By Tony Attwood
There was an interesting piece on the Guardian web site on 30 October 2009 which contained a commentary on various Arsenal/Tottenham matches and concluded with a piece about Arsenal’s promotion in 1919.
It repeats the age old stories about the “fixed” promotion which are by and large lifted from the Tottenham Version of History. To be fair, it does suggest that there were underhand activities before the voting, including the match fixing scandal that led to the concerns about the clubs involved (Manchester United and Liverpool). But the undercurrent is one that puts forward (as ever) the suggestion that Arsenal was in the wrong.
At the time this blog was in its formative years, and I wrote a rebuttal to the allegations based on the evidence that we had at the time. Sadly I did not keep my own printed copy of the Guardian article, and I have a feeling that there has been a spot of updating of the original piece – but it is just a feeling.
However they were at it again on 11 April 2001 – it seems a subject that they just can’t let go.
Anyway, since then we’ve published a whole raft of articles on the topic of Arsenal’s promotion in 1919, and the are all indexed under (rather logically) 1919.
However if you want to skip to the chase the key article is a brilliant piece of work by Andy Kelly of the Arsenal History Society in which Andy offered a reward of £100 for anyone who could come up with any proof that there was anything underhand about the promotion. No one has yet (and I write as we approach the 4th anniversary of the Guardian’s notorious hatchet job) even tried to claim the reward.
Here are the links
Arsenal’s Election to the First Division in 1919 by Andy Kelly
