BETTING ON FOOTBALL

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 59, 10 March 1936, Page 11

BETTING ON FOOTBALL

NO CONCERN OP LEAGUE

RESOLUTION RESCINDED

BACK TO FORMER FIXTURES

(Received March 10, noon.)

LONDON, March 9,

After a meeting lasting two hours the Football League decided to revert to the normal fixtures and to rescind the previous resolution describing the football "betting pools" as a irenace, the feeling being that the question of pools is no concern of the league.

The question of copyright fixtures was referred to the management committee. •

The reversion to the normal fixtures does not mean that the matches "scheduled for the next few Saturdays will stand since during the last two weeks several fixtures have been taken from fixtures some weeks ahead. These will logically be replaced by matches which should have been played during the last two Saturdays. As an instance the fixtures for March 14 will be the fixtures scheduled for February 29, apart from the second division where the matches will be as originally arranged.

It was reported on February 24 that at a meeting at Manchester of directors of the Association Football League Clubs called to consider the attitude of the league to "pool betting" on league matches, it was decided to ask the Government to introduce legislation to stop pools. Meanwhile, in order to prevent promoters from using pool fixtures as a basis of their business, it was decided that, for the remainder of the present football season,, league fixtures should be scrapped and new fixtures arranged. Representations for suppression of pools were recently made to the Home Secretary by. religious and social workers, who stated that betting of this kind had become a grave evil. The "Sun-Herald" news agency said that the Football League's decision to. smash pools threatened one of the most popular forms of -national amusement, 10,000,000 men, women, and children, or a quarter of Britain's population, participating in a turnover, estimated at £30,000,000, and in prizes as high as £20,000 for the outlay of a penny. Under the "betting pools" system competitors are required to forecast wins, draws, or losses for certain matches, and for entrance fees of from Id to several shillings proportionate prizes are given to those with the best forecasts. After the league announced its decision in regard to the fixtures protests were entered on behalf of several northern clubs on the v ground that the action was illegal.