Cheap Excursion

10,000 people were at the Oval on 13.04.89 to see Scotland beat England by 3-2.  Receipts taken totaled £63 17s. 6d.

The prices shown are in shillings. There were 20 shillings to a pound
Skilled workers were on about £2 2/  (42 shillings) for a 50 hour week.
The Scottish players were nominally amateurs. The England line up included 6 professionals. These players were on about £3 per week during the season, £2 per week in the summer. Other than expenses (which amateurs also received) the FA did not pay the professionals for representing England.

The Victorian railway network played a great role in the rapid increase in the  popularity of football in the 1880s.  With the top clubs being concentrated in the North and the Midlands travel to away matches was relatively straightforward. 

Newton Heath's first competitive match

Three pence was the price of admission to the North Road ground on 27.10.83 to witness Newton Heath LYR's first competitive match. Three pence to see the FA Cup holders? That seemed to be the deal as the visitors for the first round of the Lancashire Cup were Blackburn Olympic.
Olympic, however, fielded a reserve team.

The Athletic News 31.10.83

The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 29.10.83

The Association Footballers' Union 1898- 1901

Jack Bell (Everton) -  chairman of the AFU

John Cameron (Everton)- president of the AFU

Now look here, how would any man in business like to have his wages reduced by 25% if his employers could well afford better terms?- John Cameron.

The first Trade Union connected with Association football was founded in February 1898. Given that football was now becoming the Peoples' Game and the majority of players were from proletarian backgrounds, it seems a shame that the AFU wasn't exactly steeped in socialist principles. 

It is often reported that the catalyst for the foundation of the AFU was the introduction of the maximum wage in 1893. However, the maximum wage was proposed in 1893 but did not come into force until 1901. Prominent member Jack Devey (Aston Villa) stated that the AFU were not concerning themselves with wages, and president, John Cameron said that the main objective was to enable players to negotiate transfers, rather than being excluded from the process completely. This was a response to the retain and transfer system, introduced in 1893, that effectively gave the clubs complete control over players, even if they were 'out of contract'. The AFU failed in their attempts to challenge this system, which, incredibly, remained in force until 1963.


By 1901 the situation for professional players had actually worsened. The Football League had introduced a maximum wage and outlawed the payment of bonuses. The maximum wage was fixed at £4 per week- a higher sum than most professionals could hope to earn in the League. On this front the AFU was more of a vehicle for the concerns of star players and Scottish imports who, in a free market, would be commanding wages more in the region of £10 a week. 

In fact 1901 saw the dissolution of the AFU as many of it's more active members had left League clubs to seek employment in the Southern League (which had no wage cap and at the time didn't recognise the retain and transfer system).
Neither the Football Association nor the Football League recognized the Association Footballers' Union.

Major Marindin on the Association game

MAJOR MARINDIN ON THE ASSOCIATION GAME

A reporter has had an interview with Major Marindin, the president of the football association, who said at first he was opposed to the introduction of professionals, but he admits the result has been most satisfactory, for bona fide professionals it has been found do not play by any means so rough a game as do many so called amateurs. Many of them earn as much as £2 a week all the year round and their brilliant playing has certainly  done not a little for the game as a whole.  “The great curse of Association football at the present moment is the rough game adopted by a large number of clubs. We are determined to put this down.  Our rules are strong enough, but our difficulty is to get umpires with sufficient moral courage to stop rough play.  In any case I may remark that the Association is not so dangerous a game as Rugby. We get fractures and broken limbs, but we don’t get injuries to the neck and back that prove so fatal to the Rugby players.  As to betting at football, it is undoubtedly a great evil. It hardly exists in the South to such an extent as one finds it in the North.  There books are made on every great match, and a large amount of money without question changes hands.” “Is it for this reason” the Reporter asked “that such huge gates follow on great football matches?” “Hardly” replied the Major. “Football is rapidly becoming such a popular game that it is drawing even larger crowds than cricket. At the same time, I don’t think our clubs are making as much money as the public think.  You see they have to keep 11 or 15 players in service all the year round, and the travelling expenses of these are very large.  

