When the RFU voted against broken-time payments in September 1893, Muff called it 'a reassertion of the typical British snob's comfortable belief that The Business Of The Working Man Is To Work; Providence made him a purpose; play was intended only for Us - Us Gentlemen.' 5/8

Muff had no time for social status, writing in 1894 that: 'Highly educated gentlemen's sympathies lie with classes and not the masses. ... they're out of touch altogether with popular football, consequently they cannot be accepted as authorities'. 6/8

Tony Collins One could certainly re-jig this statement for cricket today.

In 1892 he warned 'Less than 10 years ago not a single association club could be found either in Manchester or district. Now both Newton Heath and Ardwick are high up and making big names for themselves at the dribbling code ... rugby in Lancashire is in danger of being swamped.'

in one of his last Clarion columns Muff wrote: 'What we do want and pine for is the honest official bold enough to give prominence to the wishes of the majority of the working men players, and strike out for professionalism'. Maybe rugby league needs bold officials today... 8/8

Great thread from Tony Collins - a snapshot of the amateur-professional split in English rugby in the 19th century, which (with other factors) left us with rugby league and rugby union today.

Tony Collins The rugby code that even entertained X Border matches 1870 before Queens Park chased The Blessed Pot was on the wane

And post WW1 the scenario became more severe….not many of the Manchester and District league sides came back after the war…

On this date in 1912, Camborne RFC and several other West Country clubs nearly quit Cornwall RFU 〓〓 and joined the professional Northern Union. Read all about it here… the-cornish-historian.com/2024/02/03/the…

The very same! Maybe if the RFU had organised a national cup comp and a league to challenge soccer in the 1880s, the two clubs would still be Newton Heath & Ardwick…

This was actually one of the reasons clubs in the north stopped playing the elite gentleman’s clubs from the south in the 1890s - they demanded very high appearance fees to cover their hotels, food and alcohol!

Here's one from 1887 celebrating Leeds' defeat of Bradford, complete with sarcastic poem on the back!

Higson was stiffed by the RFU in 1895 - he later recalled the RFU promised him that if Salford didn't join the NU, they would get fixtures with the big London clubs. It didn't happen. He became disillusioned and later became a Newton Heath director.

Can’t recommend this highly enough!

If you’re interested in American football or the history of football codes in general, the new book ‘A History of the Football’ from FootballArchaeology @fbarchaeology.bsky.social is essential reading.

In 1919, a wave of race riots erupted across Britain following anti-immigrant incitement, including from leading labour movement figures — serving as a warning against the Left's failure to challenge far-right narratives. tribunemag.co.uk/2024/09/the-19…

Spycops have long targeted the British left - TONY COLLINS looks at the evidence he has uncovered in his research on our early labour movement of deep and hostile police infiltration that ruined lives in the last century morningstaronline.co.uk/article/spycop…

Klaxon for all historians of football rules: in 1867 Hallam FC won Sheffield's Youdan Cup by 2 rouges to nil. Two weeks ago Toronto Argonauts beat x – Saskatchewan Roughriders by a last-minute rouge - it's a living example of football's evolutionary thicket. thestar.com/sports/argos/a…

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Lex Marinos, a great friend to the Tom Brock Bequest Committee. If you've not read Lex's Annual Tom Brock Lecture from 2008, you need to check it out here: tombrock.com.au/wp-content/upl…

Tony Collins returns to his roots as political historian examining an important era. Lucid, impeccably researched, steers way sure-footedly through great complexity, highly readable. Shows again he’s a top-class historian who just happens to have focussed mainly on sport.