfredo di Stefano scoring goals left, right and centre for them. Most refused, one was on the fence, and the other moved and regretted it.
In 1949, a Colombian football association called DIMAYOR broke away from FIFA following a dispute with an amateur football association called Adefutbol. Colombian football was newly professional at the time and DIMAYOR to catch up with the likes of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay by creating their own league, which Adefutbol disagreed with. Because of this breakaway, the Colombian national football team was banned from all international competitions.
The league was helped by the influx of Argentina-based footballers after they went on strike over pay demands. Over time, players from other countries joined the independent Colombian league, commonly referred to as “El Dorado”, including several World Cup winners. Players from England also joined the league with a couple of Stoke players and a Manchester United player joining Santa Fe. Another significant factor which led to players moving to El Dorado was money. Millonarios and Santa Fe were offering players in the region of £100-£150 per month. By comparison, the maximum British footballers can be paid monthly at the time was around £52.
Millonarios were the most favourable team at the time. In the Colombian football league’s first season as “El Dorado”, Millonarios won the league title on goal difference. They soon became known as the “Ballet Azul” because of their style of play and their blue kit. After successfully signing Hearts striker Bobby Flavell and their failure to tempt Billy Liddell away from the red half of Liverpool, they had their eyes on the blue half of Liverpool.
In all, Millonarios were keen on signing five Everton players.
Ted Buckle was one of the players but a move was swiftly off the table as it was reported that he was having a chat with manager Cliff Britton about moving house from Manchester to Merseyside with his family. Buckle also said he didn’t receive an offer from the Colombian side.
Millonarios offered Jack Humphreys a £100 per month deal with a £4,000 signing-on fee, but he refused, telling Britton he wasn’t interested.
Harry Catterick declined a deal, but he took an interest in the move. He said that he “couldn’t commit himself until a more definite offer was forthcoming.” Two Millonarios representatives had a chat with Catterick in London. Catterick said:
If nothing materalises, I shall re-sign for Everton. It will have to be a good offer to induce me to leave a club of Everton’s standing. They have shown me every consideration and although I am in football for my livelihood, I want to show the same consideration to them.
The other two will be talked out in more detail later.
Another interesting thing about this story was that the agent who has arranged all these deals and tried to persuade British footballers to move to Colombia was former Everton striker Jock Dodds, even though he was still a Lincoln player at the time.
Jock Dodds, the ex-Everton and Scottish international centre-forward, who revealed at his home in Blackpool during the week-end that he is acting as an official agent of the Millionarios in this country, stated that the last day for signing-on for players in Colombia is June 12. Telegrams showered on Dodds today, 30 being delivered to him before noon. The correspondents were footballers whom he described.
Liverpool Evening Express
He once claimed he had a list of over 250 players who were prepared to move to Colombia. He was a bit of a sneaky agent as well as it turned out that all the deals he made were illegal.
Rule 67 states – “Any club, player or authorised agent guilty, directly or indirectly, of inducing or attempting to induce a player of another league club to leave for any purpose whatsoever the club for which he registered, shall be deemed guilty of misconduct and be liable to be expelled, fined or dealt with as the management committee may think fit.”
Nottingham Evening Post
Following his exploitative dealings, he was expelled from all footballing activities.
It is the end of the story. When nearly a month ago, I was warned that the disclosure of my name as the Millionarios secret agent would probably finish me in the game, I said: “I will take whatever is coming.” I will take it now.
Gloucester Citizen
His expulsion was rescinded following a successful appeal.
Back to the remaining two Everton players. One of which is Jack Hedley. When rumours of Hedley soon began to go rife, he was on holiday in his native Tyneside. Cliff Britton said that there was no indication that Hedley would be joining Millonarios. However, the Liverpool Evening Express discovered that a flight to Bogota was booked under Hedley’s name at Prestwick Airport in Glasgow. This gave a strong indication that a deal was agreed, much to Everton’s surprise. The club didn’t have any idea at all about the supposedly done deal. This also surprised Jack Hedley’s father, who said he had no idea of any negotiations that had taken place nor did he know about the flight.
Following several attempts to avoid the limelight, Jack Hedley finally spoke about the speculation the day before his rumoured flight to Bogota.
[Hedley] said that nobody had negotiated with him in this country. He had three cables direct from Colombia, but had not made up his mind whether to go or not, despite the fact than an air passage is booked for him tomorrow night. He added that he was still giving some thought to his club, but that he could earn from the offer more than two years than he would in 12 years playing for Everton. Hedley said he had yet to be inoculated and vaccinated if he goes, and that he has to pick up his visa from the Colombian consul on his way to Prestwick.
Liverpool Evening Express
Hedley then went to Bogota, and returned a week later “bitterly disillusioned” alongside Swansea defender Roy Paul. The grass was nowhere near greener on Colombia’s side.
They said that after an initial promise to play on a two-year contract for £7,000 sterling between them, the Millionarios club tried to get them to sign a contract at a considerably lowly figure. When they refused to sign, the club raised all kinds of obstacles to prevent them from signing with the Santa Fe club, which had made them an attractive offer. Local players disliked them and they felt that British players were not welcome there. They alleged that an attempt was made to get them to sign a contract under the guise that they were signing a release for publication of photographs which had taken of them. They did not sign.
Liverpool Evening Express
Jack Hedley was hoping he would get away with his escapades:
I shall wait a move from them, but if nothing happens, I shall report for training as usual on July 24. I played no football, nor did I sign a contract in South America, and I am taking the view that I may be in the clear in regarding the trip as a holiday.
Liverpool Daily Post
He did not train on July 24th. He came down with a convenient bout of tonsillitis and stayed at home in the north-east. When he recovered a week later, he didn’t return to Liverpool and was yet to sign a new contract at Everton. He didn’t and the Wallsend wanderer joined Sunderland instead.
While one Everton player thought better to not move to Colombia, another made a regrettable decision – Billy Higgins.
When offered the chance to play for Millonarios, Billy Higgins jumped to the opportunity and left his home in New Ferry to catch a flight to Bogota. An hour before he left his home, Everton sent Higgins a letter offering him a contract for next season after initially putting him on the transfer list. However, the offer came too late as Higgins had already had everything arranged for a move to Colombia. He was hopeful for a successful future.
I hope I shall make good over there. I know it is a big step and much will depend on the conditions I find in Colombia. I shall do my best, and with the playing experience I have had here, plus coaching experience under the Lancashire and Cheshire FA’s, I feel I can make the grade all right.
In any case, I am only going to look around, and will not make up my mind until I get there.
Liverpool Echo
He subsequently joined Millonarios in May, reporting on a deal with a £1,000 signing-on fee and £120 per month, with bonuses of £10 per win and £3 per draw. Upon signing, he was promised a house for his family. However, he soon came to realise that not all was what it seemed.
When Jack Hedley and Roy Paul came to Bogota, they met Billy Higgins. When they returned to England, they said Higgins was very unhappy in Colombia and if he had the opportunity to get out of his contract, he would come back home immediately. “Ranger” from the Liverpool Echo said something similar after a letter Higgins sent to a friend.
I have a letter from Billy Higgins this week which throws a blinding light on the Bogota business, and should make any player who has a lingering desire to “have a go” there think twice before taking the plunge. Reading between the lines, Higgins is a very disillusioned young man, who realises now, as he said recently in a letter to another friend of his here, that he didn’t know before how well off he was when with Everton.
I was afraid this would happen. That was why I did everything I could to persuade him not to go. But when one is young one is ready for adventure. I am sorry it has not worked out according to expectations. All that glitters in Bogota isn’t gold.
“After being treated as we were back home,” Higgins writes, “It has been a big blow coming here, I know the lads in England have their little grumbles, but to me, now they seem very petty. I have had an awful lot of worry. There are two words here that seem to ‘mañana’ and ‘momentico’, which means ‘tomorrow’ and ‘just a moment’. Each time you ask to see the directors, you are met with this. Bobby Flavell and I waited nearly a fortnight to get two minor points settled.
Back home, they do at least have a manager to supervise. Here it can be anybody from a director to a bus driver. That is no exaggeration. Flavell and I have been left behind and missed training half a dozen times because the bus driver did not bother to call for us, as he is supposed to do!
The other week we were playing a match about ten miles away, and went by bus. The game was played with the sun blazing down, and we ended up in a lather of sweat. There were no showers or baths at the ground and when we went to join the bus, it had gone. We all had to start walking along the road in our gear, along with the crowd, with scores of urchins pulling at our shirts.
After we had been walking about a mile, the rest of the players jumped on a contractor’s lorry. Obviously they had sampled this before. Bobby and I eventually managed to thumb a lift back to the hotel.”
Even though the money looked far too good to refuse, Higgins was ironically in financial despair.
Higgins tells me that although he and his wife and two young children have a lovely flat, with all modern conveniences, the terrific cost of living takes the cream off the high wages.
“We have to watch every penny of our money,” he says, “Particularly when we don’t get a bonus. You will probably have guessed by now that I am not particularly happy. Having taken the plunge, however, I was quite prepared to stick it out until I was told I would have to pay the passages from England of my two children.”
That must have been a nasty blow for him, because he had been led to expect all his family’s expenses would be paid. Worse was to follow when he was told that the balance of the signing-on fee was “not in order.” I don’t know how much he has had of what was originally promised him, but I believe it is only a comparatively small proportion.
Even worse for Higgins was if his contract was eventually terminated and he were to return to England, he would get into a lot of trouble with the FA and Football League because he had joined Millonarios two months before his contract at Everton had expired. Under Football League rules, a player who was abroad without permission from his contracted club would very likely be refused to join another Football League club. If the FA threw the book at him, it was likely he could not play for the non-league teams either because Higgins did not receive clearance from the FA.
His contract was terminated, much to Billy Higgins’ relief. He returned to England 5 months after joining Millonarios. Upon his return, he was banned from playing for a Football League club, and virtually penniless and homeless.
[Higgins] returned with £19 and with no home to take his wife and two young children. They stayed the night in a Liverpool hotel.
“But we can’t stay here indefinitely – it’s much too dear,” Higgins said. “We shall have to look for some cheaper accommodation until I see how I stand regarding my football career. Things at Bogota did not turn out as I expected. The streets were certainly not paved with gold. The cost of living was much too high and we spent every penny.”
“I am glad it’s now all over, and it’s certainly good to be back in Liverpool.”
An Everton supporter, having heard of Higgins plight on his return, has offered to allow him the use of a cottage in North Wales as a temporary home.
Liverpool Daily Post
Higgins’ first task to rebuild his football career, and his life, was to lift his suspension. He wanted to play for Everton, especially as he was still on Everton’s retained players list. He was still technically an Everton player, but for how much longer?
The FA and the Football League made their decision and it was decided that this suspension would end on November 30th. Billy Higgins had a lucky escape and can play football again. On the matter of whether he will stay at Everton, Cliff Britton referred to Jack Hedley, who almost immediately left Everton when he returned from Colombia, hinting that Higgins’ Everton career was over.
Following talks with Luton and Sheffield Wednesday, Everton eventually agreed a deal with non-league Welsh side Bangor City for Billy Higgins. He made his debut for them two days after his suspension was lifted and scored in a 2-1 defeat to Runcorn in front of 2,989 fans. He stayed at Bangor City for nearly three years. Although his spell in Wales was not without incident. In February 1952, he was “kidnapped” and held for ransom with the head of BBC in North Wales as part of a prank by a group of university students on what was their “rag day” just before a league match against Wellington. He eventually made it to the game and scored in a 2-2 draw. The ransom was for the students’ tuberculosis and silicosis relief fund but it was not paid.
He left Bangor City to become player-manager of Devon-based club Bideford Town in July 1953. He then became player-manager of Canterbury City the following year. He resigned from the Kent club in December 1957 and joined Ramsgate Athletic as only a player the following month. He left Ramsgate to become manager of Herne Bay in April 1959. He resigned from Herne Bay eight months later to return to Canterbury City, where he ended his footballing career. While he was in the South, he became a publican and was manager of the Imperial Hotel in Canterbury for 25 years. He died at his hotel on 23rd March 1981 at the age of 57.
In-between his return to England and his move to Bangor City, Billy Higgins did a series of interviews with the Liverpool Echo about his Colombian hell.
Updated on 16th July 2021.
October 14th, 1950 - Liverpool Echo
Billy Higgins talks about his regret in moving to Colombia, the atrocious conditions, and the severe lack of sportsmanship in Colombian football.
