High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 1889–1890 Football Alliance was the first season of the Football Alliance, an association football league which was set up in England as a rival to The Football League, which had begun in the 1888–89 season. Like the Football League, the Alliance started with 12 member clubs and covered a similar area to the League, stretching from the Midlands to the North West, but also further east in Sheffield, Grimsby and Sunderland. However, the Alliance was seen as inferior to the Football League.