NIGHT SOCCER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 954, 23 April 1930, Page 15

NIGHT SOCCER

SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT IN ENGLAND Will football by artificial light solve the present financial troubles of quite a largo proportion of the Fqotbali League Clubs? (asks London “Sporting Life”). The success of the experiment at Mansfield has opened up a new avenue of hope for harassed managers of clubs. The possibility of adapting the Stadium at Wembley for artificiallylighted football has been under consideration, and as Mr. H. Bignell, the resident engineer, was very impressed by what he saw at Mansfield, more may be heard of the matter. The lighting of a huge ground like the Stadium presents certain difficulties, but in South America crowds of 50,000 people have seen football played by “night light” as plainly as if it was broad daylight. Air. Herbert Chapman, the Arsenal manager, speaks hopefully of football by night, and adds that it might well be that such games would prove the solution of the financial problems which face the clubs, and the salvation of many. The system of lighting adopted by Mansfield must not be confused with the methods employed when an experiment was made some years ago. The old difficulties have been removed, and night-light football is now quite a. practical proposition. What will the Football Association do about it? That is a question which time alone can answer.