They say the young learn by experience, at that, thinking I knew as much as the next fellow, I am not in that mood today. My experience has been brought in a dear school, but I thrust it be a warning to any other British footballer who may feel attracted by apparently tempting offers from abroad. The old song used to say that "all took me all my time to make ends that glitter is not gold." You can paraphrase that and say with equal-truth that the seemingly fabulous salaries to be earned in Colombian football do not mean that at the end of the month you will be able to rattle a pocketful of surplus cash. It took me all my time to make ends meet. I have finished my football wanderings. You can have Bogota, Bulgaria or Bechuanaland for all I care. Just let me have good old England, I ask for nothing more. Never before in my 26 years have I been so glad to see England as I was when the Isle of Wight loomed up on the horizon last Thursday morning as the Queen Elizabeth made her majestic way across the Channel from Cherbourg. I did a bit of travelling during my six years in the Navy. Never was a homecoming so much looked forward to as this. No matter what the future holds for me, I won’t be tempted to leave England again in a hurry – or at all. Naturally, I am a bit anxious to know what action the F.A. and the Football League are likely to take in my case. Tomorrow [on October 15th], I shall write asking for reinstatement, I am hopeful that the governing body will temper justice with mercy as they have invariably done with offenders against football laws in the past. I can only await the verdict. The sooner it is over, the better.
My own personal problems, however, are of minor consideration. I shall have to face the music, and I am ready to do so. I know that what readers are most concerned about is to get the low-down on football as it is in Colombia, I can give you that from bitter experience. Six months ago, all I knew of Bogota was that it is some thousands of miles away and was several thousand feet up on top of a mountain range. Today, I could almost write a book about it. Take it from me, Bogota is no football paradise, even for a player on top salary and drawing big bonuses. The money sounds tremendous, whether you say it quickly or slowly, but the high cost of living skims the cream off it. It takes anybody with a family all his time to make ends meet. You get little chance to save anything for a rainy day. I shall go into that aspect of living in Colombia, however, in a later article. For the time being, let us keep strictly to football affairs.
First and foremost, the playing conditions out yonder are almost unbelievable to those with a knowledge of English football. You never saw anything in your life like a Colombian club’s dressing room immediately after a match. It is worse than a Barnum and Bailey circus. I first experienced it after the match in which Neil Franklin and George Mountfield made their debut for Sante Fe. Naturally, I wanted to go along and have a word with them as soon as the game was over. When I was shown into the dressing-room I stood transfixed with amazement. It was crowded from door to door with chinos (urchins), who were chattering away fifty to the dozen, swarming round the players, climbing on their knees and shoulders and generally turning the place into pandemonium. Franklin and Mountford looked the picture of misery, although they were endeavouring to put a good face on it. "This," I thought, "must be a special occasion. Surely it can’t be like this always." I soon found out my mistake. It is always like that. There is no attempt at discipline. The dressing rooms are free to all and sundry – and don’t let the youngsters take advantage of it! You cannot imagine any English club, even the most humble amateur side, standing for that sort of thing. This was anything but a happy introduction to Colombian football, but worse was to come. When the crowd had at last thinned out, I inspected the arrangements for the players and got another nasty shock.
Although most of you will not have been behind the scenes in English dressing rooms, I can tell you that the accommodation is first class. Our First Division clubs here have baths capable of taking a dozen or more players at a time, smaller individual baths, plenty of hot water, well-equipped medical rooms, experienced trainers and, in short, everything for comfort and convenience. I never saw a dressing room in Colombia which had more than a table, sometimes an odd chair and perhaps a couple of battered tin lockers. There were not even pegs on which to hang your clothes. You just laid them out; as best you could on the bench. Probably that is the reason why most players out there go to the match from their homes with their football togs underneath a pair of old flannel bags and a sport jacket as they used to do in this country, so I am told, half a century ago. The three leading clubs in Bogota – Sante Fe, Millionarios and University – have no ground of their own. They play on a pitch belonging to the municipality. The dressing rooms have no bath of any description, and only two cold showers. Hot water is not provided at all. Worse than that, if you want a shower, you must not only bring your own soap and towel, but be prepared to take your swill-down surrounded by a grinning and gesticulating crowd of admiring urchins. There is just about as much privacy as you get on Blackpool sands on August Bank Holiday. I know it sounds incredible, but that is the strict truth. If you are prepared to risk the peep show, you must also be prepared for an inadequate supply of water. I have known the water supply to go off completely at times. At some grounds, even these primitive arrangements are conspicuous by their absence. I have played when there has been no facility to have a wash after the match.
At Goodison Park, our dressing rooms were always kept in spick and span conditions. They were swept out daily. In Colombia, nobody worries about cleanliness. It was nothing unusual to go back for training on Tuesday and find the room exactly as we had left it on Sunday. After it had been overrun by scores of enthusiastic youngsters, you can imagine what a state it was in. Having some idea of the Latin temperament, I was prepared for games out there to be pretty tough. I expected occasional outbursts of temper and fisticuffs, but never in my wildest dreams did I visualize anything like what takes place. Often enough, I saw anything up to a dozen players come to blows on the field at one time. When once two opponents squared up, the others quickly dashed in, and before you can wink an eyelid, they are going at it hammer and tongs. For instance, in the game in which Franklin and Mountfield made their debut, there were three periods of something like five minutes each when the game was completely held up. During one of these, every single player except the two Englishmen was engaged in actual fights or conducting heated arguments with opponents. Even the two goalkeepers ran to the centre circle and had a go! They were not going to be left out. The referee, aided by the armed policemen along the touchlines, eventually managed to restore order and the game continued.
October 21st, 1950 - Liverpool Echo
Billy Higgins talks about why he moved to Colombia, the language barriers, and the Colombian crowd.
It first started after I played centre forward against Middlesbrough on December 11th. I had a good game that day, and shortly afterwards was approached by an agent from Bogota. He said he could probably get me fixed up with the University Club there if I would like to take the plunge. This man was formerly a Merseyside resident now in business in Bogota, who was in this country on holiday. He painted the prospects very glowingly. I was led to believe that Bogota was the football player’s Eldorado, that money could be picked up easily, and that the cost of living was not a great deal higher than this country. It all sounded tempting but as this agent was not in a position to make a concrete offer, I soon forgot all about it. Some weeks after I learned that he had gone back to Bogota. That’s that. I thought not expecting to hear anything further. A little later however, I had an air mail letter from him saying he was empowered to offer me terms on behalf of the Millionarios club. These included a signing-on fee of £2,000 and a monthly wage equivalent to £135, bonuses of £10 for a win and £2 for a draw, and other perks. I thought it over for a while, and wrote back, declining mainly because I did not want to be parted from my family. Then I received a further offer, stepping up the signing on fee to £8,000. Even then, I was undecided and was on the point of refusing again when something happened which made me change my mind. This was the attitude of the crowd at Goodison Park when I played centre forward in the match against West Bromwich Albion, which we lost 2-1. Nobody known better that I that I had a shocking game that day. Nothing I tried came off. The harder I struggled, the more the run of the ball was against me. I just couldn’t do a thing right and a section of the spectators were not slow to show their disapproval. I’m not blaming them for that, but was very discouraging, especially as I was genuinely trying my level best and was bursting to make good in a big way. I was very down in the dumps over the weekend and finally decided to ask Everton to put me on the transfer list. I felt I might do better with some other club. Mr. Cliff Britton was very considerable. He talked to me in a father way, told me not to worry. Everything would come out all right in the end, he said. Although he tried hard to cheer me up, I felt the best thing would be to get away.
I didn’t make that decision without careful thought. I had been at Everton since I was a youngster, joining when I was 15 as an amateur and had hitherto been very happy most of the time. The only previous occasion I had wanted to go on the transfer list was about three years previously. Before asking the club, however, I consulted the Echo Sports Editor ["Ranger"], who gave me some sound advice, and eventually talked me into a happier frame of mind. I wish I had also listened to him before going to Bogota. Again, "Ranger" did his best to dissuade me. He put all the conceivable snags before me – most of which later developed while I was out there – but I was so browned off and discouraged that I paid no heed. The spirit of adventure was calling. Eventually, I accepted the Millionarios club’s offer and should have travelled on the same plane as Franklin and Mountford, though at that time, I had no idea they were going out. The reason I delayed my departure for four days was that "Ranger" persuaded me not to leave until I had got a cabled guarantee that my passenger would be paid back home whenever I wanted it. I cabled asking for it, but got no replay. Despite this, I decided to take a chance and began packing. If I’d only known what I was heading for; I should have at once unpacked quicker than I packed. It’s a good job the future is hidden from us - it saves an awful lot of worry! The trip by air was quite an experience, even if I didn’t get long enough in New York to see anything bar a few skyscrapers. But when I arrived at Bogota, I got my first setback. It was raining like the dickens – and when it rains there, it does rain. Not like the fairly gentle stuff we get here. It seems literally to come down in bucketfuls with drops the size of a half-a-crown. The whole place seemed desolate and dreary.
"Never mind," I thought, "It will be all right when I get to the club headquarters." I don’t know quite what I had expected to find but certainly something pretty big and imposing like Goodison Park or Anfield, with a cheery atmosphere, cozy dressing rooms, handsome baths and appointments, and maybe even the red carpet down to welcome the stranger from a strange land. What a hope! The welcoming party of directors, not one of whom could speak a word of English, bundled me in a cab and away we went. We pulled up outside an ordinary house, somewhat similar to what you would expect to see in England, as the home of a working lads club and just about as dismal looking. I was ushered into a room in which several folk whom I learned afterwards were Millionarios players, were listening to the wireless commentary on the away match between Millionarios and Cali. At the airport, the interpreting had been done by the son of the man who had conducted the negotiations with me on behalf of the Millionarios club. Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived at the clubroom, he had to leave, so there I was, landed in the midst of a motley group of Argentinians and Colombians, players and directors without being able to exchange a single word with any of them. You can imagine that it wasn’t a particularly cheery introduction to a new life. I felt like a fish out of water as I hung about, vainly trying to get some idea of how the broadcast was going to watching the reactions of the listeners. At last, it was over, and by signs and gesticulations, it was conveyed to me that it was time I went along to my hotel. Did I say "hotel"? Actually, they call it a pension, but if you saw the same place in Blackpool, you would call it a boarding house – and only a second rate at that. It was certainly nothing like what I had anticipated.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled travelling about with Everton and staying in the best hotels. I had now come down to earth with a vengeance. The pension might not be up to what I had dreamed of, but the price was. I was told later it had cost the club £18 for the five days I was there, at the end of which time, I went for a while to stop with an Australian engineer. It was a treat to talk to someone who understood English. But to get back to my first day. After dumping my bags in my room, I was taken to the municipal compin (ground) which is shared by Santa Fe, Millionarios and the University club, to see the big game of the day. There I got another shock. It was the match in which Franklin and Mountford were making their initial appearance and there was an excited mob of folk seething round the entrance in complete and glorious disorder, pushing and shoving like a rugby scrum. The few police who were about didn’t seem to take any notice and we literally had to force our way through the crowd to get to the players entrance. Several times I thought my coat was going to be torn of my back. At last we made it, almost gasping for breath.
But the day’s disillusionment was far from being over. When we got on the stand, I saw there was a huge wire fence all the way round the ditch about 12 to 14 feet high. I didn’t need two guesses as to why it was there. The interpreter confirmed my worst fears. "Yes," he said, "that is to keep the spectators from invading the pitch or throwing missiles at the players." "Nice sort of sportsmen they must be," I thought – but didn’t say it out loud. I discovered later that even this fence does not keep the more determined spectators off the field. How they get over goodness only knows but they did. Sometimes a dozen or so hardy spirits scale the wire and dash on the field to take part in the free fights which so often arise in needle matches. Nobody seems to worry very much about it. It is all accepted as part and parcel of Colombian football. But you can easily imagine that it isn’t very much to the taste of English folk. Taking my eyes off the fence, I discovered that there was an armed policeman, complete with rifle and ammunition every few yards along the touchline right around the field. "This place gets more matey every minute," I thought – but again, I didn’t say it out loud.
I have never seen or heard of a policeman having fired his rifle. I don’t even know whether they are loaned during the match. I have, however, seen them using the butts to dig recalcitrant spectators in the small of the back when they refuse to leave the field. Sometimes they are used in a similar way to separate players who have got to blows and won’t listen to the referee. Prior to the big match, a boy’s game occupied the waiting time. After about 45 minutes of this, the players at last came onto the field. You never saw such a fuss in all your life. They dashed about one touchline to the other waving to the crowd and shouting remarks which, obviously, I couldn’t understand. The crowd also cheering frantically scene was indescribable. This went on for several minutes, what time fully a score of photographers were darting about taking snaps of all and sundry. During all this, Franklin and Mountford, who had certainly had a "rousing reception", stood bewitched and bewildered, looking as though they didn’t know whether they were on their heads or their heels. No wonder! At last, the hubbub died down and the game began. And what a start. I had never seen anything like it before, though I saw plenty later. Honestly, I don’t think the ball went out of the centre circle for fully two minutes. They passed and re-passed at lugged with it, and generally fiddled about in a way entirely foreign to us in this country."
