When Footballers Were Skint: A Journey in Search of the Soul of Football: 2018

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Long before television rights ushered in theage of the multi-millionaire footballer, the wages of professional players werecapped so that they earned not much more than the national average wage. Thiswas a time when the men who played for the great football clubs of Britainshared a bond of borderline penury with the fans they entertained. It wasalmost routine for players to travel to matches on the same public transport asthe fans and, after the game, to return to homes that were as modest as thosein which their supporters lived. Quite possibly, player and fan were next-doorneighbours in a street of working families' terraced houses.

Despite the riches that decades later wouldcome into the game, the struggle to end the maximum wage in football seems as worthy as any of the centuries-old skirmishesundertaken by working people against mean-spirited employers. For instance, Englandregular Tom Finney reflected caustically that of the 50,000-plus gate moneythe FA received from Wembley international matches, the eleven England playerswould share 550, with the remaining 49,450 going to the FA.

This book takes the first-hand accounts of adisappearing generation of footballers before their stories are lost for ever.Some of those stories are scarcely believable. All of us who call ourselvesfootball fans owe this book's multifarious cast our thanks for giving thenational game such a rich and deeply human heritage.

Author Bio

Jon Henderson has reported on sporting events from around the world as a journalist for Reuters and national newspapers, including The Observer and Guardian. He is the author of three other books, all published by the Yellow Jersey Press imprint of Penguin Random House: Best of British: Hendo's Sporting Heroes, The Last Champion: The Life of Fred Perry, and The Wizard: The Life of Stanley Matthews.