“What mystery does Thomas Fairful hide – and why did one of the culprits of the scandal were invited to the Liverpool’s match as an honorary guest?”, – WRITE: Football.ua
What mystery does Thomas Fairful hide – and why did one of the culprits of the scandal were invited to the Liverpool’s match as an honorary guest?
Just here, for two and a half mile east of Enfield, Liverpool Stadium, Thomas Fairful has been resting since 1952. The Scottish, who played 71 matches for the club between 1913 and 1915, is officially registered in the sector six, plot 196. But there is one problem: the following sectors with the same number – three, and two of them have no designations.
There is no exact answer where Fairful is buried-there are no information about his religion. And in general, there is little information about it. The last mention in the press is its appearance at the Final of the Cup of England in 1950, where it was invited by a former club as an honorary guest.
On that day, Liverpool gave way to 0: 2, and among 100,000 Firful fans, perhaps, was the most controversial figure – given his role in a scandal, which may have become the loudest corruption in the history of English football.
110 years ago, Fairfula, along with three Liverpool partners – Jackie Sheldon, Bob Persell and Tom Miller – was found guilty of a contractual match against Manchester United, who fought for survival in the first division. Three Uneweded players were also exposed – all the scandal participants were removed from football for life.
Fairful was born in the West Colnder village-a Shakhtarsky town in the Naftoslacese region of Scotland, between Edinburgh and Glasgow. He played a midfielder with a focus on defense functions – today we would call it a supporter.
This was well in line with his character. Two newspaper publications, written before the scandal, were called Fairfula “Sun.” Simultaneously Birmingham Daily Gazette She acknowledged that in the 1913/14 season he was “the most stable midfielder Liverpool-the club then took only 16th place out of 18, but reached the Final of the Cup of England, where Bernley lost with a score of 0: 1.
However, the role of Fairful himself in that contractual match remains unclear. The English Football Association did not provide any explanations for the results of the investigation or logic of its decisions. It is only known that journalists who were on the Press for the Press on the Old Trafford press, immediately felt that something was wrong. Manchester United, who urgently needed a victory in the struggle for survival, went forward in the first half. Newspaper Liverpool Daily Post She wrote: “It is difficult to imagine a more one -sided game than the first half of this match.”
Liverpool’s game, which was in the middle of the standings at the time, did not improve after a break. Sporting Chronicle She said: “The forwards gave the weakest game we saw in this field for the whole season. The final minutes were so bad that it is even difficult to describe. Both teams did not deserve any praise.”
In the same match United did not implement a penalty – Patrick O’Connell punched Post“ridiculously unreasonable.” This moment made officials pay attention to the strange behavior of players. Later, the judge told that he was the most amazing match in his career.
Newspaper Manchester Dispatch She described “Lady Football” in the second half, where United, leading 2-0, did not even try to increase the advantage. However, the same article stated that Jackie Sheldon’s sheds remained a constant threat. Ironically, but it was Sheldon who was exposed as the main mediator in a plot – he moved to Liverpool from United in 1913.
He may have understood that he should at least create a activity. This story is most distinguished in Grem Sharp’s book Free The Manchester Onewhere it was, in particular, about the episode at the end of the match: Fred Pagnam from Liverpool hit the door of Unoited, after which the partners began to shout at him – he almost spoiled the couple.
But the main attention of Sharp focuses on the player United inh’s “Nocker” of Vesti, who until his death in 1965 denied his guilt.
The suspicion of Vesta was attributed to the fact that in his native mineral town Khaknoll in Nottinghamshir made a suspiciously a lot of rates on that account. Sheldon later stated that four days before the match met with Vesta and three more players in the pub Dog and Partridge in Manchester. They quickly dispersed as they noticed that someone could suspect bad.
And on the eve of the game, according to Sheldon, he saw again with Vest – this time in the pub near the station Grand Central. Their conversation was listened to, and the rumors of the conspiracy instantly flew through the city.
Bans and contract matches even then became a problem for football. After the match between West Bromvich and Everton in 1914, the father of one bookmaker was imprisoned for attempting to influence the result. In the book The Story of The Football League (1938) The season-1911/12 is mentioned, when football increasingly attracted the attention of bookmakers who were not ashamed to come in contact with players and cause suspicion of honesty of individual matches.
In 1915, the meetings between Liverpool and United have not yet had as principled or emotional colors as it is now. Meetings of players of both teams to play in the pub now seem like a wild, and then it was perceived much more calm. For Sheldon, such a “double loyalty” was convenient – it was it who helped organize a conspiracy.