I should explain here, by the way, that tackling or charging as we know it is not allowed in Colombian football and there is no law of obstruction. Consequently, any player can hang onto the ball and keep interposing his body between it and his opponents, thus retaining it in the possession far longer than he can under our rules. George Mountford never got a pass for 40 minutes. Then just before half-time, the ball came over and he flung himself at it to head a spectacular goal. The crowd cheered him to the echo, but several times I had heard a shout of "malo" where Franklin was concerned; I asked the interpreter what that meant, though the tune of it gave me a pretty good idea, it is the Colombian for "bad." Apparently, Franklin was not coming up to expectation, I was hardly surprised at that, for the defensive formation out there is vastly different to what it is in England and obviously Franklin was finding it a problem, apart, altogether, from the fact that was getting no cover from the men alongside him. He did as well as anybody possibly could under the circumstances, but spectators around him continued murmuring "malo" several times.
October 28th, 1950 - Liverpool Echo
Billy Higgins talks about isolation, maltreatment from his teammates, money woes, and Colombian tactics.
I have already told you some of the almost unbelievable aspects of Colombian football as compared with the English variety, but there are plenty more. Some of these strange things are doubtless due to the difference in temperaments between our two races and in particular, I think this is so in the Colombian attitude to training. Training as we know it here, just doesn’t exist out there. In this country, the majority of football league professionals train pretty hard at least three days of the week, and sometimes oftener. Their preparation is properly organized by experts, and either the manager or trainer, sometimes both, are always in the spot to see that it is carried out rigorously. You don’t get much chance to dodge the column, even if you want to which is not the case with the vast majority of English players. Colombian training is about the most happy-go-lucky and haphazard thing I’ve ever seen. My first day of it was a real eye-opener. Actually, I had been in Bogota three days before I got a chance to do any training, although I was bursting to get down to it as soon as possible. After being deposited in a boarding house and seeing Franklin and Mountford make their debut, as related last week, nobody from the club came near me until the third day. You can imagine how I felt. Then one morning, a director arrived at my digs. He could speak just as much English as I could Spanish, which was nil, but by signs, he indicated I was to go for some training. After calling at the club headquarters for gear, we went by car to the ground. To my amazement, I found I was the only player there. The director tossed me a ball and left me to it. Obviously, there wasn’t much I could do, but what I did seemed to please him for he smiled expansively and patted me on the back.
Next day, they called for me again. This time there were about 18 players at the ground, mostly Argentinians, but some Peruvians, Uruguayans, one Brazilian and one Colombian – a regular League of Nations gathering. This was supposed to be a training session. It was actually the most comical thing I’ve seen of its kind. It would have broken the heart of Harry Cooke, the Everton trainer. There was nobody in charge, and the players did just as they liked. Half of them were lying on the ground in the sun, and the rest were either chinwagging or shooting in, in the most aimless fashion imaginable. I soon sensed that I was up against it, in more ways than one. It was clear that I was going to get no co-operation from the other players, particularly the Argentinians who looked daggers at me. I didn’t know at the time, but I discovered later that the Argentine "cracks" as they call them were the first players imported into Bogota and had become accustomed to being lionised and fussed over. They did not relish the arrival of players from England, fearing that their own supremacy in Colombian football might be jeopardized. As nobody made any effort to indulge in ball practice with me, I saw that the only thing was to do what I could on my own. I started lapping the ground then do some sprinting and body exercise, and finally collared a ball and had a go with that.
While all this was going on, I was subjected to a succession of dirty looks and some laughter, I guess they thought I was crackers, but I carried on and tried to take no notice. On top of what I had experienced on the day of my arrival, however, it wasn’t very encouraging. Already I was beginning to wonder whether I had made a mistake in shaking the dust of Liverpool off my feet. I soon found further evidence to prove that I had. I went round the next day to see Franklin and Mountford, who were staying at the best hotel in Bogota. It is as good as any we have in this country. It ought to be for I was told that it was costing over £100 a week for the Stoke lads which their club [Santa Fe] was paying. When I informed them what I was up against, they suggested I should throw in my lot with Santa Fe, as so far I had not completed any contact with the Millionarios club. Santa Fe would be prepared to refund my passage money to Millionarios and probably give me better terms. This was tempting and I would have liked to be with the two Stoke players, but I feel that I had some sort of obligation to Millionarios and despite the cold attitude which the other players had adopted towards me, I later told the club that I was prepared to sign the contract if they would increase my remuneration to something nearer what I could get from Santa Fe. I should make it clear that up to now, I had not received any payment from Millionarios. I had gone out without getting any part of my signing-on fee. Eventually, the club agreed to increase their originally offer to $3,000 to $4,000 and the monthly pay from 600 to 700 pesos. That sounded fairly good to me. Perhaps it would have been if I had got it. Unfortunately, the increased terms were not incorporated in the contact which had already been drawn up, but were embodied in a letter been drawn up, but were embodied in a letter, although the terms of this were supposed to have been translated to me. I found out – too late – that the additional sums were subject to certain restrictions which left the option with the club whether they would pay them or not.
In view of all that happened afterwards, perhaps I could hardly expect them to pay the whole amount, even though it was no fault of mine that I was not able to give them the service they had hoped for. No centre forward can succeed if he is completely and literally starved by conspiracy of his colleagues, and that is what happened to me. I also had another disappointment over my contract. I was given to understand that it contained a promise to pay the fares out to Bogota, of my wife and two children. When they were over there, I was informed that only my wife expenses were covered, and that I had to pay for the children myself. This, however, did not take place until some two months later in the interim. I was getting a bit worried, as I had not received any portion of my signing-on fee, and I knew my family had not enough to keep them any length of time without my support. After seeing the directors several times, I managed to get a proportion of the money, actually, well under half, which I was able to send home.
In last week’s article, I told you how difficult Neil Franklin found it to settle down to the Colombian style of play in his opening game. Their defensive system is very different from the British pattern. The right half play in a position approximating to that of our right back, their right back is called a "centre back" and plays in the centre half position here, while the left back and left half remain as we place them. The centre half is expected to play an attacking game. He has a roving commission to go whenever he likes, and is not expected to mark anybody closely. He approximates fairly closely to our inside forward. It will be pretty obvious from this that Franklin found he was expected to play a type of game entirely foreign to his formal procedure which accounts for the fact that he did not immediately settle down in his first match. Colombian football is much slower than our voracity. The man in possession is the only one to count for the moment. Instead of running into a vacant spaces, in readiness for a pass, the rest of his colleagues stand about waiting to see what he will do. Sometimes one player will hand onto the ball for a couple of minutes, twisting this way and that without hardly moving a yard, but just interposing his body between the ball and his opponents. As tackling and chagrining are taboo, it is sometimes difficult to dispossess a man under such circumstances. As goalkeepers cannot be challenged at all even when in possession, it is quite a common thing to see them catch the ball and then stand with it for quite an appreciable time, looking round the field to see where best to place it. In England, the goalkeeper’s first duty is to clear his lines as quickly as possible and get the ball as far away from his charge as he can. Colombian goalkeepers often roll the ball to a full back standing on the six-yards line. Even then it may not be looted up-field. The back may take it into his head to do a spot of dribbling before he gets it away.
November 4th, 1950 - Liverpool Echo
Billy Higgins talks about Colombian referees, lack of support, and his stance on leaving Millionarios.
My early disclosure of the scenes which characterise needle games in Colombia appear to have given rise to the assumption that the game as played out there must be "dirty." This is not so. Although the players are extremely excitable and fights frequently occur, really vicious fouls are rare. There is a lot of pushing and elbowing, and obstruction galore, none of which is ever penalised by native referees, but I rarely saw any really dangerous play. Now and again, there may be a spot of sly ankle-tapping but that is about all. The most serious foul I saw was when Bobby Flavell was butted in the face. Bobby, normally a very even-tempered fellow, saw red when that happened and attempted to strike the offender. They went into a clinch, as usual over there, in half a minute, a dozen or more players had started a similar "demonstrations." Eventually, order was restored and Bobby and his opponents received marching orders. The pair of them were suspended for a fortnight. Most of the native Colombian referees seem afraid to send anybody off the field. There are two reasons for that. In the first place, they fear reprisals from the crowd and the offending players’ colleagues. Secondly, if they sent players off for fighting, very few matches would ever be completed. There wouldn’t be enough players left on the field.
A favourite dodge of the Argentinians when their side is winning and the end is near is for a player to "collapse" and absolutely refuse to get up. I have seen this done when there has not been another player within yards of the "injured" man, I have also seen the player on the ground, when asked by the referee to carry on, push him aside and say "vamos, vamos" [go away]. The five English referees who were out there during my stay did their best to encourage a higher standard of sportsmanship and tried to enforce the rules in the proper way. They had an uphill task. For a time, while the novelty of their control was fresh, they did effect a definite improvement but towards the end of my stay, the standard seemed to be falling back again. Presumably, the natives prefer their own methods and interpretations. At any rate, they all seem to relish the rows, and squabbles that go on. To them, it is part and parcel of the game. One English referee who decided he would stand no nonsense and would interpret the rules according to the English manner had the pluck to give a penalty in his first match. You never heard such an uproar in your life. The game was stopped for fully ten minutes. Spectators swarmed over the wire fence, players argued the toss in benches all over the field, and a big man, well over six feet, dashed into the middle and seized the referee by the scruff of the neck. The position looked decidedly ominous for a time, though eventually, order was restored without anybody being hurt. The irony of it all was that the penalty was missed. After the match was over, as the referee went back to the dressing room, the hefty man waved at him, grinned all over his face, and shouted, "Sorry, boss." But it was a very uncomfortable ten minutes for the man in the middle. The first match I played for Millionarios was against Cali at Cali on Sunday, May 21st. This town is situated at a much lover altitude than Bogota and the heat was terrific. It took us two hours by plane to get there. After playing 75 minutes, during which time I was consistently cold-shouldered and starved – I got only one pass the whole time and that a bad one – I was taken off by the Argentinian skipper and a substitute was brought on.
It was reported in papers in England at the time that I had collapsed from the heat after 15 minutes. This is not correct. Although I felt the heat very much, I could have carried on to the finish. Millionarios lost the match 6-1, which was a real shock. It led to all sorts of rumours that the game had been "sold". I am not in a position to express any opinion on that. My ignorance of Spanish meant that I could not follow the many and heated arguments which went on, but there certainly seemed to be a right novel to do about it all. As previously detailed, it had early been made obvious to me in the training sessions that I was up against it in a big way. That fact was further emphasised in this Cali game. An Englishman in business in Bogota, whose name I cannot give because he is still out there, told me that he had heard on good authority that the Argentinians had decided no matter how long I remained with Millionarios that they would refuse to co-operate with me. They feared my arrival might be the start of an invasion by English players which would eventually take their jobs away from them. Maybe one cannot blame them, but it certainly put me in a tough spot.
Anybody knows that if the rest of the side make a dead set at a colleague and particularly a centre forward, he is not going to have much chance of making a name for himself. The opposition was nothing like so pronounced at Sante Fe, where Franklin, Mountford and later Charlie Mitten were playing. It was not so bad even with the Millionarios players in the case of Bobby Flavell when he came out, though he had to master some opposition. It seemed that I was the unlucky one to be dropped on as a sort of scapegoat. Naturally, I did not intend to take this lying down. I meant to put up a fight, if possible. The language difficulty, however, was an almost insuperable barrier. There was no team manager to whom one could go and it was pretty nearly hopeless to try to get my point of view over to the directors of the club. Often enough when I endeavoured to see the board, there was no interpreter. On top of that, there was also a cleavage between the directors on the subject of importing English players. One or two of them were not sorry that I did not do well in my first game. Despite this, I resolved to keep pegging away and hope for the best. But it was a losing battle. I played in the next four games, and each time was called off the field by the Argentinian captain about 20 minutes from the end. In all these games, I never got an atom of support. It was a calculated campaign to discredit me in the eyes of the directors and the spectators, but there was nothing I could do except grin and bear it.
Frequently when I was standing unmarked in a good position and called for the ball, the man in possession would look up, glare and then deliberately pass it elsewhere, often to a man in an infinitely worse position than myself. I learned later that an additional reason for the hostility of the Argentinians was that I had been brought out to replace one of their countrymen. Though he had been off form, he was extremely popular with the rest of the players, and they wanted him back. After these five games, I was relegated to the bench, which means that I travelled as reserve to be called on, if required as a substitute. After being on the bench for five matches, I was not even put on for this duty. I was left to cool my heels for several weeks, fed up and unhappy until we played a friendly game with the champions team of Ecuador. To my surprise, I was chosen as centre forward for this match. Even to this day, I don’t know why. We won 3-1 and I had the good fortune to score all three goals. I was told by a couple of directors through the interpreter I had played very well and that I was sure to be in the team the next week. This bucked me up considerably, but another blue was yet to fall. At the directors' meeting a few days later, it was decided to appoint a technical director, equivalent to our team manager. They chose an Argentinian player who had previously shown quite clearly that he preferred my room to my company, on or off the field. I knew than that I had finally had it for good and that it was hopeless to go on struggling any further. I decided to ask for my contract to be terminated. This was in early part of August and for the next six weeks, I was involved in a series of wrangles which I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
Times without number I tried to see the directors to get the whole wretched business thrashed out. When I managed to catch them all together, I was put off by the excuse that they had not been able to get an interpreter. When an interpreter was present, I was told the matter could not be discussed because the president was absent. Next time, it was shelved because of the absence of some other officials. This sort of thing went on until I was heartily sick of the whole business and if I had the money, I should have come home without fighting for the balance of my signing-on fee. As it was with not enough to get home on, I was bound to stick there until I got some satisfaction. Eventually, I had to take a much reduced sum, though I must add that the club also paid the fares home for my wife and family. When I contrast all this squabbling and wrangling with conditions on this country, I realise more than ever that English players, even though they don’t get as much as many feel they should, are in a paradise compared with Colombia. In the country, the players can see his club manager any time, without fuss or difficulty. He can talk things over, put his own point of view and, if necessary, see the board of directors should the matter be of vital importance. There may be odd exceptions but in the vast majority of cases, English players get a square deal from their clubs at all times. Naturally, now and again, a player feels browned off and thinks maybe he has not been treated as generously as he might have been. Folks in all walks of life feel that way at times. But you can take it from me that after my experience I have realised that English players, all things considered, have very little at which to grumble.
