Football League Centenary Tournament

1988 Football League Centenary Tournament
Country UK
Dates 16-17 April 1988
Teams 16
Champions Nottingham Forest
Runners-up Sheffield Wednesday
Matches played 15

The Football League Centenary Tournament (also known as the Mercantile Credit Football Festival) was a tournament held from 16 to 17 April 1988 at Wembley Stadium to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Football League.

Despite the hopes of the Football League, the attendances of 41,500 on the first day and 17,000 for the finals meant there was plenty of open spaces to be found around Wembley. The attendance situation was not helped by leading London clubs such as Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Chelsea all not appearing in the tournament.

The tournament was won by First Division Nottingham Forest, who beat Sheffield Wednesday in the final on penalties. Their success was achieved despite manager Brian Clough not attending the Saturday.[1] Arguably the biggest success story was Division Four side Tranmere Rovers, who a year earlier had almost been relegated out of the Football League. They stunned top-flight sides Wimbledon and Newcastle United, before taking Forest to a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals.

The competition

Qualifiers:
The following teams participated in the tournament:
Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Crystal Palace, Everton, Leeds United, Liverpool, Luton Town, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, Tranmere Rovers, Wigan Athletic, Wimbledon, Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Saturday 16 April, 1988
The first day of competition consisted of the Opening rounds and Quarter Finals and were 40-minute matches.[2] Owing to the limited time, 5 of the 12 matches ended up drawn (4 goalless) and required a sudden-death penalty shootout.

Opening round
Tranmere Rovers 1 Wimbledon 0
Leeds United 0 Nottingham Forest 3
Luton Town 0 Manchester United 2
Aston Villa 0 Blackburn Rovers 0 (Aston Villa won on pens)
Everton 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 (Everton won on pens)
Crystal Palace 0 Sheffield Wednesday 0 (Sheffield Wednesday won on pens)
Wigan Athletic 0 Sunderland 0 (Wigan Athletic won on pens)
Liverpool 0 Newcastle United 0 (Newcastle United won on pens)

Quarter finals
Newcastle United 0 Tranmere Rovers 2
Nottingham Forest 0 Aston Villa 0 (Nottingham Forest won on penalties)
Everton 0 Manchester United 1
Sheffield Wednesday 1 Wigan Athletic 1 (Sheffield Wednesday won on pens)

Sunday 17 April, 1988
The Semi-finals and Final were played on the Sunday. Matches were 60 minutes long.

Semi-Finals
Tranmere Rovers 2 Nottingham Forest 2 (Nottingham Forest won on pens)
Sheffield Wednesday 2 Manchester United 1

Final

Nottingham Forest 0 Sheffield Wednesday 0 (Nottingham Forest won on pens)

Other celebrations

The centenary of the Football League was marked with numerous events between mid-1987 and 1988, as well as the above tournament. Other occasions included a match at Wembley between a Football League XI and a Rest of the World XI (featuring Diego Maradona and Gary Lineker) in August 1987; Football League champions Everton facing Bayern Munich in a mid-season challenge match (at a time when English clubs were banned from UEFA competitions) with Everton winning 3–1; and the Football League Centenary Trophy between leading teams held during the 1988–89 season (the final was won by Arsenal against Manchester United in October 1988). The celebrations were all sponsored by Mercantile Credit.[3][4]

References

General

Isherwood, Glen (18 September 2006). Wembley: The Complete Record 1923-2000. Sportsbooks. p. 512. ISBN 978-1-899807-42-0.

Specific

  1. ↑ "Manager Brian Clough misses team's big win". Toronto Star. 18 April 1988. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "Crowning delayed by League bash". New Straits Times. 15 April 1988. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "How Arsenal won the Centenary Trophy, the least celebrated title in their history". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  4. ↑ "100 YEARS BORE: THE ARDUOUS AND ELONGATED FOOTBALL LEAGUE CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS IN 1988". These Football Times. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.