The protest of the Middlesbrough footballer, Wilfred Mannion, against the
price (£3o,000) put on his head by his club focuses attention afresh on the extraordinary traffic in human beings which prevails in League football circles. The transfer fee system has, I suppose, grown up gradually because League football is now frankly a business in which it is essential to attract large " gates," large " gates " will not be attracted unless the home team consistently puts up a reasonably good show, it will not put up a good show unless it has good players, and it cannot get good players except by buying them from another club or putting so high a price on them that another club cannot attract them away. Pages could be written about' this. It is enough to say that what the player—whose normal wage is £12 a week—gets out of a transfer fee of £ro,000 or £15,000 is Lao for himself. Professional football might take a lesson from pro- fessional cricket. A man, it should be added, who leaves the club with which he is registered against its will is barred from playing as a professional for any other club.
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