Jim's column 30.5.2020

I received an interesting question recently regarding English football's Pools War of 1936 and how it affected Coventry City. The 'war' was all about the growing power and profits being made by the big football pools companies at the time. For younger readers it is worth explaining about Football Pools as they don't exist anymore. Throughout most of the Twentieth century Pools companies like Littlewoods and Vernons allowed members of the public to predict football results, normally to guess the games which would end in draws. They issued coupons which listed all the games being played on a Saturday and the punters would mark their predicted draws and send it, with their bet money, to the company, normally via a door-to-door agent. There were big winnings to be had if you correctly predicted seven draws in a week where draws were scarce, for example. By 1936 these companies were making millions of pounds from the betting – it was stated in 1936 that around £800,000 was being spent on pools compared to around £48,000 being spent on watching football. The Football League were getting increasingly frustrated that the pools companies were using their fixtures to make such large sums and there was also the social issues of betting and the impacts on families much like the recent issues of slot machines in betting shops. The league decided therefore to try and thwart the pools companies by using a different fixture list and not announcing it until the Friday night before games were due to be played, making it impossible for the companies to print their coupons.

After a lot of meetings the Football League put their battle plan into operation on the run up to games due to be played on Saturday 29th February 1936. At the time Coventry City were leaders of Division Three South by one point from Luton Town who had a game in hand. On that Saturday City were due to play at Gillingham but instead they were told to travel to Crystal Palace to fulfil the fixture due to be played on 14th March and the other clubs in the division had their fixtures from the two dates also switched. A similar switch was made in the First Division and the second division clubs were told to play the fixtures for 11th April. The clubs with long distances to travel, e.g Northampton Town were told to play at Torquay, were given this information on the Thursday evening. The pools companies delayed printing their coupons in the belief that the League would back down but on the Friday morning it was clear that the information had been leaked about the switches, newspapers printed the full programme and the pools companies hastily printed their coupons. A mad rush for postal orders by punters on the Saturday morning ensured that the usual vast sums were placed on the coupons and the pools companies were virtually unaffected.

Crystal Palace were due to be playing Torquay United at home that afternoon and the cover of the programme had Torquay replaced with Coventry City but inside there had been insufficient time to replace the 'Welcome to our visitors' piece and it introduced the Torquay players. There had however been time to print the correct team line ups in the centre pages.

On the Friday the Midland Daily Telegraph reported that many City fans were 'in a quandary' as many local Works Associations and private parties had already made plans to travel to Palace on 14th March followed by a night in London with theatre and hotel bookings already having been made. They reported that the opinion of the League officials who had caused their trip to be disorganised was 'unprintable'.

City lost 3-1 at Selhurst Park with the consolation goal inevitably scored by Clarrie Bourton and Luton leapfrogged the Bantams by beating Watford at home. There were 14,000 at the game but in the North and Midlands heavy snow and sleet reduced attendances dramatically. For example there were under 4,000 at Hillsborough for the First Division derby with Leeds and only 18,000 at Villa Park for an attractive home game with Liverpool. Many clubs blamed the low crowds on the League's Management Committee's strategy for thwarting the pools companies.

Seven days later the Football League repeated their actions and City, who had been due to play Bournemouth at home, were told on Thursday night that Northampton would be the visitors instead. There was sufficient time for the programme to printed with the Cobblers' players names and the Bantams comfortably defeated the struggling visitors 4-0 with goals from McNestry (2), Lauderdale and Bourton.

                                      City's 1935-36 squad

There was an above average crowd of 14,700 at Highfield Road but other gates were down again and Leeds and Liverpool had their smallest crowds of the season. When fans returned home they heard unexpected news over the wireless, but this time the headlines were not about the Football League but the League of Nations. German troops had just re-entered the demilitiarised Rhineland. Another war, of far greater proportions, was on the horizon now.

The Pools war ended at a stormy meeting in Manchester on the following Monday afternoon when the clubs unanimously voted to restore the fixtures with immediate effect. So, the following Saturday the Bantams played the match that had been due to take place on the first weekend of the 'war', away to Gillingham. A Les Jones goal gave City a point but a Luton victory gave the Hatters a two point advantage over them, with a game in hand but they failed to take advantage and with only one win in their next six games, allowed Coventry to sneak the title and the one promotion place on the final day of the season.

The Football League backed down in their battle with the Pools companies and it was another 23 years before they reached an agreement whereby the four major pools companies paid ½ per cent of their gross stakes to football, which in the first year amounted to £275,000, for the privilege of using the fixtures on their coupons.