Footballbits and pieces

This month, Old Trafford, home of Manchester United celebrates its one hundredth birthday and has an amazing history. .

In 1902 Manchester United were known as Newton Heath , newly appointed chairman John Henry Davies pushed for a new stadium to built as he believed their current stadium, Bank Street simply wasn’t good enough for a team who had won both the FA cup and First Division.

The stadium was originally planned to have a capacity of 100,000 but due to the high cost of the land, the capacity was reduced to 80,000. The FA Cup Final was hosted at Old Trafford in 1911 and 1920 the first England international was played there when Scotland visited in 1926.

Football continued at the stadium throughout the 3nd World War, until  the 22nd December 1940 when a German air raid severely damaged the stadium. Old Trafford reopened in March of 1941, but just three days later, most of the stadium was destroyed by another German air raid. During the reconstruction of Old Trafford, Manchester United actually played their home games at Maine Road, home to rivals Manchester City.

Old Trafford finally reopened in 1949 after nearly 10 years. In 1951 work began restoring roof over the main stand, followed soon after by the other 3 stands. and floodlights were installed.

In 1992 the Football League, after the Taylor report into the Hillsborogh tragedy, decreed that all First and Second Division football stadiums had to be made all-seater. Once the changes had been made, Old Trafford had dropped to an all time low capacity of 44,000 seats.

Because of United’s popularity,construction began in 1995 of a brand new twenty five thousand capacity north stand. In 2000, with continued success, second tiers were added to both the east and west stands bringing the capacity to over 68,000.

Between 2005 and 2006 second tiers were added to both the North-West and North-East corners of the ground bringing the capacity to well over 76,000 all- seated spectators.

Why not celebrate 100 years of the Theatre of Dreams with these official commemorative souvenirs, part of the huge selection from Footballbits Football Souvenirs