Wool City Rivals

I’ve been asked by a number of people for my thoughts about the rumoured takeover of BCAFC (see link to Washington Post feature below – and read the comments at the bottom of the article, the majority of which ridicule the proposal). I suppose it was inevitable that when ownership passed from Stefan Rupp it would be unconventional and this is about as far off the scale as it could be.

I won’t pretend to be an expert about cryptocurrency but I am familiar with business finance and the full range of outcomes from instances of success on the one hand to situations of business failure and fraud on the other. The common denominator is that no commercial organisation can defy financial gravity indefinitely. At some stage it has to generate profit (or more importantly cash) and to fulfil the expectations and obligations to its stakeholders.

Football is no different and even basic 101 company finance still applies. Notwithstanding the casino culture that dominates the sport, loss-making clubs survive only because someone is prepared to fund them and/or waive debt repayments. Insolvency processes such as administration have allowed clubs to wipe the slate clean, clear down their liabilities and start afresh but it still destroys value. As in the case of BCAFC it also leads to the loss of assets. Of course, a club / company can recapitalise itself through generating future profits but it doesn’t always work out that way. The bit that ultimately keeps a club alive is the emotional attachment of supporters and a funder.

With regards to BCAFC we have a situation where the owner paid over the top in 2017 to buy the club and has had to increase his exposure to fund losses. It’s an open secret that he would be happy to step aside if he could recover his investment but the niggling issue is that the club is simply not worth his valuation.

Probably the best thing for the club is for Stefan Rupp to write-off a massive chunk of his investment and allow a new owner to breathe new life to the club. But aside from the fact that this demands charity from him in terms of writing-off £ millions it also means finding a suitable new owner. The said new owner will need to resign him/herself to the fact that the club doesn’t own its ground, pays an extortionate rent and needs considerable spending on the ground as well as training facilities. It’s not the prize investment that we might like to believe.

Accordingly BCAFC is hardly a glittering opportunity. All the talk of being a big club with big attendances overlooks the fact that (a) we don’t have the pedigree of clubs who haven’t spent the bulk of their modern history in the lower divisions and (b) this is Bradford and not the affluent SE of England. Hardly the recipe to attract big commercial sponsorship.

So where does that leave us?

The only people likely to buy the club from Stefan Rupp at his valuation are either (a) nuts; (b) laundering money or (c) a combination of the two. We have become a zombie club, the consequence of the last shit or bust episode and the fact that there has been under-investment for the past 20 years. Going forward we either continue the ongoing struggle, albeit one underpinned by sound finance and an ethical (albeit disinterested) owner, or take the risk of the white knuckle ride. Here cometh the latter.

If there is substance in the cryptocurrency offer – and that offer is accepted by our current owner – it amounts to shit or bust for BCAFC. Crypto is no more than another way to accumulate capital and potentially access more funds than conventional methods. That in itself is risky given that the value of crypto currency fluctuates in real terms. Hence whilst it could bring a massive war chest, as a means of funding it is incredibly volatile – endless riches or endless losses for those who hold crypto currencies.

The interesting bit is the promise to unlock new revenue streams through exploiting the BCAFC brand in new global markets. At this point I take a deep breath. The proposition that BCAFC / Bantams could be a global brand… seriously, we should be flattered. In all the time that I have followed the club – including that momentary tilt at Premier League glory – we failed to leverage our brand in Yorkshire, let alone the UK. But heh, the world is full of gullible people who might yet associate claret and amber with a mighty football club as opposed to Harry Potter. We can but hope. The likes of Sheffield United and Hull City don’t appear to have made much progress with their global brand ambitions but our prospective owners – who confess they know sweet bugger all about English soccer – might yet have the magic ingredient that has thus far been overlooked by others.

Who knows, armed with a massive crypto war chest BCAFC could attract a multitude of new talent to Valley Parade that will deliver success. Quite possibly. The ambitions at Notts County were never realised but maybe these yanks can do it differently.

What it boils down to is that these investors are looking for a club to secure a place at the casino table. They don’t care which club. They have no emotional connection to BCAFC and most likely know nothing about Bradford. But from afar we look a perfect investment choice. Just like Edin Rahic did they can see decent crowds, a ground with a reasonable capacity and see that we have a Premier League – ahem – ‘heritage’. Forget that we don’t own the assets and forget that we are based in Bradford, that’s unnecessary detail.

Essentially this is an investment by an Edin on steroids. It’s Premier League or bust. And the probability of success before they get bored and give up the ghost? What fate for BCAFC if the experiment doesn’t succeed? The resumption of derbies with Bradford Park Avenue in the Northern Premier League perhaps? Who is likely to rescue us next time?

There is the temptation to view any new owner as preferable to the incumbent but that doesn’t mean these candidate owners are capable of fulfilling their stated dreams and that there won’t be considerable collateral damage. The apparent sweetener is the promise of fan ownership but that doesn’t mean simply enfranchising the 15,000 who regularly attend games. Ownership will be extended to anyone who wants to partake in the crypto ride as consumers, investors or as a punt. Ownership will pass to people whose passion for BCAFC is likely to come and go on a whim. What voice for the spectators who consider themselves to be the real fans who actually attend games and invest a considerable emotional commitment? The example of Ebbsfleet United demonstrates how quickly enthusiasm for that club passed out of fashion. Would BCAFC really be any different?

It would be great if these guys have the credibility to deliver but on the face of it I am massively sceptical. It’s going to be interesting and arguably a final fling for a zombie football club but don’t be surprised if it goes badly wrong. Crypto currency, magic beans or pound coins, you cannot defy financial gravity.

