BILLY BREMNER MEMORIAL JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN
Date: 14th November 2024
The detailed story of the five years of convulsion in Scottish Football between 1927 and 1931 is told in the 160 page book THE INTERMEDIATE SPLIT, written by John Litster. It took two decades for the dispute to come to a head, and its convoluted background opens the narrative followed by a blow-by-blow account of the various attempts to resolve the impasse over the following five years.
One of the 57 prominent West of Scotland clubs who left the Scottish Junior Football Association to form the Intermediate Association, were Shieldmuir Celtic, located in a mining village of that name between Motherwell and Wishaw. Their reasons for the dramatic move were given in their Handbook for season 1929/30.
Quite a number of our supporters have approached me asking if it would not have been better for us to have remained loyal to the Scottish Junior F.A. They have generally pointed out that we have a few players who would have become seniors and the Club would have benefitted financially from the deal. The average football committee is not credited with much intelligence, but I claim that our committee did the best thing possible for the Club when they joined the rebels two years ago.
We had two points to take into consideration when we took this step – the expectation that we were going into a better class of football and the treatment we had received from seniors in the past.
The first consideration has, I think, been realised, as it will be fully admitted that the football served up by the majority of intermediate clubs is a class above that purveyed by the juniors.
As to our treatment by senior clubs in the past. I expect it does not differ much from other Intermediate and junior clubs of any standing Since 1924, senior clubs have taken from us practically a whole team, and, with the exception of Motherwell, Aberdeen and Celtic none of these clubs approached us before signing the players.
In the early part of our first season, 1923/24, Plymouth Argyle came along and spirited Frank Sloan away without our permission, and when approached for a donation as compensation for the loss of one who was at that time considered the finest junior playing football, we received a cheque for the handsome sum of £5.
During that season we also lost Jimmy Healy (pictured) to Celtic and Willie Daly to Bradford. We received nothing from Bradford, but Celtic played a benefit game with us in lieu of getting Healy.
But see what happened in the following season, 1924/25. Early on, Joe McCafferty went to Motherwell, but, as stated previously, Motherell had the decency to approach us before interviewing the player, and they also compensated us satisfactorily.
However, worse was to follow at a time when we were in the semi-final of the Scottish Junior Cup, semi-final of the Lanarkshire Junior Cup, semi-final of the Lanarkshire Central Cup, in the last eight of Lanarkshire League Cup, and leaders of the Lanarkshire Junior League, we lost Joe Kelly to Clyde, P(atrick) Bradley to Wolverhampton, C[harles] O’Neil to Albion Rovers and N. McNulty [presumably Bernard McInulty] to Dundee. The loss of these players at this critical period proved disastrous to the hopes we had of making history in our second season as juniors.
For Bradley and O’Neil we received small cheques from Wolverhampton and Albion Rovers, but we received nothing from Clyde or Dundee.
Before the end of this season, [Peter] McSeverick signed for Aberdeen, but this team also approached us in the first instance.
Briefly, for eleven players who were taken from us by senior clubs during our first two seasons we received the total sum of £50, which, I think any fair-minded person will admit, was totally inadequate for the loss sustained.
Is it any wonder then that in the following season we adopted the White Registration Form of the Glasgow Junior League and later joined up with the Intermediates?
It is not my intention to go further into the merits or demerits of the dispute between our Association and the S.F.A., but after two years experience of intermediate football we are as determined as ever to adhere to the principle we started out to fight for.
Illustrated throughout with photographs of the players and officials caught up in the Split, the book charts the shifting positions of all parties. What started as a a simple quest for a period of notice in signing the best Junior players, and compensation for their clubs, soon included demands on the governance of Scottish football, the length of the Junior football season, players wage thresholds and several other issues added into the negotiations. It took a Court of Session case to bring the matter to a head and there is full coverage of all aspects of the dispute in a book which concludes with details of final League tables and Cup finals and semi finals. Priced £9.95 plus £2.50 p&p if bought direct from John Litster, 81 Marksbury Road, Bristol BS3 5JY, www.scotlandsfootballers.com, also available on eBay and Amazon.
Posted in: Book Review, Latest News
Tags: Book Review