Page:Association Football and How to Play It (1908) by John Cameron.djvu/59

Rh "Football Finance," in which he stated that "not more than six professional clubs were solvent," and he asked the pertinent question: "If only six of the leading clubs can make it pay on a really lucrative scale, what is to become of the game?" By the game he doubtless means the professional part of it. Fourteen years have passed away, but I very much doubt if the situation is altered now. A few clubs, a very few, make a profit on their year's working. The majority show a deficit which annually becomes larger. For a time collapse is avoided by the bazaar or by turning the club into a limited liability company, but these are only temporary reliefs, and the fact remains that in most clubs either the expenses of management or the salaries of the players are larger than the receipts permit, and sometimes the clubs go under. Another important point for the would-be "pro." is the question of temperament. You must have exceptional qualities of a personal character. If you cannot take hard knocks as well as give them, and if you cannot control your temper, you are not likely to be successful. The day of the blackguardly dirty player is over, and the man with brain as well as brawn is needed for this work. Education makes all the difference, and the incoming professionals will have to be men of considerable culture. Neither is there any chance for the fellow who cannot control his appetite in the matter of strong drink. There arise before us sad and mournful pictures of men whose names have been "familiar as a household word," but whose sun has set years before it should have done,