WAGES AND FEES

Blackburn Olympic in 1883 won the FA Cup with players who were regarded as local factory workers, who were being paid to play football. This was the first "professional" team to win the Cup since the competition began in 1872. This upset the amateurs, who were the founders of Association Football in England (and in the World!) but around 30 professional clubs, mainly in Lancashire and later the Midlands, were prepared to form their own "British Football Association" open to professional clubs, openly paying money to play.

In July 1885, the FA relented and allowed a player born within or living for two years within 6 miles of the club, to be paid. Derby paid their players £4 per week in 1893. The Scottish clubs who stood firm with amateurism (Queen's Park is a famous example) at the time lost players over the border.

By 1888-9 clubs like Preston NE were well integrated with Scottish players and they did the "Double".

In 1901-2 some professional footballers left the Football League, joining Southern League clubs that had no restrictions on wages. In 1903 the Scots lifted the ban on amateurism.

In 1919 the maximum wage in England was set at £10 pw. It wasn't until the early 1920s that European clubs (eg Italy in 1923) adopted professionalism.

18 January 1961 saw the "Maximum Wage" for English footballers abolished. It was £20 a week during the season and £17 per week in the summer.
Sounds not much doesn't it? bear in mind that prices were relatively lower in those days.

The Professional Footballers Union (Association) led by the well known, player, coach and pundit, Jimmy Hill, called a players' strike for the 21st January 1961. Three days before the date, the Football League gave in and banished the "Maximum Wage". As a result Johnny Haynes of  Fulham (594 apps) and England (56 caps) (below) suddenly earned £100 a week. Having achieved that pinnacle, Haynes didn't get a rise for 9 years! Haynes died from a brain haemorrhage in 2008 aged 71.

Jimmy Hill earned £18 a week and that didn't change throughout his entire career.
 Jimmy Hill and his chin (OBE), He died in December 2015.
In February 1979, Trevor Francis of Birmingham City and England, made headline news when he was sold for £1 million when he went to Nottingham Forest. The actual fee was £99,999 as set by Brian Clough, Forest manager, who didn't want the "young man" (a 25 year old) to let such fame as being the first ever Million £ footballer, go to his head.When additional fees were added including VAT,  the contribution to the Football League Provident Fund and the player's "cut" the total sum paid to Birmingham was eventually £1,180,000.
Forest failed to register their new man in time when he turned out for a "3rd" team game against Notts County. A crowd of about 40 saw his debut, but the club was fined £250 for having "no papers".
This meant he couldn't play in a European Cup tie at Grasshoppers Zurich, but he was allowed to fly via Concorde to play for his previous club, Detroit Express, in a friendly against New York Cosmos. he scored 6 in an 8-2 win.

In 1887 the disgruntled opponents hired a private detective to investigate Hibernian FC who had just won the Scottish Cup. He discovered that Hibs had been paying one player, a local stone mason, more for missing three days work, that he was usually paid by his employer in a week.
At the time, so called "broken time" payments, that is compensation for the loss of earnings at work, were allowed, but not being paid to play!
In 1887, John Glass, a Scottish financier, backed Celtic, paying players enticed from Hibs, who were "strictly amateur". Losing players meant that Hibs fell apart and had to wait until 1892 before they reformed.

The Bosman Ruling was in placed in 1995 and players could make demands as high as they wished! Average Premier League wages in 2020, amount to £280,000 p.w.