REMARKABLE DECISION

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 18, 15 October 1927, Page 27

REMARKABLE DECISION

FOOTBALLERS AND OLYMPIC GAMES PAYMENT FOR ‘'BROKEN TIME” Dominion Special Service. London, August 18. The remarkable decision arrived at by tho Conference of the International Football Federation and the Olympic International Committee has caused serious alarm in sporting circles here, and especially to tho Football Association. The resolution passed in Pans, legalising payment for broken time to Association football players competing in ths Olympic Games at Amsterdam next year cuts clean through the definition of an amateur player as understood in this country, and, if acted upon, will have far-reaching effects. The proviso that tho payment should bo made through the player’s employers does not in the least affect the gravity of the decision. It is most unfortunate that the old controversy about the “right” of an amateur sportsman to payment for "broken time” has been revived. The Olympic Games are supposed to promote international amity. Ilcro, however, they are being made the means of promoting nothing but friction The committee’s decision —that players may be allowed tho amount of the earnings they lose, through taking part in the games and yet retain tbeir amateur status—ostensibly applies only to footballers. It would be cause enough for regret if this were actually so, as the Football Association are most emphatically, and rightly, it must seem, determined to maintain an unequivocal distinction between the amateur and the professional, and so will not tolerate their players appearing in Olympic Games. But the new regulation may well apply to sportsmen other than footballers and consequently lead to withdrawals on a larger scale.. The International Amateur. Athletic Federation certainly takes this interpretation. As pointed out by a resolution of their Council at Amsterdam regretting tho Olympic Committee’s decision, "any person receiving payment for broken time in any sport is debarred from participation in any events under the jurisdiction of the ‘I.A.A.F.’.”