Feature in the Washington Times that broke the story 16-Dec-21

Commentary from David Storey, English journalist: WAGMI United: The thought of Bradford City being bought by this clueless crypto crew fills me with horror – inews.co.uk 16-Dec-21

Some background here about NFTs and the individuals promoting them

John Dewhirst

I won’t deny my disappointment with the outcome of the announcement by HM Government of its Integrated Rail Plan [1] in response to the earlier proposal for the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme [2]. As far as Bradford was concerned it was the prospect of an East / West through-line connection to the mainline network that was encouraging, not simply to improve rail connectivity and the civic self-respect of a decent station but to provide a catalyst for urban regeneration.

The decision not to build a new station in Bradford on a new high-speed line between Liverpool and Leeds feels like yet another lost opportunity in the history of the district’s railways [3]. Previously there had been failed attempts to connect the city’s two rail stations at Forster Square and the Exchange to provide a North / South through line. Even at the beginning of this century there had been a tantalising dream of connecting Forster Square to the Interchange (successor to the Exchange) as an alternative to developing the Broadway shopping centre in between and had the will existed, in my view it would have been the best outcome for the city’s modern rail links.

There has been a lot of emotion on social media about the Government’s rejection of the Bradford proposals as well as about the IRP in general despite the fact that it makes a number of very valid points. The problem is that expectations have been raised to such a degree that disappointment was inevitable once schemes began to be watered down. The NPR team made a strong case in favour of a Bradford rail link and the Government document provides an equally robust outline of why that argument was rejected. Although it is academic (given that the decision has been made) I’d be interested to see  the response of NPR and Bradford Council in respect of the Bradford decision and compare the numbers / costings being quoted. The need for a regeneration strategy remains and if that is not going to come from a centrepiece rail station I’d also like to hear thoughts on what it could now be.

From a travelling perspective I try to use the railways whenever possible and I am pretty fortunate to live within walking distance of Shipley station for direct, electrified connections to London and Leeds. To that extent a new line through Bradford would not have made much difference, a point made in the IRP document which highlighted that 23% of residents in the Bradford district live in the Wharfedale and Airedale centres. Nonetheless, for journeys to Manchester (which I make on a less frequent basis) it could have been useful. The only caveat in respect of the latter destination would have been the ease of getting across to the new Bradford Adolphus St / St James station and for similar reasons I currently opt to travel west via Leeds and avoid the Interchange. The sad reality is that there are also many people who live in the Bradford district –  irrespective of being rail commuters – who have no affinity with the city,  rarely visit and probably wouldn’t even make the effort to do so.

On balance, even though I would have wanted to support the line, I don’t believe that the new station in Bradford would have made a massive impact on my journeys. Besides, in the last 18 months my train travel has dropped considerably through remote working. More telling is that, other than for commuting journeys to or via Leeds (or to/from Bradford FSqu), I can’t have made more than a handful of trips by rail within West Yorkshire during the last decade and hence I can’t see how the new line would have cut down on my car use (which for the record has always been a last resort if travel by two wheels, whether on pushbike or motorcycle, has not been an option).

Whilst Bradford has dismal rail connections the other critical issue is that it’s not easy to drive into or across. The city suffers the legacy of its Victorian footprint and the layout of the historical central township is much the same as that established by 1875, a product of physical geography and unbridled property speculation in what was then a boom town. In the 1880s Bradfordians complained about the difficulty of crossing town, to get from Manningham in the north to Horton in the southwest. I’m not sure it’s much easier now, for example with gridlock and mayhem on Cemetery Road and the inner ring road.

It probably takes as long to get from Allerton to say Wibsey as it does from Bradford Interchange to Leeds on a diesel multiple unit. For all the attention being given to the railways it seems that the difficulty of cross town travel is being overlooked and my suspicion is that the latter is a more pertinent concern to many low income workers in Bradford than the convenience or otherwise of getting to Leeds or Manchester. The anarchy on Bradford’s roads also makes many of them no-go areas which doesn’t help the situation.

I suspect that rail users in the south of the district similarly find Low Moor or New Pudsey to be more convenient than getting into and travelling from Bradford. Notwithstanding, there is no argument otherwise that connections from the centre of Bradford are abysmal and I know from past experience that lines out of the Interchange are painfully slow. The IRP goes some way to redress this through the planned electrification of the line from Bradford Interchange to Leeds via New Pudsey but does nothing to resolve the time taken to travel to destinations west from Bradford via Calderdale (ie to Manchester and Lancashire stations). Quite possibly one day there will be an Ebbsfleet terminal at Standedge with connecting shuttles to/from Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees.

As regards the Bradford-Leeds electrification proposals, this is a sensible measure and one that has been called for previously. The connectivity also enhances the possibility that Bradford’s surplus of residential flats could provide a solution to housing pressures in Leeds and the fact that electrification will happen sooner than later has to be acknowledged as positive.

On the face of it, the dismissal of the Manchester-Leeds connection via Bradford appears to have been on the basis of the expense of improving journey times and the claim that £18bn would have reduced the Manchester-Leeds journey time by just 4 minutes. Not only that, but the IRP argues the futility of a new line from Manchester via Bradford which would undermine the business case for investment in the existing line via Huddersfield. There are two points to be taken from this. The first is that the IRP is reinforcing the significance of Leeds as West Yorkshire’s rail hub in that improvements for Bradford commuters are based around promised shorter journey times to Leeds and thence to Manchester or London. The second is that the IRP fails to recognise the importance of the Bradford rail project to act as a catalyst for a regeneration programme in Bradford. In the absence of investment based around a rail hub it is vital that an alternative strategy is derived – admittedly easier said than done.

