BAD language and dissent are a fairly recent phenomenon in football. We all know that  - the newspapers constantly tell us that standards of behaviour within the game have never been lower.

Well I came across the following article when I was looking through some back copies of the Ashton-under-Lyne (now Tameside) Reporter a few weeks ago. The Mr JE Mangnall referred to is Ernest Mangnall, the man who made Manchester United the top club in English soccer between 1908 and 1911 when they won two Football League championships and an FA Cup. He also managed Manchester City.

The story was printed on November 28, 1921 – very nearly 79 years ago – and may bring a smile to your face. However, I should add that the following week a Hyde clergyman contacted the newspaper and denied what Mangnall had said …

“BAD language at football matches has become so common that steps are being taken officially to rigorously suppress it. Eighty per cent of the cases dealt with by the football officials concern members of Sunday school football clubs according to a remarkable statement made by Mr JE Mangnall, secretary of the Manchester City FC, and a member of the Lancashire Football Association.

“The association has already dealt with between six and seven hundred offences and there is another 100 waiting to be dealt with. ‘If the parents of these boys could hear the evidence brought against them it would break their hearts’, said Mr Mangnall.

“He was addressing a meeting on Thursday week in the YMCA rooms at Hyde at which representatives of most of the football clubs in the district were present. ‘I have,’ he said ‘something to say about Sunday school clubs which will perhaps surprise you. I think it is better said in a place like this than outside Sunday schools. It is not hearsay but what is being said at different meetings of the Lancashire FA.

“‘As a member of the association it pains me very greatly as I am sure it will all of you to know that 80 or 90 per cent of the cases that come before the Lancashire FA are from Sunday schools. It is a disgraceful thing that most of these offences are for foul and obscene language. It is a terrible thing. It was reported yesterday that 100 more cases have to be dealt with. I don’t know what they are but I will guarantee that 80 per cent are similar to what has already happened. At least six or seven hundred have been dealt with this season’.

“Mr Mangnall went on to ask what was the point of attending Sunday school or anywhere if they were not going to act up to the principle of the thing. It was hypocrisy. Going to Sunday school was one of the qualifications for entering the league and if they did not attend they were not eligible to compete.

“‘I tell you honestly and candidly that if the mothers and fathers of some of these boys could be in the room when we are having the evidence, it would break their hearts. It is dreadful when you come to think of it. It is getting very serious’.

“Mr Mangnall went on to refer to betting on football and to statements made by Dean Welldon. ‘I have every respect for Dean Welldon’, he proceeded ‘but I do resent him saying there is a lot of betting in the game’.

It was possible for betting to occur but it ought to be known that if anyone came to a Manchester City match and tried to bet it was one of the speaker’s duties to say to the individual that if he heard anymore of it he would have to go off. As for open betting, there was no truth in it and it could not be found out.

“‘Dean Welldon might help the authorities to stamp out the canker which has crept into Sunday school football and if he wants to help, and he wants to help matters, there is something in his own line there’.

“Referring to football generally, Mr Mangnall spoke of the change that has come over the game in the last ten years and went on to refer to the fact that while being anxious to win they should not gloat over their victims but be prepared to sympathise with them.

“On the other hand, if they could not lose properly, they ought never to win at any game. He advised them not to take part in any game unless they were physically fit, because to do so was dangerous.”