To round off our sport-focussed Monday, why not spend a minute or two completing this quiz from the golden age of football from author of When Footballers Were Skint, Jon Henderson?1. What was the most that Football League players could earn a week before the maximum wage was abolished in 1961?
2. Who was the first player to be paid £100 a week by his club after the upper limit on wages was removed?
3. Who was the player, later to become a renowned TV pundit on the game, who led the players’ revolt that forced the Football League to abandon the maximum wage?
4. A Bolton Wanderers player rebuffed a fellow professional who, at a 1960 players’ meeting, spoke in favour of retaining the maximum wage because of how much footballers already earned compared to miners. Who was this Bolton player who issued the rebuke on the grounds that he’d worked in mines and it was not nearly as daunting as marking Stanley Matthews in front of a crowd of 30,000 on a Saturday afternoon?
5. Matthews and only two other current England players who had represented their country before the Second World War did so again after the war. Who were they?
6. Who was the Preston Plumber who, like Matthews, was one of England’s greatest players and yet spent most of his career earning no more than a modest, restricted wage despite helping to attract huge attendances?
7. Shortly after their victory on wages, the players had another restraint on their livelihoods removed when an ex-Newcastle United player won a High Court case that ended the retain-and-transfer rule, aka the slavery rule. Who was this player?
8. In the days when wages were capped most players took summer jobs to supplement their earnings. A few were good enough cricketers to spend their summers playing in the County Championship. Who were the Arsenal brothers who played cricket for Middlesex?
9. The inaugural World Cup was held in 1930, but England chose not to take part thanks to the Football League's same blinkered attitude that informed their decision to cap wages. When did they finally condescend to enter the world tournament for the first time?
10. Alf Ramsey, England’s World Cup-winning manager in 1966, played thirty-two times for England between 1948-53. His final international appearance was against Hungary in a match that showed up the dangers of the Football League's isolationism and had a profound influence on the sort of football Ramsey's teams would play when he became a manager. What was the final score in the Hungary match?
Answers:
1. £20
2.Johnny Haynes of Fulham
3. Jimmy Hill
4. Tommy Banks
5. Tommy Lawton and Raich Carter
6. Tom Finney
7. George Eastham
8. Denis and Leslie Compton
9. 1950
10. Hungary won 6-3
Jon's book, When Footballers Were Skint, is only £5.00 for this week only. Find it here.