“MUST CARRY ON”

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1935, Page 12

“MUST CARRY ON”

England’s Responsibility In Association Football arguments over the rough MATCH WITH ITALY Reverberations of the complaints about the roughness of the play in the association football match England and Italy, played at Highbury, - London, in the earlier part of November, are still to be found in the latest English papers to hand. Two aspects of the trouble are still being discussed. One is the question whether or not England should continue to play foreign teams; the other is whether or not clubs in the league championship competition should release for international matches players for whom they have paid large transfer fees and who may be lost to them for several weeks because of Injuries received in the international games. On the former point Hugo Meisl, secretary of the Austrian Football Association, and one of the greatest personalities in Continental Soccer, made a statement which may be accepted as the balanced view of the Continent generallv. -V 1 “In the first place,” said Meisl, “I must point out that it is entirely wrong to class the incidents of the Highbury match as a sample of Continental football. , “Has England had any fault to fifed in matches against France, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Hungary, or Austria? I did not even hear a complaint about the match against Italy at Rome last year. ’. ’ , “I can tell you the cause of the trouble. The Italians had been warned that, contrary to their own custom,, their goalkeeper would be subject to charging. Nevertheless, when it OC- . curred it infuriated them. . “But England, as the mother country of the game, has a sacred duty. It is folly to say, ‘No more football with these people. Let them go their way and we will go ours.’ •' “England must carry on. She has a responsibility which she must not shirk in setting an example. As I see it, the game would suffer the worst blow in Lis history if the Football Association permitted the events of last Wednesday so to influence them that they decided to cut themselves off from the rest of the world.” Dr Bauwens, the famous Gei‘|iian official who refereed the Italy-England match at Rome last year, Said: “Very firm control is needed in matches where Italians are playing. They are brilliant footballers, but their temperament is such that if an Italian had been ordered off at Highbury it is quite possible the whole team would have left the field. “We in Germany are very anxious to learn what steps, if any, will be taken by the Football Association, for Germany is hoping to be invited here. You may not realise how highly the honour of such an invitation is prized Oh the Continent.” One important lesson has been learned t . from the match: the stupidity Of having a referee,- however capable, wnO is unable to Speak the languages of both sides. • It may be added that Vittorio Fozzo. the sole selector of Italian national Association football teams, sent a detailed account of the match to the “Stamps,” of Turin, in which he said: “It w-as the fiercest fight of modern international football. The Italians proved that they had more stamina than the English. The whole technical aspect of the fight was dominated by the Italians’ magnificent morale, and they may well be proud of their accomplishment.”