PROFESSIONALISM AND RAMSEY

The Players Union – officially the Association of Football Players’ and Trainers’ Union – was founded on this day, December 2nd, in 1907, at a meeting in Manchester’s Imperial Hotel. The main problem of the day was the introduction of a maximum wage of £4 per week for players. Now known as the Professional Footballers’ Association, it is the oldest professional sports trade union in the world.

2nd December 1948.

Alf Ramsey (back left) is coach to local team Eton Manor, which was fortunate to have Alf and Len Wills, to name two in its ranks. The club was formed in 1901 by rich and influential families, the likes of the Barings, Villiers and Lord Chelsea for the benefit of bringing sport to the poor and underprivileged youth of the East End of London. Their sports ground at Hackney Marshes, known as "The Wilderness", was the home "ground" and this started a period of great success in the thirties for the club's football, cricket and rugby sides. The club was disbanded in 2017.

From this "club", Alf Ramsey, started his long and successful association with England when the Southampton full-back made his playing debut for his country, on this day in 1948. Opponents, Switzerland, were playing their first international in England but were beaten 6-0 at Highbury.

Alongside Ramsey were: Ditchburn, Aston, Wright, Franklin, Cockburn, Matthews, Rowley, Milburn, Haines (2) and Hancock (2), both earning their debut caps. Despite their goals, Haines did not play again from England and Hancocks played twice more. Hancocks was playing in Tom Finney's place!

But this time Billy Wright, of Wolves, was made captain of his country, an association that lasted for 105caps. He was 15 years old when he first played for Wolves and married one of the Beverley Sisters, a well known all "girls" singing trio. Here is Alf's playing and managing career.

Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1943–1949	Southampton	90	(8)
1949–1955	Tottenham Hotspur	226	(24)
Total		316	(32)
National team
1948	England B	1	(0)
1948–1953	England	32	(3)
Teams managed
1955–1963	Ipswich Town
1963–1974	England
1977–1978	Birmingham City
1979–1980	Panathinaikos (Technical director)

and on the same day, 2010;
England again missed out on staging the World Cup finals, when FIFA announced the host nations for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments after a vote in Zurich. England were up against Russia and Belgium/Netherlands and Portugal/Spain joint bids in the battle for the 2018 finals. Sadly England received just 2 of the 22 votes in the first round of voting and were eliminated from the vote at that stage. Russia won the right to host the 2018 finals with Qatar getting the nod for the 2022 finals. So nothing controversial there then! AND here we are.....