The IRP highlights that options for an underground station in Bradford, a station on the outskirts or one on the site of St James Market (ironically the original site of the historic Adolphus Street station) are all costly and far from ideal. In fact it’s difficult to argue otherwise and with it comes the recognition that Bradford is the victim of its geography, the legacy of prior decisions as well as of Leeds having become established as a regional transport centre and investment already concentrated on the existing Transpennine route via Huddersfield. All of these factors are expensive if not extremely difficult or impossible to overcome. Whilst local sentimentality might demand a Bradford centric solution to the design of a future rail system it’s not going to happen.

Ultimately Bradford’s problems stem from historic under-investment and the fact that the city’s rail connections were gradually dismantled from the 1950s such that by 1985 they were skeletal. Let’s not overlook the cynicism of British Rail management who spared no effort to run down services to/from Bradford and the fact that they were allowed to get away with it. Bradford’s own leadership subscribed to the belief that rail had had its day and the development of the Interchange in the early 1970s is testament to this with a basic rail terminal dwarfed by a bus station (albeit ironic that that has now been diminished in size). Had local rail routes been retained or not built over it might have provided the footprint of a Manchester style light rail Metrolink mass transit system – ie reviving connections at Great Horton, Clayton, Thornton or Denholme as well as Idle and Eccleshill. As for partisan politics, Bradford has been badly served long before now, not only by national politicians but also by its own leaders irrespective of party affiliation.

The IRP endorses the concept of a West Yorkshire Mass Transit Network based around Leeds and the development of a tram network. Ostensibly that will benefit Bradford’s connections with Leeds but I am doubtful whether it is likely to make any impact on travel times from Bradford to Halifax, Huddersfield or Wakefield for example. (Not everyone wants to go to Leeds after all.) The sting in the tail however is that the same tram network will be reliant in part upon the contribution of local taxpayers so expect plenty of controversy on that front in the future.

A final observation on the IRP from a parochial perspective is that for all the focus on speed and travel times it needs to address the perennial frustration of rail commuters in respect of train reliability, capacity and frequency or indeed, fares. For example my distinct impression is that connections to/from Bradford Forster Square on the Airedale line typically get the crappy stock and I have heard horror stories about breakdowns in and out of the Interchange. The concern of course is that the new high profile lines elsewhere will get the shiny new trains. Finally I am surprised that there has been no talk of the Skipton-Colne line being revived as an option which could have been helpful for Keighley and Airedale based commuters but that is another matter. 

It brings us back to that billion dollar question. What is to become of Bradford? If regeneration is not going to be driven by a new rail station then what is the plan? The new Odeon alone will be insufficient. In truth I’m not sure what the future holds for Bradford, a city that I remain committed to emotionally (as an eighth generation member of a family that can trace its roots to pre industrial Bradford in the early nineteenth century) and financially (as a home owner and ratepayer). I’m not intending to retire to the shires, opine on matters from afar and make the occasional visit to Bradford for a football match but to spend the rest of my time here.

Yet the reaction of my heart differs to that of my head and it is impossible to deny that in many respects Bradford is not so much a sink city as opposed to sunk. Having worked across the UK I can see for myself the extent to which the city has fallen behind in the last twenty years, not only in terms of wealth but in its outlook. You need only walk the streets of BD1 to see the depressed state of the place. Yet amidst the urban decay there are so many fine buildings and green spaces as my own photography attests. The Detroit of England?

Winning the city of culture award for 2025 now seems vital to safeguard the city and drive regeneration. Admittedly, setting aside the rose tinted spectacles, I question the genuine cultural credentials of Bradford to win the prize because in many respects it is a cultural desert. Nevertheless Bradford needs the award, if only to gain some confidence and to establish a new culture of positivity and pride in the district. Levelling up in Bradford has more to it than rail links – important as that may be – but it remains one hell of a challenge to which answers are still needed.

John Dewhirst

November, 2021

[1] Link here for the Dept of Transport Integrated Rail Plan document (November, 2021)

[2] Transport for the North Northern Powerhouse Rail proposals (June, 2021)

[3] On this blog, the story here of the saga for a cross-town rail line in Bradford

Thanks for visiting my blog. You will find content primarily about the history of football in Bradford as well as football book reviews and ad hoc features about the history of the city and from this link, about its railways. Refer to the menus above.

I am a keen photographer and you will find my photos of Bradford and other places / things of interest on my Twitter account @jpdewhirst

We remember.

Thursday, 11th November 2021 marks the 103rd anniversary of the end of World War One. It was a conflict that has a particular poignancy for Bradford City supporters with four serving and six former players of the club having lost their lives. The fatalities included Jimmy Speirs, team captain and scorer of the winning goal in the 1911 FA Cup Final replay as well as Bob Torrance, acclaimed as man of the match in the replay.

Whilst it is important to remember the sacrifice of the club’s players we should also recognise that the so-called Great War of 1914-18 impacted greatly on the football club. Indeed, what tends to be overlooked is that numerous supporters of the club were also among the war dead and injured. In turn the war touched upon the families of Bradfordians. In the aftermath of the war nothing was quite the same for either the city of Bradford or Bradford City. Aside from the personal tragedies, the city had lost its German community and the finances of Bradford City AFC were depleted to the extent that the club lost its first division status in 1922.

Historic links between sport and the military in Bradford

The war also redefined the links between the football club and the local military. When I undertook my research on the origins of football in Bradford, it became apparent that the historic ties between sport and the military in the district had long since been forgotten. This is ironic given the constant reminder provided by the traditional club colours of City and Avenue / Northern having been derived from military connections. My belief is that after the carnage of the Great War the military heritage tended to be overlooked, not necessarily for ideological reasons but because it was probably seen as outdated, if not irrelevant as people looked to the future.

