Tottenham Hotspur and Woolwich Arsenal on Tour, 1912

Spurs at Leipzig

When the 1911-12 season ended on April 29th Woolwich Arsenal were in 10th place in Division 1 and Tottenham Hotspur in 12th. The famous North London rivalry had yet to come into being, as Arsenal were still based in Plumstead (South East London). In May 1912 both clubs embarked on tours of central Europe (Germany, Austria-Hungary) and played each other in an exhibition match at Vienna arranged by Hugo Meisl. 

Tottenham Hotspur
12.05.12	Hull City	2	0	Tottenham Hotspur	Brussels
	The Belgian Charity Cup- Beddeker Cup Hull City retaining the trophy.
16.05.12	VfB Leipzig	1	3	Tottenham Hotspur	Leipzig
	The hosts were Mittel-Deutschland champions and had made the semi-finals of the national championships.
20.05.12	Wiener Sport Club	2	5	Tottenham Hotspur	Vienna
24.05.12	Woolwich Arsenal	4	0	Tottenham Hotspur	Vienna
	An exhibition match for a solid silver cup and medals.
27.05.12	Ferencváros	1	4	Tottenham Hotspur	Budapest
	Fradi were the champions of the Budapest league, winning 14 out of 18 games and having a goal difference of 57.
28.05.12	Hungary	2	2	Tottenham Hotspur	Budapest
	The Hungary and Austria teams were preparing for the Olympic Tournament at Stockholm.
30.05.12	Hungary	3	4	Tottenham Hotspur	Budapest
02.06.12	Austria	3	0	Tottenham Hotspur	Vienna
	Both Austria and Hungary featured in the second round of that summer's Olympic tournament- Hungary had a bye in the first round and lost 7-0 to Great Britain in the second. Austria beat Germany 5-1 before losing 3-1 to the Netherlands. They went on to meet in the final of the consolation tournament, Hungary winning 3-0.
Woolwich Arsenal
11.05.12	Hertha BSC Berlin	0	5	Woolwich Arsenal	Berlin
12.05.12	Viktoria 89 Berlin	2	2	Woolwich Arsenal	Berlin
	1911’s German National Champions.  Former Tottenham player Jack Brearley took up the coaching position at Viktoria at about this time.
16.05.12	Deutscher FC Prag	1	4	Woolwich Arsenal	Prague
19.05.12	Ferencváros	1	2	Woolwich Arsenal	Budapest
22.05.12	Grazer AK	0	6	Woolwich Arsenal	Graz
24.05.12	Woolwich Arsenal	4	0	Tottenham Hotspur	Vienna
26.05.12	SK Rapid Wien	2	8	Woolwich Arsenal	Vienna
	Rapid were the Austrian League champions…
27.05.12	Wiener Sport Club	0	5	Woolwich Arsenal	Vienna
	…and WSC had finished the season just one point behind Rapid.
29.05.12	Sp Vgg Fürth	0	6	Woolwich Arsenal	Fürth
	Fürth were managed by Billy Townley , the former Blackburn Rovers player.

It was Arsenal's second visit. They had toured Belgium, Netherlands, Germany  and Austria -Hungary in 1907.  Tottenham were of course old hands at the touring lark. Having visited Austria -Hungary  in 1905 they had since played in Belgium, South America and Germany.

Fussball Ohne Aufnehmen Des Balles (Assoziation-Fussball)

First published in 1909, this 90 page booklet was volume 18 in a series on sports and games. The title rather charmingly translates as Football Without Picking Up The Ball. Author Johannes Scharfe was a pioneer of football in Silesia , secretary of VfB Leipzig and director of the Leipzig Football Association. Herr Scharfe was also a referee. 

The cover photograph appears to show Slavia Prague in action. 

German National Championships 1903-14

The Deutscher Fußball Bund has always been a large organization.  86 clubs were involved in the foundation in 1900. 
As early as 1898 regional championships had been played in Southern Germany and Brandenburg. In 1903 it was decided to determine a national champion by holding playoffs among the winners of the various regional championships. 
There were up to eight regional leagues and the winners of these leagues progressed into a play off tournament to decide the national champions.

1903 VfB Leipzig
Interestingly Leipzig's second goal in their 7-2 win over DFC Prag is recorded as being scored directly from a corner kick by  Friedrich. As such, the goal should not have stood under the rules at the time. 

1904 Annulled.
Eight regional winners had formed a quarter final round and VfB Leipzig and Britannia Berlin had reached the final when Karlsruher FV (who had lost 6-1 to Britannia Berlin in the quarter finals) lodged a complaint with the DFB that the tournament rule regarding playing matches at neutral venues had been ignored. Karlsruher argued that they could not field a full strength team in their match with Britannia as it had been played in Berlin. The DFB cancelled the tournament as a result of this protest.

