PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2095, 1 June 1907, Page 3

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL.

POSITION IN ENGLAND.

(By C. B. Fry.)

A few days ago it was reported

that V. J. Woodward, tho International centre-forward of Tottenham Hotspur, unfortunately disabled by a minor athletic accident, had decided to retire from League football, his reason being that ho was continually marked down' for heavy and unfair treatment by unScrupulious opponents.

It turns out, of course, that Woodward did not authorise the statement and had never mado tho complaint. I, for one, am very glad to know this, because I am confident that an amateur leaven in a professional team is of great value to. tho game as a sport. Men like Woodward are good for modern League football. Thoro • are - people who vigorously declare that there is no sport, nor possibility of sport, in modern professional football, and that an amateur who is also a sportsman has no proper place in it. With this I disagree point, blank. I know the faults and drawbacks of professional football rather better than most people. I played for two seasons as an amateur in a Southern League team, which won its League ■championship and got into the final of the Cup. Some things in modern professional football I detest,- but I know there is a great deal of good in it, and of good sportsmanship too.; and I take the view that since professional football is here, and cannot be talked out of existence by words, however hard, the right thing is to make the best of it. DO PROFESSIONALS LIKE AMATEURS?

One of the best ways of making the best of 'it is for players who pride themselves on their sportsman-, ship to take part in it. This counts more than pointing out its faults.

It should be noticed that many Of • the main faults of professionalism are entirely concerned with the business and management of it, and are entirely, separated from the actual game as played. But. that is a long story. The point at issue in connection with the spurious report about Woodward is the character of the play, and how it affects' an amateur. It has often been stated that an amateur is not welcome on a professional side: that the other jfiayers do not‘like him. This is rather a matter of* each individual case. But I judge.'it' to...be, in general,;.quite untrue. Several amateurs have told me. that tho contrary is the ease, and such is my own experience. D. Top-

liam, the famous Corinthian outside right, who played for Wolverhampton VAA’anderers when they won the Cup by- that long shot of Allen’s from half-back; Herbert Smith, who plays for Reading; S.. S. Harris, who played for Portsmouth; E. D.. G. A\ T right, who plays for Hull City ; .and others, including AVood’.vard, would not play on a side Where they were riot welcome. The' .idea is .absurd. Topbarn was, I know, tremendously popular with the AVolves. For,, myself, I found the Southampton teanv genial and pleasant comrades; they 'gave me the best of .welcomes, and did everything to make me feel at home with them. Their captain, Harry "Wood, won my sincerest -respect- . ■ _ The truth is, the professionals ask one thing, and one thing only, of the amateur. They ask, “Is ho good enough?” If his play answers “Yes” —that is onough. UNSCRUPULOUS PLAY.

But the matter of the treatment the amateur receives on the field from opposing teams' ip first-class League and Cup tin football'is not quite so easy to settle. For I am not goilig to propose that', the amateur finds - all his* opponents ' sportsmanlike in their tactics.

But, on tlie other hand, the amount of unfair treatment which the amateur meets is exaggerated. For others I cannot speak with certainty; for myself I can. There is some unsportsmanlie play among professionals. But to regard it as universal, or even general, is a gross, error. To regard all professionals as unscrupulous players is simply ridiculous. Yet there are people who ->o regard them.. With Southampton l played through all the exciting rounds of the .Cup ties, with several replayed draws, into a double final;, and I can remember precisely pne player who deliberately and persistently fouled me during a game—just one man, no sportsman, who touched me on the raw. So complete an experience of’ such exacting football should, I submit, count for something

in the argument. The truth-is', briefly, this: The amateur does occasionally—only occasionally—meet an entirely unscrupulous opponent. This is a rare ocurrence, but it makes an impression on the amateur’s mind, for a very good reason. He is under a disability in combating his tormentor.

CANNOT GIVE FOUL FOR FOUL. A professional player, when lie meets an unscrupulous opponent,'can defend himself by playing diamond cut diamond. If he meets an opponent who “knees” him in the ribs-or in the small of the*' back —the most dangerous form of foul play, and one that the referee, scarcely ever detects—can give .“knee” for ‘ knee. The unscrupulous opponent knows tliis, and being as a rule a funk at heart, thinks twice before he begins the game. But the amateur is helpless. He has no protection except the referee, who is useles sin the case of refined foul -play. The amateur cannot play diamond cut diamond. Noblesse oblige. He cannot give foul for foul'. Tliis tho unscrupulous opponent knows and takes full advantage to the full. That is the gist of the matter. In the old days-the amateur had a remedy in his own hands. When an opponent fouled'him in a sneaking, unsportsmanlike way, he (the amateur) could defend himself by giving the fouler a slap-bang, heavy, hearty hundredweight, or so of energetic shoulder. The old, hard, -fair-shoul-der charge was splendid medicine. Your “knee-rammor”- and ankletapper” never likes _ warm shoulder. He can’t digest a fair sample. ' -But by the practice of referees the fair-shoulder charge has actually,.-if not. nominally been legislated out. of the game.- A pity. Rough it «s m a seusej- but it- was j-portsmaulikc and

harmless. Its disnppoaranco has lot in little, niggling, dirty tricks ton times ns dangerous, if ton times loss apparent. But' this I say, and say most emphatically.... There is no sufficient reason to provont any amateur whatever, who is good enough, from playing side by sido with professionals, and against thorn in, Loaguo and Cup-tio football. I affirm that the nmatour does great good in professional football. Ho should bo, and ho is, man enough to look at the big best' of tho picture and disregard tho little worst. One rank foul—one only—in a season is a disgusting experience. But it is a blot, on tho page—just a blot.