The early history of Manningham FC – established in 1880 and the predecessor of Bradford City AFC in 1903 – had strong links with the citizen soldiers of Bradford. The generation of men involved with establishing ‘football’ clubs in Bradford during the second half of the 1870’s was typically connected with the Volunteer – or territorial – army units in the town and ‘athleticism’ in the widest sense was considered to be a form of military training by virtue of its health benefits.

The Volunteers had been established in 1859 to provide a home defence force to protect the UK from invasion and in Bradford the principal units were the 3rd Yorkshire (West Riding) Rifle Volunteer Corps and the 2nd Yorkshire (West Riding) Artillery Volunteers Corps.

One reason for the popularity of the Volunteers was that they provided recreational opportunities and in particular access to new sporting activities such as gymnastics and ‘football’ (which in Bradford meant rugby). There was even a dedicated side, Bradford Rifles FC established in 1875 which comprised of a high proportion of Bradford Caledonian FC players (one of the oldest clubs, established in 1873 and also the biggest), a number of whom subsequently became associated with Manningham FC in leadership roles.

This connection encouraged a natural sympathy towards the military but so too did the proximity of Valley Parade to Belle Vue barracks where the 3rd YWRRVC was based. Closer still were the artillery barracks adjacent to Cottingley Terrace just off Valley Parade. Both were used on various occasions for meetings as well as changing and training facilities by Manningham FC and the infant Bradford City club. (The story of the Bradford Rifles is told here on VINCIT)

The dominant political culture at Valley Parade and Park Avenue prior to World War One was unquestionably Conservatism and it was second nature for the two clubs and their membership to espouse patriotism. A good example of this was the decision to adopt claret and amber in 1884. This came at a time of patriotic fervour associated with the Sudan crisis and the excitement that Bradford men might actually go to war. Arguably it was the same enthusiasm thirty years later with spectators at Valley Parade being actively encouraged to enlist to fight on the western front.

The traditional sporting colours of Bradford were red, amber and black whose origin can be traced to the original Bradford Volunteers of the Napoleonic era. The colours of the local West Yorkshire regiment with whom the 3rd YWRRVC was affiliated were claret and amber.

The Valley Parade War Memorial

In addition to the 1911 FA Cup heroes Jimmy Speirs and Bob Torrance, the war dead included England internationals Evelyn Lintott and Jimmy Conlin, James Comrie, George Draycott, Ernest Goodwin, Gerald Kirk and Harry Potter. Unfortunately the status of Ernest Kenworthy who played two games for the club in 1906/07 was not established until after the erection of the memorial in the Valley Parade reception in 2015. (NB George Draycott, Ernest Goodwin, Harry Potter and Bob Torrance were serving players of BCAFC at the time of being killed in action.)

Subsequent to the war, Jimmy Speirs and others with a Valley Parade connection were remembered first and foremost as fallen soldiers among comrades in arms. So many men had been killed that there was a reluctance to differentiate former professional football players as deserving of unique attention and the players would have concurred with this treatment. Nowadays the fallen players are afforded particular prominence whereas prior generations tended to remember them among countless others who never returned. The distinct commemoration of footballers killed in action has thus been a more modern phenomenon.

A memorial to the war dead of Bradford City was not erected at Valley Parade until 2015 and this hangs in the Valley Parade reception. (The person who made this possible was supporter John Barker of Farsley who arranged its production.) The memorial was funded by a badge sale that I helped organise through Bantamspast and the proceeds also helped fund a stone memorial to the Bradford Pals at Serre near the Somme battlefield in France.

Further detail of Bradford’s military history is told my book ROOM AT THE TOP, available from Waterstones and Salts Mill or direct from BANTAMSPAST HISTORY REVISITED BOOKS.

John Dewhirst

I have written widely about the history of sport in Bradford: Links to my features on the history of Bradford sport

Read about Jimmy Speirs and Bob Torrance (published in BCAFC programme 2017/18).

Read about Bradford City’s tour of Germany in 1914

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The drop down menu above provides links to features published in the BCAFC programme, book reviews and sundry articles about the history of Bradford and its sport.

If you are interested in local sporting history, visit the dedicated online journal VINCIT where you will find further background about the military heritage at Valley Parade.

Before the Premier League: A History of the Football League’s Last Decades by Paul Whittle (self-published, 2021); 216 pages, RRP £9.99.

A lot has changed in the near thirty years since the Premier League was first established in February, 1992 and then launched at the start of the 1992/93 season. The subsequent blanket media coverage of the Premier League has served almost to remove the preceding era (‘Pre-PL’) from the public consciousness. For many younger fans the history of football began in that Year Zero and has made anything other than the Premier League irrelevant and barely worthy of attention.

Yet whilst there has been radical change – TV, stadia and the extent of commercialising being obvious examples not to mention foreign ownership of the kind at Manchester City or Newcastle United – much has remained the same. The Premier League ultimately accelerated trends that were already evident in the game, in particular serving to increase the extent of inequality between professional clubs in England & Wales as well as the power of the larger sides.

It is interesting, if not painful to reflect on what existed prior to 1992 and consider what might have happened had not the Frankenstein been conceived. Possibly the biggest surprise is that today there still exists a 92 club structure for senior professional football in England and Wales. Remember the predictions at the time of the Premier League’s introduction that the game was living on borrowed time?

I am no fan of the Premier League and the division of football wealth yet for all the criticisms, I suspect that had the revolution not occurred in 1992 the Football League would have imploded. And with the threat of a European Super League hanging over English football we might yet find sentimental attachment to the Premier League. With the benefit of hindsight there seems to have been an inevitability to the Premier League. Was it the least worst outcome for the Football League and its remaining clubs in 1992?

