Welsh Journals

RUGBY FOOTBALL IN WALES. IN the football world of Wales the focus A of interest during recent years has been the challenge which professionalism has twice over made to Rugby amateurism. The question has been more or less widely felt to be one of moment. It is desirable that the values in the balance should be made evident, in the hope that those whose heart is bound up with the success of Welsh Rugby Football may be cheered, and if that be necessary, strengthened in their efforts to ward off the attack now in progress. There is no need to belittle Association Football. It is a fine manly game played by splendid athletes, and fully worthy of the support which it receives. Neither is there any justification for the usual criticisms of professionalism it does not degrade the players and there is at its back a rare sense of sportsmanship which prevents any far-spread scandals minor breaches of the strict rule are, if anything, almost too promptly and severely punished. The administration of Association Foot- ball is astonishingly clean, and any sug- gestion as to the buying and selling of matches or the arrangement of successive cup-tie draws for the sake of second and third gates can be instantly dismissed as moonshine. The million or more adherents of Soccer can watch their favourite teams in the full knowledge that skill will win and that neither fear nor favour has place in the scheme of the game. Many times has an obscure club climbed up the cup-tie rungs to fame and com- mercial stability, and many a team of expensive talents has failed to find the place in league or cup which the ex- penditure incurred by the directorate seemed to warrant. AN ESTIMATE. There is a further criticism which has to be met. In what sense does the excited Saturday-afternoon watching of highly paid gladiators conduce even faintly to citizenship? As a basic objection this can- not be summarily dismissed. The chief constables of all industrial centres, where football is weekly seen by thousands, testify to the decreased consumption of alcohol-* in itself a negative advance which makes a multitude of positive gains possible to the community- but this is by no means the only or even the most important result. It is clear that footballers must be trained. Two hundred professional clubs will need anything from three thousand five hundred to four thousand players, and the nurseries must be many. This is pre- cisely the state of things. Where a First League Team is centred football is generally very vigorous and twenty, thirty and even more teams receive their inspira- tion directly from the major team. Junior Football, however, must recruit, and dozens of juvenile elevens round the district are playing weekly school boys, bank clerks, artisans, indeed every class of youth finds a place for a weekly match. Add to this the daily practising, the ubiquitous, in- formal kicking of balls, and the consequent training of eye, head and muscle which easily differentiates the youth of a foot- ball area from that where the game is not played. *The statistician may find humour in the thought that wife- beating is at a minimum when there is a home victory a home defeat is dreaded in many homes. The bright aspect of this is the substitution of one monthly or bi-monthly bickering for the previous weekly event. Query how much domestic happiness does a £ 2000 transfer fee poten- tially foreshadow ?