PAYMENT FOR ATHLETES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19792, 12 November 1927, Page 16

PAYMENT FOR ATHLETES.

PRINCIPLE OF AMATEURISM.

VIEWS OF A FORMER CHAMPION.

The proposal to pay Association Football players for time lost when they take part in the next Olympic Games at Amsterdam has provoked storms of protest, and a great deal of newspaper controversy in the Old Country. The following article on the subject makes inter--

osting reading, more especially as it was written by George Nicol, former quartermile champion of the English Amateur

Athletic Association " It has been suggested that the decision of the International Olympic Committee to permit payments to be made to competitors m the Olympic football tournament for loss of time at work is a violation of a vital principle of amateurism. Sucb is certainly not the case. The ideal amateur is, of course, the man who plays his game simply for the joy of the game, without prize or reward of any kind, and who bears all the essential expense out ol his own pocket. Years ago, when amateur sport was confined to men of means and leisure, this ideal was no doubt practical of attainment even in international sport. " The award oi prizes of intrinsic value marked, to my mind, the first departure from the ideal. Later, the spread of sport among the Jess wealthy classes led to the payment ,of travelling and hotel expenses being sanctioned." The decision to permit payment for broken time is, therefore, no breach of principle. It is merely ampther step away from an ideal which is no longer practicable so far as international sport is concerned, and, incidentally, a recognition of the increasingly democratic nature of amateur sport all over the world.

" In practically every sport nowadays an amateur is allowed to accept his out-of-pocket expenses, by which is generally meant his railway fare and hotel bill. It is the merest' casuistry to say that while a man may be repaid for the rail-, way ticket he purchased and the price of the meals he consumed, he may not, without forfeiting his amateur status, be reimbursed for his lost wages. In the sense oi the International Olympic Committee decision the one is as much out-oi-pocket expenses, directly attributable to his participation in the sport, as the other. •

"In neither case is the player making any money out of his sport; on the contrary, he may be losing heavily, for the man who wants frequent days off from business is not popular with employers.

" It oflends one's sense of equity that an athlete, possibly an artisan—for many of our greatest athletes are drawn from that class—who haa been selected to re- ' present his country in an international competition, can only accept the invitation at a heavy financial sacrifice. If insisted upon, it will mean that a country will not necessarily be represented by its best men, but rather by those who can afford to foot the bill.

"To see the question in its correct perspective one has only to compare the conditions in England with those on the Continent. Hfere the Saturday half-holi-day is fairly general, and most of our games art played on Saturday afternoons. Except m connection with the concluding rounds of the Amateur Cup it is seldom that an amateur football .team has to travel more than an hour or so from home. Even the longest journeys do not necessitate taking more than the Saturday morning away from business, the return journey being usuallv made on Sunday. The question of broken time, therefore, is of quite minor importance. • "On the Continent, however, the Saturday half-holiday is unknown, Sunday is the recognised sports day, and if a team from, say, Boulogne or Lille is playing at Cannes or Bordeaux, the total time involved in the out-and-home journey will mean the loss of best part of a week's work to the players concerned. "IC is clearly unfair that a player should be expected to bear the whole of such loss out of his own pocket, and the International Olympic Committee has at last.. recognised the fact. The Internationa) Foot ball Federation, in tabling the proposition, dicl not seek to make it obligatory on all countries. It is permissable for the governing bodv in each country to take advantage of, the ruling, or not, as it wishes. Neither has it ever been suggested by the International Olympic Committee that the decision should apply to sports other than footbail.

" Football, by reason of its artaazing popularity and its suitability for league and cup competitions, stands in a somewhat different position from other sports. But if and when athletics, swimming, boxing, and other sports attain the proportions of . football, I have no doubt that the precedent laid .down in the case of football will be found very useful. In the meantime, the one really surprising factor in the whole matter is why, the International Olympic Committee did not shelve * the question until 1931 " The Amsterdam Games of 1928, which can be rovered by all European competitors at the expense of their annual summer holidays, do not present nearly so convincing a case as the Los Angeles Games of 1932, which will involve at least two months' absence from business. For. unless I am entirely mistaken in my reading of the position, if sornp form of monetary compensation for lost time is not sanctioned in all amateur sports in the interim, there will be precious few European romnetitors at the Los Angeles Games of 1932."