Nevertheless if it could said that the game was close to financial ruin in 1992, let’s not deceive ourselves that the game is healthier nowadays. What has changed since 1992 is that everything is being done on a superlative scale. Bigger clubs have become bigger in all that they do whether the wages or transfer fees that are paid, the level of football club debts, the amounts that clubs are sold for, the cost of admission and all the rest. In that sense the impact of the Premier League has been about financial multipliers.

The supporter experience has similarly been transformed, not least with the exponential rise in ticket prices to see the biggest clubs. The other headline change has been the modernisation of stadia and the final disappearance of stands and structures dating back to the Edwardian era. Whilst the improvements in spectator comfort and safety can hardly be faulted it has come at the expense of atmosphere. Back in the 1980s for example I don’t think that many people would have expected the German Bundesliga match day experience to have eclipsed that at many leading English stadia.

The thirty year anniversary of the Premier League is timely to remember what existed Pre-PL and the task is well served by Shipley-based author, Paul Whittle whose credentials are derived from his excellent blog at www.the1888letter.com. His project has been a brave venture, not simply because of the risks of self-publishing but the ambition of tackling a fairly complex and emotive subject.

Before the Premier League is a well-written publication and its success is derived from the combination of a concise overview of the trends in English football Pre-PL alongside a number of interviews with players and supporters familiar with the game either side of 1992. Paul Whittle thereby effectively narrates the changing experience of football.

What struck me from reading his book was the extent to which English football has lost much of its distinctive localism. It seems that in those olden days, different clubs and stadia were more defined by quaint characteristics and traditions underpinned by a strong local identity. Forgive my cynicism but it feels that the Premier League is becoming defined by brands and it won’t be too long before that extends to franchises. 

I have enjoyed Before the Premier League and can recommend it to others with an interest in the history of the game and of how things used to be in those long gone dark days. This book offers both nostalgia as well as a thought-provoking historical review. It can’t pretend to offer all the analysis and investigation about English football Pre-PL but it goes a long well to reminding us what it was like and encourages further debate. At £9.99 it is excellent value for money and I encourage people to support Paul for his endeavours.

When all is said and done, the Premier League has been about football finance and it would be fascinating to see comparative case studies of a sample of clubs to see the extent to which their finances have been transformed in the past thirty years. Has there really been progress for the better?

• Copies can be purchased through Paul’s blog, The 1888 Letter which I can also recommend.

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 You can read my other book reviews from here.

Details of my own most recent book, WOOL CITY RIVALS: A History in Colour (volume 7 in the Bantamspast History Revisited series) in collaboration with George Chilvers: Wool City Rivals: A History in Colour

An A to Z of Sporting Collectibles: Priceless Cigarettes Cards and Sought-After Sports Stickers: Priceless Cigarettes Cards and Sought-After Sports Stickers

by Carl Wilkes (Pitch Publishing, Durrington 2019) – £25

An A-to-Z of Football Collectibles: Priceless Cigarette Cards and Sought-After Soccer Stickers

by Carl Wilkes (Pitch Publishing, Durrington 2021) – £30

Carl Wilkes is generally recognised as a leading authority on sports cards and stickers and in particular those featuring British sports clubs and personalities. He was formerly editor of the Football Card Collector Magazine and has authored numerous articles in various newspapers, periodicals and books.

A quick glance at his website [https://www.footballsoccercards.com/] is sufficient to highlight the fact that there is considerable value in sporting collectibles with certain examples commanding big prices. Interest in old collectibles was boosted in the late 1990s by the internet and according to Carl there is currently a lot of interest in British items from buyers in America, Monaco and the Middle East which has kept values high. He makes the point quite forcibly that serious money is now chasing sports collectibles.

The Got Not Got series published by Pitch Publishing has played a big part in celebrating football club artefacts and ephemera and was the inspiration for my own book A History of Bradford City AFC in Objects (Bantamspast, History Revisited series 2014).

I have collected BCAFC memorabilia and ephemera for as long as I have supported the club and much of the pleasure of collecting the old cards and stickers derives from connecting with the club’s history. When such items were originally produced they were targeted at boys and were ephemeral by their very nature which means that only a small proportion of those originally produced still survives in mint condition.

Trade cards were included within comics, packets of tea, confectionery or indeed cigarette packets as a way of encouraging the purchase of the main (trade) product itself. That said, John Baines of Bradford recognised the commercial potential of selling sports cards – referred to by the American description of ‘trading cards’ – and the earliest football cards are believed to date from 1880 (the printer of which is thought to have been either Sharpes of Bradford or one of two Leeds firms). The phenomenon continues with such as the Pannini cards which continue to be sold. The production of collectibles came in response to a basic urge among many people to collect which appears to have been undiminished with time. Carl Wilkes refers to this as akin to the instinct of hunting.

It is unlikely however that John Baines ever imagined that his products might become traded for high prices or investments in their own right and yet a search of Ebay confirms that this is very much the case. Sadly, a collection of Bradford City or Park Avenue memorabilia is unlikely to provide a million dollar heirloom notwithstanding that certain individual items will command high auction outcomes. The big money tends to be focused on the fashionable, big clubs and their players (inevitably the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea) who also happen to have wealthy supporters. Likewise there is often a lot of value at stake for souvenirs commemorating landmark sporting events, one of the best examples of which being the 1966 World Cup.

Yet if a BCAFC collection is unlikely to yield big financial rewards the converse is that Valley Parade related artefacts are relatively affordable and hence accessible to supporters with an interest in club history. For example, cigarette cards featuring players from the celebrated FA Cup Final of 1911 are readily available on Ebay. The very fact that historically only a limited range of cards or stickers featuring Bradford City was produced also means that it is not difficult to collect most items, something unattainable for followers of Manchester United.