November 11th, 1950 - Liverpool Echo
Billy Higgins talks about Colombian preparation for matches, long journeys to games, and his advice to other footballers.
I think I have said enough in my previous articles to make it clear that South America is no paradise for English players. There are a few further comparisons, however, which I think will interest readers. As most readers are aware, English professionals, including those attached to Third Division clubs, travel in comfort and are housed in first class hotels when playing away. They travel comfortably enough in Colombia for all away trips are made by plane. The nearest is to Medellin, about an hour’s journey for the 200 miles, and the farthest are to Cali and Barranquilla, which takes about two and a half hours in the air. As the regular plane services did not always fit in with matches, it was frequently necessary to have at least one night in a hotel. If English players were offered the type of accommodation which I have experienced, there would soon be a real rumpus. On several occasions, I have slept on an iron camp bed with just a hard biscuit bed, four or six players to a room. Only once did I stay in a hotel where the accommodation can anywhere near the standard we get in this country.
English players usually lunch approximately three hours before the match and then only eat a very light meal, usually fish. In Colombia, the majority of players think nothing of polishing off a hefty four-course meal less than two hours the game is due to start. They just sit down and order what they fancy. It may be the indulgency which accounts for the fact that practically all the players are very slow starters. They rarely get properly into their stride until the second half. The most amusing incident which befell me happened when we played at Medellin, though it did not strike me as particularly funny at the time. We had flown to Medellin and then gone by bus from the hotel to the ground about an hour’s run over a very bad road. On a good road, you could probably have done it in less than half the time. The bus dropped us about a mile from the ground, and we had to walk there along with the crowd. That wasn’t bad, but when we went to the parking place after the match, still in our playing kit, the bus was not there. The driver had either just taken it into his head not to wait or else had not been given proper instructions, I never ascertained which. There we were about a dozen miles from our hotel and nothing to do but walk or beg a lift. After trudging about twenty minutes along the road, surrounded by a crowd of dirty urchins, a lorry came along and gave a lift to all the Argentinians and Colombians. If they had felt inclined, they could have made room for Flavell and myself, but this was too good a chance for them to miss. They just bundled on the lorry and set off without giving us a thought. Bobby and I decided to make the best of a bad job by foot-slogging it until we also got a lift. After about another mile, we managed to thumb a passing car. Fortunately, the driver could speak a little English, and we managed to explain our plight. He very kindly took us right back to the hotel.
Apart from the many things I have previously mentioned, there is another aspect of Bogota which makes it difficult for English folk. The city is about 8,000 feet above sea level, and the air is so rarefied that it zaps all your energy. You get partly used to it after a time, but never completely acclimatised. The first week, I was always short of breath after even the least bit of exertion, and going upstairs made me pant like a dog. It also takes away your appetite. Another problem for English folk, who do not speak Spanish, is the question of entertainment and social life. There is a British club where dances are held occasionally, but otherwise, there is nothing but the cinema.
I mentioned in a previous article the haphazard sort of way in which training is carried out. The transport arrangement to take the players to the ground for training were just as unsatisfactory. Instead of making their own way, as we do here, the club had a special coach to pick us up. The arrangements was that this should call for me about nine o’clock and then make a circular tour, picking up all the other players. This meant it was often eleven o’clock before we reached the ground, so that I had to spend two hours in the coach. Until Bobby Flavell joined the club, it meant during these two hours it was unable to exchange a word with anybody. The same thing happened in the reverse direction when training was over – two hours purgatory. That meant four hours wasted to the half an hour’s training. Sometimes the bus driver, who was a forgetful sort of chap, didn’t call for me at all. On other occasions, we got to the ground and found it locked up. I have explained before that the ground did not belong to the Millionarios club, but was rented from the municipality. Sometimes the club forgot to tell the groundsman that we were coming and sometimes the groundsman was told but he forgot. When we got there and found the place shut, we took the coach to the ground of an orphanage school not so far away, who showed us the top of their pitch. The only thing was that sometimes the boys themselves were playing a game and we had to wait until they had finished.
Apart from my wages and bonus, the only perks that came my way out there was when Mitten, Mountford, Franklin and myself were asked to advertise the products of a tailoring firm. They provided us with a fine suit each, took several photographs and paid us 200 pesos each, approximately £35. When Flavell and I had our photographs taken at the start of the match, we asked the photographer if we could have a couple of prints each. We got them, but he also sent us a bill for the equivalent of £1 for four postcards. Some players out there do add to their income by lending their name to boost the sales of cigarettes and other things, including even beer. But nothing of like that came my way. I have been asked if there were any repercussions, so far as I was concerned, after Neil Franklin came home so unexpectedly, it did not have any effect on me, or on any of the other English players in a direct way, though now and again, one sensed a certain antagonism in a small section of people. I understand that the commercial community was more upset about it. The cost of living out there as I have mentioned before, was terrifically high. The flat I had though a beautiful one, with large rooms and well furnished, cost me close on £70 a month. Really, it was much too big for my family and when Flavell and later his wife and child came out, they took half of it so that helped considerably.
What sort of a show would that past Colombian side make against an English team? Is a question I have been asked many times. The sides out there are about equal to the average Third Division club here. They would not stand a chance against our First Division team, which would run them off their feet if the match was placed in this country. If played out there, with the high attitude and so on, our lads would obviously be under a disadvantage, but I reason they would still manage to win comfortably, even going at half-speed.
This brings the tale of my unhappy trip in search of a quick football fortune to an end. If it kills any lingering doubts there might be in the minds of any players over here as to whether it is still worth "talking a chance" and going out to Bogota, then it will have served a useful purpose. My advice can be summed up by the same word which Mark Twain used when giving advice to the young man about to marry – Don’t.
It is commonly known that Liverpool were born after a dispute over rising rent led Everton to split into two. However, there was much more to it. Why Liverpool’s birth happened may have been because of the dispute, but how Liverpool’s birth happened is a different story.
On January 25th, 1892, a general meeting took place to discuss whether “to consider the advisability of forming the club into a limited liability company to purchase [John] Houlding and [John] Orrell’s lands on the basis of their prospectus, or into a LLC on a smaller capital to lease the present or any other ground.” William Clayton proposed that Everton should reject John Houlding’s offer of becoming a limited liability company on his Houlding’s terms – the proposal was carried. The reason why because he thought that the costs were overpriced – the club would be paying more for the land than what it is actually worth. Clayton consulted a land agent to estimate the price of the land, and the land agent said it would be worth 4 shillings and 6 pence per yard. Houlding wanted to sell the land for 7 shillings and 6 pence per yard – 3 shillings more than its actual worth. Clayton added that if the club members were to accept Houlding’s offer, Everton would have hardly any money left.
Another proposal was made by William Clayton – he suggested that the club should be formed into a limited liability company under the name “Everton Football Club Limited”.
Proposed by Mr. Clayton and seconded by Mr. Atkinson –
That the Club be formed into a Limited Liability Co. under the name of the Everton Football Club Limited.
Everton Minute Books – 25th January 1892
That proposal was also carried. Afterwards, it was agreed that Everton’s solicitor would be in charge of registering the club and “obtain the necessary signatures from members of Committee or members of the club.” However, a few people decided to ignore the agreement…
Source: Liverpool Mercury
Even though it was agreed for a solicitor to register Everton as a limited liability company under the name “Everton Football Club Limited”, some Machiavellian members decided to register the club under a different name and on John Houlding’s terms the day after the general meeting. Everton were about to be registered under its agreed name but before it could happen, the registration was denied because there was already a limited liability company with a very similar name. Unsurprisingly, William Clayton wasn’t happy.
Motion by Mr. Clayton:
Resolved that we condemn the action of the members of Com. & members of the Club who have signed memorandum of association registering the Everton Football Club & Athletic Grounds Co. Limited, such action being take with the intention of frustrating the resolution of the members of the club in meeting assembled.
Everton Minute Books – 2nd February 1892
John Houlding was legally (albeit deceitfully) in possession of the Everton name. However, Clayton, George Mahon and co soon had a lifeline. The FA was on Everton’s side.
This council, in accordance with its past decisions, will not recognise or accept the membership of any club bearing a name similar to the one already affiliated with this Association, and in the case of the Everton club, will only recognise the action of a majority of its members at a duly constituted meeting.
Liverpool Mercury, 4th February 1892
This means that there were two Evertons. The FA would only recognise the Everton as we know it, not Houlding’s Everton, because the FA and the Football League said that Everton should be controlled by the majority, not Houlding and his supporters because there wasn’t enough signatories (and by some distance, too.) Following Houlding’s scheming, the club decided to remove him from the board, as well as a couple of his companions. There was also a suggestion proposed by Houlding’s supporters to merge the two Evertons, but to no avail.
The members of the Everton Club […] were summoned by two requisitions, one being from the Houldingites, who modestly sought to rescind all previous resolutions, and that the “Everton Football Club” should amalgamate with the “Everton Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company, Limited,” and stay where they are at present; that the other requisition came from the anti-Houldingites, and asked for the removal of Mr. Houlding from the presidency, and Messrs. Nesbit and Howarth from the committee; that the first named requisition was rejected by an overwhelming majority, and the last-named request agreed to, so that Mr. Houlding and his advocates have been dethroned, and the transfer to the new quarters simplified; that Everton look with confidence next season.
Lancashire Evening Post, 19th March 1892
At a meeting of the members of the Everton Football Club, the suggestion to amalgamate with the Everton Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company, Limited, was not entertained; and a resolution that Messrs. John Houlding, Alex Nisbet, and T.C. Howarth, having lost the confidence of the members of the club, be respectively removed from the presidency and committee was adopted.
Liverpool Mercury, 16th March 1892
John Houlding and co were subsequently removed from the board. Houlding’s Everton was then re-registered and the club’s name was changed to “Liverpool Football Club”. And the rest is history.
The title of the post is a cliche in football. But in this case, it is a literal truth.
On November 12th, 1904, Everton were playing reigning champions Sheffield Wednesday. They were on the back of a 5-1 win over Nottingham Forest and 4 wins in 5 games, so morale was high at the club. Everton took the lead after a couple of minutes thanks to a goal from Sandy Young. Sheffield Wednesday equalised after 10 minutes after a goal from Harry Davis. Everton then scored 4 goals in 19 minutes after a brace from Jimmy Settle and goals from Harold Hardman and Walter Abbott. At half-time, Everton were leading 5-1 and 2 points were surely in the bag. Or so it seemed.
In the 63rd minute, Sheffield Wednesday shortened the deficit to 3 goals after a goal from James Stewart. Sheffield Wednesday were awarded a penalty after a foul from Everton captain William Balmer on George Simpson, however Billy Scott saved it but couldn’t keep hold of it. As he was about to grab the ball and Stewart was about to kick it, the two collided and the ball crept its way into the goal. However, there was controversy surrounding the goal as Everton believed it shouldn’t have stood as they claimed goalkeeper Billy Scott had possession of the ball and Stewart had fouled him. It was also reported that Stewart handled the ball before he scored. The referee ignored their protests and allowed the goal to stand. To make matters worse for Everton, Scott was hurt in the process with a shoulder injury. As football didn’t have substitutes then, it meant that Scott had to carry on or an outfield player had to take his place and Everton would be reduced to 10 men. Scott opted to carry on, but his struggle was evident as Sheffield Wednesday scored another goal to make it 5-3. Scott was in so much pain that he didn’t have any power at all to stop George Simpson from scoring. Scott realised enough was enough and he retired from the game injured and Walter Abbott took his place.
It was fairly quiet for the next 15 minutes. 7 minutes from full time, ten-men Everton were still leading 5-3. But the next minute, Sheffield Wednesday made it 5-4 thanks to a goal from Vivian Simpson. The comeback was nearly complete. However, there was some hope for Everton as a couple of minutes later, Sheffield Wednesday themselves were down to 10 men after Harry Davis was sent off for punching Harold Hardman. It is unknown what provoked the attack, but the two were said to have had a bit of an argument following an aerial duel between them.
