Up until 1930 the way in which Belgian clubs got around the strict amatuer rules was to set their players up as cafe owners. Ray Braine, who had won 4 championships with Beerschot (Antwerp), scoring 141 goals in 142 games in his 8 year spell at the club, followed this route. The Belgian Federation then introduced a rule that banned players from being cafe proprietors unless their parents had been in the business for 5 years.
In 1930 Braine decided to try his hand abroad in order to earn money from football without resorting to subterfuge, He was set to join London club Clapton Orient, but the British government operated a very strict control on foreign labour, and would not consider allowing a foreign national to enter the country to work as a professional footballer.
Braine turned instead to Czechoslovakia, joining Sparta Prague. He was very successful in Prague, winning 2 league championships and a Mitropa Cup. The Czechs offered him a small fortune to adopt Czech citizenship, but he declined, returning to Belgium in 1936.
He made 54 appearances for the national team, scoring 26 goals.
