SOCCER FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 25

SOCCER FOOTBALL.

Turkish enterprise in establishing Association football has really been as spirited as in any country of Europe, when it is considered under what adverse conditions the game had to struggle for many years. In 1900 a group of Young Turks boldly took the game up, and met at the house of one of their leaders, to translate the English rules into Turkish (says the London "Times"). A Palace spy heard the meeting, entered the building with a detachment of soldiers and arrested the conspirators. His worst suspicions were confirmed when he discovered a pump, corner-post, flags, and multi-coloured shirts. In his report the shirts were described as uniforms, and the rules which the unlucky enthusiasts were translating as "proclamations." The football itself, which further search revealed, was called a "Top," which in Turkish means a cannon-ball. The offenders were all banished, and the movement collapsed. All of which savours of Raffertyism.

A protest has been lodged against a Brisbane junior Soccer team for fielding a player over 17 years, says aiTAustralian paper. The rule says a player must not have reached his ISth birthday by midnight on March 31, but can play if reaching his 18th year after that date, during the remainder of the season. Tho player referred to was born at 2.10 p.m. on March 31 in England. The defence for his case will be that he is eligible to play by twenty minutes, according to the variation of time between England and Australia.