Football history

166 FOOTBALL
sport by practically putting an end to the genuine club fixture,
which is the foundation of the Rugby Union game; and when
any `friendly,' as the ordinary match is not inaptly called now,
is played, both sides often seem not to attempt to play their
hardest, because there is a feeling that very little `glory' is to
be gained by a win in such a match in comparison to a cup-
tie. It is certainly a reasonable cause for complaint that the
cup-tie system has turned the game into more of a business
than a sport. It is of little use, however, to complain of this,
as the same movement seems inevitably to occur with every
pastime ; the time has long since gone by when the rustic
population was contented to confine its own sports to its own
village green.
No words can adequately describe the present popularity
.
of football with the public—a popularity which, though great
in the metropolis, is infinitely greater in the large provincial
towns. It was estimated that 65,000 spectators paid to witness
the final tie at the Crystal Palace in 1897, and more than
6o,000 were present at the International match, England v.
Scotland, played at Glasgow in the year before. These, how-
ever, were exceptional occasions, but it is no rare thing in
the North and Midlands for twenty to thirty thousand people
to pay money to witness a League match or important cup-
tie. If Aston Villa play Derby County at Derby
or
one of
the Sheffield clubs at Sheffield, special trains have to be run
from Birmingham to carry the spectators who go over to see
the match.
Hundreds of pounds realised from the gates are devoted
to charitable objects, or go into the coffers of the competing
clubs or into the pockets of the professional players. All
classes are ready to put down their money to see the play,
while the enthusiasm and excitement which follow each move
in the game are unbounded. The roar that follows the scoring
of a goal may be heard a mile off.
All this popularity and power of making 'gate-money'
naturally led to the institution of professionalism as a feature