When the ruling involving Manchester City was eventually announced, the newspaper delivered a severe assessment. Its headline described a major football scandal, serious wrongdoing by the club and substantial penalties. The report said it had been established that the club had repeatedly violated Football Association regulations through dishonest methods.
However, that account did not appear last Friday. It was published more than 120 years ago, when English football’s first major secret-payment controversy reached its conclusion.
At the time, City were developing into an ambitious and increasingly powerful club, with considerable money and confidence. After winning the FA Cup in 1904, however, their progress began to fall apart.
The trouble began on the final day of the 1905 season. City were close to securing the championship but lost to Aston Villa in an ill-tempered match featuring punches and mud being thrown. More importantly, City star Billy Meredith was accused of offering Villa captain Alec Leake £10 to deliberately lose the game.
Some argued that the offer had not been genuine, while the identity of the spectator who reported it remains unknown. Nevertheless, the allegation triggered a chain of events that resulted in Meredith receiving a season-long suspension and produced consequences that continued for many years.
When Meredith was later seen continuing to spend time around City despite his suspension, the FA opened another inquiry into the club’s finances. Investigators discovered that gate receipts were being transferred into directors’ private accounts and used to make undeclared payments to players.
Meredith, for example, received £6 per week even though the permitted maximum salary was £4. Several teammates were also collecting additional money. The findings prompted the FA to prohibit 17 players from representing City again, while two club directors were banned for life.
The details may belong to another era, but they remain relevant to the modern game.
The 1906 case demonstrates that severe sanctions can have a lasting effect. City were not the only club making prohibited payments, but the FA’s punishment contributed to their decline down the table, relegation three years later and a wait until 1937 for another league championship.
That side also provided an early illustration of a recurring principle in football: the faster a club climbs, the greater the possibility that its foundations are unstable, making a dramatic fall more likely.
Another notable part of the story is that, although City were punished heavily, Meredith rebuilt his reputation and retained an important place in football history.
His standing was helped by the belief that he had been singled out because of his efforts to establish a players’ union and end the maximum-wage rule. His outstanding ability as a quick and skilful winger also strengthened his legacy.
Respected football writer David Lacey placed Meredith alongside Stanley Matthews among the most significant players in the history of the British game.
When Manchester United supporters selected Eric Cantona as the club’s greatest player in 2001, Lacey argued that an earlier generation might have chosen George Best, while supporters from an even older era could have selected Meredith.
Meredith represented City between 1894 and 1905 and returned for a second spell from 1921 to 1924. His inclusion in United’s hall of fame as well underlines his unusual and considerable influence on both Manchester clubs.
Interestingly, players moving between the two Manchester teams did not appear to provoke much hostility at the time. When Meredith featured in the 1910 derby, one reporter was surprised by the absence of the aggression and intensity normally associated with a local rivalry.
The reporter observed that both teams worked hard and showed little sign of avoiding their responsibilities. Even so, he felt the contest resembled countless ordinary matches without any local rivalry, as though the clubs represented towns at opposite ends of the country.
In a debate that still feels familiar, the same writer wondered whether professional footballers retained a meaningful attachment to the shirts they wore.
After United’s 2-1 victory, he questioned whether local pride or loyalty to a particular club could realistically survive in professional football when a player might wear red in one season, blue in the next and white soon afterward.
Remarkably, Meredith continued playing until the age of 49. His longevity was supported by his close attention to detail and his habit of constantly studying the tactical and technical challenges of the sport.
Known affectionately as “old skin”, Meredith often kept a toothpick in his mouth because he believed it improved his concentration. He finally retired four months before turning 50, when he became the manager of a pub.
Retirement was far from uneventful. During the Manchester blitz, a bomb exploded behind the pub and scattered his Welsh international caps around the surrounding neighbourhood. Recovering them took time because he had made 51 appearances for his country.
Meredith was also notably candid. Asked to explain City’s success, he acknowledged that the club had chosen to disregard the regulation preventing players from earning more than £4 per week.
He also remarked that clubs are not penalised merely for breaking rules, but for being discovered doing so. That observation remains just as meaningful in 2026 as it was more than a century earlier.
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