TheAssociation Football Players' and Trainers' Union (AFPTU), commonly known as thePlayers' Union, in the United Kingdom was the originalassociation that became theProfessional Footballers' Association. Their stated aims werefreedom of movement of players and obtainingthe same employment rights as other workers.[1]
The Players' Union was formed at a meeting on 2 December 1907 whenCharlie Roberts andBilly Meredith (who had been involved in the AFU) convened the organisation of the Association of Football Players' and Trainers' Union (‘AFPTU’) (which the press called "The Players' Union") at the Imperial Hotel,Manchester. This was the second attempt at the unionisation of professional football players after the failure of theAssociation Footballers' Union which dissolved itself in 1901.
This Union was formed because theFootball League had ratified amaximum wage for footballers in 1901 at £4 (2012: £368) . This severely limited the opportunity to earn wages that allowed the best players in the country to forgo the need to take paid employment outside of football. Until then, individual clubs had set their own wage policies throughout the country.
The Union, basically, led from where the previous AFU had left the situation: that is by challenging the introduction of a maximum wage and the restraint on transfers. The Union were almost ruined financially and membership fell drastically as a result ofKingaby v Aston Villa. They had funded the legal costs ofoutside right,Herbert Kingaby, but erroneous strategy by the player's counsel resulted in the suit being dismissed.[2]
The Union's objectives were made clear in 1909, and this causedthe Football Association to withdraw their recognition of the Union, which at that time sought to join theGeneral Federation of Trade Unions.
The Union threatened strike action but the Football Association responded by banning those affiliated with the AFPTUsine die.
TheManchester United players continued to strike but the lack of resolve elsewhere would have led to the failure of this movement if it had not been forTim Coleman ofEverton breaking ranks with his colleagues and striking in support of what the press had classified asThe Outcasts F.C. at Manchester United[3] Coleman's intervention resuscitated support for the cause and the Union, having regained its strength of numbers, settled for official recognition and the allowing of bonus payments in order to supplement the maximum wage. These were essentially conciliatory gestures; the maximum wage remained a yoke under which players suffered for the next 50 years.[4]
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