Leeds City auction: the day a Football League club was sold for parts (1919)
The Leeds City auction took place on Friday 17 October 1919 at the Metropole Hotel in Leeds. Days after the Football League expelled the club for illegal wartime payments, its entire 16-man playing staff was put up for sale, and nine clubs carried the players away. It stands among the strangest collapses in English football. Billy McLeod fetched the top price, going to Notts County for a winning bid of £1,250, worth around £64,000 today. Port Vale took over the fixtures Leeds City left behind.
The buyers were many and the fees were low, and the final total raised was never precisely settled.
Key Facts
- Date and place: Friday 17 October 1919, the Metropole Hotel, Leeds. Leeds City, a Second Division side, had already been expelled from the Football League.
- What was sold: the club’s entire 16-man playing staff, bought by nine clubs.
- Top fee: Billy McLeod to Notts County for £1,250, the highest bid of the day.
- The total is disputed: the takings are recorded variously as £9,250, £10,150 and around £10,000.
- The whistleblower: full-back Charlie Copeland, sent to Coventry after a pay dispute, reported the payments to the Football Association.
- The fallout: Port Vale inherited City’s Division Two fixtures and the ten points already won, and five officials, manager Herbert Chapman among them, were banned.
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The scandal that emptied Elland Road
Charlie Copeland, the wartime payments, and a missed deadline
Leeds City, formed in 1904 and based at Elland Road, spent its whole fifteen-year life in the Second Division. Herbert Chapman arrived as manager in 1912 and guided the club to its best finish, fourth in Division Two. The trouble was rooted in the war. With Chapman away running the Barnbow munitions factory, Leeds City leaned on guest players, and no fewer than 35 turned out during the war years, seven of them internationals. The England forward Charlie Buchan of Sunderland and Tottenham’s Fanny Walden were among them. Paying those men above the wartime limit was against the rules.
The man who brought it down was the full-back Charlie Copeland. He was offered £3 10s a week for the reserves and £4 for the first team, demanded £6, and, after being shipped out to Coventry, chose to reveal the extent of the illegal payments to the authorities. His part in the reporting earned him a free move to Coventry City that September, the club then in the Second Division, where he made 32 League appearances in a single season before moving on to Merthyr Town. Charles Clegg headed the commission that examined the claims.
The League moved quickly. On 26 September 1919 the Football League and the FA jointly demanded the club hand over its books by 6 October or face expulsion. The club played on regardless. City’s last match came on Saturday 4 October 1919, away at Wolverhampton, a 4-2 win built on a Billy McLeod hat-trick. A week after the deadline passed, on 13 October, a Commission announced the penalty, expulsion from the Football League. League chairman John McKenna insisted the authorities intended “to keep it absolutely clean. We will have no nonsense.”
Going, going, gone: the sale itself
Inside the Leeds City auction at the Metropole Hotel
With the club shut down mid-season, its players were offered to the highest bidder. The surviving League clubs gathered at the Metropole Hotel on 17 October 1919 to buy the 16-man playing staff. The Nottingham Evening Post had carried an advertisement inviting clubs to meet the committee at the hotel at 2pm that Friday, so negotiations could be completed at once. More than thirty clubs turned up to bid, and the Daily Mail ran the headline “Going, Going, Gone.”
The prices were low and the buyers knew it. Fees ranged from £250 to £1,250. Billy McLeod was top of the billing, going to Notts County for £1,250. Harry Millership joined Rotherham County and John Hampson moved to Aston Villa, both for £1,000, while Lincoln was the busiest bidder, signing William Ashurst, Fred Linfoot and Francis Chipperfield together for £850. The contemporary Sheffield Evening Star list set out where the men went.
| Buying club | Player(s) | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Notts County | Billy McLeod | £1,250 (top fee) |
| Rotherham County | Harry Millership, H. Lounds | Millership £1,000 |
| Aston Villa | John Hampson, Billy Kirton | Hampson £1,000; Kirton £250 |
| Lincoln City | W. Ashurst, F. Linfoot, F. Chipperfield | £850 combined |
| Sheffield Wednesday | A. Price, J. Edmundson | not recorded |
| Preston North End | S. Bainbridge | not recorded |
| Manchester City | T. Lamph | not recorded |
| South Shields | W. Hopkins, W. Walker | not recorded |
| Grimsby Town | A. Wainwright | not recorded |
How much the sale actually raised was never settled. The 16 players, bought by nine clubs, raised somewhere between £9,250 and £10,150, with most accounts landing around £10,000. The clubs got their men at reduced rates. A similar gap hangs over the smallest deals: Billy Kirton went to Aston Villa for £250 by one count and £500 by another.
Billy Kirton was the man to watch. The young full-back had distinguished himself in Leeds City’s final match at Wolverhampton before the auction sent him to Aston Villa, and months later he scored the winner as Villa beat Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup final at Stamford Bridge after extra time. The club that bought the cheapest man in the room had bought a cup winner.
Port Vale, the ten points, and five banned men
Leeds City’s place in the table did not simply vanish. Port Vale inherited the fixtures in the Second Division along with the ten points already won from the eight matches City had played. McKenna announced the switch to Burslem Port Vale at London’s Russell Hotel, treating the failure to produce the paperwork as an admission of guilt. The severity owed much to the directors, who refused to co-operate with the inquiry and would not hand over the financial records.