The clock reached 90 minutes, but the game was not over as time was added on. 30 seconds were added on after Sandy Young unreasonably kicked the ball into the crowd. The referee saw it and added time to make up for the time that was lost. How costly could that kick be? The answer: very. In added time, Sheffield Wednesday won a free-kick, and in the very last second of the game, Bob Ferrier scored an unlikely equaliser after the free-kick was put into Everton’s box.
Full-time score: Sheffield Wednesday 5-5 Everton.
Everton’s poor defending and decision-making cost them dearly. The injured goalkeeper certainly didn’t help things either. It was a day for Everton players and fans to forget.
Nowadays, you wouldn’t consider Everton a racist club. You wouldn’t give it a single thought. However, once upon a time, they had a bad reputation. Fans made racist chants more often than not, and that is no secret.
Early examples of this include Charlie Perkins and Albert Johanneson. Aboriginal footballer Perkins joined Everton as a triallist in 1957. However, his spell at the club was very brief after a coach at the club called him a “kangaroo b*****d” during an argument between the two. Albert Johanneson, who played for Leeds at the time of the incident, was called a “black b*****d” by an unnamed Everton player.
Incidents of racism were extremely rare, though on one occasion, he complained that an Everton defender – whom he didn’t name – had called him a “black b*****d during the heat of a particularly bitter match. [Leeds manager Don] Revie’s advice was to “call him a white b*****d back.”
Albert Johanneson’s obituary – The Independent
Unfortunately, racism was commonplace and shrugged off everywhere, not just in football, until around the 1960s. Since then, it was rightly frowned upon and condemned. But the racism didn’t stop.
During a match against Liverpool in 1988, some Everton fans threw bananas at John Barnes. In addition to that, there were shouts of “N****rpool! N****rpool! N****rpool!” and “Everton are white!”.
The actions were widely condemned. The incident was subsequently given a special feature on Newsnight. However, Everton fans weren’t the only ones who racially abused him – Liverpool fans booed John Barnes for the entire 90 minutes in one of Barnes’ last games for Watford before joining Liverpool. John Barnes and his black Watford teammates (e.g. Luther Blissett) had encountered racism in most games. Racism was still common in the 1980s and practically every team had the odd idiotic group, but by the 1990s, the fans’ attitude towards black players was mellowed significantly – but not from where Everton were concerned.
With racism still becoming a problem for Everton, fanzine When Skies Are Grey decided to do something about it on behalf of 99% of the Everton fan base they promoted an anti-racism campaign called No Al Razzismo. To promote the campaign, the fanzine sold T-shirts and put the campaign slogan on their covers to show that it was only a minority that were giving Everton this unwanted reputation.
In 1975, Cliff Marshall became Everton’s first ever black player (note: Mike Trebilcock was mixed-race), and he made his last appearance for the club on August 30th, 1975. They then didn’t have another black player until 19 years later. At the time of summer 1994, Everton were the only Premier League club without a black player. But they could have had one the previous year. Everton came close to signing Manchester United striker Dion Dublin but were unable to find the funds. As a consequence, Howard Kendall resigned in December 1993. This shocked Merseyside. Here are the full details:
After Everton’s League Cup defeat to Manchester United, Howard Kendall had a chat with Alex Ferguson about the prospect of signing Dion Dublin.
Manchester United were willing to let Dublin go for a fee of £1.8 million.
Everton only offered £1.5 million – £300,000 below Manchester United’s preferred fee.
The board refused to give Howard Kendall the extra £300,000 for the transfer.
At the time of his resignation, Howard Kendall made no mention of the Dion Dublin situation. Here are his reasons why he resigned following an interview with the Liverpool Echo:
I would like to emphasise there is no animosity whatsoever between myself and Everton. […] I retain my own self-belief. If you don’t have that, you might as well pack in. I was down on Saturday, but I will soon be bubbling again.
However, this was what Howard Kendall said several years later during a Q&A:
It was never a racist thing. The club was financially not too brilliant at that point, at the same time, because I was involved in all the board meetings and financial situations I knew how much money was available for me to spend.
Alex Ferguson didn’t want to sell Dion Dublin because at that particular time, they were in Europe and the English players were invaluable to him, though the rule’s been relaxed since then. Dion was longer term and, OK, you agree a fee, and maybe you pay a little bit over the odds, but I spoke to my chairman, I spoke to my secretary, and we agreed the deal with Manchester United and agreed the method of payment as well.
Dion Dublin wanted to come to Everton; in fact, he was desperate to come. This was the second time I’d tried to sign him, so when you talk about the racist thing, forget all about that because I tried to sign him from Cambridge.
The next morning, I went into the training ground and the chairman, David Marsh, telephoned me and said, “I’ve been round with the board of directors and we don’t like the Dublin deal – it’s off you can’t go through with it.” So then I had to go through telephoning the player to say sorry and that the board had blocked the deal. I had a couple of days to think about it and I felt so strongly about it – maybe they had financial difficulties at the club, or whatever, but no-one came and talked to me about that. In effect, they had told me I was no longer the manager of the football club because they’d blocked the move.
I knew that we were capable of financing the deal, or I wouldn’t have entered into it in the first place.
It’s hardly surprising that people thought racism could have played a factor in Dion Dublin’s failed move to Everton. A few months previously, some Everton fans were racially abusing Les Ferdinand. Les Ferdinand suffered abuse from Everton fans after he scored a hat-trick against the club. He spoke about the abuse in his autobiography four years later:
The hat-trick at Everton [in 1993] was particularly pleasing because I had always had racial abuse at Everton from their supporters. Doing that to them gave me extra pleasure. There are certain things which stick in your mind during your career as a footballer and the racism at Goodison Park is one of them. Probably the worst thing I have encountered in my professional career has been racist letters coming from supporters – most of which, I have to say, have come from Everton fans. After I scored that hat-trick against them over the Easter period, the letters I got back were disgusting.
The incident didn’t help Everton’s reputation and the failed transfer and Howard Kendall’s resignation made things worse. The players themselves didn’t have a clue why Kendall resigned. Everton were at a nadir. But the following summer, one man came to save Everton’s reputation – Daniel Owefin Amokachi.
At the end of summer 1994, Everton signed Nigerian striker Daniel Amokachi from Club Brugge for £3 million, becoming Everton’s first black player in 19 years. The acquisition of Amokachi hoped to help Everton eradicate their reputation as a racist club, however Peter Johnson and Mike Walker assured that Everton signed him because of his ability, not the colour of his skin.
Colour has nothing to do with it. It’s purely about a player’s ability at Everton.
Peter Johnson
At this club, we don’t care what colour players are. They can be blue, green or red as far as I’m concerned… Well, perhaps we might draw the line at red!
Mike Walker
Everton fans were eagerly waiting to see Daniel Amokachi in action. One fan had a flag specially made (with additional help from the Nigerian embassy to check his spellings). Another fan wrote to the Liverpool Echo saying that he hopes this puts an end to Everton’s ill-gotten reputation.
It was good to see the Everton fans give a warm reception before the Nottingham Forest game – apart from one idiot who ran onto the pitch. Let’s hope that the ‘racism’ tag is now firmly buried and that the new signing helps us out of the mess we’re in.
Everton fan Alan Wilson from Wavertree
Daniel Amokachi was pleased with the warm reception himself.
I was expecting a warm reception, and it just happened the way I wanted it to go. They seemed to appreciate me and to have accepted me already, and they haven’t seen me play yet.
Daniel Amokachi went on to score 14 goals in 54 appearances for Everton, including his famous brace against Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-final in 1995. On that day, he entered Everton folklore forever, and to this day, he is still fondly remembered.
Following Amokachi’s cult hero status, one would expect the racism tag to disappear. Alas, no.
Black players were still being racially abused by a minority of Everton fans. Chelsea’s Ruud Gullit was the victim of some horrendous slurs, as told by David Goldblatt:
Gullit was perceived as an alien and as a threat for a myriad of reasons. Foreign, well-spoken, even erudite, his stylish continental masculinity – with football skills to match – ran against the grain of almost every unspoken social and sporting norm of the Everton crowd. Yet while they abused him for having long hair, and threatening the Everton goal, his race became visible. For the record, the day’s epithets, from fans of all ages, included:
“Get off the pitch, ya f**kin’ gollywog!”
“F**k off the pitch, ya f**kin’ n****r!”
“F**k off, ya hippy!”
“F**k off, ya black c**t!”
“F**kin’ cheatin’ divin’ black c**t!”
“K**bhead!”
“Woghead!”
“Gollywog!”
“N****r!”
No-one, needless to say, was arrested that day under the Football Offences Act 1991.
Les Ferdinand faced the racist wrath of Everton fans once again in 1996:
What does anger me is when you see parents doing it in front of their kids. When Newcastle played at Goodison on the opening day of the 1996/97 season, I picked up an injury and needed treatment on the perimeter track. As I sat by the touchline, dads in the stand were hurling all kinds of abuse at me, much of it racist, as their sons sat beside them. Those kids will think it is perfectly normal to carry on like that. What I can’t understand is that sort of attitude coming from followers of a team which has included Daniel Amokachi and Earl Barrett.
Following Les Ferdinand’s comments in his autobiography, Everton secretary Michael Dunford proclaimed that the club is trying its best to clamp down on racism.
We do get a little bit tired of this [reputation of being a racist club] being attached to us in particular. Les Ferdinand is entitled to say that he has had problems with Everton fans, but what has happened in the past is history. We have some very good black players at this club and our fans are fully supportive of them. We have worked very hard to tackle this problem and get our house in order.
We are not complacent, but we honestly believe that any problem which might still exist here is no worse than at any other club in the country. The problem exists as it does elsewhere, but it is a very small minority and we believe that we are going down the right road to reduce it still further.
However, their attempts didn’t seem to be successful as at the turn of the millennium, Everton were named Britain’s most racist club. In a survey of 33,000 fans ran by the University of Leicester, 38% said they heard racist comments from Everton fans. By comparison, the next four were Rangers (36%), Celtic (35%), West Ham (32%) and Newcastle (31%).
The results seemed to have spoken for themselves as only a few months later, during a match against Leicester, Everton fans were racially abusing Muzzy Izzet. Everton, once again, condemned the intolerable behaviour, with spokesman Alan Myers saying:
I can assure you that Everton will be writing to Muzzy Izzet to apologise and also to Leicester’s chairman to apologise on behalf of our fans. It wasn’t an awful lot of fans, but that doesn’t matter whether it was one or a thousand – it shouldn’t happen. We work very, very hard at Everton to stamp out any sort of racism and this sort of thing doesn’t help the club.
The racism carried on. In December 2001, Fulham defender Rufus Brevitt and winger Luis Boa Morte was on the receiving end of racism, being victimised by monkey noises and racist chants such as “Get back on the f****in’ jam jar!” and “Trigger, trigger, trigger, shoot that n****r!”. Following this incident, Everton threatened to ban selling tickets to away games if the racism continues. Other chants in the game were at the expense of Liverpool – the fans were poking fun at Emile Heskey (“Oh, Emile Heskey, I want to know, will you be my slave?”) and Gerard Houllier and his heart attack, saying it’s “a wonderful way to spend the day, watching Gerard Houllier pass away.”
The chanting and the obscenities from the minority were widely condemned. Following the Fulham match, Walter Smith said:
Quite simply, there is no place for either racism or violence at Everton FC and we shall do everything within our power to root out the culprits. We shall take strong and decisive action in order to ensure that the reputation of our club is not tarnished by the reckless actions of people who have no place amongst our support.
We feel so strongly about this that, if necessary, we shall even consider halting the sale of our away fixtures – a drastic step which we are desperate to avoid but one which may provide an unpalatable solution to a problem which cannot be ignored and which must be addressed.
We know that 99.9% if our club’s supporters are honest and honourable, and we know that they will back us in this fight against a pernicious evil.
In the wake of Saturday’s events, when a small group of individuals with no regard for common decency sought to tarnish our club’s reputation, it is very reassuring to learn that the vast majority of Evertonians have been swift in their condemnation. The foul-mouthed and dishonourable actions of what we know to be a very small minority has once again called into question the integrity of fair play, honour and equal opportunity.
The Goodison switchboard and email system has been inundated with messages from our loyal, right-thinking supporters who wish to condemn those involved in Saturday’s disgraceful, unforgivable events.
In response to incidents at Leicester and Fulham, the Liverpool Echo reported that club stewards will attend games undercover as fans in the next few away games in order to keep an eye out for any racism and hand out leaflets about urgently stopping racist language being used, as well as three “spotters” to mingle with the fans and catch out any chief racists. Everton have tried the best they could possibly do, and it looked like their best was good enough.
