The Insolvent Champions

I published something earlier about the end of Salford City Reds (2013) Limited , and that the end of a company is merely the end of a club’s administrative shell, not it’s ‘essence’ or however you describe a club’s intangible being. I briefly mentioned the club’s previous shell Salford Football Club Company (1914) Limited. It’s well worth revisiting how that company came into being and the extraordinary events of 1914.

Salford can claim formation as far back as 1873 as Cavendish (changing its name to Salford F.C. in 1879). But it wasn’t until later in the 19th Century that club owners, generally, sought to limit their liabilities, which emerged with larger expenses: the building of ground enclosure or new stadia entirely to keep out non-paying spectators and the increasing costs of running a professional outfit.

Salford were no exception and had incorporated previously to 1914. The club had built upon their New Barnes ground before moving, quite hastily, to The Willows in 1901. The club was also renown, if Athletic News was anything to go by, to have quite a hefty wage bill what with some of the playing talent they had on their books. The club were certainly up there challenging for the Championship and the Challenge Cup during the early 1900s.

As the 1900s went on, the club’s fortunes waned. When the great James Lomas was sold on, Salford’s league placings became more erratic, and by the 1913–14 season, Salford’s money troubles were such that the company was placed into the hands of the official receiver. This, essentially, is where we at now.

The bizarre difference is that while the Salford of 2025 is a husk, the Salford team of 1914 were flying high on the pitch. The club finished second in the league only to the reigning champions of the previous two seasons, the acclaimed ‘Team of All Talents’, Huddersfield.

Back then, the top four placed clubs played-off for the title. In the semis, Salford played host to Wigan on the Saturday (April 18th) while Huddersfield took on Hull at Fartown two days later. That two-day gap would prove crucial to who would win Championship. After qualifying for the final, Salford despatched their captain Willie Thomas to Fartown to assess the Huddersfield team.

The weekend after, Salford took reported 4,000 supporters to Headingley for the final, approximately half of the official gate, and they only went and turned Huddersfield over in a shock victory. Despite everything that was happening off the pitch, Salford had won their first major title in rugby league. And Willie Thomas’s masterplan is acknowledged as the key to Salford winning that day.

I suppose Salford’s finest moment is when they defeated Barrow for the Challenge Cup at Wembley in 1938. But that victory was the culmination of several years of being brilliant, when the Challenge Cup was the piece of silverware to win. With hindsight and the changing position of where the league title and Challenge Cup lies, I think we can argue that the Championship win in 1914, against the odds, is a worthy claimant. Had Salford defeated St Helens in the 2019 Grand Final, that’s the level that we’re talking about here.

And here’s the thing: the official receiver had to grant permission for Salford to play in the final. If they hadn’t approved it, it would never have happened.

A new company was formed in July – Salford Football Club Company (1914) Limited – heralding the hope of new beginnings built on the club’s most recent success. A matter of weeks later, of course, Britain declared war on Germany and things went downhill from there.

Salford finished the 1914–15 season towards the bottom of the table whereas Huddersfield took back the Championship trophy again, and the Challenge Cup, and pretty much every other piece of silverware they could breathe on, and at a cantor. Yet the company stayed in business for a century, sometimes hanging on, sometimes flourishing.

A duplicate of the Certificate of Incorporation for Salford Football Club Company (1914) Limited