William McGregor - the founder and first ever President of The Football League

Today marks the 120th anniversary of the inception of The Football League and its all thanks to a Scot who was living in Birmingham.

The lack of structure to the football landscape in 1888 meant that many matches were being cancelled due to bad weather, injuries or lack of transport. With fixture cards being rendered virtually meaningless William McGregor, a Midlands based draper and a Director of Aston Villa, set about making changes.

Little did he know the impact he would have on English and Welsh football.

The Scot wrote to Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End, West Bromwich Albion and his local side Aston Villa. 'I beg to tender,' he wrote, 'the following suggestion ? that ten or 12 of the most prominent clubs in England combine to arrange home-and-away fixtures each season ? I would take it as a favour if you would kindly think the matter over ? and should like to hear what other clubs you suggest.'

All of the clubs he contacted agreed there was a need for something more organised and a meeting took place at Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street, London on 22nd March 1888, a second meeting followed on April 17th in Manchester when the official plans were put in place.

There were an initial 12 teams invited to join The League, six from Lancashire - Preston, Bolton, Everton, Burnley, Accrington and Blackburn Rovers with the other six coming from the Midlands - Aston Villa, West Brom, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Notts County, Derby County and Stoke City.

The reason that all the founder members came from the North West or the Midlands was that at the time there was no professional football being played south of Birmingham. McGregor was rewarded for his initial hard work by being named as the first ever President of The Football League.

The first programme of league matches took place on September 8th 1888, with Preston North End winning the first league title without losing a game. The 'invincibles' went on to complete a league and cup double that season, winning the F.A. Cup without conceding a single goal along the way.

The 'Invincible' Preston North End side that won the first ever League back in 1888/89.

Since then there have been over 493,000 goals scored in well over 169,000 Football League matches.

Four years after the birth of The League the interest had grown dramatically and a second division was introduced and by 1920 there was also a Third Division (South) before the Northern equivalent was introduced a year later.

The Football League has had a total of 135 different clubs, with some having spent considerably longer than others as members.

Notts County have played the most games with 4478, Preston North End have played 4452 and their Lancashire rivals Burnley 4436.

Notts County have played more matches in the competition than any other team. Pictured above is their team from the early 1890's.

The least successful club of all time is probably Loughborough, who won just 34 of 158 games played. Thames won 20 out of 84 while Northwich Victoria won just 12 out of 50.

Up until 1992 the Football League Division One was the top level of English football but then the top 22 clubs broke away to form the FA Premier League.

Up to that point Liverpool had won the Division One title the most number of times, 18. The Reds are then followed by Arsenal with 10 and Everton with 9 title wins.

Liverpool manager Bill Shankly holding aloft the League Championship Trophy in 1973 - one of 18 titles the Reds have picked up.

Since then Sunderland have won the Championship 4 times, while another 11 clubs have won it once each.

Football as we know it today has evolved massively over the years, automatic promotion and relegation replaced 'Test' matches (play-offs) in 1898 before Play-Offs were reintroduced in 1987 for the third or fourth promotion places.

The Football League is currently enjoying one of it's most entertaining season's with crowds set to break the 16m barrier for the third consecutive season. There are exciting promotion and relegation scraps in all three divisions and in the Championship there are as many as 13 clubs still in with a chance of promotion to the Premier League with just three weekends of the season left. Additionally, Championship club Cardiff City will feature in this season's FA Cup Final.

So here's to another successful 120 years.

The curtain will come down on the current campaign at Wembley with the Play-Offs at the end of May - by then the number of people watching matches in the Football League will have broken the 16m barrier.

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