IN DEFENCE OF PROFESSIGNAL FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11620, 6 April 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

IN DEFENCE OF PROFESSIGNAL FOOTBALL.

The advocates of exclusive and unbending amateurism in football are never tired of pointing out. the disastrous results of professionalism in rowing and running. They declare with perfect truth that professional "peds" are, with a few honourable exceptions, hopelessly corrupt, while professional rowing in England is practically dead. Unfortunately, the analogy on which they base their objection to the paid players in football is quite inept. A much truer parallel in considering the pros and cons of professionalism lies between cricket and football. Both on the river and on the running path all association between professionals and} amateurs has been rigidly forbidden by those in office. In cricket the judicious intermingling and intercourse between amateurs and professionals has done much to heighten the self-respect and raise the tone of the latter without in the least impairing the dignity of the former. ; How a little leaven of : the best type of amateurism can leaven. the whole lump of professionalism is; well exemplified. in the Yorkshire cricket eleven. Lord Hawke's association with and interest in the professional members of the Yorkshire team has produced in the men an esprit de corps which would do credit to the : best traditions of amateurism.;; 'In golf, too, I do not know that it has been found that Messrs. Hilton arid John Ball have been: contaminated: by Staking part 'in; matches with Vardon and Taylor. The corruption of the river and running path, which the thick-and-thin opponents of professionalism point to, is mainly due to the very state of. things which they seem so anxious to bring about in the football world, namely, the complete ostracism of the professionals by the amateurs. It is only fair to add : . that this line of argument is adopted much more frequently by the Rugby Union authorities in their well-meant but ill-considered endeavour to stem the inevitable tide of professionalism, than by the : amateur supporters of the Association game. The "contaminating influence" theory has ] never commended itself to such good sportsmen "•■ as Messrs. G. O. Smith, W. J. Oakley, C. B. Fry, and C. Wreford Brown, whose knowledge of the football professional has been acquired by the practical method of rubbing shoulders with him on the field of play .J ■ v No team has done more than the famous Corinthians to soften the line dividing rank from rank, and to bring about a better understanding between professionals and amateurs. Their, games * against the ; League teams at Queen's Club and on tour have largely dispelled the notion at one time existing among the Northern professionals that an amateur was an armchair player who compensated for his lack of skill by an undue sense of his own importance. ; There is a story told of a visit in the early. days of professionalism of a certain league team to Oxford, which, even if it has been related before, is worth repeating. The team had come up to play the University;, After the conclusion of the game an undergraduate asked one of the visiting halfbacks what he thought of Oxford football. "Well," was the reply, "when we coom oop to Oxford, I was tebble feared that they was nout but a set o' passons an' that; 'but tf lust mon as iver I tackled, he says to me, 'Who the : —— are you trying to trip?' I felt," said the worthy man, with a placid smile of content on his face, ". I felt nice an' hoam-like after that." It is rip aspersion on the character of the Corinthians to say that nowadays most League teams feel perfectly " hoam-like" with them. :! The objection to professionalism in football on the ground of its contaminating tendency is mainly the view of the; man in the 'bus— the well-intentioned person whose knowledge is not commensurate with his zeal. , ■■.-■,,■