aside with the advent of April and forgotten till the Autumn leaves are
yellow and sear, but in Scotland Association football seems to have no
recognised season at all, so far as the younger clubs and even a few of
the seniors are concerned. With the sun making one's hair stick to his
head with perspiration, and the thermometer at 90 degrees in the shade,
they play away in the summer-time, and at Christmas attempt to dribble
in half-a-foot of snow. Meantime the question about football being
blotted out can, I think, be easily answered in the negative, and upon
these will depend the future prospect of Association Football in
Scotland. There are, in fact, "breakers ahead," and a strong and
determined hand will have to take the wheel. The greatest of these is
the "professional" football player, and the next the "greed of
gate-money." "O! we never heard of a professional football player in
Scotland," exclaims a chorus of voices; "there is no such thing. It's
only in England." My remark, of course, is only beginning to be
realised. The definition of professional in athletics "is one who runs
(plays) for gain." Everybody knows what that means. If you receive any
money whatever, directly or indirectly, from your club (except out of
the private purses of the members), you are a professional. Are there
not clubs, with great reputations, who have such members? If these are
allowed to continue on the club books simply because they are good
players, the committee are doing a great injustice to the other members,
it may be under a mistaken notion. Now, as football has always been
looked upon as a purely amateur game, and played by young men for their
own amusement, it is to be hoped that the day is far distant when the
professional football player, or even worse, the professional football
"loafer," who does not work, but preys upon his fellow-members, will
appear in a general form. In all conscience, if the public wish to see
professional football (and I know from experience they don't), what
would they think of the All-Scotland Eleven against the Champion Eleven
of England? That might sound all right, but with the recollection of how
professional athletics of all kinds (with the remarkable exception of
cricket) are now conducted, and their low associations, woe betide
football when the professional element is introduced. It will assuredly
be the signal for its decline and fall. As for the greed of gate-money,
of which some clubs are