[1] He finished playing in the mid-1880s, after finding himself unable to compete with England international Joe Lofthouse in a match against Blackburn Rovers.
After encouragement by Preston North End's William Sudell, Sutcliffe took up refereeing, and became eligible to officiate League matches from 1891.
In 1912, Charles Sutcliffe helped establish the legality of the league's retain-and-transfer system when he successfully represented the club Aston Villa during the Kingaby case.
Using a closely guarded system featuring red and white squares in the manner of a chessboard, Sutcliffe's method created a durable fixture list, the first draft of which usually required only the most minor revisions.
This coincided with the League taking a firm stance against football-based gambling, of which the most common type was the football pools.
Fixtures would be announced 48 hours in advance, in an attempt to make it more difficult for pools companies to produce coupons.
Though Sutcliffe was determined to see the pools companies defeated, the chaos caused by the uncertainty over fixtures meant the scheme lasted just two weeks.
[10] In August 1922 Sutcliffe, in his capacity as a representative of the Football League, opened Doncaster Rovers' Belle Vue ground.
[11] Sutcliffe strongly believed that British football was superior to that played elsewhere, and took an isolationist stance on related issues.
[12] In response to overseas tours by the Home Nations, he declared "I don't care a brass farthing about the improvement of the game in France, Belgium, Austria or Germany" and accused FIFA's one member one vote system of "magnifying the midgets".
The FA agreed, and introduced legislation the following year which in essence banned foreign players from playing in England.