Charles Sutcliffe

Charles Edward Sutcliffe (8 July 1864 – 11 January 1939) was a British lawyer, football administrator and referee.

Football career Sutcliffe played for Burnley during the 1880s, but retired by the mid-decade. He retained a role at the club, joining the committee.

After encouragement by Preston North End's William Sudell, Sutcliffe took up refereeing, and became eligible to officiate Football League matches from 1891. and did not shy from controversy. In one match between Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool he disallowed six goals. For a period of four years at the end of the 19th century, he refereed a number of Home Internationals.

Sutcliffe became a Burnley director in 1897, Sutcliffe proposed that the First Division be expanded by two clubs, thus giving space for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, the two clubs adversely affected by the arranged test match.

From 1915 until his death in 1939, Sutcliffe was responsible for devising the schedule of fixtures for Football League matches. Using a closely guarded system featuring red and white squares in the manner of a chessboard, Sutcliffe's method created a durable fixture list, the first draft of which usually required only the most minor revisions. For providing the fixture list, the league paid him 150 guineas. Sutcliffe's method, taken on by his son, continued to provide fixtures until 1967, when the process was computerised.

In August 1922, Sutcliffe, in his capacity as a representative of the Football League, opened Doncaster Rovers' Belle Vue ground.

After 38 years on the Football League's Management Committee, Sutcliffe became League President in 1936. This coincided with the League taking a firm stance against football-based gambling, of which the most common type was the football pools. First, advertisement for pools were banned from football grounds, then the League took further action, sparking what became known as the "Pools War". In February 1936, the League announced that the existing fixture schedule was to be abandoned. Fixtures would be announced 48 hours in advance, in an attempt to make it more difficult for pools companies to produce coupons.

Sutcliffe strongly believed that British football was superior to that played elsewhere, and took an isolationist stance on related issues. When the Home Nations withdrew from FIFA in 1928, Sutcliffe was among those who voted for withdrawal. In response to overseas tours by the Home Nations, he declared "I don't care a brass farthing about the improvement of the game in France, Belgium, Austria or Germany" and accused FIFA's one member one vote system of "magnifying the midgets". Six years later he branded the 1934 World Cup "a joke". His antipathy extended to English clubs who attempted to sign foreign players. When Arsenal attempted to sign Rudy Hiden from Wiener AC in 1930, Sutcliffe wrote "The idea of bringing foreigners to play in league football is repulsive to the clubs, offensive to British players and a terrible confession of weakness in the management of a club". The FA agreed, and introduced legislation the following year which in essence banned foreign players from playing in England. The ruling remained in place until 1978.

Personal life Sutcliffe was born in Burnley on 8 July 1864 to John Sutcliffe, who worked as a solicitor, and Jane Pollard Brown.