Manchester Corinthians: Beating Juventus | OneFootball

Continuing our series on the pioneering Manchester Corinthians women’s team, today Gary James talks about the Corinthians’ trophy success in France in 1970.

After winning a major tournament in Venezuela in 1970, the Manchester Corinthians women’s team continued to tour during the 1960s. Their manager and driving force Percy Ashley died in 1967, causing some disruption but the club continued. Gladys Aikin, the mother of one of the players, decided to take the lead role. Her dedication helped the club remain a prominent force in women’s football. We’ll talk more about her significance to women’s football in a later article.

At the start of the seventies the ban preventing women’s games from taking place on FA approved grounds was finally lifted, but there were still significant barriers to playing. The Manchester Corinthians, established during 1948-49, continued to fight for their right to play and they continued to tour outside the United Kingdom. In 1970 Gladys Aikin took the Corinthians to France for a major tournament.

The international tournament at Reims included teams from England, France, Czechoslovakia and Italy and the Corinthians went on to win the competition. They defeated Juventus 1-0 in the final with a solitary goal from City fan Linda Hallam. This was a significant achievement. Hallam, who is a season ticket holder at City’s WSL games today, often downplays the actual goal but the fact is that this was a major victory and added to the Corinthians’ status significantly. From a City point of view, it’s nice to know that a City fan scored the cup winning goal in a prestigious women’s football tournament too!

Linda’s goal and her story features extensively in my new book ‘Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History’. Linda was one of over fifty players and their families interviewed for the book which tells the story of the club from formation through to its final days in the 1990s. It dispels many myths and provides an outlet for the women who played to explain how important the Corinthians were to Manchester’s football history.

Tournaments like Reims allowed comparisons between nations and Italy’s approach provided an example of how the game could develop if supported correctly by those in charge of football at the time. England was still some thirty years off establishing a national league, never mind a professional or semi-professional league structure, but Italy already had some professionalism and a national structure for women’s football. Juventus had ended the fourteen team 1970 Calcio Femminile – Serie A in fourth place and that level of competition was something the English players had no opportunity to participate in while based in England. The Corinthians had no opportunity to play in a national – or even regional league - in England at that time and the first Women’s FA Cup came in 1970-71.

Defeating Juventus was a major achievement however we look at it and added to decades of major success on their travels for the Corinthians. For players like Linda Hallam their memories of the international tournament they won in 1970 remain strong, but what also remains strong is the love of football today. Linda enjoys watching City in the WSL: ‘The team are amazing ambassadors for women’s sport. It’s a great family atmosphere at WSL games and lovely to watch the young boys and girls enjoying the football.’

Like many Corinthians, Linda is a regular at both WSL and Premier League games. Thinking about the men’s team Linda believes: ‘Manchester City men have achieved so much in recent years it’s a privilege to be a fan.’

It is worth recognising that Linda made history by becoming the first player to score a competitive goal for a Manchester team (men or women) against Juventus.

Another City fan who played at Reims was Jan Lyons and, like Linda, she is delighted with the success of recent years: ‘I would have never dreamed of such a success over the last 15 years. I have been going to watch City since the men’s promotion in 1966 to date and have been a season ticket holder for many years. I loved going back to Wembley in 2011 to see the FA Cup win over Stoke City and that 35-year banner abandoned at OT! Watching the PL Champions 2011-12 final day of the season… the Agueroooo moment will be forever in my heart! Of the current players I love Haaland. His goal tally is amazing and his technique for scoring immense. Dias is a leader with a heart of a lion. He never gives up.’

Like Dias, Jan was a player who never gave up and that determination ensured that her footballing life took a turn that was extremely rare back in the early 1970s. Jan moved to Italy and joined Juventus at a time when few ordinary Mancunians travelled abroad. Initially, Jan was invited to holiday in Turin by one of the Juventus players she’d met at the Reims tournament. When she returned from holiday, she decided she wanted to move to Italy to play football competitively. She made the move in 1973. Juventus paid for her accommodation and food, and she became their player.

Jan found Italian football much better organised than in England. Games were played in a professional league structure and in front of crowds of several thousand at times. It would be over three decades before English women’s football had a structure like that.

She stayed with Juventus for a couple of seasons, and she is believed to be the first Mancunian (male or female) to play for a major club in Italy. City’s Denis Law had played for Torino, but he was, of course, Scottish.

Jan has wonderful memories of her time in Italy and of the Corinthians’ success at Reims in 1970. Participating in that tournament and the final was one of Jan’s greatest footballing memories. Another came as a fan in Istanbul two years ago when City men lifted the Champions League: ‘My standout memories of Istanbul were the size, culture and mystery of the famous City of Istanbul… all the amazing fans of Inter Milan and City all together in harmony… the final… such a happy moment. The greatest Manchester City football memory of my life.’

City came home to a wonderful homecoming parade, but when the Corinthians returned to England in 1970 – or indeed after any other major international success - they received much less attention. There was some press coverage and there were calls for the city of Manchester to recognise the team’s achievements after Reims. One article explained: ‘The girls are Manchester’s finest ambassadors, yet they don’t even get a pat on the back. So, Manchester Town Hall, how about a small gesture?’

Today, the Corinthians achievements are finally getting the recognition they deserve and several Corinthians, including Jan and Linda were guests of the club a few days ago for a brief tour of the City Football Academy.

Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History is available from all usual book retailers and can be ordered direct from Gary at: https://gjfootballarchive.com/order-manchester-corinthians-book/