Lancashire Evening Post, 20.11.88

Souvenir

A curious memento. And for tissue paper to survive 100 years...
Described as follows in an auction catalogue:
1910 F.A. Cup third round commemorative tissue Imprinted 'Souvenir of the English Cup third round Played at St James Park Newcastle Saturday Feb. 19th 1910', with team pictures and annotation of players names underneath. Floral flag design to outer edges. Printed by Mrs S.Burgess of Bishopsgate, London.

If we look at the teams that played that day we will see that there was plenty of quality on show.  Blackburn Rovers were 3rd in Division 1 and Newcastle United 6th. 

Newcastle United		Blackburn Rovers
Jimmy Lawrence	G	Jimmy Ashcroft
Billy McCracken	RB	Bob Crompton
Tony Whitson	LB	Arthur Cowell
Colin Veitch	RH	Albert Walmsley
Wilf Low	CH	George Chapman
Peter McWilliam	LH	Billy Bradshaw
Jock Rutherford	OR	Billy Garbutt
Jimmy Howie	IR	Eddie Latheron
Albert Shepherd	CF	Ellis Crompton
Sandy Higgins	IL	Wattie Aitkenhead
George Wilson	OL	Walter Anthony

The 54,000 crowd brought in receipts in excess of £2000 (described in the contemporary press as 'an enormous sum').
Higgins opened the scoring in the first minute ( a quick short drive). Rutherford added a second in the 25th minute but Rovers immediately pulled one back through Anthony. Howie completed the scoring in the second half.

Hamilton Crescent

Cricket was being played in Hamilton Crescent before the West of Scotland Cricket Club was founded in 1862.

Hamilton Crescent's place in sporting history was assured when it was chosen by Queen's Park to host what is considered to be the first ever international Association football match.

As we have seen , Charles Alcock had , in his enthusiasm to spread the association game, instituted 'international' matches in 1870. The 'Scottish' teams involved were not truly representative, the players usually having only tenuous connections with Scotland. Alcock didn't want this to be the case, however. He wanted genuine Scottish representation, as we can see from the following letter, which appeared in  The Glasgow Herald in November 1870:

ENGLAND versus SCOTLAND

Sir,—Will you allow me a few lines in your paper to notify to Scottish players that a match under the above title will take place in London on Saturday, 19th inst, according to the rules of the Football Association? It is the object of the committee to select the best elevens at their disposal in the two countries, and I cannot but think that the appearance of some of the more prominent celebrities of football on the northern side of the Tweed would do much to disseminate a healthy feeling of good fellowship among the contestants, and tend to promote to a still greater extent the extension of the game. In Scotland, once essentially the land of football, there should still be a spark left of the old fire, and I confidently appeal to Scotsmen to aid to their utmost the efforts of the committee to confer success on what London fondly hopes to found, an annual trial of skill between the champions of England and Scotland. Messrs. A. F. Kinnaird, 2 Pall Mall East, London, and J. Kirkpatrick, Admiralty, Somerset House, London, will be glad to receive the names of any Scottish player who will take part against England in the match in question.—I am, etc.,

Charles W. Alcock, Hon. Secretary of Football Association.

West Dulwich, Surrey, 1st November, 1870.

Queen's Park responded to the letter by asking if one of their members could play, They nominated Robert Smith (conveniently he had recently moved to London and was playing for South Norwood). Smith consequently played in the 2nd and 3rd 'Alcock Internationals'.

Queen's Park wrote to Alcock in the summer of 1872. What was happening regarding international matches? would the Football Association be disposed to send a team to play Scotland in Scotland? In effect the  Queen's Park club assumed responsibility for responding to Charles Alcock's challenge to Scottish footballers. There was no Scottish Football Association at the time. Queen's Park were in effect the governing body in Scottish football, as well as dominating the game on the pitch they were also arbiters and guardians of the rules. One thing that they didn't have, however, was a ground of their own. They still played in public parks.

Queen's Park were devilishly good at organizing things. They set up subcommittees to handle every aspect of preparing for the visit of the English.  The West of Scotland Cricket Club were approached regarding the use of Hamilton Crescent. Queen's Park anticipated the match being a lucrative event. The following terms were agreed:

West of Scotland Cricket Club to receive £10* for staging the match and and a further sum of £10 should the receipts exceed  £50. 

