The First Football Club Manager

by Read Listen Learn

William Sudell joined Preston North End Sports Club when he was just seventeen years old in 1867. At that time, Preston North was not only a football club. There were other sports too: rugby, swimming, cycling, cricket and more. Sudell was good at many different games. In fact, he only played three football matches for the club, but he also became the chairman in the mid-1870s and wanted Preston North to focus on football. In 1880, Preston forgot about other games and, the next year, Sudell became the first manager of the football team.

Sudell did not get a salary from Preston North. He worked at a local cotton mill. At first, the young William Sudell was an ordinary worker, but because he was good at mathematics and money, he worked until he became the manager.

This job was important to him and to Preston North End Football Club, because he could give jobs to some of the players in his factory. From 1883, he got the best Scottish players on his team and paid them salaries at the cotton mill, although they were not doing much work there. Preston North did not have a lot of money and Sudell could not get excellent players for the low salaries the club could pay. The ‘jobs’ at the cotton mill made his football team more interesting for them.

In 1884, Preston North won an important match against a London team, called Upton Park. The losers complained that Sudell used professional players – footballers paid to play the game – and the Football Association (FA) said Preston must stop. However, Sudell thought differently. He left the FA and many other teams from the north of the country joined him. Teams from the south of England saw football as a hobby, a game – not a job. But Sudell finally won this fight and could use paid players if they were born or lived ten kilometres from the club.

Sudell’s Preston North End now became the best team in the country. In 1887, they beat Hyde 26 – 0, the largest win in football history in England. They did not lose a match that season. Sudell was a very different manager from all the others in the country. For example, he used a blackboard to explain tactics to his players for the first time in football history. Now, of course, this is usual, but at that time it was a complete change from other teams.

In 1888, Sudell helped to make the Football League. This was important because teams often cancelled matches and some teams did not play others every season. The idea was not Sudell’s but came from William McGregor, the manager of Aston Villa. However, he needed Sudell’s help because Preston North End was the best club at the time.

In 1888, Preston North won so many matches that they knew they were the top of the League a long time before the season finished. They could now focus on the FA Cup. In 1887, they lost the final against West Ham, but the next year, they beat Wolverhampton Wanderers to win it.

That was the last time that Preston won the League or FA Cup. Although Sudell was the first manager to pay players, the club was not rich and could not give them as much money as other teams. So, they did not join Preston and the team never won a championship again.

In 1895, the cotton mill where he was manager found that Sudell was paying players’ salaries from company money. He did not use any of this for himself, but he was stealing it. And it was a lot of money! He went to prison for three years.

When he was free again, Sudell left England for South Africa. He worked for a newspaper there as a sports journalist and helped to make football popular in Africa for the first time. He died in Cape Town in 1911.