1945 With OldTrafford a bomb site, Matt Busby is appointed manager of Manchester United
1946 Walter Winterbottom becomes the first National Coach
33 spectators are killed when crowd barriers collapse at a Cup tie between Stoke City and Bolton
England rejoins FIFA after the dispute in 1928
England teams up with the other home nations to field a one-off postwar National side against the Rest of Europe resulting in a 6-1 victory for Great Britain
Derby County win the first FA Cup in the aftermath of the war by beating Charlton Athletic 4-1 in the Final
1947 First ?20,000 transfer - Tommy Lawton from Chelsea to Notts County
Charlton beat Burnley 1-0 in the FA Cup Final
1948 BlackpooPs Stanley Matthews wins the first Football Writers* Association Footballer of the Year award
1949 1,272,155 spectators make a record Football League attendance on 27th December
Fred Wall and Stanley Rous are knighted for their services to football
Sports Report is broadcast by BBC Radio for the first time
1950 The Football League increases the number of clubs from 88 to 92
England competes in the World Cup for the first time. The event is held in Brazil, but won by Uruguay and England fail to clear the group stages
Portsmouth wins the league championship for a second consecutive year, the unexpected postwar success of the club was because the team was joined by many ex-servicemen stationed in the town
1951 The increased use of floodlights, which were banned between 1930 and 1950, prompted the introduction of the white football
Hungary beat England 6-3 at Wembley, England’s first official defeat on home soil
1954 UEFA, Union of European Football Associations is formed
Fifth World Cup competition is held in Switzerland and won by West Germany - England compete but lose to Uruguay in the quarter finals
England suffers its biggest ever defeat when Hungary win 7-1 in Budapest
1955 First floodlit England international - England v Spain at Wembley
First floodlit FA Cup-tie between Brierley Hill and Kidderminster
Birmingham City becomes the first English club to participate in a European competition when it entered the Inter-City Fairs Cup (now UEFA Cup) reaching the semi finals but losing to Barcelona
1956 Portsmouth v Newcastle becomes the first league game to be played under floodlights
Real Madrid wins the first European Cup; there were no British teams in the 16 teams participating in the competition after Chelsea were instructed to decline the invitation to compete
ITV’s first televised game is a Cup-tie between Bedford Town and Arsenal
1957 Juventus buy John Charles from Leeds for a record ?67,000
Manchester United is the first British team to enter the European Cup competition
Chelsea become the first team to be transported to a league match by aeroplane when they travelled up to meet Newcastle
Jimmy Hill is elected as Chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association
1958 Sixth World Cup held in Sweden; the competition won by Brazil after England lost to the USSR in the play-offs between the group stage runners-up. This tournament became the first World Cup to be televised
Everton introduce under-soil heating to protect pitch from frost, the first club to do so
Manchester United lose 8 of their players as the team’s plane crashes at Munich Airport on the return flight from a European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade
1959 Billy Wright, the England captain wins his 100th international cap and retires on 105
The Third Division North and South divide is scrapped in favour of one, national Third Division
World History