1905 Union 92 Berlin
Holders (from 1903)  VfB Leipzig qualified automatically. They joined 11 other regional winners in the tournament. Preliminary rounds were held in order to get to a last 8 (the preliminary rounds were contested by weaker teams). Interestingly VfB Leipzig withdrew from the competition, citing financial difficulties (as had Schlesien Breslau in the second preliminary round).
Union 92 Berlin beat Karlsruher FV  2-0 in the final at Cologne. The attendance was 3,500.

1906 VfB Leipzig
Seven champions of regional football associations joined holders Union 92 Berlin. The final was played in Nuremburg and VfB Leipzig beat 1. FC Pforzheim 2-1 to claim their second title. The attendance was 1,100. 

1907 Freiburger FC
Six teams were entered, and the competition took the form of two preliminary matches leading to a semi final round. A crowd of 3,000 were at Mannheim to see Freiburger FC beat BTuFC Viktoria 89 3-1.

1908 BTuFC Viktoria 89
Back to eight teams and a straight knock out- attendances were creeping up- 4,000 were at Germania-Platz Tempelhof (Berlin) to watch a final in which Viktoria led against Stuttgarter Kickers from the 6th minute. They doubled their lead in the 84th minute and  and Kickers pulled one back before Viktoria added a third in the last minute to win 3-1.

1909 Phönix Karlsruhe
Eight entrants- a high scoring final was on the cards as Phönix Karlsruhe had scored 14 goals in their two rounds. Opponents Viktoria 89 had topped that, with 19 goals in two matches!
The final at Breslau produced 6 goals-  Phönix winning 4-2.

1910 Karlsruher FV
Nine entrants. Karlsruher FV beat local rivals Phönix Karlsruhe 2-1 in the semi finals before beating Holstein Kiel 1-0 after extra time in the final at Cologne,  Max Breunig getting the winner from the penalty spot. Englishman  Billy Townley was the manager/ coach.

1911 BTuFC Viktoria 89
Viktoria won their second national championship beating VfB Leipzig 3-1 in Dresden, watched by a crowd of 12.000.

1912 Holstein Kiel
Eight entrants. The final in Hamburg saw Northern German Champions Holstein Kiel beat Karlsruher FV 1-0 in a repeat of the 1910 final. Holstein's winner came from a penalty, as did Karlsruher's in the 1910 final.

1913 VfB Leipzig
Six entrants. VfB Leipzig 3-1 Duisburger SpV. The final was played at Sendling  in Munich and the attendance was 5,000.

1914 SpVgg Fürth
Eight entrants. The final  between Fürth (coached by Billy Townley) and VfB Leipzig, held in Magdeburg was a real marathon. With scores level at 90 and 120 minutes a 'golden goal' type scenario was needed to settle the match Fürth eventually getting the winner in the 153rd minute.

Deutsche Meisterschaft 1902/1903

VfB Leipzig

The 1903 German football championship was the first tournament sanctioned by the German Football Association (DFB) to crown a national champion. The DFB was made up of 30  local associations, and the winners of these associations were eligible to enter the championship. There were also associations from outside Germany (in Austria- Hungary) that were affiliated to the DFB, such as  Prague.
Of the thirty eligible teams, only six entered the inaugural championship.
The final was played at Exerzierplatz, Hamburg on May 31st 1903.

VfB Leipzig was one of the original eighty-six teams that came together in the city in 1900 to form the Deutscher Fußball Bund (DFB).

DFC Prag was founded by German Jewish students at a University in Prague in 1896. The DFB actively sought out members among ethnically German clubs from outside of the country, so  DFC Prag was one of the  founding members of the DFB and provided it with its first  president, Dr. Ferdinand Hueppe.


The routes to the final were makedly different- VfB Leipzig beat Britannia Berlin 3-1 away and then Altonaer FC von 1893 (of Hamburg) 6-3 at home.
 Prag, on the other hand,  reached  the final without playing a single playoff game.
They were due to play Karlsruher FV in Munich, but Prag protested, requesting that the match was played in Prague. Karlsruher then protested against Prague as a venue. The match was never played, and both teams entered the semifinal stage, where again they were scheduled to play each other at Leipzig.  Karlsruher  received a telegram which was supposedly from DFB, saying the game was off. So Karlsruher , failing to turn up, were disqualified.

Prag arrived in  Hamburg for the fianal as favourites ,a position they compromised somewhat by going out on a drinking session the night before the game. Kick off was delayed half an hour as officials sought a football that was in good enough condition to play the match. 
Prag took an 11th minute lead, the first half ended 1-1, but Leipzig dominated the second period and a   7-2 win saw them become the first winners of the Viktoria Meisterschaftstrophaee.

DFC Prag