In March 2004, Everton were inducted by Show Racism the Red Card into its Hall of Fame for the club’s hard work and determination to stop racism and put an end to this unwanted reputation. Unfortunately, some fans intended to ruin their success by shouting racial abuse the following year during a match against Aston Villa and after a match against West Brom. There was some reprieve, however, as, according to the Liverpool Echo, some Everton fans stood up to the racists:
Three disgusted supporters challenged the group and a brawl nearly ensued as the racists reacted with venom. A Barnes [Tours Ltd, a Liverpool travel firm] steward warned the group to calm down and returned to his seat. One of the men who challenged the group said as he returned to his seat: “It makes me sick that those b******s get associated with Everton. They’re not fans – they’re scum who’ve drunk too much lager and had too many spliffs.”
Another Everton fan during the near-brawl said, “Proper Everton fans aren’t racist.”
From the eighties to the mid-noughties, it was a difficult time for kind-hearted Evertonians. Because of a minority, their beloved club’s reputation was besmirched, and the Everton fans with a brain were tarred with the same moronic brush. Loads of fans were rightly disgusted.
As an Everton supporter growing up in the 1980s, I watched what were always “all white” line-ups and endured widespread allegations that the racism found on some sections of the terraces was reflected in the club’s selection policy. I can still painfully recall the despondency and sickness I felt deep in my stomach on the occasion that large numbers of fans around me repeatedly chanted “Everton are white!” during a match at Arsenal in the early 1990s.
Daniel Burdsey
Fans are sick of this kind of thing happening. We commend the club on its stance, but it’s ridiculous that Walter Smith and the board are having to talk about this when a minority of people can’t handle their drink and are dinging racist songs and using racist language.
From what I’ve heard, there is no sinister organisation behind this but it’s simply louts who have gotten out of control. It has escalated over the last few weeks. The only way it will stop is if the police kick them out of the ground. If you travel all of the way to Fulham but are kicked out for singing racist songs, you won’t do it again.
Mark O’Brien, When Skies Are Grey editor
My wife went to the bathroom and I had sat down next to an elderly guy who was watching the game when he suddenly shouted, “Get the f*****g n****r!” as one of Leicester’s players was on the ball. I told him I found that offensive because my wife was coloured, but he refused to stop. Then the table behind, with several men sitting at it, started saying things like: ‘We don’t want n****rs playing for, or supporting this club’.
The comments weren’t directed at my wife, but they went on for five to 10 minutes and she was around when some of them were said.
Nik Allen
As a follower of Everton FC at that time, I was absolutely appalled by the horrendous anti-black attitudes of large sections of the terrace and even by some members of the Family Enclosure. Disgracefully, I am assured by Liverpool fans (pre-John Barnes) behaviour at Anfield was identical.
Once, with my eldest son (then aged about nine), I was so disgusted by the verbal abuse given out by a couple of morons behind us in the Family Enclosure against three black QPR players, I decided to speak out – with a certain amount of trepidation. I asked why they were so bigoted and prejudiced, adding that I did not want my son to judge a player by his colour but by his ability and attitude.
Amazingly, the crowd around me began to support my stance in this matter and, even more amazingly, the two racists shut up and did not offer me a hospital visit.
I write this letter solely to point out the major fact that many of our local fans were enormously anti-black in their outlook.
Obviously, Everton and Liverpool supporters have evolved somewhat since then but, sadly, the question remains: Would the racists have changed had their own teams not taken on an admittedly small percentage of black players in the 1980s? I doubt if they became naturally humane and fair-minded.
Michael Quayle’s letter to the Liverpool Daily Post
Racism became a huge problem again at the end of the 2010s, particularly in Italy. One example is recent Everton signing Moise Kean. In April 2019, Kean scored Juventus’ second goal in their 2-0 win over Cagliari and celebrated by holding his arms aloft in front of the Cagliari fans.The fans had been racially abusing him all game and abused him even more following his celebration.
While he was lauded for his celebration, he was also criticised – by his own manager and teammate. Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri said:
He shouldn’t have celebrated in that manner. He is a young man and he has to learn, but certain things from the crowd also shouldn’t be heard.
Teammate Leonardo Bonucci said:
I think the blame is 50-50. Moise should not have done that and the [Cagliari fans] should not have reacted in that way.
Even though Allegri and Bonucci also lambasted the racist abuse from the supporters, it meant little by blaming Moise Kean as well. The following month, Serie A decided not to sanction Cagliari for their fans’ racist abuse, saying:
It emerged the chants in question, although certainly reprehensible, had an objectively limited relevance to race.
The following August, Moise Kean joined Everton from Juventus and a group of Everton fans called the County Road Bobblers decided to raise money for a banner to show solidarity with Kean – a far cry from Everton fans’ reputation in the 1980s and 1990s. Although, one Everton fan had been found guilty of racially abusing Mo Salah on Twitter by posting a picture of him wearing a suicide vest. But Evertonians were determined not to let one rotten apple spoil the crop.
A JustGiving crowdfunding campaign had met their target of £1,000 in under 24 hours, and raised a further £2,000. The banner was unveiled at Goodison Park in Everton’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester City. Moise Kean thanked Evertonians by saying in a self-recorded video:
Thank you for the flag. It’s a really important message and I want to say really thank you. Come on, you Blues.
Everton’s reputation as a racist club now seems like a very distant past. The solidarity with Moise Kean epitomises how hard the vast majority of fans wanted to get rid of that reputation, and were very successful.
Abe Donzo (also known as John Abraham Kamara) was born on September 3rd, 1993 on the Guinean-Liberian border. He had a large family – 15 siblings due to having a trigamous father. He had a difficult start to life, spending almost his entire childhood in poverty.
Donzo’s parents wanted him to get a chance in life and stop living in poverty by sending him to a UN refugee camp in an area of Liberia which was close to the border. His parents hoped that this could help Donzo, along with his half-sister, aunt and uncle, move to Canada and start life anew. However, their plan had some difficulties and Donzo had to wait a long while before leaving the camp. In the meantime, Donzo had a ball and kicked it around. His talents soon began to shine and he practised every hour. At the age of 12, Donzo finally left the camp and moved to Ottawa, the Canadian capital.
Abe Donzo’s life in Canada, however, had a tricky start. His aunt abandoned the family, so his uncle had to take care of him and his half-sister alone. His life soon changed when he met guidance counsellor and sports coach at the University of Ottawa, Phil Roberts. Roberts’ wife, Sue, soon took a shine to him and Donzo was invited to celebrate Christmas with Phil and Sue Roberts and their two daughters. Afterwards, Phil and Susan Roberts became his legal guardians after a charity called Children’s Aid Society told Donzo’s uncle that he couldn’t work and look after children at the same time and he refused to get help.
It was because of Sue Roberts that Abe Donzo began his football career. When he just turned 13, Sue Roberts, who was impressed with his football skills, helped him join Ottawa Fury. When he was 14, he started playing for the U17s and quickly became one of their star players. When his footballing ability grew and grew, his coach had heard there was a football camp in Ottawa and suggested Donzo should sign up. However, it wasn’t a camp at all – it was a TV show.
The show was called “Soccer Dreams” and its aim was to find the best Canadian player between the ages of 14 and 18, and the winner will earn himself a two-year contract at Everton’s academy. Donzo and another player were invited to England to have a trial with Everton in 2007, and a few months later, Donzo was asked to return, but the other player wasn’t, with Donzo saying:
I want to show I can compete.
Abe Donzo subsequently won “Soccer Dreams” and officially became an Everton player.
If you can’t be bothered to watch the eight-minute video above, here is the moment Abe Donzo found out he was an Everton player.
After a chat with Everton’s academy coach, Ray Hall, before completing the deal, here is what Abe Donzo said:
He [Hall] said he liked my skills and they were ready to sign a contract. He told me I could sign for four years if I want.
Hall obviously say a lot of potential in 14-year-old Abe Donzo, and exciting times were ahead for a young refugee who once only had a ball in his possession and idolised Didier Drogba. But soon afterwards, Donzo’s hopes were dashed. In May 2008, a couple of months after winning the contract, Donzo tore his anterior cruciate ligament – a nasty injury that requires a lot of surgery and rehabilitation and the inability to play football for a very long while. However, Donzo was determined to play football again.
During Donzo’s recovery, Phil Roberts was impressed with his determination.
Here’s what most impressed me about his kid. I have never known an athlete more determined. He would wake at 6am, exercise and ice, then breakfast, school, exercise, ice, back to class, come home, exercise and ice and bed. That and weightlifting. A month ago, he was back on the pitch.
Even though Abe Donzo made a light recovery, the injury haunted him.
Sometimes I am said about going to England at all. Am I ready? Maybe I’m discouraged by my knee.
Phil Roberts hoped to get rid of Donzo’s fears by giving his adoptive son some tough love in an attempt to boost his confidence.
It’s you against the world now. You’re black and that counts against you. You’re Canadian and that counts against you. You’re Muslim and that counts against you.
Those words obviously rang in Abe Donzo’s ears as by the time he turned 16, he still had potential. Everton invited him to another trial. And Donzo was more determined than ever to succeed.
I know this is my last chance with Everton. I feel good, skill-wise. The only thing I am worried about is the physical play. They’re big guys and they’re tough.
I’m not the kind of person who gives up.
He looked promising during his fourth and final trial. So promising that Phil Roberts said that Ray Hall likened Donzo to Wayne Rooney.
He told me they were extremely happy with him and inside the box, they did not have a youth player that good. Ray told me Wayne Rooney was the closest they could compare Abe to.
Donzo’s goalscoring ability began to shine by scoring 13 goals in 5 games during his trial. However, his overall footballing ability troubled the Everton coaches. Phil Roberts said Donzo was still learning the game, adding he had been having a difficulty figuring out what the academy coaches want, knowing that the coaches want more from a player than just scoring goals. Abe Donzo, unfortunately, couldn’t do more to impress the coaches and was subsequently released by Everton in 2011 and returned to Ottawa.
What has happened to Abe Donzo since? He continued playing for Ottawa Fury, as well as having a stint at Canadian side FC Mont Bruno. The most recent record of him I can find is a tweet from August 2016, saying that Abe Donzo, while playing for Ottawa-based team Gloucester Celtic, had 3 assists in a game.
Crazy 4-2 W for MC2 Celtic. Goals: @Alexiandre9 R. Gully, Hari, & ? MOTM: @Hari & @JayDCee – shout out to Abe Donzo w/3 assists.
It wasn’t meant to be for Abe Donzo at Everton. The anterior cruciate ligament injury most definitely played a part – mentally as well as physically. But Donzo is still only 23 years old. There is plenty of time for him to show everyone what he is made of.
For any footballer, representing your country is a huge honour. But from a club’s perspective, they are wary of their players’ selections, nowadays because of injuries. But in the past, internationals often coincided with club games.
In 1940, Joe Mercer was called up to the England squad for a match against Wales on April 13th. His Welsh teammate TG Jones was also called up for the game. However, Everton controversially refused to allow them to play for their respective nations because there was a Lancashire Senior Cup semi-final match against Liverpool on the same day. They wanted Mercer and Jones to play in the Lancashire Senior Cup meeting so that the team doesn’t become weakened and the Merseyside Derby wouldn’t lose its appeal. By refusing Mercer and Jones to play for their countries, they became the first team to refuse to allow players to play for their nations during the wartime period.
Everton denying TG Jones to play for Wales wasn’t much of an issue; it was denying Joe Mercer to play for England. At the time, it was mandatory for Football League teams to allow footballers to play for England, whereas if players were called up to play for Wales, Ireland or Scotland, they were free to refuse. Everton objected that ruling by saying that the FA lost its right to claim players after the ruling was said to have been suspended the previous September.
The Welsh FA granted TG Jones’ unavailability, but the English FA refused to back down. It was considered defiance towards the FA, however the Everton chairman Ernest Green didn’t see it like that.
It is not the question of defying the FA in the slightest degree. The authorities asked us a simple question: whether Mercer was available for this match. Our answer was that he was not available.
(Liverpool Daily Post)
It would appear that the ball was in Everton’s court because they reportedly allowed more players to play for their country than any other team in England. So they were happy to allow their own players to play internationally – it was just unfortunate that this certain England game clashed with a crucial Everton game.
The official rule (known as Rule 41) was:
Any player selected to attend any international, or other match arranged by this association and (without good and sufficient cause) refusing to comply with the arrangements of the Council for playing the match, or failing to attend such match, may be adjudged by the Council to have been guilty of misconduct, and any club or official who may be deemed to have encouraged or instigated such player to commit a breach of instruction or rule shall be deemed guilty of a similar offence.
The FA has been very strict with this rule, so for Everton to rebel against it was a huge risk. There was even more risk involved as Everton technically have very little say on when and which team Joe Mercer should play for because Joe Mercer joined the Army. As the result of Mercer joining the Army, he was only allowed to play for Everton if the Army allowed him to.
Theo Kelly reiterated Ernest Green’s statement by saying that the decision was not defiant towards the FA.
Everton received a letter from the FA asking if Mercer is available, and I have sent a letter stating we regret Mercer is not available in view of the importance of our Lancashire Senior Cup semi-final with Liverpool on the same day.
The question of defiance or a ban does not enter into the situation. All Everton have done is to answer a direct question of the FA.