This was a bold move by Queen's Park, who only had £7 in their account and had been offered the Burnbank Rugby ground free of charge.

It paid off, though, as the takings reached £102 19s. 6d. Admission was 1 shilling and the attendance topped 4,000. 

The match cost a total of  £69 11s. 6d to stage, leaving Queen's Park a balance of £33 8s which they used to fund their journey to London for the following season's international.

One thing about this first international troubles me- if, according to  F.I.F.A. regulations, a match must be organised according to the prescribed rules by two National Football Associations, then should this game be considered a full international? There was no Scottish FA. Queen's Park organised the match, selected the team and provided all the players (who incidentally played in Queen's Park's colours). 

Hamilton Cresecent had served it's purpose well, though. Queen's Park moved into the first Hampden Park in 1873, but the internationals of 1874 and 1876 were both played in Hamilton Crescent, as were the first 2 matches of the 1877 Scottish Cup Final between Glasgow Rangers and Vale of Leven. (It took 2 replays to settle the tie- the 2 matches at Hamilton Crescent were drawn, 1-1). 

* 1872 Pre decimal money: 1 pound (£) = 20 shillings (s). 1 shilling = 12 pence (d). A general labourer earned about £1 per week. 

Wages- 1928

Nottingham Evening Post 13.07.28 

An agricultural labourer in England in 1928 would have an annual income of approximately £79.
The average national weekly wage was £2, so that's about £104 a year.

William Ralph Dean - £8 a week

An Austin 12 car cost £245. £500 woud buy a decent sized family house. 

Gone but not forgotten- Leeds City

Leeds City have the dubious distinction of being the only team to be booted out of the League whilst the season was in progress.
Formed in 1904 they were elected to the League in 1905- the League favoured applications from clubs based in non soccer areas (Yorkshire, aside from Sheffield, being very much a Northern Union region).

	League	FA Cup
1905-06	Div.2 6th	Q3
1906-07	Div.2 10th	R1
1907-08	Div.2 12th	R1
1908-09	Div.2 12th	R2
1909-10	Div.2 17th	R1
1910-11	Div.2 11th	R1
1911-12	Div.2 19th	R2
1912-13	Div.2 6th	R1
1913-14	Div.2 4th	R2
1914-15	Div.2 15th	R2
1919-20	Div.2 expelled

In  1912–13 Herbert Chapman became club secretary. His involvement with the club during the war years nearly deprived English Football of one of it's authentic geniuses.  

When club Directors refused to cooperate in an FA / Football League investigation into irregular payments Leeds City were expelled from the League and 5 club officials, including Chapman, were banned from football for life. The irregularities arose from the club's failure to follow the Football League's directive, set out in 1915, that players could only receive expenses for playing in the stop gap wartime competitions, In effect all players were amateurs for the duration- no one was supposed to make a living from the game. 

Here is one version of the events, gleaned from contemporary press reports:

Mr Connor, former chairman of the board of directors told the press (The Yorkshire Evening Post) that his syndicate (effectively the banned parties) had taken over the club in 1914, when, he said, the club was on the verge of collapse.

Mr Connor said that the club was then (October 1919) actually in credit.

Mr Connor states that when Herbert Chapman left the club to do his war work he recommended that his assistant (referred to by Mr Connor as Mr Chapman’s ‘personal employee’) Mr Cripps, should take on the financial management of the club. Mr Connor claims to have been opposed to this. After one season the club’s books were in such a chaotic condition that Mr Connor threatened to resign.

Mr Cripps was replaced by an accountant and went back to the team selection role. However, the directors did not want Cripps to travel to away matches with the team, preferring instead to send one of their own number. This led to the players threatening to go on strike.

Relationships got very strained and the directors decided to fire Cripps, at which point he made accusations of financial impropriety against the club.

Cripps took legal action, claiming £400 but ending up with £50. He had to return any correspondence regarding the club to their solicitor and sign an undertaking not to make public any of the club’s affairs.

