The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-02
BRITAINS NOW
BUY AND SELL
SOCCER STARS
Old-Timers Are Deeply Opposed to
This Commercial Aspect of
the Sport.

New York, Feb. 2.-The British
may not take to American baseball,
but they have acquired an Ameri-
can baseball method. They are now
deeply mixed up in the practice of
buying releases of professional
soccer players exactly as the pro-
fessional baseball clubs of the
United States transfer their play
ers from one team to another for
cash.
The practice is not looked upon
with general favor in England. To
date, that has made little difference
with the owners of the English
soccer teams who took siXpence
and shillings at the gate as the
hackers of professional baseball
clubs seek half-dollars and dollars.
The day of the poor old quarter
seems to be gone in baseball.
The orthodox soccer enthusiasts,
those who have backed the game
through thick and thin for years,
resent the purchase of a man"
They .criticise it as not being sport.
Some of the English critics in their
blunt way have come out with fat
footed declarations that soccer is
no longer sport but a show. This
show, they add. appeals only to the
man who wants to speculate and
who takes chances in backing
something over which he hasn't the
slightest chance of control, and for
which there can be no future local
sentiment of civic pride.
Recently the Hearts of Midlo-
THAN team went further than Great
Britain and made an offer to pur-
chase the services of Porter, who is
halfback for Philadelphia club.
Naturally that not only stepped
on the toes of the captious critics
who. denounced the buying of
men" but it stirred up lot of
criticism for going out of the coun-
try to find players. The esteemed
patriots of Great Britain brought
their glasses down on the table with
a hard smash and said that it was
out of all reason to look for play
ers in 4 country where soccer was
scarcely out of it swaddling
clothes.
Another discussion thai was TAX
EN- up at once was comparison of
the players of the two countries,
and of course there was not Brit
ish soccer man who would agree
that the United States had anything
fit to go into the finals in Great
Britain.
On that point, when the last SOC
GER team came over to the United
States in the early summer of 1921,
some of its members, after looking
at the game of the American-born
soccer players, were quick to eX-
tend their congratulations They
said that there were a half dozen
on this side of the ocean who would
hold their own with anything in
Grea. Britain. A well known soc
Ger official Of the United States is
so sure of the ability of the players
of this country that he gave it as
his opinion that he could take a
team across the Atlantic which
would defeat the British cham
pions He is perfectly willing to
try if they will guarantee him
for his expenses.
The soccer elevens in the east
ern part of the United States are
largely made up of players who
were born on the other side of the
ocean, while quite all of the play
ers of the western teams were born
in the United States. That has al
ways resulted in plenty of rivalry
at home and now their rivalry is
likely to have an international
flavor when y British team tries to
get an American player.