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Originally Posted by Damien
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Hmmm - that article says:
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In 1919 Arsenal were controversially elected to the expanded First Division, precedent suggested that Tottenham should have retained their place in the new set-up. However the machinations of Henry Norris meant the new place was awarded to Arsenal instead.
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I found this on
www.thegooner.com:
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On the 6th of September 1913, Arsenal played their first game at the new ground of Highbury. The ground was not yet fully prepared and funds for the new ground were short. The builder of the stand took a cut of gate receipts to pay for its construction. The match was against Leicester Fosse, which we won 2-1, with goals from Andy Devine and George Jobey. For the next two seasons Arsenal came close to regaining first division status but then came World War One. Many players went back to munitions work whilst others joined up to fight. When football resumed after the war in September 1919 the football league decided to increase the number of teams from 20 to 22. Usually in a case such as this the two teams who should have been relegated would retain their place and the top two from the lower division would go up to make up the numbers. Norris however sat on the Management Committee and managed to persuade the committee members to vote Spurs (bottom of Division One) down and Arsenal (only 5th in Division Two) up. This further fueled the rivalry between the two sets of supporters. The reason given was that Arsenal had been in the league for longer than Spurs.
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I remember reading about this in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago - it basically shows that the only reason Arsenal were promoted instead of Spurs was because of Norris' backhanders, bribes and potential blackmail
Oh well - anybody else want to accuse Arsenal of dodgy dealing with the FA