(Daily Record)
This was believed to be the first known case of a Football League club contesting an FA rule. Back then, rebelliousness from football clubs was seldom seen.
A week before the matches, Everton maintained their stance in refusing to allow Joe Mercer to play for England, with Theo Kelly stating:
Mercer is included in our team against Liverpool in the Lancashire Cup semi-final on Saturday.
(Lancashire Evening Post)
However, the FA also maintained their stance in demanding Joe Mercer to play for England.
On April 10th, Everton’s squad for their match against Liverpool was revealed and Joe Mercer was in the team. They were evidently adamant that Mercer will play for them and refused to be pushed around by the FA.
Source: Liverpool Daily Post
Amidst all this, there was pity towards Joe Mercer.
Our sympathy goes to Joe Mercer. A pity that, through no fault of his, such a likeable and unassuming fellow should be the central figure in a controversy of this sort.
(Daily Mirror)
The FA wasn’t giving up without a fight. A day after Everton’s squad list was released for their game against Liverpool, programmes for England’s game against Wales were being printed and Joe Mercer is among the names in it.
The day before Everton were set to play against Liverpool and England were set to play against Wales, the squads have been announced for the England-Wales game, and Joe Mercer was named in the England squad.
Source: Nottingham Evening Post
A dilemma for Joe Mercer as he has been selected to play for both teams for games on the same day. However, the FA’s belief in Mercer playing for England was reported to be dwindling as the Yorkshire Evening Post said Huddersfield’s Ken Willingham was travelling to London to be England’s back-up in case Mercer didn’t play. Welsh newspaper Western Mail, however, confidently said:
So Mercer will play for England after all. The test case brought about through Everton’s attempted refusal to allow Mercer to play for his country was settled last night when the Football Association told Everton that Mercer must play for England.
On the actual day of those games, the Liverpool Daily Post removed Joe Mercer’s name from Everton’s squad list and included his name in England’s squad list, causing readers to believe that Mercer chose to play for England.
But, in the end, Joe Mercer didn’t play for England; he played for Everton instead.
Joe Mercer, the subject of all the controversy during the past fortnight over the Wembley International, turned out for Everton against Liverpool in the Lancashire Cup semi-final, at Goodison Park today.
Mercer had been ordered by the FA to play for England against Wales despite Everton’s notification that the player was not available.
Mercer received normal Army leave, travelled from his camp today.
Everton Brilliant Against Liverpool – Liverpool Evening Express, 13th April 1940
The decision paid dividends for Everton as they beat Liverpool 3-0 and progressed to the Lancashire Senior Cup final.
Before the game, the FA told Everton that Joe Mercer must play for England. Everton evidently ignored the FA’s demand. In the England-Wales match, Mercer was replaced by the aforementioned Ken Willingham. England subsequently lost to Wales 1-0.
Joe Mercer choosing club over country caused a lot of controversy. The FA secretary Stanley Rous said:
The matter will be dealt with by the committee as soon as we have all the facts.
(Lancashire Evening Post)
Ernest Green denied any wrongdoing:
The original letter asked us that Mercer play at Wembley against Wales “if available” and “if the player is willing”. That letter proves that Rule 41, which, in peace-time, gave the FA power to order players to appear in an international match is not in operation. Were it in operation, the FA could have ordered Mercer’s appearance in the first place instead of asking us if he were available.
Everton heard nothing whatever from the FA for ten days, and then came a telegram stating: ‘Mercer must play at Wembley and not at Goodison Park.’ Mercer received a telegram stating: ‘You must play at Wembley to-morrow.’ He got into touch with me and, on my instructions, asked his commanding officer whether he had been given leave to play at Wembley.
The commanding officer had heard nothing from the FA, and his leave to Mercer was to play at Goodison Park. Mercer did not finish his duties until noon on Saturday, and so came to play at Goodison Park.
(Lancashire Evening Post)
Ernest Green went into further detail for the Liverpool Evening Express:
Mercer was given leave to play for us against Liverpool a week ago, and when he received his telegram on Friday, he rang me up from his camp. I asked him if his Commanding Officer had received any communication from the FA. Mercer said he would find out. Then he rang again to say his Commanding Officer had received no word from the FA and that the only leave he had was to play at Goodison Park and not for England at Wembley.
We have never defied anyone in this matter. Why, at Easter the FA wrote asking if Mercer, Jones and [Ted] Sagar were available for a match at Sheffield. We replied that they were not available as we had an engagement at Wolverhampton. The FA then wrote asking us if we could see our way clear to release Mercer. They wrote to Jones and Sagar saying that their names had been omitted from the Sheffield team “at the request of your club.”
That also proves that Rule 41 cannot be in operation, and so we said Mercer was not available for the Wembley game. We felt Mercer was a star attraction for our match, and everyone knows that Everton have given full support to the Red Cross games this season. We have supplied more players than any other club.
The Everton club has not, at any time, opposed the authority of the FA or adopted a defiant attitude.
Despite what Green said, it didn’t look like Everton will be let off, according a “leading football official”:
Everton are for the high jump. The rules of the Football Association must not be violated in this fashion, even though we are in the emergency of war.
(Daily Record)
Everton were so determined to prove that they didn’t do anything wrong that they sent out of copies of a statement to every Football League Club and ruling bodies.
Source: Everton Collection
On April 22nd, an inquiry took place in Crewe to settle this once and for all. Everton were given the chance to try their best to prove and insist that they didn’t do anything wrong in front of Stanley Rous amongst others. Unfortunately, their best wasn’t good enough.
Following the inquiry, the FA threw the book at Everton: Ernest Green was banned from all football activity for a year, another director Bill Gibbins was banned from all football activity for six weeks, Everton were forced to pay the cost of the inquiry, and Theo Kelly was reprimanded for failing to inform Green and Gibbins amongst others of any decision the FA made. Joe Mercer, however, escaped punishment.
The Commission’s report was as followed:
The evidence adduced satisfied the Commission that a breach of Rule 41 had been committed by Mr. Green and Mr. Gibbins and in disciplinary action to be taken deprecated the unsporting spirit shown by certain of the Everton FC directors in instructing Mercer to play for his club rather than his country.
The Commission decided that the Everton club be severely censured for bring the game into disrepute and for lack of courtesy in circulating to members of the Council of the FA, members of the Football League Managers’ Committee, Football League clubs, the Army FA and the Press, copies of letters referring to different aspects of the case before any official action had been taken.
(Liverpool Evening Express)
The Liverpool Evening Express published the facts that emerged during the inquiry:
(a) That in receiving the letter from the FA stating that Mercer had been selected to play in the representative match, the Everton FC held an informal board meeting—Messrs. E. Green, C. S. Baxter, W. C. Gibbins, W. R. Williams, T. Percy and the secretary attended—at which it was decided to inform the FA that Mercer was not available as Everton required his services.
(b) That the members of the Everton FC board, not present at the said informal meetings, had been consulted by telephone and had, with the exception of Mr. W. C. Cuff, agreed to the course of action stated above. Mr. Cuff had pointed out that the action was contrary to Rule 41, but this was not communicated to the other directors.
(c) That the decision made by the Everton directors in response to the FA’s communication noted in (a) was communicated by an Everton official to the Press before the FA could have the answer. The first announcement appeared in a Liverpool paper on Monday morning, April 1.
(d) That the Everton board had chosen to assume that because the FA had released Everton players for certain matches on behalf of war charities at Easter, Rule 41 had been suspended. This assumption was made in spite of the fact that no official notification had been received to that effect. The attitude was persisted in after April 6, when the Army authorities informed Mr. Green that the Football Association had notified that Rule 41 had not been suspended.
(e) That the Everton board considered their refusal to comply with the FA’s orders concerning Mercer to be justified, as in their view the players from the Everton club had been selected to play for the FA on an unreasonable number of occasions—the actual record of attendances of Everton players in FA charity matches is: (1) England XI v Welsh XI at Wrexham, November 18, 1939—Mercer and [Tommy] Lawton; (2) England XI v Scotland XI at Newcastle, December, 1939—[Norman] Greenhalgh, Mercer and Lawton; (3) FA XI v Yorkshire XI at Sheffield, March 25, 1940—[Billy] Cook. No Everton players played for the FA for 12 other representative matches.
(f) That although the Everton directors denied that pressure had been brought to bear on Mercer to play for Everton, the following extract from a letter written by Mercer to the FA appeared to suggest to the contrary: “I assure you that it would be a great pleasure for me to take part in the game, only the attitude which my club have adopted makes it very awkward for me to decide.” Also the following extract from a letter from the Officer Commanding Mercer’s unit: “The matter is, therefore, left between Everton and yourselves, and since Mercer probably feels in honour bound to Everton by long service, he would act under instructions of Everton.”
The Liverpool Evening Express also published telegrams sent by the FA War Emergency Committee to Everton:
Everton FC—Decided Mercer must play for England [at] Wembley tomorrow, not for your club. Player order to report [to] London in accordance with instructions alread sent [to] him.
Mercer—Decided you must play for England tomorrow. Please report [to] London in accordance with instructions already sent [to] you. Everton club has been informed.
Here is the full report (via Everton Collection):
Ernest Green spoke to the Liverpool Evening Express regarding the inquiry, but only to say that Everton had no comment on the matter.
A bitter defeat for Everton. However, the club was defended by Liverpool Daily Post journalist “Pilot”, who was surprised that Everton were severely punished:
The surprise was in the severity of the “sentences.” Without going into the rights and wrongs of the actual case, I do think that the decision is out of proportion to any alleged offence.
I have made inquiries in many quarters seeking opinions on a ruling which places Everton’s chairman, Mr. Ernest Green, out of the game until May, 1941, and another director, Mr. Will Gibbins, out of the games until June 8 this year, and not a single expression have I heard in favour of the decisions.
Players who have been ordered from the field for foul tactics have been fined, say, £10 and suspended for a week. Everton and its officials, on that reckoning, have to suffer what, in my opinion, can only be described as an unnecessarily severe verdict.
My own opinion is that, but for unfortunate misunderstandings at the outset, there would have been no such thing as “the Mercer case.”
Despite the fact Everton were hard done by, the club was smiling in the end. A strong performance from Joe Mercer helped Everton to progress to the Lancashire Senior Cup final, where they faced Bury. The club made the most of the occasion by beating Bury 4-2 to win the Lancashire Senior Cup, after having won the Liverpool Senior Cup the previous month.
So in spite of all the controversy surrounding the Mercer case, at least Everton had two trophies in their cabinet.
On April 22nd, 1893, Everton and Liverpool met each other for the first time since the split the previous year. It is disputed that this was the first ever Merseyside Derby. However, Everton’s reserve team (a.k.a. Everton Combination) participated in the tournament, not the first team; so technically, this wasn’t the first ever Merseyside Derby. But that didn’t mean the game was a friendly affair. The Everton-Liverpool rivalry started with a bang.
Run-Up
Everton Combination
Liverpool
R1
Aigburth Vale
8-0
R1
Chester
4-0
SF
Aintree Church
7-1
SF
Bootle
1-0
Preview
Newly-formed Liverpool went into the game winning the Lancashire League title at the first time of asking, narrowly pipping Blackpool and Bury for their first ever piece of silverware. Everton Combination went into the game winning 46 out of 54 games that season, losing only 4 times and scoring an incredible 267 goals – nearly 5 goals a game. Everton had also won the previous three Liverpool Senior Cups. So Everton were undoubtedly the favourites.
Line-Ups
Everton Combination
Liverpool
Richard Williams
Goalkeeper
Billy McOwen
Goalkeeper
Albert Chadwick
Back
Andrew Hannah
Back
John Collins
Back
Duncan McLean
Back
Dickie Boyle
Half-back
John McCartney
Half-back
Johnny Holt
Half-back
Joe McQue
Half-back
Bernard Coyle
Half-back
Jim McBride
Half-back
Patrick Gordon
Forward
Malcolm McVean
Forward
Joey Murray
Forward
Tom Wyllie
Forward
Abe Hartley
Forward
John Miller
Forward
James McMillan
Forward
Matt McQueen
Forward
Jack Elliott
Forward
Hugh McQueen
Forward
The Match
Over 10,000 fans were at the match at Hawthorne Road in Bootle. Liverpool kicked things off and wasted no time in trying to break the deadlock. Established goalkeeper Richard Williams was forced to parry Hugh McQueen’s shot away for a corner, and he was forced into action again soon after, conceding another corner. A third corner was then taken, but to no avail. A terrific start for Liverpool, and they didn’t stop there.
The Everton defence were needed as Liverpool won a free-kick, which eventually resulted in another corner for Liverpool after Richard Williams saved John McCartney’s header. Aside from an interception from former Everton player Andrew Hannah, the Liverpool defence hardly moved – Everton couldn’t find a way to get into their half at all. They eventually managed to after good work from Abe Hartley, James McMillan and Jack Elliott, but the ball subsequently went out of play.