Charlie Copeland

Defender Charlie Copeland was the next key figure. He rejected the clubs pay offer of £3 10 s a week, and wrote to the directors saying that if they didn't pay him £6 a week he would blow the whistle regarding illegal payments. When his request was ignored and he was placed on the free transfer list, Copeland went to the FA.

The FA investigating committee requested access to the club’s documents, and the directors, knowing them to containing evidence of irregular payments to players, declined to cooperate.

Source: Interview with Mr Connor, Yorkshire Evening Post, 14.10.19

The Alcock Testimonial

Sheffield and Rotherham Independent 12.04.81

The Alcock Testimonial was raised in 1881, in the pre professional era. There is no doubt that Alcock's singular devotion to the advancement of Association football laid the foundations for its becoming the national game.
The gifts presented to Alcock as outlined above are considerable. 300 guineas compares favourably to, for example, the £92 paid by the 6-7000 crowd (well, the men anyway- ladies were admitted free)  who watched that seasons' Staffordshire Cup Final between Walsall Swifts and Aston Villa...
Four years later Jimmy Forrest (on £1 a week at Blackburn Rovers) became England's first professional internationalist. 
It was in July 1885 that strictly marshaled professionalism was legalised by the Football Association.
The sub committee engaged to address the professional question stated:
 no player can be termed an amateur who receives any remuneration or consideration above his necessary hotel or travelling expenses. 
and that no professional should be allowed to serve on any Association Committees, or to represent his own or any other club at meetings of the Football Association, 
Alcock was the secretary of the Football Association at the time. 

The Middlesbrough Club, Cost of the Year's Working 1890

The Middlesbrough Club, Cost of the Year's Working  was an article that appeared in the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough on Saturday 10th May 1890. It was a copy of the club account sheet for the season that had just ended (correct up until 3rd May) that had seen 'Boro finish 6th in the first season of the Northern Football League.
The cost of signing fees and wages is interesting, as the club was still amateur. The actual phrase used in the report is the amount paid to players on their agreeing to come here, including all incidental expenses of obtaining such players.
An English pound (£) was made up of 20 shillings (s), which in turn was made up of 12 pennies (d). £150 per year was the average annual family income in the UK in 1890, skilled craftsmen earned about £60 a year.
According to the Athletic News Football Annual (1893) the average wage of the professional footballer was £3  per week in winter and £2 per week in summer.A house in Linthorpe Road  Middlesbrough cost £125.

Balance at beginning of season	£159 13s 3d
Item	Income
Previous season’s outstanding subscriptions	£23  17s  6d
Subscriptions	£366  7s  6d
Ladies’ subscriptions	£5 10s
Season tickets	£25    15s
Gate receipts	£ 1,109  6s
Letting of ground	£74
Total     =	£1,800 16s 11d
Item	Expenditure
Paid to visiting teams	£452 6s  9d
Hospitality for teams, rail fares, Police, referees , gatekeepers, advertising	£219 7s  7d
Signing on fees and incidentals	£148 13s  9d
Wages (including trainer)	£420   3s  6d
Rents, rates and taxes	£60  8s
Groundsman	£46 16s
Player’s accident insurance (4 teams)	£41 12s
Postage and telegrams	£37 8s 9d
Printing and stationery	£57 13s 2d
Shirts, boots, pants and badges	£47 11s 2d
Expenses for attendance of Association and other meetings	£11 2s
Repairs and ground maintenance	£18 12s 4d
Improvement and extension account	£56 11s 8d
Secretary’s salary	£22 10s
Financial Secretary’s salary	£15
Sundries	£28 18s 3d
Balance =	£22 15s 7d
Assets
Balance	£22 15s 7d
Due from Mr Lambert for hire of field	£6
Due from Roberts for bill posting station (?)	£10
Estimated value of outstanding subscriptions	£25
Total =	£63 15s 7d
Liabilities
Secretary’s remuneration	£7 10s
Financial Secretary’s remuneration	£5
Mr Roberts for bill posting	£23 8s 3d
Sundries	£19 6s 10d
Balance in favour of club =	£2 10s 6d
Does not include value of stands, turnstiles, payboxes, dressing rooms, fencing , implements etc.