It struck me when writing A History of BCAFC in Objects that the memorabilia provides a story of the club from a different perspective, representing unique and random snapshots of the life of Bradford City and its supporters through the ages, some of which have been more significant than others. Collectibles evoke nostalgia as well as memories of past times, both public and private and sometimes they provide a better reminder of events than facts, figures or words. In other words there is more to collecting them than financial gain alone.

In his books Carl Wilkes provides a history of how trade cards and trading cards came about. In so doing he demonstrates how the popularity of sport became exploited for commercial benefit. Trade cards served to promote a product and were evidently effective given the persistence of trade card production to the modern era. Likewise John Baines created a business based on the sale of trading cards that featured mainly rugby, cricket and football personalities and these were originally designed for playing games or to be gambled in the hope of winning prizes. Baines cards incidentally nowadays sell for anything between £50-£500 apiece.

Carl’s first book provides an encyclopaedic reference of the principal producers of football cards and stickers, a fascinating business history of the different competitors in the market. The more recent sister publication published earlier this year covers a wide range of sports including amongst others rugby, snooker, cricket, tennis, boxing and equestrian as well as comparison to ‘soccer’ (revealing that his target readership is not exclusively British).

As far as Bradford is concerned, a disproportionate amount of surviving historic football cards relate to rugby as opposed to ‘soccer’ which reflects the sporting heritage of the district. (NB In West Yorkshire, football was the umbrella term used by the Victorians to describe both rugby and soccer.) Plenty examples of Baines cards featuring Manningham FC (based at Valley Parade) and Bradford FC (at Park Avenue) can be found on Ebay and it is notable that Baines cards are the principal surviving artefacts of both clubs. In fact it seems that Baines concentrated a lot of his attention on the local football and cricket sides of his home city. Hence Carl’s second book that features rugby provides insight to the pre-conversion heritage at both Valley Parade and Park Avenue.

Unfortunately there is only a limited number of City and Avenue examples in these books, a consequence of the fact that both were struggling lower division sides during the boom of trade cards in the inter-war period as well as in the 1960s and 1970s. Nonetheless it is fascinating to see the evolution in both design and form of football collectibles and most of the subject matter – ie famous players – will be familiar.

Carl features the rare cards that are valuable assets and provides tips to would be collectors about where to look and, crucially, what to pay. His advice on buying and selling is very detailed as well as candid. The caveat of course is that values go up as well as down.

The serious collector will benefit from these books as a reference of values and in the event that you come across a stash of old cards in the attic you’d be advised to check their values before throwing them in the bin. Items that might seem to have little value are quite possibly the target of collectors and capable of being sold for more than a few pence, complete albums in good condition being the case in point. However I believe that these books have wider appeal to football and sports lovers as a fabulous visual record of the history of collectibles. Both provide a fascinating read and are classics for the coffee table as books that can be dipped into. I recommend both without reservation.

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 You can read my other book reviews from here.

Details of my own most recent book, WOOL CITY RIVALS: A History in Colour (volume 7 in the Bantamspast History Revisited series) in collaboration with George Chilvers: Wool City Rivals: A History in Colour

Bradford has a proud record where black footballers have established themselves as pioneers in English professional football.

Ces Podd (pictured below), who made 494 league appearances for Bradford City between 1970-84 is the best known and in fact Ces holds the club record for the most appearances made by any player. Born in Saint Kitts in 1952, he was a student at Bradford College of Art when he made his debut and having established himself as a regular in the side was virtually ever-present at full-back during the ten seasons from 1972/73 and in 1981 became the first black player to be awarded a testimonial in English football. His testimonial saw Bradford City take on a Black XI and it raised a total of £5,147, a then club record.

During the 1970s, Joe Cooke (pictured below) was another pioneering black player at Valley Parade who made 245 league appearances in two separate spells between 1971-79 and 1981-84. Born in Dominica, Cooke’s family had emigrated to Bradford in the 1960s and he had been a member of the Bradford Boys side before signing professional at Valley Parade. During his first spell he played as centre forward and his 39 league goals between 1975-77 was a record for a black player, exceeding the 35 scored by Jack Leslie for Plymouth between 1927-29. In 1975/76 he scored a total of 24 in league and cup games and then 18 in 1976/77. During his second spell at Valley Parade he played as centre-half.

Joe and Ces were both members of the Division Four promotion winning teams in 1976/77 and 1981/82 and at the time it was relatively unprecedented for there to be so many black players on the same pitch, let alone the same side yet on 10th May, 1972 there were three black players in the Bradford City team that played Bolton Wanderers. Wingrove Manners was the third player but it proved to be his only appearance for the club.

Previously, Eddie Parris (above – image colourised by George Chilvers) made a total of 142 league and cup appearances for Bradford Park Avenue between 1929-34 (the most memorable of which was his debut on 12th January, 1929 when he scored in the FA Cup Third Round tie at Hull, aged just under 18 years). In 1931 Parris was selected for Wales against Northern Ireland.

Nevertheless it was William Clarke (below – image colourised by George Chilvers) who was the first black professional footballer in Bradford, playing 92 league games for Bradford City between 1905-08 and Clarke was the scorer of the club’s first goal in Division One in September, 1908.

The Beautiful History: Football Club Badges Tell the Story of Britain by Martyn Routledge and Elspeth Wills, Pitch Publishing, 2021

Possibly my favourite football book in recent years has been The Beautiful Badge: The Stories Behind the Football Club Badge (Pitch, 2018) by the same authors. It is a publication rich in design and the product of exhaustive research that cannot be faulted for attention to detail, criteria that go a long way to earn my endorsement as my other book reviews will attest. (My review of the book can be accessed from this link.)

