ON THIS DAY

An unusual pre-season friendly was played at Goodison Park - Everton v Everton. In 1909 a group of teenagers in Chile formed a football club and named it Everton after our Everton who had toured South America that year. As a delayed part of their centenary celebrations they made a pilgrimage to Liverpool to play a unique match against their namesakes. The English Everton beat the Chilean Everton 2-0 to win the Brotherhood Cup in a match that was shown live on TV in Chile.

Welsh International Bryn Jones joined Arsenal from Wolves for a fee of a little over £13,000. It was a British record fee at the time but only got a brief mention in the national papers - a far cry from the column inches given to the big bucks transfers of the modern game!

Billy Meredith was one of the superstars of his day. In a League career that stretched from 1894 to 1924 he made an amazing 680 League appearances. But not one of the was in the 1905/06 season -- he was banned from football! Meredith was a Manchester City player at the time and going into the last match of the 1904/05 season City needed a victory over Aston Villa to have a chance of winning the League title - but they lost and the title went to Newcastle. Following the match it was claimed that Billy Meredith had offered Villa's Alec Leake a cash bribe to get him to help City win the match. The Football Association investigated and on 4th August 1905 announced that the Welshman had been found guilty and would miss the whole of the 1905/06 season. The punishment was widely condemned with many believing it to be an example of an anti-northern bias by the FA. Meredith had his say as well - “I am entirely innocent and am suffering for others. Such an allegation as that of bribery is preposterous. I could never risk my reputation and future by such an action and I repeat that I never made such an offer. It is totally unjustifiable and grossly unfair."