The 2025/26 season has been one of the most memorable for a long time: the highest average attendance since 1921/22, the highest league position since 2004 and, irrespective of what happens in the play-offs, the nearest that Bradford City has ever come to back-to-back promotions. It is also a year of significant anniversaries – 30 years since the first trip to Wembley, 25 years since relegation from the Premier League and ten years since Stefan Rupp acquired the club. It is now more than twenty years since the last complete history was written about Bradford City and it is therefore timely to take stock of what has happened recently and consider how it fits in the context of preceding decades.
My next book ‘The Bantams of Valley Parade, A History of Bradford City AFC‘ is published in September 2026 and narrates the history of the club from its rugby origins in 1880 through to the modern day. It covers the glory era immediately preceding the First World War and the Richmond era that brought Premier League football to Bradford. It also covers the decades in which the club’s history was defined by failure and disappointment. In an attempt to explain why it is that the club has underperformed more often than not, the book examines the historic constraints that prevented success and what has changed.
Copies will likely be sold in Waterstones, Wool Exchange but can also be purchased through BANTAMSPAST – follow this link: THE BANTAMS OF VALLEY PARADE.
John Dewhirst
THE BANTAMS OF VALLEY PARADE: A HISTORY OF BRADFORD CITY AFC has a cover price of £16.99 and is available through BANTAMSPAST for £20.49 incl p&p.