With The Beautiful Badge, Martin and Elspeth identified a fascinating aspect of football history that had previously been overlooked and they could not be faulted for the manner in which they tackled the subject without the temptation to take short-cuts or rely upon unsubstantiated anecdotes. Accordingly they can reasonably be described as experts in their field. The Beautiful History is their sequel, another original and well-produced title.

For football supporters of my generation, the Bartholomew Football History Map of England and Wales published in 1971 (which continued to be sold for a number of years after) was iconic and did more to promote my knowledge of English and Welsh geography than anything else or all my Ladybird books put together. Superimposed on a map were sketches of the football kits worn by the Football League clubs of that time with pointers to where the clubs were based. At the side of the map were the corresponding club badges including those of prominent non-League clubs (including Bradford Park Avenue). I swear that if Scottish clubs had been included, my knowledge of Scottish geography might similarly have been advanced and it was a shortcoming that they were omitted.

Notable in 1971 was that most club badges were still derived from the local coat of arms. In turn, the Bartholomew football map provided an awareness of the iconography of the largest towns and cities in England and Wales and clues about the local heritage and traditions of those places. However, other than providing basic information about the date of formation of clubs, it was misleading to describe it as a ‘History Map’.

The Beautiful History takes a selection of around one hundred English, Welsh and Scottish football club badges and explains how their design has been derived from local and national historic themes. Refreshing is that the selection is not restricted to larger clubs with the likes of Alfreton, Hemel Hempstead and Whitby Town included.

The end product is a book that will provide considerable content for pub quizzes but The Beautiful History is targeted at all ages and is an ideal way to encourage any football loving child to take an interest in British history. That the history of the British Isles has been made accessible in this way is a wonderful achievement. I suspect that The Beautiful History will be talked about in the future much in the same way as the 50 year old Bartholomew map is remembered nowadays.

As a stocking filler present for Christmas I think it would be a fantastic gift for schoolchildren but it will have undoubted appeal to much older readers. Priced £16.99 it is great value for money and highly recommended.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Link here to my Other Book Reviews including those planned.

The image below is from the 1971 Bartholomews football map. The following link accesses features on my blog that cover the history of Bradford football crests and identities.

The City Gent is now among the best known fanzines in the country and recognised as a pioneering publication in the 1980s. [The story of its launch in 1984 is told here.] It was not however the first independently produced supporters’ publication at Valley Parade, predated by just over a year by Bantams Review. The latter title was launched as a monthly magazine but ran to only three issues in the 1983/84 season. Produced by Raymond Maule, Bantams Review included a lot of historical content as well as features on City memorabilia and in particular old programmes.

There have been two other printed fanzines at Valley Parade, Phil of Frizinghall and City Travel Club Magazine. The former made only a couple of appearances in 1990/91 (published by a Yeadon based supporter) whilst the latter ran to about half a dozen issues during the 1985/86 season. Phil of Frizinghall was a light-hearted publication whereas City Travel Club Magazine was essentially a mouthpiece of Patsy Hollinger and his newly-formed Star Travel Club comprising badly written tirades against Stafford Heginbotham and his fellow directors.

In 1990 came The Relegation Times, a one-off publication that expressed the frustration about impending relegation to the third division and the lost opportunity for promotion in 1988. Like the City Travel Club Magazine it was unambiguous in its antipathy towards the club’s leadership.

For completeness, mention should be made of the samizdat newsletter of the so-called Bradford City Liberation Front that circulated on the Kop during the 1988/89 season. Among the demands of the BCLF (that comprised one member) was that Bradford residents supporting clubs other than BCAFC should be classified as civic traitors and fined 10% of their weekly income. Needless to say it wasn’t taken seriously and was ridiculed, disappearing shortly after.

Notwithstanding the number of independent supporter publications at Valley Parade, the first of the kind in Bradford was sold at Park Avenue in 1946. The story of The Kick Off, Official Journal of the Bradford Park Avenue Supporters Club and later, The Avenue which was first published in 1967 is featured on this blog from this link. Unlike the latter day City publications, the content of both Avenue titles was vetted by the parent football club. At best they could only be described as quasi-independent and they had fairly tame editorials which might explain why they did not survive beyond a few issues. In the 1980s came two other Avenue publications Ay Ay Rhubarb Pie and Wings of a Sparrow which I hope to feature on my blog in the future.

Thanks for visiting. Links to other features on the history of Bradford City, my written BCAFC programme articles (NB this season, 2021/22 my programme column contains photographic content that I will not be uploading) and book reviews from the menu above.

On 14th August, 2021 Valley Parade staged its first attended competitive fixture since 29th February, 2020, a gap of 532 days caused by Covid lockdown restrictions. Whilst unprecedented, the exile arising in the aftermath of the Valley Parade fire disaster was nevertheless longer (582 days from 11th May, 1985 until the re-opening of the ground on 14th December, 1986).

The following photographs were taken before and after the game as match-day routines were revived.

The crowd for the League Two (fourth tier) fixture was 17,264.

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City won the game 2-1 through a last minute penalty. The visitors, Oldham Athletic had equalised only minutes earlier in extra-time.

Thanks for visiting my blog. You will find other photos of Valley Parade on this site, refer to the menu above.

I tweet photos from @jpdewhirst

Post lockdown I have spent a good number of hours in the centre of Bradford with camera in hand as my Twitter account testifies (@jpdewhirst). Whilst Bradford is a hugely photogenic place and presents countless opportunities to indulge in photography, seeing at first hand the extent of urban decay has frankly been a depressing experience. Magnificent old buildings that hint of historic prosperity are now tired, rundown and in certain cases falling down. It is remarkable to find a street without foliage in the eaves if you look above the pavements.

