Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ford Sporting League

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Mailer Diablo 16:52, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ford Sporting League

non-notable, a league (?), no Google hits Travelbird 11:11, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

• Delete per non-notable, only 10 total google hits, some to this page. --Porqin 12:13, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
• Delete as per nom, not sure it even exists... Andymarczak 08:28, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep The League existed from 1970-1971 in England. I know its pre-google, but pre-google doesn't necessarily mean outside the realm of wikipedia. If you look at the (admittedly few) google references, they do provide a bit of information, and I've tried to fill it in to the article. Anyway, I'm voting keep for several reasons:

1. It was a professional league, even if only for a short while. It was also a professional league in England, the home of football and a major footballing nation by almost any criteria.

2. 1970 was a watershed year for sponsorship in football, with the introduction of 3 major sponsor events (Texaco Cup and Watney Cup being the others), and the Ford Sporting League was an important part of the trend. This needs to be filled in better in the article, and I don't quite have the resources to do it.

3. It had a unique and interesting scoring system, about which much could be written. Vickser 21:20, 25 July 2006 (UTC) Comments updated further: Vickser 00:05, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

• Neutral It still seems that if the league was very influential, there would be more than 10 hits on google, as people would write about this league, regardless of when it was formed. If the scoring system, the ability to deduct points, is unique to football; then maybe the league is worth mentioning. --Porqin 02:19, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep This is a potentially interesting article about a professional league involving well known teams. (A quick google search yields not only Oldham, but also Fulham- I'd certainly be interested in finding out which other teams participated.) I won't rehash the reasons Vickser has given, but I strongly agree with all of them, particularly the interest generated by the unique scoring system- are there any other tournaments in football where scoring was directly influenced by sportsmanship? True, the competition was short lived, but so was the Super Cup, and that (rightly) has an article. I'll admit, I hadn't heard of this competition before looking at this article- but that just shows one of the great things about wikipedia, the potential for learning about interesting things, just like this.--Robotforaday 23:32, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Just as an aside to the above, the Oldham Athletic: Complete Record 1899-1988 by Garth Dykes might have results in the Ford sporting league (which would hopefully at least tell us just who participated), with possibly a final league table. Could be worth a look before deleting. I will get it out of my university library in a few days.--Robotforaday 23:54, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
  • I know the teams playing will effect some votes, so it's worth noting that Colchester United, currently playing in the Championship, also participated in the league. So far they, Fulham and Oldham Ath are the only ones I've found, but I'll also be doing some more research. Vickser 02:29, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep. It's a pro league and with more work it could be a very interesting article.  Slumgum T. C.   12:47, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.