The people running the club paid a personal price. Five officials were banned for life, among them chairman Joseph Connor, manager Herbert Chapman and the former manager George Cripps, barred from any further part in football management. Chapman later won a reprieve after proving he had been working at the munitions factory when the payments were said to have been made. The reprieve mattered: Chapman went on to his famous work with Huddersfield and Arsenal, a career that would have ended in a Leeds hotel had the ban held.
READ MORE: Herbert Chapman and the managers who rebuilt the game →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Leeds City Auction of 1919
What was the Leeds City auction of 17 October 1919?
It was the sale of Leeds City’s entire playing staff at the Metropole Hotel in Leeds after the club was expelled from the Football League. The surviving clubs gathered to buy all 16 members of the squad. It followed the club’s punishment for making illegal payments to players during the First World War. The players were spread across nine buying clubs in a single afternoon.
Why were Leeds City expelled from the Football League in 1919?
They were expelled for making illegal payments to players during the war and then refusing to hand over their books. The Football League and the FA jointly told the club to hand over its documents by 6 October 1919 or face expulsion. The club missed the deadline. A Commission announced expulsion on 13 October 1919.
Who reported Leeds City to the authorities?
The full-back Charlie Copeland reported the illegal wartime payments to the Football Association. He was locked in a bitter pay row with the club when he brought the allegations. Offered £4 a week for the first team, he had demanded £6 and was sent to Coventry before going to the authorities. His move to Coventry City came in September 1919.
How much money did the Leeds City auction raise?
The exact total was never settled. The 16 players, bought by nine clubs, raised somewhere between £9,250 and £10,150, with most accounts landing around £10,000. What is consistent is that the fees were low, ranging from about £250 to £1,250.
Which player sold for the highest fee at the 1919 auction?
Centre-forward Billy McLeod was the most expensive, joining Notts County for £1,250, the top bid of the day and worth around £64,000 in today’s money. He had scored a hat-trick in City’s final match, a 4-2 win at Wolverhampton. His was the standout deal in a sale where most players went far more cheaply.
Which clubs bought Leeds City’s players in October 1919?
Nine clubs took players home from the Metropole Hotel: Notts County, Rotherham County, Aston Villa, Lincoln City, Sheffield Wednesday, Preston North End, Manchester City, South Shields and Grimsby Town. Aston Villa and Lincoln were the busiest, each signing more than one man. The contemporary Sheffield Evening Star list set down fifteen individual transfers on the day.
What happened to Herbert Chapman after the Leeds City scandal?
Chapman was one of five officials banned, but his ban was lifted. He earned a reprieve after proving he had been working at the Barnbow munitions factory when the payments were said to have been made. He went on to manage Huddersfield Town and then Arsenal, where he built his lasting reputation. The reprieve preserved one of the most influential managerial careers in English football.
What was Port Vale’s role after Leeds City were expelled?
Port Vale took over Leeds City’s remaining Second Division programme for the 1919-20 season. They inherited both the fixtures and the ten points City had already won from eight matches. The League confirmed Burslem Port Vale as the replacement at a meeting in London. It was one of the rare cases of a club being slotted into the League mid-season.
Was Leeds United connected to the Leeds City auction?
Leeds United was founded in the immediate aftermath of the auction, but it was a new club rather than a continuation of Leeds City. Supporters met at Salem Hall in the hours after the sale to plan a replacement. Leeds United joined the Midland League, taking the place vacated by Leeds City Reserves. It was elected to the Football League the following year.
Did every Leeds City player find a new club at the auction?
The records differ. The squad is generally described as all 16 sold, yet the contemporary Sheffield Evening Star list set down only fifteen transfers and reckoned a number of lesser-known men had not found clubs, to be paid instead from the transfer fund. The gap is small but genuine.
What is the strangest detail of the 1919 auction?
The cheapest sale produced a cup winner. Billy Kirton went to Aston Villa for £250, the smallest fee of the day, and then scored the winning goal for Villa against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup final at Stamford Bridge after extra time. His fee is sometimes put at £500, but either way Villa bought a match winner for the price of a squad player.
Where can I read more On This Day football history?
The Football Documentary Channel’s On This Day series covers a new episode of football history for dates across the calendar. The Leeds City auction sits alongside other stories of clubs, managers and matches that shaped the game. You can browse the full run through the On This Day category on the site. Each entry is built on named sources and dated records.
The Leeds City auction and the club that was sold for parts
Very few professional clubs have ever been dismantled at a hotel and sold across a single afternoon, which is why the Leeds City auction is still remembered more than a century on. The players scattered to nine clubs, Port Vale slid into the fixtures with ten points in hand, and a banned manager named Herbert Chapman walked out towards Huddersfield and Arsenal. If you want more collapses like this one, our Football Disasters archive gathers them, and the wider On This Day series carries the rest of the calendar.
Sources: Sporting Life, When Saturday Comes, Leeds United, Secret Library Leeds, Soccer History, OzWhiteLUFC, Wikipedia.
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