HOW WILL SPORT TREAT THE RETURN OF PRE-WAR STARS?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11, 13 January 1945, Page 3 (Supplement)

HOW WILL SPORT TREAT THE RETURN OF PRE-WAR STARS?

PROFESSIONAL sportsmen returning from war service to peace- * time careers will provide reinstatement committees with ticklish problems. A professional athlete's position cannot be compared with that of the clerk, traveller, butcher or lorry-driver, who might be even more valuable to an employer with experience gained in the Army.

Five or six years out of an athlete's career may prove disastrous. Few footballers at their peak in 1939 will be of the same value to their clubs when the war is ended, states a London exchange.

In 1939 there were 5000 registered professional footballers. At least 2000 of these will, not stand up favourably to the competition of younger talent. Clubs will not, therefore, be prepared to pay first-class team wages to pre-war stars who will not be able to hold their places in the League sides.

The footballer's maximum peacetime salary Was £8 in the season and £6 in the summer. When his team won he could pick up £10 with a bonus, but there were hundreds of footballers receiving well below the maximum. The Exception A footballer is also entitled to a maximum benefit of £650 after .five years' service. Few qualify for two benefits, although William Smith broke a record, receiving four maximum sums from Huddersfield Town. This was exceptional. Club managers to-day are developing talent from among the juniors— boys who were at school when the stars were playing in 1938. These youngsters have in turn been called up but not before they have signed forms with League clubs. These are the players who will be most popular with club managers after the warj Few footballers make the grade above 30. To-day some clubs prefer to play star "guests;' even though it means leaving out members of their own side. SentiminTis not likely to help footballers who have lost vital youth With tbv war.

A cricketer is given a benefit match. Roy Kilner (Yorkshire) received £4000 and George Hirst, also Yorkshire, made £3703 from his benefit. But these are top figures, and the average sum would be about £1500. Loss o£ £650 Footballers and cricketers can hardly be compensated for loss of benefits. Clubs cannot be expected to pay a footballer £650 for his five years away from them. Yet it is tough luck on the player whose benefit may be the only means of starting him off well when his active days are over. Cricketers should be more fortunate, as many who were at the top in 1939 will still be good enough for county elevens, but there will be quite a few who may miss a benefit through the war. The boxer is not affected because he has not one employer. Some fighters will be past their best, but many have earned pre-war purses. Eric Boon, for instance, has earned at least £7000 since 1939. Paterson, Roderick, Mills and London have been able to make several thousand pounds while in the R.A.P. Ice hockey players, like tennis stars, are classed as amateurs in England. Most of them worked in jobs. Burning up the ice was just a hobby. Of course, they received expenses from the rinks. Speedway riders are different. They were paid according to the starts they made and the races won. A good rider could average £80 a week. Out of this he would have to pay for the upkeep of two or three motor cycles. Lionel Van Pragg, the world champion, set up a record of £360 in a week, but his average weekly earnings were £200 for about six months of a year. Wembley will, wherever possible, take on their peacetime riders, but naturally enough they will have to stand up to the competition ot youth, and it is a certainty that hundreds of young dispatch riders in the Services will be applying for jobs as speedway men. War has hit the sportsman's pocket, but there are also men who will not come back with the opportunity to replenish their bank rolls.

A cricketer has a longer career, and was paid more for a match than a footballer, but the cricket season lasts half the time of the football season. Yorkshire paid county players £10 for home matches and £15 for away fixtures. Poorer counties paid less. A professional cricketer could average £400 a year If he lasted for 20 years he could earn £8000.