For all the brave words this state of affairs is likely to get worse, an English Detroit perhaps? Given the state of retail activity in the UK, let alone Bradford, we will surely find more buildings becoming empty. And sat next to the city’s premier shopping centre and hotel is the wasteland that was once a mail sorting centre on Canal Road which has been a vacant brown site for a least a decade.

I can’t think of any quick fixes for BD1 but I believe that a solution for the Canal Road site could go some way to bring new life to the city. My suggestion is to develop a heritage park, the equivalent of a ‘Bradford Beamish’ with the following aims:

• Safeguard historically significant small / medium buildings through relocation and rebuilding.
• Provide for the possible relocation and relaunch of the Industrial Museum allowing its existing site to be sold for residential development.
• Potentially unblock existing and future planning impasses that would allow development elsewhere in the district.
• Develop a premium tourist attraction in central Bradford to attract footfall and external visitors.
• Provide an educational resource to encourage interest and awareness about the city’s history.
• Generate income through use of the site by film companies.
• Possible opportunity to co-ordinate with the safeguarding of high-profile architectural assets in central Bradford.

In Bradford we have countless examples of familiar buildings falling into disrepair and becoming derelict with little prospect of being saved. These include historically significant buildings such as the Carnegie Library at Shipley, the former police station at Bavaria Place or the former Wapping Primary School.

The development of the Beamish resort – and indeed that of Gaythorpe Terrace at the Industrial Museum – has demonstrated that old buildings can be rescued and rebuilt. The site of the old Royal Mail sorting office provides a potential location to safeguard a selection of historic Bradford buildings. Obvious candidates are the examples given above of the Carnegie Library, the police station and the school. Add an old public house, a chapel and/or business premises and collectively you have buildings that once represented the history of everyday life in the city.

Relocation of the industrial museum to the site would complement the safeguarding of such buildings and allow it to become a combined civic heritage museum. The sale of the existing Eccleshill base could help finance the whole project. Whether the Moorside Mills complex could also be rebuilt in full is questionable but would be ideal.

The opportunity to relocate otherwise derelict buildings (ie Wapping Primary School) could also potentially unlock planning impasses by allowing the release of sites for development. Developers would then be required to fund reconstruction of old buildings.

A premium tourist attraction in central Bradford would complement the Odeon initiative in attracting visitors to the city centre, benefiting existing retail and hospitality businesses and allow Bradford to better position itself as a leisure destination. It could provide an educational resource not only for the district but also the region and the collection of buildings would surely be attractive to film companies.

Anyone walking through the centre of Bradford cannot fail to recognise the poor state of buildings. Take a moment to look at the upper storeys and you see the decay in all its glory. To this day people bemoan the loss of the former Swan Arcade but an even bigger architectural disaster is unfolding in Bradford. Within the next ten years buildings will probably have to be demolished due to the fact that they have become unsafe. Slowly but surely, historic assets will be lost.

Few suggestions have been offered as to how these city centre buildings can be rescued. The development of residential flats has simply failed to deliver and arguably there is already over-supply from dubious developers. The likelihood of retail development can also be discounted and few of the buildings have potential for office accommodation (of which there is already a surplus).

The development of a civic heritage park could be a way to co-ordinate the rescue of buildings as visitor attractions in themselves – for example the former bank premises on Hustlergate / Bank Street might even become a museum telling the story of business, commerce and banking in the city. By attracting footfall to the civic heritage park other initiatives could be encouraged that provided new life to the city centre. With the Peace Museum and the Police Museum already in BD1 you could link a number of such attractions and have real critical mass for tourists with a selection of central museums / galleries giving credence to Bradford’s claim to be a city of culture. (Maybe the Science Museum might return a few odd exhibits to Bradford?)

What to do with the vacant land next to the Midland Hotel is an issue but as I have outlined it could be a means to unlock a number of opportunities. There has been the suggestion of developing a green city park on the site which has its merits. My concern however is that it could detract from investment in Bradford’s existing parks (ie Peel Park, Lister Park or the woefully rundown Horton Park). Ultimately a city park is unlikely to attract external visitors and I doubt that it would have the same multiplier financial benefits of a civic heritage park. On the other hand it would not be as expensive to develop – therein the core issue is that a civic heritage park will require a major financial commitment.

As part of a regeneration strategy I believe that celebration of the city’s civic heritage has other benefits, specifically to encourage a shared identity for Bradfordians. There is much in the history of Bradford that can serve as inspiration for the future and yet the city’s past tends to be downplayed and overlooked. My argument is therefore that a civic heritage park would be a strategic regeneration activity that could be co-ordinated with other initiatives. It is more than a solution of what to do with a brownfield site.

I won’t even pretend that I have details or estimates of how much the project would cost. There is however a price of not doing anything.

For what it is worth, I believe that sport has a part to play in celebrating and encouraging a Bradford identity as well as offering health benefits – refer to what I have written on this subject from here. Given that the proposed RL museum at City Hall has fallen away I would also encourage the launch of a Bradford Sport Museum dedicated to the history of sport in the city across all codes and games, but that is another matter.

I have published this feature on my blog as a way of sharing the idea and if others can be persuaded of its merits, hopefully the concept can be taken further with an investigation of what it would entail and the likely cost. If it encourages people to think of other ideas then that’s great. What no-one in the city can afford is to believe that somehow things will get better as if written in the stars. I believe that it is time to be imaginative about the future of Bradford before it is too late and we discover that nothing can be done.

John Dewhirst

Twitter: @jpdewhirst

Thanks for visiting. This blog is principally about the history of Bradford City AFC and links to books I have written in the Bantamspast History Revisited series about the history of football and origins of professional sport in the district. The menu above allows provides links to ad hoc content about the history of Bradford and in particular the eternal saga of a through-railway link.