The Football Alliance was an association football league in England which ran for three seasons, from 1889–90 to 1891–92. It was formed by 12 clubs as a rival to the Football League, which had begun in the 1888–89 season, also with 12 member clubs. The Alliance covered a similar area to the League, stretching from the English Midlands to the North West, but also further east in Sheffield, Grimsby and Sunderland. Some of the clubs which originally founded the Alliance had played in The Combination the year before, but that league collapsed as a result of the disarray and lack of organization. The president of the Football Alliance was John Holmes, also the president of The Wednesday who were the first champions winning fifteen games out of twenty-two.