ASSOCIATIONS FOOTBALL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 30, 5 February 1908, Page 3

ASSOCIATIONS FOOTBALL.

TO TTIS HDITOB. I Sir,— l shall be glad if you will find a, ! shoii, space in your columns for a few remarks on the proposed Tisit of a New Zealand association team to the Old j Country, which wa hava heard nothing about here, but which I find .mentioned ia a paper to hand from Home. As I hare followed tha garae hero a lot, I may be i permitted to Hay that a tour of this sort would be a great failure. W> til knew that association football is "the" garni in England, and Rugby here. Of course New Zealand has mace gre&i progress in the association gams, eipeeially this hvrt few year?, but you cannot clas* th« pick of New Zetland with a Midland League team at Home. Fancy a tram from her* pbyinjf against teams like Manehettep United, Nor.-cr.stle, Liverpool, Evercon, and all the teams of tho first and second division. I think tho rccr.lls would bs fomefchinf'liko the last New Zealand Rugby i?am dealt out to the amateur players. Fancy a win of, say, 20 or bo to nil at soccer! The gates would be minus after the first match ; no one would ever go to pee a, team of New Zealand's best, if there is a best. » / The writer of tho letter to the Hcmo paper is Mr. J. Richardson, of the Auckland association, and ho Fays it will be a pleasant surprise to people in the Homeland to see thoir cousins from New Zealand pJay such good football. Ho says their play is of tho highest order. Tho first time I saw the game played on my arrival hare, I thought what -a poor idea they had cf tho gamo; I think Wellington is one of the leading places for tho gome, and 1 if that is so, where are tho twenty-five proposea players coming from? I can -only sea Auckland and Wellington. I should like ■to hear some well-known player's opinion on the matter. For myeelf, I think it absurd -to class New Zealand and the Old Country on a par at the game. Such a visit would end in nothing but failure.— l nm, etc., SOCCER ENTHUSIAST. Wellington, 3rd February, 1908.