Association Football and How to Play It/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX.
Football as a Profession.
There are many young fellows who are inclined to take up football as a profession, and to these the writer would say, "Count well the cost before you do it." I have spoken to many players, and few would let their boys take football up as the serious business of life. It is easy to start; any club that has paid players will give you a trial, and if you are capable will sign you on at perhaps a few shillings up to a pound a week. The objections are that the career is very short, and may be interrupted or terminated by an accident at any time, and then if you are not master of a trade you are practically ruined. When boys used to come to me and tell me of their wish to join the 'Spurs I always tried to get them to learn some trade first and be master of it, so when necessary they could fall back upon it. This provision for the future is necessary, because you may begin your paid career at seventeen or eighteen, before you have learned a trade, and play on till you are twenty-eight or thirty, and then find you are too old to begin to do so. I have known a number who had made no preparation for the future, and in some cases they are starving. It is one of the painful duties of a secretary's life to have to hear of appeals for help from veterans who have neglected to acquire some trade before taking up football. No club ought to be allowed, for the credit of the game, to sign on any players until they have given evidence that they have a marketable knowledge of some trade or profession. As I have said, many think £4 a week is a nice income; so it is, but how many get it, and how many years does it last? It may be that in the near future you may get as much as you can out of a club, but even then only a very few of the thousands of paid players will get more than they do now. Many a youth, talking of the matter, has been under the impression that all professionals get the £4 per week. That is not so. Many of the smaller clubs cannot afford to pay it. There are many who never get beyond 50s. per week. No doubt the organisation of school games has had a great deal to do with turning the attention of promising lads at school to football as a career. It is true that one out of a thousand schoolboy players may get signed on, but I hardly know of half a dozen. Hundreds of young men apply to clubs for a trial, and are soon convinced that they have not skill enough, but those few who are lucky should weigh the matter seriously. I know there are many who may argue that they can, after their playing days are over, get a position as trainer or manager to some club. Such a place as I had, for instance, for many years, but, like everything else nowadays, there are only a very limited number of these positions, while there are scores of applicants for them, and for every vacancy to be filled there are generally one or two who have very strong backing, and there is little chance for the outsider. Others have often pointed out to me that after a certain number of years they will be entitled to a benefit. This is quite correct, but even if the benefit comes off how much does it bring in? I should fancy that an average benefit does not give more than £300 or £400—indeed, a footballer is considered very lucky if the match that he has chosen brings him £150. I have known a great many that have brought in less. Mr. J. J. Bentley, who is now the President of the Football League, once wrote an article on "Football Finance," in which he stated that "not more than six professional clubs were solvent," and he asked the pertinent question: "If only six of the leading clubs can make it pay on a really lucrative scale, what is to become of the game?" By the game he doubtless means the professional part of it. Fourteen years have passed away, but I very much doubt if the situation is altered now. A few clubs, a very few, make a profit on their year's working. The majority show a deficit which annually becomes larger. For a time collapse is avoided by the bazaar or by turning the club into a limited liability company, but these are only temporary reliefs, and the fact remains that in most clubs either the expenses of management or the salaries of the players are larger than the receipts permit, and sometimes the clubs go under. Another important point for the would-be "pro." is the question of temperament. You must have exceptional qualities of a personal character. If you cannot take hard knocks as well as give them, and if you cannot control your temper, you are not likely to be successful. The day of the blackguardly dirty player is over, and the man with brain as well as brawn is needed for this work. Education makes all the difference, and the incoming professionals will have to be men of considerable culture. Neither is there any chance for the fellow who cannot control his appetite in the matter of strong drink. There arise before us sad and mournful pictures of men whose names have been "familiar as a household word," but whose sun has set years before it should have done, owing to the fact that they soaked in beer. Some I have seen at the Palace in the Cup Final, the heroes of the day; apparently the world was at their feet. The next time one set eyes on them it was difficult to recognise in the battered specimen of humanity that stood before you the sprightly player of former days. The contrast is painful, but often, very often, has greeted my eyes.
"No," said a great Southern League captain to me, "my boys shall never be paid footballers, but they must learn a trade. The prospects are not pleasing enough." No, it is far better, unless you have superlative talents, to take to some other calling. It is only a small proportion who make their mark in professional football.
Some may make a better thing out of it if they are paid cricketers, for they will have wages for both games. But here again the area is limited, though the pay is good. It is not necessary to be a professional player to gain the highest honours. Take England's captain, V. J. Woodward; he is an architect, but from the first day I saw him there was great ability, and it was bound to come out. So with many other amateurs who have come to the front. They have succeeded because they had skill, but also because they kept in good condition owing to their ordinary work, which was well done. To boys I say stick to your job, and having worked well go and play your best. But leave professionalism out of the business.