Exactly how seminal Swindon Town have been in the history of the game in this country is something that is little known even by its own supporters.

I am quite willing to argue that no club has had more influence in shaping the face of football, not just in this country but across the world.

In 1910, Swindon were selected along with Barnsley to play a game in Paris in the Dubonnet Cup. Swindon won 2-1 and that trophy sits proudly in the trophy cabinet to this day. The event was aimed at raising the standard of football in France. The success is shown by the fact that among the organisers was Jules Rimet who donated a trophy carrying his name to be competed for by nations across the globe. Although the First World War delayed his idea of a World Cup until 1930, there can be little doubt that the success of the Dubonnet Cup was a key factor.

When the first World Cup was staged in 1930 in Uruguay, the fact that it was feasible for European teams to travel and compete abroad owed much to the pioneering venture of Swindon in travelling to Argentina in the summer of 1912. Five other teams travelled to France to compete for Dubonnet Cups but only Swindon also ventured across the Atlantic. Town were much more successful than the national teams competing in the first World Cup as despite being without the injured Harold Fleming they remained undefeated in eight matches and defeated the Argentinian national side 1-0.

Football historians will know the name of Herbert Chapman as manager of Huddersfield Town and Arsenal, both teams winning hat tricks of League titles under the guidance of Chapman. Few will remember that he had a short but not unsuccessful spell with Town scoring three goals in four matches. As often happened at the time, finding a job alongside football had brought him to Swindon but his shorthand was not up to the standard expected in a solicitors’ office so he moved on.

Swindon and Chapman were then part of a major shift in tactics when he came back to manage against them and designed a system to nullify Swindon’s star striker. It had come about when Arsenal were drawn to play Swindon in the FA Cup Fifth Round in 1929. One of the secrets of Chapman’s success was his habit of studying the strengths of opposition teams and countering them. Swindon’s strength at this time was the striker, David Hyman Morris, better known as Harry Morris.

At this time teams usually set up with two full-backs as a back line with the centre half being very much what we today would call a midfielder. Chapman moved his centre half, Les Compton, to be purely defensive to deal with Morris. It worked to good effect as not only Morris but the entire Swindon team failed to find the net either in the first game at the County Ground or the replay at Highbury which Arsenal won 1-0. Thus began a system which would lead to the tag “Lucky Arsenal” for they so often won by just one goal despite having been under pressure for much of the game. Thus it was Swindon who brought about the formation of the third back system which was to remain the norm until well after World War Two ended.

I don’t think many people would argue that the biggest change in professional football since World War Two was the creation of the Premier League and Swindon Town had a major role in the events leading to its formation.

In racing the Inland Revenue went for Lester Piggott, in theatrical entertainment, they went for Ken Dodd. One they won and one they lost but both generated large sums of tax payments from individuals in those sectors. Can there be any greater tribute than having gone for such successful and high-profile individuals in those professions they should choose officials of Swindon Town to make an example of? The conviction of Brian Hillier and accountant, Vince Farrar, brought a huge influx of payments from other clubs. Had Swindon Town gained an unfair advantage over other clubs by non-declaration of payments to players or had they just broken the eleventh commandment and been found out?

Football League regulations had also been breached by not declaring players' income. On June 7, following an eight-hour hearing at which they had fully admitted 36 charges of which 35 were to do with illegal payments, the Football League decided on a demotion of two divisions. Swindon exercised their right of appeal to the Football Association who commuted it to one.

Perhaps the most furious person over this was Bill Fox, Chairman of Blackburn Rovers and also President of the Football League. Now his club would again have to face the club that had been responsible for knocking his side out in the season’s play-off semi-final. Why such seeming leniency from football’s controlling body? It may be some kind of a deal was done as Swindon were persuaded to ditch their appeal to the High Court and agreed to accept the decision of an FA Panel which chose on July 2 to reduce the penalty to a one-division demotion.

To my mind, the answer lies in something that was said to me when I was interviewed by two Inland Revenue officials when they said of Lou Macari: “He bought these practices with him from Manchester United.” The fact that many clubs in the top division were possibly guilty of similar practices meant they must have been aware that it only needed one disgruntled player or official to blow the whistle, as Billy Meredith had on Manchester City before World War One, and they could be facing similar penalties. Indeed Graham Taylor of the PFA had accused the Football League of overreacting as he claimed most First Division clubs were in breach of the rules. The FA, anxious to make more room for international fixtures, and the bigger clubs, facing the threat of falling foul of League legislation, found common cause in creating the Premier League.