FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Issue XXXVI, 21 October 1905, Page 9

FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND.

SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT RECENT DEVELOPMENTS. The fact that English players of Rugby football are making such a poor stand against the New Zealand team is largely due to the predominamce which has been given of late years in Great Britain to the Association game. The rapid development of the craz* for Association football in tbe South of England has been one of the most; remarkable features iv the history o£ British sport. Ten yeasrs ago professional football was alnsost an unknown quantity in the South, although it was flourishing vigorously in many of the great towns of the North and Midlands. The ice was "broken by tiie Royal Arsenal (now Woolwich Arsenal) F.C. in season 1592-1893 as far a3 the metropolis is concerned; while outside London, Chatham and Southhampton St. Mary's were the first to cross the border line. The formation of the Southern League in 1894-93 proved the turningpoint in the history of more than one i club. THE LEAGUE COMPETTITON led to increased interest in the. matches ! played by the clubs, and with larger gates at their disposal the club officials . were not slow to recognise the necessity lof engaging paid players to supply the demand that was, created for good] i footbalL ! By then end of the fifth season the amateur element had entirely disap- ! peared from the Southern League Pirsa ' Division. Ten years ago—viz., in season 1594I 95—there were ten clubs in the South i with players registered as professionals, but of these ten at least four were j small clubs that registered one or two ! men in erder to pay for "broken time* —in other words, for time given up from their hours of work. The change in the ten years may be tabulated as under:—- ■"'-* ! SOFtHEBi* PROFESSIONAL, LEAGCB GLrtBS. ISM-85. 1905-06. LONDON. LONDON. W«oiwica Arsenal Woolwich Arsenal Still wall Millwall Tottenham Hotspur Fulham Queen's Park Ranger* I West Ham j Brentford Chelsea Clapton Orient Leyton Crystal Palace. PROVINCES. PROVINCES. Sontifempton St. Mary's Southampton Luton Luton Chatham Chatham Swindon Swindon New Bromptoa New Bromptou Bristol Rovers Reading Plymouth Argyie Portsmouth Brighton and Hove Northampton "Watford Norwich City Bristol City. In Addition to the there ara now many other clubs of less importance that employ paid players. In no part of the country has the game caught the public fancy more I violently than in London, where the high-water anark hap apparently not; yet been reached. Ten years ago the Arsenal and Millwall represented professional football in London; thi3 season we are to have eleven first-class or*ganisations, all with finely-equipped grounds, capable of holding crowd* varying between 10.000 at Leyton and 100.000 at the Crystal Palace and Chelsea. At tbe present time there appears to be no limit to the demand for first-class football as a spectacle. The wage-bin is paid hy the public ia the shape of gate money, and whereas ten years ago the wages paid to players in the South were well inside £2,000, the wage-bill of the Southern clubs last ssaeon must have closely approached £60,000. The following figures from last sea- | son's balance-sheets of the two leadr!ing metropolitan clubs are instructive:; Gate receipts. Wages. Tattenham Hotspur £10.192 £5,215 IYf ortwica Arsenal.. £0,627 .. £-i,096

The amount taken at the gates by these two clubs alone would equal the receipts of the whole of the Southern dubs, amateur and tea years ago. It is difficult to estimate accurately the number of Londoners who watch, foobaH on a Saturday afternoon in the present day. but as far as professional football is concerned, the figures may be put at 50.000 as an average for an ordinary Saturday. Cnp-tie days see tbe figures doubled. Ths numbers at the Arsenal and Tottenham grounds have frequently exceeded 30,000 for a match. It must not be imagined that the rapid growth of professional football has killed the amateur game. On the contrary, the Association game is played by more clubs than ever before, although the public scarcsly take tbe | same interest in it as in the old days. In season 1895-96 the London FootbaH Association, which is confined eni tirely to amateur organisations, had 329 dnbs affiliated. By season 190445 tihe numbers bad swelled to 1,025; and | all the county associations in the South showed similar large increases. Many of , the London clubs run two ormon? teams, ' and during the coming season there will be something like 15,000 Londoners i playing football every Saturday. I The smeafc difficulty at present is the lack of grounds in the Metropolitan ■ area for the thoueaJHU wh* wjanld like to play, the game.