Richard Williams came to the rescue once again after saving a shot from Joe McBride. Liverpool’s dominance continued thereafter after a shot from forward (and occasional goalkeeper) Matt McQueen and an unsuccessful through ball by his brother, Hugh. Liverpool goalkeeper Billy McOwen was called into action for the first time in the game, but only to run out of his area and clear the ball away. Everton tried to get a shot at goal after great work from Patrick Gordon and Joey Murray, but Andrew Hannah stopped the attack.
A breakthrough soon occurred, and, to no surprise, it was Liverpool who scored the first goal of the game after 35 minutes. The goal came from an Everton free-kick – the free-kick was given after a handball from John McCartney, but after the free-kick was taken, the ball was in Liverpool’s grasp again and a neat pass from John Miller to former Everton forward Tom Wyllie, who subsequently scored with a low drive. Richard Williams was finally beaten.
It wouldn’t be a local derby without, at least, a slight tussle. After Joe McQue tackled Joey Murray, the two players had a bit of an argument before the referee, former Blackburn and England goalkeeper Herby Arthur, calmed things down. Liverpool then remained in control until half-time – a very one-sided game so far.
In the second half, Everton finally had a chance – John McCartney fouled James McMillan and John Collins placed the free-kick onto Jack Elliott’s head. However, Elliott couldn’t direct his header into the goal. Further chances ensued for Everton after Patrick Gordon continuously tried to find an equaliser, only to end up with corners instead. Afterwards, the game was end-to-end: both teams had their chances but failed to convert them. Liverpool had the chance to extend their lead but were prevented by good defending from John Collins and Tom Wyllie grazed the post.
The match was approaching its final moments, and there was huge controversy. Everton had a chance for an equaliser, but it then resulted in a corner. Liverpool dealt with it, but did they do it legally? The Everton players were furious because they thought they should have had a penalty for handball. They believed one of the Liverpool defenders punched it away. However, following consultations with the linesmen, Herby Arthur rejected Everton’s claims and no penalty was given. The game resumed after Arthur awarded a drop-ball and it was cleared, and Arthur blew the final whistle immediately after the ball was kicked.
The referee, Herby Arthur
Full Time: Everton Combination 0-1 Liverpool
The Everton players didn’t take Arthur’s decision not to give the penalty lightly. Usually, when a team wins a trophy, they have a presentation. But Liverpool didn’t get one. This was because the Everton players were so apoplectic with rage, they protested the result, blaming “the general incompetence of the referee.” Following the protest, the Liverpool Football Association decided to hold a meeting to discuss the matter. Everton’s protest was dismissed, and Liverpool were awarded the trophy after their 0-0 draw against Preston three days after the final.
In 1878, Everton Football Club were formed, and they were known as “St. Domingo’s Football Club”. The club was called St. Domingo’s because they were named after the St Domingo’s Methodist Church where Reverend Ben Swift Chambers created a football team for the winter. But why was the church called “St. Domingo’s”? Allow me to introduce you to George Campbell.
George Campbell was a trader and sugar boiler from the West Indies. In Robert Syers’ book “The History of Everton”, he was selected to be in charge of a regiment in Liverpool in 1745 to fight against rebels. According to Syers, Charles III (also known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”) ordered his regiment to go to Manchester, but they stopped at Warrington. They stopped at Warrington because they came across enemy territory, and also some geese.
It is said that in the year 1745, Mr. Campbell was placed at the head of an irregular body of men, hastily raised in Liverpool, for military service, to check the advance of the rebels, under the Pretender: Mr. Campbell’s company was ordered to march for Manchester, but made no further progress than Warrington; but even in that short campaign, one adventure, worthy of Cervantes’ pen, fell to their share. It happened that in the way of Campbell’s warriors lay a flock of geese; mistaking them, at first, for fellow-militants, Campbell’s heroes prepared for for their maiden encounter in the field of Mars;—some say that their hearts palpitated, others, that worse things happened; but we will let these rumours pass. On a near approach, the enemy was found to be a cackling cavalcade, more disposed to flight and fight. The reasoning bipeds, marching onwards, soon commingled with the main body of the feathered tribe of instinct, upon which the former became strongly disposed to declare war, and to commence slaughterous operations.
Syers went on to call George Campbell’s regiment “diplomatists of the first rate” and “admirable machiavelians (sic)”, implying that they were successful in battle in a moderately pacifistic way. Following the battle, George Campbell and his men wanted the geese to join them on their march to Manchester, and the geese were seemingly excited. However, hunger began to take its toll on Campbell and his men and they decided to sacrifice the geese to fill their empty stomachs.
Now Campbell’s men, if they were not the most valiant of soldiers, proved themselves deserving of the character of diplomatists of the first rate, and most admirable machiavelians. A parley was entered into, in which Campbell’s heroes demanded of the geese, whether they were willing to accompany them on their march?—the geese hissed!—a sound so perfectly in unison with, and similar to, the affirmative monosyllable, yes, that every man of Campbell’s company, to spare their new friends the fatigue of marching, “bagged his bird.” Onward the allies went, until, at halting time, the descendants of the saviours from Rome¹ found themselves placed at the post of danger, as hunger’s forlorn hope; in short, they were devoted to all the horrors of the pot and spit.
¹ The “saviours from Rome” bit is referring to the Battle of the Allia in the 4th century BC, where, according to legend, the sacred geese of Juno warned the Roman consul, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, about an incoming attack from the Gauls.
After eating their anserine companions, they were worried that they would be in trouble following their one and only battle, presumably because they weren’t violent enough. Syers then used Campbell’s battle to reveal his own pacifism and intolerance of war.
Thus, under a saving clause which would have done the honour to the ingenuity of the ancient Mr. Touchstone, did Campbell’s warriors achieve their first and only warlike enterprize. Their fears of future consequences were stilled by conscience whispering unto them, that the recording angel would register the peccadillo as a venial sin, and place it on the list of other such statesmanlike—pardon the slip—warlike offences. As to worldly consequences, Campbell’s men well knew that the state of the times was their safeguard. And now, gentle reader, take this anecdote in the sense it is meant to be conveyed—that is, as a philippic [a critical attack] against war in general.
Following the battle, George Campbell stayed in Liverpool and in 1757, he bought some land from Henry Halsall, and some more land from John Seacome the following year. He subsequently built his own property and named it “St. Domingo”. He called it “St. Domingo” because he captured a ship from an island called St. Domingo – which was named after Saint Dominic, the patron saint of astronomers.
Mr. Campbell gave the name of St Domingo to this estate, in commemoration of a piece of good fortune which befel him, when one of his vessels captured a rich ship from the Island of St. Domingo, in the West Indies.
He then decided to build a house from that ship in the Everton area.
George Campbell, Esq. was the founder of the St. Domingo estate, who, on the 23d August, 1757, made the first of his purchases of those Everton lands which originally formed the estate. From time to time he made other purchases of contiguous lands, which he added to his St. Domingo estate. The spot Mr. Campbell chose for his place of residence, was at the south end of the patch of land, or locality, […] where a house was pleasantly situated; it was separated from the main road by a deep, triangular-shaped lawn, the sides of which were bordered with trees and shrubs, and the front protected by neat stoops and chains.
Robert Syers said something quite prescient (his book was written in 1830): he described Campbell’s house as being close to “the old Beacon”, which is Prince Rupert’s Tower. Not only that, he also said Campbell wanted his house to look like a place “dedicated to divine worship”. A church, perhaps?
The house was not distant more than bow-shot from the old Beacon, consequently it commanded extensive and charming sea and land prospects. There were many convenient outbuildings attached to the mansion, one of which stood in the east, separated from the dwelling by Beacon-lane. The building was, in reality, a stable, but a stranger would have rather inclined to consider it a place in which religious rites were performed; for, to indulge some whim, Mr. Campbell had constructed the building (particularly the windows of it) to resemble places dedicated to divine worship. Whether Mr. Campbell meant any thing or nothing by indulgence of his whim, tradition doth not very clearly elucidate; but there is strong reason to surmise that a spice of improper satire, or something still more reprehensible, dictated the project.
After making himself at home, he became Mayor of Liverpool from 1763 to 1764. He died on June 27th, 1769, leaving behind a daughter called Elizabeth. He is buried in a family vault in St. George’s Church, Everton.
The name “St. Domingo” lived on after his death. Two streets were named after his estate – St. Domingo Vale and St. Domingo Grove. Between those two streets, a chapel was built, which subsequently became St. Domingo’s Methodist Church in 1871 – the birthplace of Everton Football Club.
On September 8th, 1888, Everton, and 9 other teams, played their first ever league game. Everton’s first opponents were Accrington FC (not to be confused with Accrington Stanley – the teams are not related). Before the season started, Everton had three friendlies: a 4-1 win over Padiham (two goals from George Farmer, one from Edgar Chadwick and an own goal); a 1-2 defeat to Blackburn Olympic (Edgar Chadwick scored Everton’s only goal); and a 2-1 win over Halliwell Jubilee (one goal each for Edgar Chadwick and George Farmer).
An OK preseason with Edgar Chadwick and George Farmer catching the eyes of Evertonians and opposing fans alike ahead of the club’s meeting with Accrington.
The line-ups were:
Everton(2-3-5)
Accrington(2-3-5)
Robert Smalley
Goalkeeper
Johnny Horne
Goalkeeper
Alec Dick
Back
John Stevenson
Back
Nick Ross (captain)
Back
John McLellan
Back
Johnny Holt
Half-back
George Haworth
Half-back
Robert Jones
Half-back
Luther Pemberton
Half-back
George Dobson
Half-back
Jonathan Wilkinson
Half-back
George Fleming
Forward
Joe Lofthouse
Forward
Dave Waugh
Forward
Jim Bonar
Forward
William Lewis
Forward
John Kirkham
Forward
Edgar Chadwick
Forward
J. Holden
Forward
George Farmer
Forward
Peter Chippendale
Forward
(The Liverpool Mercury did not note who Accrington’s captain was.)
A 2-3-5 formation (commonly known as the pyramid formation) for both teams. An unusual formation for us but it was a very common formation from the 1880s to the 1940s.
The match was expected to kick off at 4pm. However, for some reason, Accrington turned up late, so the match had to be kicked off at 4:25pm. 12,000 patient fans were in attendance at Anfield, expecting to watch a historic match. William Lewis had Everton’s first ever kick in the Football League by having the honour of starting Everton’s season.
Everton had the first chance of the game following good passing from Dave Waugh and George Fleming, which led to George Farmer taking a shot at the Accrington goal but was denied as his shot was saved by the Accrington goalkeeper Johnny Horne, who parried it away for a corner. However, the corner came to nothing, with the Liverpool Mercury saying it was “badly taken.”
End-to-end action proceeded as Accrington’s Joe Lofthouse had a chance to shoot before George Dobson stopped him and eventually gave William Lewis a chance to shoot, but to no avail after an interception from John Stevenson. The game was still end-to-end, both teams had an equal chance of scoring the first goal of the game, and it was Everton who came closest after Dave Waugh hit the bar.
Everton kept on pushing for a goal but were continuously denied after Johnny Horne saved shots from William Lewis, George Dobson and Edgar Chadwick in quick succession. Accrington then had a chance themselves (the Liverpool Mercury describing it as a “stunner”) after Robert Smalley prevented Joe Lofthouse from breaking the deadlock. The game ended the first half goalless, although Everton could have had a penalty after Johnny Horne pushed George Fleming when he was about to shoot at goal. But the referee appeared to have ignored it.
After an enthralling first half, the second half started off in a similar way: end-to-end action, Johnny Horne still stopping shots left, right and centre, and both teams defending solidly. But on the 55th minute, the deadlock was finally broken. Joe Lofthouse had the ball for Accrington, however he was stopped in his stracks by George Dobson. Dobson then passed the ball to Dave Waugh, who then passed it to George Farmer. Farmer lobbed the ball towards George Fleming, who then became part of Everton history by scoring their first ever league goal – the former bank clerk scored by heading the ball past the seemingly unbeatable Johnny Horne.
Accrington then pushed for an equaliser, but the defence remained solid, with the Liverpool Mercury praising Alec Dick in particular:
Dick was the hero of the finest bit of back play seen on Everton ground for some considerable time, keeping his lines clear in grand style.
When Johnny Horne appeared to be invincible, he soon proved to be human after not only conceding a goal, but also breaking a rib. He broke his rib after clearing Edgar Chadwick’s shot. His game was over, and as football didn’t have substitutes in those days, one of the Accrington outfielders had to take his place, and John McLellan was the player chosen. He didn’t repeat Horne’s heroics though as Everton scored again thanks to another goal by George Fleming, set up once again by George Farmer.
Accrington refused to give up and were rewarded by cutting the deficit to one after J. Holden scored from a free kick moments after hitting the bar. Everton tried to regain the two-goal lead and Accrington attempted to find an equaliser, but neither happened.
Final score: Everton 2-1 Accrington.
Everton were rewarded with two points after a solid defensive performance and an equally aggressive attacking performance. The attendance of around 12,000 was reported by the Liverpool Mercury to be the most-watched game of the day. A perfect start to the inaugural Football League season.
