International Football History Conference 2023

I’m delighted to announce that the 2023 International Football History Conference will be staged at Hampden Park, Glasgow on 30 June and 1 July 2023. The call for papers and details of how to get involved will be announced in January but here are a few details for those interested in getting the date in their diaries….

The aim of this conference is to listen to quality research and to network with others.  We hope delegates take the opportunity to meet with colleagues, friends and other delegates to share your research, hear their ideas and help establish a strong network of football (of all types!) researchers and experts.

The most recent conference was held in Manchester in November 2022 and it owes its success this year to all delegates whether presenting or not, and to the following who have provided great support:

City Football Group & Routledge

We would also like to put on record our thanks to British Society of Sports History for their support during Covid when the BSSH funded a zoom licence which allowed us to have a couple of gatherings online.

Rouledge have provided vouchers for a ‘Best Paper Award’ each year and their support has helped enormously.

Following feedback and the support of Richard McBrearty and the Scottish National Football Museum we will be able to take the conference to Glasgow for the first time in 2023. Provisional details are:

  • Main conference anticipated to be held Friday 30th June through to Saturday 1st July, with main conference proceedings taking place between 8am and 6pm on those days.
  • As with previous years the conference will be open to those presenting on football of any code. This is a fundamental element of the conference, so if you’re looking for somewhere to present your years of research into gaelic football, Aussie rules or other form of the game then look no further.
  • The call for papers will be issued in January. We are particularly keen to have panel debates/discussions next year, as well as traditional presentations. If you’ve got an idea for a debate/discussion you’d like to arrange then please email footycon@outlook.com and we’ll see if it can be accommodated.
  • To get a feel for the range of topics covered have a look at the schedule for Manchester 2022 at the end of this article (after images of Hampden).

In addition to any debate suggestions, presentations in the following formats will be welcomed:

Short Form (7 minutes) – 20 slides (plus a title slide) with a maximum of 20 seconds per slide.. Ideal for a summary of research; to present early findings; Image related research etc.

Twenty Minutes – Twenty minutes of slides but no audience questions.

Fifteen plus Five – Fifteen minutes of presentation slides plus five minutes of questions (or any combination up to a maximum of twenty minutes).

Follow @footycon for further information.

If anyone would like to contribute to the conference (in terms of organisational support both in the build-up to 2023 and at the conference itself) then please let us know as soon as possible. The more volunteers, the better the conference. Also, financial support is always useful in helping to keep the costs for delegates down. If you are involved with an organisation who can provide some support then please get in touch. Or if you feel you may be able to add value in some way then we are keen to hear from you.

See you in Glasgow, 30th June & 1st July 2023!

Here’s the schedule for the Manchester 2022 conference (you can search on twitter to see images from the conference with #Footycon22 ):

Everton Beaten

On this day (8 December) in 1993 Brian Horton’s Manchester City defeated Everton 1-0 with a goal from Carl Griffiths. You can read more on the 1993-94 season here:

County Beat City

On this day (7 December) in 1999 came one of Stockport County’s most celebrated victories of all time when they defeated Manchester City in a (2nd tier) League meeting at Maine Road before 32,686. Here are highlights (or lowlights depending on which team you support):

Bradley’s First

On this day (6 December) in 2004 Bradley Wright-Phillips marked his first League appearance with an 80th minute goal for Manchester City against Middlesbrough. I won’t bother mentioning the final score but you can watch highlights of the game here if you want:

John Burridge

On this day (3 December) in 1951 John Burridge was born.  43 years and 147 days later he appeared for Manchester City’s first team and became the oldest player to appear in the Premier League. You can read more about the 1994-95 season here:

Arsenal Defeated

On this day (2 December) in 2009 goals from Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Vladimir Weiss gave Manchester City a 3-0 victory over Arsenal in the League Cup quarter-final tie. A crowd of 46,015 watched the game in Manchester. Here’s a contemporary report of the game:

Dowd Joins Oldham

On this day (1 December) in 1970 Manchester City’s 1969 FA Cup winning ‘keeper Harry Dowd joined Oldham Athletic. Dowd had achieved a great deal at City over the years, including scoring a goal. You can read about that goal here:

Bill Taylor

On this day (30 November) in 1981 former Manchester City, Oldham & England coach Bill Taylor died at the age of 42. Taylor was a tremendous coach who joined City from Fulham in 1976 and also coached England. At the time goalkeeper Joe Corrigan commented:  “His coaching methods were an inspiration to so many players and he helped tremendously to improve many of them.  He was always a bright and breezy character and he had a terrific sense of humour.  I can never repay the debt I owe him for the help he gave me both with City and England.” 

Kinky Double and Neal’s First

On this day (27 November) in 1996 two penalties from Gio Kinkladze helped Manchester City defeat West Bromwich Albion 3-2.  Use Rosler netted the other City goal.  This was the first victory of caretaker manager Phil Neal’s reign at City and you can read more on that season here:

Managerial Change at MCFC

On this day (November 25) in 1989 Brian Gayle played his last League match for City.  The game ended in a 1-1 draw (Clive Allen scored) and Chairman Peter Swales decided the time was right to dismiss manager Mel Machin.  Machin, who had guided the side to promotion the previous May, was dismissed that weekend and not replaced until 8th December.

You can read more about this era of Manchester City’s history here: