User:Bring back Daz Sampson/Professionalism in English football

Professionalism in English football began in 1885. However the acceptance "of professional football as a valid form of employment, and as a valid source of livelihood in its own right" was slow. It was not until the 1930s that recognisably modern professional football emerged in England.

Pre-War

Although professional football was legalised in 1885 and the Football League inaugurated in 1888–89, there are only eight men with the occupation 'professional footballer' listed in the 1891 United Kingdom census. Most participants, even at the top clubs, considered football a (sometimes lucrative) side job rather than their main source of livelihood.

By the 1901 United Kingdom census, there was an increase in the number of players listing their occupation as 'professional footballer'. English champions Liverpool fielded 19 players that season, 12 of whom described themselves in the census as 'professional footballers'. At clubs lower down the First Division table the proportion was much smaller. Relegated Preston North End's squad of 26 contained nine self-described professional footballers.

During this period there was a preponderance of school teachers playing for top professional clubs, who helped to expand and popularise the sport.

In the United Kingdom until 1901, individual clubs had set their own wage policies. That year, the Football League ratified a maximum weekly wage for footballers of £4 (2019: £437). This severely limited the ability of the best players in the country to forgo the need to take paid employment outside of football and, this in turn, led to the formation of The Players' Union in 1907. In 1904 Football League Second Division club Glossop were fined £250 (2019: £27,134) for making 'broken time' payments to their amateur players.

For players in the reserve team at major clubs or players at clubs outside the First Division, "there would simply have been no alternative to taking a job to supplement minimal footballing wages" during the late 19th century and early 20th century. In 1908 Sunderland had a rate of £1 (2019: £105) to £2 (2019: £210) per week which was based upon recipients having full-time employment elsewhere during the week.

In 1909 injured footballer George Walker (footballer, born 1877) took successful legal action against his club Crystal Palace, arguing that he was entitled to continued payment of his wages under the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906. Crystal Palace had argued that Football League players were engaged in a "sport or pastime, not work".

By the summer of 1928 players could earn a weekly maximum of £8 (2019: £486), although clubs routinely found ways to increase this. Arsenal player Eddie Hapgood supplemented his income by fashion modelling and advertising chocolate.

In 1932 the Ministry of Labour (United Kingdom) categorised professional footballers as "seasonal workers" and ineligible to claim unemployment benefit during the summer months.

An analysis of Football League Third Division North club New Brighton AFC between 1930 and 1935 showed that around a third of the players fielded were: "essentially amateurs, recruited from local non-League football to fill gaps in the League side, usually for only a short duration". Bill Shankly recalled that the Great Depression in the United Kingdom had reduced the opportunities for full-time footballers: "Hundreds of boys who had been away and had maybe done a season at Tottenham or Sheffield United or Derby County, were on the scrap-heap, playing in the Third Division (North) for a fiver a week [2019: £358]. And there was a lot of unemployment."

In 1933–34, their seventh season in the Football League, Torquay United F.C. were "an exception" by having no part-time professionals signed to the club.

World War II

At the outbreak of World War II a few days into the 1939–40 Football League season, all registered players' contracts were indefinitely suspended. Although regional competitions involving guest players began soon afterwards, participants were paid only 30s per match (2019: £94) and little organised training took place.

In October 1944 the Football League's Post-war Reconstruction Committee were in favour of part-time professional players, being: "for their own security, engaged or trained in some other form of employment". This position was opposed by the Players' Union and several of the leading clubs. Threatened strike action was averted in November 1945, when the Football League and the Players' Union agreed an increase in maximum weekly wages from £8 (2019: £348) to £9 (2019: £391) for full-time professionals and from £4 (2019: £174) to £5 (2019: £217) for part-time professionals.

The Player's Union proposed a minimum Football League wage in September 1946, which again made a distinction between full and part-time professionals: "The union seeks a £12 a week maximum winter wage and £10 per week during summer; full-time professionals £7 per week minimum in winter and £5 in summer; minimum wage for part-time professionals of £5 (winter) and £3 (summer)."

Post-War

After the War most players in the Football League were part-timers: "In effect, therefore, a very substantial number of the men playing professional football in the late 1940s were, to all intents and purposes, semi-professionals, employed on a full-time basis in other occupations, and playing and training only when such occupations would allow it."

Bradford (Park Avenue) competed in the 1946–47 Football League Second Division with a squad containing six Bevin Boys, an insurance salesman, an accountant, a shipyard worker, a textile designer and an apprentice joiner. Third Division South club Mansfield Town had 14 players who worked in the local coal mines, while at the end of the decade all Lincoln City players trained two nights a week and were expected to have employment outside football. Darlington played in the 1947–48 Third Division North as a largely part-time outfit.

Writing in December 1949, C.D. Crisp outlined the status of part-time professional footballers in England:

“ Instead of being paid for each match, the part-time professional is paid a regular wage, and his contract cannot be ended In the same way as "matchly" player's (because he has not been chosen for four consecutive weeks). In the Football League part-time players receive a minimum all the-year-round wage of £3 a week [2019: £107], though some can earn much more. Their agreements too, normally entitle them to receive bonuses and expenses. ”

Halifax Town began 1950–51 Football League Third Division North campaign with reportedly the smallest squad in the entire Football League, with just eight full-time professionals and six part-time professionals.

Under the maximum wage, even elite international players were forced to seek their main employment outside football. Charlie Buchan played in the 1910s and 20s and was a schoolteacher, a soldier (obviously), and then a sports shop proprietor during his playing career. Tom Finney (40s/50s/60s) was famously the "Preston Plumber". Nat Lofthouse (40s/50s/60s) was employed as a paint salesman. In Lofty, Matt Clough wrote: "While the maximum wage for professional footballers was to be raised by £1 to £15 in 1953, Nat followed the example set by many of his contemporaries by taking a part-time job as a paint salesman".

While playing for Stoke City (1954–1963), Don Ratcliffe continued to be employed as a plumber:

“ I still lived at home and my mum used to say to me, 'You keep what you're paid for your plumbing work and I'll have your football wages'. ”

In January 1952 the Yorkshire Post's Richard Ulyatt described the professional status of several local Football League clubs: "To ease their finances, many them have only a few full-time professionals and a majority of part-time players. Lincoln City and Rotherham United each won the championship of the Section with more part-timers than full professionals in their team. York City recently played a Cup-tie with only five full-time professionals in the side. Halifax Town at one period ran three teams with a total of only seven full-time players on their books, a hard core of part-timers and an ever-changing list of amateurs."

In the 1954 close-season it was reported that Football League Third Division North Tranmere Rovers "have not the capital to enter the transfer market". They signed three part-time players and "a large number of amateurs". The York City F.C. team which took Newcastle United F.C. to a replay in the semi-final of the 1954–55 FA Cup "relied in the main on this type of [part-time professional] player".

Willie Watson wrote in the Liverpool Echo in October 1955: "A current trend in football, particularly in the Third Division, that is gaining both momentum and popularity, is the use of part-time professionals. Many clubs in my part of the country are making extensive and growing use of the man whose main job is outside football. The part-timers train one, or perhaps two, half-days a week, The reason, of course, to do evening training, and play their League game on Saturday afternoon. Northampton Town are such a club. At the top of their division, they appear to be making their policy justified."

Part-time professional teams continued to operate in the lower divisions of the English Football League into the late 1950s. Southport F.C. finished fifth in the 1955–56 Football League Third Division North with a squad comprising "seven full-time professionals, eight part-time professionals and three forces players". Barnsley finished 14th in the 1957–58 Football League Second Division with 12 part-time players in their squad.

In the 1959–60 Football League Fourth Division, Chester City F.C. had at least five part-timers in their squad: John Walton, Ray Gill, Norman Bullock, Harry Webster and Bill Souter. Following the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961, smaller Football League clubs like Chester were unable to offer competitive wages and reacted by hiring more part-time professionals.

Following their failure to win promotion in the 1963–64 Football League, Fourth Division Tranmere Rovers retained 13 full-time professionals and three part-time professionals. Wrexham only had one part-timer, John Smith (footballer, born 1944).

The abolition of amateur status

During his time at Scunthorpe United (1966–71), Kevin Keegan described his salary as a pittance: "I was being paid such a pittance at Scunthope that I couldn’t even afford to run my first car, a Morris 1100, when my summer wages went down from £15 a week to £10 [2019: £142]." Keegan was obliged to take on additional work, as a plate-layer in a steelworks and later as a porter in a mental hospital. Stan Ternent earned £3 per week (2019: £52) on signing for Carlisle United in 1968–69 and worked as a builder during the summer.

By 1974 the distinction between amateur and professional players was largely illusory, so the Football Association abolished amateur status.

“ I was particularly proud to receive it since the historic Amateur Cup competition was nearing the end of its days. The following year was to see the end of 'shamateurism'. The game was to go open at all levels and 1974 would see the FA Amateur Cup won for the very last time. It was a decision which we all knew to be right. Top amateur clubs had been paying their players for over two decades and tales of inflated 'boot money' had abounded for much longer than that. I don't mind admitting that I was receiving £25 a week as an 'amateur' with Walton & Hersham and it was possible to line our pockets even more by collecting additional cash incentives structured to success in both League and Cup. — Dave Bassett ”

In 1977–78 Wimbledon F.C. competed in Division Four as a largely part-time outfit: "We also had a squad of players who were mostly part-timers and who wouldn't train more than twice a week because the club refused to compensate them for loss of earnings at work".

Basil Easterbrook wrote an editorial entitled Regionalise now in May 1975, which called for Football League Division Four to split and merge with the non-League setup along regional lines: "We are entering the era of part-time professionalism in the Fourth Division [...] as the number of clubs in the Fourth who find they can no longer employ full-time staffs grows steadily these absurd journeys from Torquay to Workington, Hartlepool to Exeter, Swansea to Rochdale, Newport to Darlington, which cannot attract gates of 2,000 in some cases, should be mercifully ended as swiftly as possible."

Tranmere Rovers competed in the 1982–83 Football League Fourth Division with only seven full-time professionals, one of whom had a broken leg.

In 1986–87 Lincoln City became the first club to suffer automatic relegation from the Football League. Their replacements, Scarborough, were a part-time club and decided to remain so in the Fourth Division. Defender Ian Bennyworth said: "O.K. We're in the Fourth Division but it would be foolish to give up the travel agency. Next year if we were relegated I would have no job to fall back on.

Although by that stage the Football League and Professional Footballers' Association "frowned upon" part-time players, Scarborough vice-chairman John Fawcett said: "We have always believed that Division Four should be part-time and we would like to be the pioneers [...] all the players have nice jobs and would not want to give them up." The club's part-time manager, Neil Warnock, continued working as a chiropodist during the club's first season in the Football League. Warnock spent £4,000 on 37-year-old Stockport County striker Ernie Moss, who said he would have to adjust to only training two evenings a week.

Tranmere Rovers signed two players on part-time terms ahead of the 1987–88 Football League Fourth Division season, John Aspinall (footballer) and Steve Craven: "both are 29 and have jobs outside football".

Maidstone United F.C. (1897) won the 1988–89 Football Conference but according to chairman Jim Thompson did not intend to turn full-time for their entry into the Football League: "We think we can work out a system somewhere between part-time and full-time. Some of the players might be able to keep their jobs and train in the morning separately and then come together two or three times a week."

“ Why football makes such a strict division between semi-professional in the Alliance and full-time in the Fourth Division fascinates me. Scottish football is semi-professional until half way up the Premier Division, and rugby league is the same, but no-one calls them part-time. — Jim Thompson, Maidstone United chairman ”

After Sam Ellis (footballer) left the Bury manager job in December 1990, the club's finances worsened and an increasing number of players became part-time.

In 1997 Gary O'Connor left Doncaster Rovers F.C. to return to his native Scotland with Partick Thistle F.C., explaining: "I left Doncaster because the club went into receivership, they cut costs with players going part-time."