An important role in creating the conditions for corruption was played by a broader historical context. Criticism of football and players grew from the British military leadership. By 1915, only 122 of the 1800 players registered in the football league joined the army. One of the historians even wrote in a newspaper The Timesthat football is allegedly “doing everything possible for the enemy”.
Counter -argument – that football has distracted people from the horrors of war and it would be a stop that a normal life has ended – temporarily outweighed. But already in April 1915 it became clear that the competition would be suspended until the end of the war. The attendance fell (only 18,000 fans came to the Monkster United match, the clubs were suffered from financial difficulties, and the provisions of the Red Devils caused serious concern. Sporting Chronicle On May 3, she wrote about “true anxiety”, which the situation in the club is from its directors.
No one knew when the war was over, and for veterans such as Fairful (he was 34), uncertainty was even worse. None of the players had contracts more profitable than the work of a regular worker, but now They also lost their income because of the circumstances that were outside their control. The program to the match with Liverpool even stated that the next season can be postponed, and that “only players with current agreements will receive summer payments.”
In such circumstances, to avoid the last place in the first division and preserve the registration has become a matter of vital importance. The victory over Liverpool allowed United to stay in the highest division – at the expense of Chelsea. However, eight days after the game, doubts about its honesty appeared in public space: anonymous bookmaker, who called himself a “football king”, placed in Sporting Chronicle An announcement stating that he had good reason to believe that “a certain match played in Manchester during the Easter holidays” was “tuned.”
In less than three weeks, the football league created an investigation commission. At the end of April, an intermediate statement was published: any of the players whose guilt will be proven, “will be removed from football forever.”
Interrogations were held at the Manchester Hotel Grand Hotel. In a few months half players United got a job at the factory Ford Near Old Trafford, and Sheldon enrolled in the army. The decision of the commission appeared on the eve of Christmas in 1915: Fairful, Sheldon, West and others were found guilty of trying to “undermine the very basis of the game and to neglect its honesty and justice.” Although the report stated that the perpetrators could be more, the commission decided to focus only on those who had no seven.
Newspaper Liverpool echo She called it “the worst football blow,” adding: “The stinking trace of this shame will long hang in the air.” Liverpool Director John McKenna, who simultaneously headed the football league, was one of the initiators of the commission. He insisted: “These players should be expelled from the game,” and therefore will not even be able to visit the stadium as audience. “There will be no infection,” he said.
United acknowledged that the punishment was quite well deserved, but the club was also lucky – he benefited from the actions of his players and, as he wrote Athletic News“Evaded the consequences of the actions of people who are technically responsible.” As the result of the match allowed United to keep a place in the division at the expense of Chelsea, proposals to play the game. But Chelsea, for the reasons that remained unknown, made the decision of the commission and did not insist on another match.
After the results of the investigation, new, more candid testimony appeared. Sporting Chronicle She reported that a dispute between those who wanted to play honestly and those who – not. One of the camps even threatened not to go out to the second half, but eventually changed his mind. It is rumored that two teams were actually playing in the field in the second half – “fraudsters” tried to keep the ball away from “honest”.
In 1919, after the end of the war, six Liverpool and Manchester United players who confessed and apologized, amnestied – the Football Association decided to celebrate those who joined military efforts. Sandy Ternbull’s amnesty of United was posthumous: he died in Arras’s battle in 1917.
Persell was young enough to restore his career: he played Liverpool twice more, and then moved to the port of Weil, where he received a fracture of his legs at the age of 33 – this put an end to his protrusions. Sheldon was a similar injury in 1921 to Liverpool’s T -shirt after playing another 80 matches for the club after disqualification. He settled in Manchester, where he was buried – in the southern cemetery. And Miller – received a call to the Scotland national team, and later … signed a contract with Manchester United.
And Fairful? He turned out to be the only Liverpool players who never returned to the game. He settled in Kensington’s working area, two kilometers south of Enfield, where he became a taxi driver and opened the firm with the former Everton Bill Scott. By the way, Bill’s older brother-Elisha Scott-became the legendary goalkeeper Liverpool in the 1920s.
Why Liverpool decided to return Fairful to his circle and invite him as an honorary guest to the final of the Cup of England in 1950 – remains a mystery. Perhaps the fact is that he never moved away from the club, remained “his”. Or maybe it was enough time for the wounds to heal.
There is no evidence that Fairful has ever publicly spoken of his role in the scandal-what he managed, how he perceived punishment, as evaluating his impact on the reputation of himself and the club.
Like his grave, it remains a mystery that will probably never be solved.
Translation and adaptation of the article the athletic