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Viv Anderson Set To Celebrate Black Football History
Double European Cup Winner, First Division Champion and England’s first black full international, Viv Anderson, is to help celebrate the life of the world’s first black professional footballer, at The National Football Museum, Preston.
Anderson, who made his debut for Nottingham Forest aged 18, in 1974, has agreed to officially open an exhibition, at the Museum, detailing the fascinating life of the world’s first black professional player Arthur Wharton.
Wharton, who came to England from Africa’s Gold Coast, now known as Ghana, was one of the leading goalkeepers of his time staring for Preston North End, Rotherham Town, Sheffield United & Stockport County in a career that lasted from 1886 until 1902.
Curator, Mark Bushell, said: “Many people think that black players only began to play the game in this country in the 1960s and 70s. Older supporters may recall the great West Bromwich Albion side that contained the likes of Laurie Cunningham, Cyril Regis and Brendan Batson but they are genuinely amazed when they find out that England’s goalkeeper, in the late 1880s, should have been a black player.”
Viv Anderson said: “It’s an incredible story. The accounts of the day say that Wharton should have played in goal for his country but the administrators at the FA only selected white, English gentlemen to play for the National side.”
Wharton never did play for England. Whilst many contemporary newspaper reports testified to his goalkeeping abilities other reports described him using the scientific racist language of the day. He was often compared to an animal, in the way in which he moved between the goal posts, whilst some commentators questioned his attitude to the game purely because of the colour of his skin.
Bushell said: “The attitude of the FA towards Wharton was compounded by the fact that he appeared alongside professionals who were being paid to play. The FA hated this. They believed that footballers should play only for the love and honour of the game. Clearly the FAs members were independently wealthy gentlemen who could afford to do that. It’s unbelievable that it took almost 100 years for a black player to break through at International level when finally, Viv represented his country against Czechoslovakia, at Wembley, on 29th November 1978,”
Anderson, who went on to star for amongst others Manchester United and Arsenal, will open the exhibition at 1pm on Tuesday 15th July, 2003.