PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 44, 2 December 1913, Page 10

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL.

AMAZING GROWTH IN ENGLAND. CLUBS CAPITALISED AT £2,000,(XM A few years ago, writes Laurance Woodhouso in tho overess edition of the L-.mdon "Daily Mail,' Association football, as far as England was concerned, was a. game for boys to play at school and a few enthusiasts phying for ■a short while after their schooldays wero over. To-day it is a national pastime, « huge financial enterprise, a matter of vital importance to very many thousands. Undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary features of League football today is its financial side. From a few hundreds of pounds in the early eighties the business side of the great League clubs had increased to such an extent thai- it is estimated that they are capitalised at a sum of nearly two and a-half millions to-day! Tho money expended on football during a season is simply prodigious. To quote a tew figures. Manchester United have spent over £oo,ooo on their new ground; Everton, the wealthiest club in England, gave over £30,000 for their ground, while the covered stand at Chelsea alone cost £12,000. _ The largest ground in the United Kingdom is the famous Hampden Park .at Glasgow, which will accommodate IJO.OOO spectators; but Chelsea, one of tho newest comers to League foot-ball, runs it close, since nearly 100,000 spectators can bo accommodated there. The football public, however, is a very discriminating one, and it i.s no use possessing a beautiful playing pitch and palatial accommodation unless you can "deliver the goods," in other words, place a. really first-class team in the field. The directors of wealthy clubs will go to almost any lengths to "build up"' a really well-balanced, iirst-class team. At the present moment I believe tho highest price ever paid for «. player was tho £2OOO paid by the Blackburn Hovers last year lor 1). Shea, a forward belonging to the West Ham United Club. It is rumored, however, that Chelsea paid a. like sum io Aston Villa for the transfer of Raise, a notable forward. "Thousand pounds" men are like the leaves in Valiombro.sa, It is stated to-day that Chelsea's firstteam cost- them at hast £"oOOO apart from the wages. By the rules of [he Leagues a player benefits considerably by the transfer, for he i.s permitted io receive 10 per cent, of the transfer fee after one year's service; this is raised to !o per cent, after two years, 'Jo per cent, after three years, 3-5 per cent, after four years, and ."0 per eeni. after live years' service. The Ki-ance-shect of a woaithy League club a fiords very interesting reading. Take these items of Aston Villa's expenses or last season: -- To players' wages and transfers ..." £77 iP 8 1 Travelling, training, and hotel expenses -o-lO .1 - Tr:iincrs.' u-i;:,\s 278 ,""> 0 General expenses 278:' 1-1 1 Against those huge expense*, which are only a part of the whole total, must be setBy gate-money received £20.179 lo 0 While on the year's working income exceeded expenditure by i'otil 7 9s ."id. To sum n;> a few records will banish all doubt as to the all-pervading popularity of professional football to-dav. On March 23, i!U-. there were 127.307 spectators at the international match between England and .Scotland at Glasgow. On. April 19, 1913. 120.081 persons watched the F.A. Cup Final between Aston Villa and Sunderland at the Crystal Palace. The bigge-t crowd on record; at a League match, was 08,000 at Stamford Bridge, when Chelsea, met Newcastle United. December 22. 1909. Tho sum ot £9-10(5 Ps was taken on April 19. 1913. at the Crystal Palace. Thi.s is a record lor any match.