The International Football League Board or IFLB, informally the Inter-League Board, was a board of leading professional association football leagues in Britain and Ireland whose main function was to coordinate and enforce policy on transfers of players between clubs in different member leagues. It also organised representative matches between leagues, and imposed restrictions on ownership of multiple clubs across member leagues.

History

The IFLB was founded in 1897 by the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

and the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

to resolve disputes over "poaching" of players in one League by clubs from the other.Taylor 2005, p.204 Inter-league representation matches, first staged in 1892, also came under its control. 1910 saw the introduction of the English League Board governing dealings between the two most significant leagues in England, the Football League and the Southern League. A separate Anglo-Irish Football League Board was established in 1914 by the Football League and the Irish Football League, which later merged with the IFLB. Thus all the top leagues in all four Home Nations were covered, with the Football League covering both England and Wales.Taylor 2005, p.205 Lower leagues, like the Central Football League, were not members and thus not bound by its rules. The

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

and the English Premier League were admitted to the IFLB after their breakaways from their respective parent leagues. The IFLB was parallel to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), formed by the

football association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

s (FAs) of each of the four Home Nations (with the

English FA The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

and Welsh FA both on the IFAB). Subsequently, the IFAB was extended to include

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

, whereas the IFLB did not extend its geographical remit, although the League of Ireland joined after splitting from the Irish League. In 1911, Liverpool F.C. were fined £250 by the IFLB for signing Bob Pursell from

Queen's Park F.C. Queen's Park Football Club is a Scottish professional association football, football club based in Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish football pyramid. Queen's Park is the Oldest footba ...

without permission, though a news report estimated his transfer fee would have been £360. In the 2003–04 Celtic F.C. season there were disputes over transfers of Colin Healy and

Liam Miller Liam William Peter Miller (13 February 1981 – 9 February 2018) was an Irish professional footballer. Miller began his career with Celtic and was later loaned to Aarhus in 2001. He returned to Celtic Park and broke into the first-team squ ...

to English clubs, because FIFA rules prohibited free transfers of players under 23 whereas the IFLB had an age limit of 24. FIFA asserted its jurisdiction. The IFLB was dissolved in 2005. A temporary consequence was that inter-league player loans became impossible, until FIFA regulations were subsequently applied.

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References

Football organisations in the United Kingdom 1897 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations disestablished in 2005 Association football transfers {{UK-sport-stub

History

See also

Sources

References