Ebook: When footballers were skint: a journey in search of the soul of football

Long before television rights ushered in the age of the multi-millionaire footballer, the wages of professional players were capped so that they earned not much more than the national average wage. This was a time when the men who played for the great football clubs of Britain shared a bond of borderline penury with the fans they entertained. It was almost routine for players to travel to matches on the same public transport as the fans and, after the game, to return to homes that were as modest as those in which their supporters lived. Quite possibly, player and fan were next-door neighbours in a street of working families' terraced houses. Despite the riches that decades later would come into the game, the struggle to end the maximum wage in football seems as worthy as any of the centuries-old skirmishes undertaken by working people against mean-spirited employers. For instance, England regular Tom Finney reflected caustically that of the £50,000-plus gate money the FA received from Wembley international matches, the eleven England players would share £550, with the remaining £49,450 going to the FA. This book takes the first-hand accounts of a disappearing generation of footballers before their stories are lost for ever. Some of those stories are scarcely believable. All of us who call ourselves football fans owe this book's multifarious cast our thanks for giving the national game such a rich and deeply human heritage.;Intro; Title Page; Contents; A dedication; Epigraph; Interviewees who made this book possible; Introduction: 'Six pounds a week! You can't ask for that!'; Chapter One: Travellers' tales; Chapter Two: Signing on ... ; Chapter Three: Moving on ... ; Chapter Four: For better, for worse; Chapter Five: Your country needs you; Chapter Six: The Major and other officers; Chapter Seven: A man's game; Chapter Eight: When the Cup was king; Chapter Nine: A match to remember; Chapter Ten: Stars who earned the same as the chorus line; Chapter Eleven: Keep it on the island; Chapter Twelve: End of the max factor