PROFESSIONAL SOCCER

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 28 January 1933, Page 8

PROFESSIONAL SOCCER

PLAYERS NEED TO BE HARDY GAMES IN ALL WEATHERS FAMOUS MATCHES RECALLED. Long experience of Association football proves that the players have shown a. hardihood in all sorts of weather that is not seen, or at least equalled, in any other manly game, unless it be the Rugby code (wrote a special correspondent of a London paper, recently). Even then professional footballers have repeatedly fulfilled matches under conditions wlien Rugby amateurs do not feel justified in running risks to their limbs. Rugby matches are very rarely decided on ground that has been rendered dangerous by frost and snow, but there are some followers of the round ball who delight to hear their boots rattle and acquit themselves quite cleverly. Football is a winter sport, and it is well to remember that the first book ever published on this recreation was entitled: “Football: Our .Winter Game.” This was issued over 50 years ago, and on the title-page was this quotation: “A winter’s piece should be beautified with all manners of works and exercises of winter as footballs, selling of wood, and . sliding on the ice.” Our forefathers knew the pursuit of the football for a recreation that warmed the blood and made many a stern winter’s tale.

THE WILL TO STAY. On the last Saturday in October it would seem that some professionals, even in matches under the auspices of the Football League, declined to fight out the issue to the end. When Blackpool was leading Chelsea by four goals lour of the piayers of the Loudon Club left the field. One report says that they did so “amidst the jeers of the crowd.” It is understood that this happened 12 minutes before the close, and that they did ask permission from the referee to retire. Although they had not been injured, like one of their team, which was reduced to 10 men by his absence in the second half, the permission was given. Thus Chelsea finished the game with six men, and the survivors were applauded. The Blackpool eleven i-einainedj complete, and an observer wrote that they “played with wonderful stamina” throughout. Again, when Blackburn Rovers were leading Sheffield United by three goals, there was a “general rush for shelter by the Sheffield players, followed. by some of the Rovers.” There was ail interval in the match of 25 minutes, and then the game was completed with three of the visitors absent. These facts were recorded by eye-witnesses, and it should be added that one Chelsea man fainted, and that the referee at Blackburn had a somewhat similar experience, a linesman taking charge, of "the game in its last stage. In each case the home team persevered to the end. It was the hardier. One notices that'on the same day 20 teams of 10 runiiers each competed in a relay race over 51 miles, from Manchester to Blackpool. Each man had to cover five miles, many of them m a “furious downpour,” and it is said that, as Blackpool was reached, the weather was appalling, with an icy wind and torrents of rain. There is no account of any of these resolute roadrunners refusing to finish their course or fainting by the roadside, and it is believable that these harriers are not so systematically . trained his profesr sional footballers. The Management Committee of the Football League has decided that the results of these matches shall hold good, and, so far as has been disclosed, no player has been censured. Whether these matches should have taken place is not our concern. The referee is the sole judge of the conditions overhead and imdebfoot.

THE! SOLE JUDGE. One can recall an important Association Cup-tie when the referee led the teams off the field, and, owing to the tremendous rain, allowed them to shelter for a time. That was at Bramah Lane, Sheffield. Doubtless, many will remember.: when-Nottingham Forest defeated Southampton in a semi-final tie at the Crystal Palace while a snowstorm raged. The referee was not deterred, and the teams never flinched, but Southampton was sore, and, like Chelsea at Blackpool, felt that the match should not have been played. Still, the referee is the sole judge. And if the question arises of stopping a match one holds that the referee, the linesman, and the captains, should decide, and that no one else should have a voice in the matter. The plavers as a body are not allowed to rush off the field as seems to have been done at Blackburn. The rules of the Football Association governing all games, league or otherwise, set forth that “Any player leaving the field during the progress of a game (ex. cept through acicdent), without the consent of the referee, will be deemed guilty of misconduct, and will render himself liable to be penalised under rule 45.” That is very proper, and under this rule the Football Association lias such powers that it can do as it thinks fit. The right of spectators have to be considered and respected. Hie vast majority of them are standing still and enduring without protection the elemental forces of nature. If they, without training, are willing to brave icy winds, tempests, and blizzards, surely the players should be able to do as Anv player who leaves the football field ” without the permission of th? controlling official should be made to understand that he may . not again be allowed to earn a livelihood as a professional.