George Eastham towards the end of the 1959-60 saw his contract with Newcastle United run out. With a maximum wage of £20, the club would find their players "another job", for Eastham, at a glass manufacturer to supplement his income and naturally Eastham was not happy with that or with the "club house" Newcastle provided. Although his house apparently had been lived in by Jackie Milburn.
So Eastham refused to sign a new contract, but the club refused to let him go.
Eastham was not free to move clubs and ended up working as a "cork salesman" in Guildford, Surrey.
Eventually Newcastle let him go in October 1960, to cut their losses, transferring him to Arsenal for £47,500, a move that he first heard about on the radio!
The Professional Footballers' Association enabled Eastham to pursue the "retain and transfer" system in the law courts by paying his legal fees.
The trial began in June 1963 and his QC claimed that the professional players were being treated "like cattle", "they are paid slaves".
In July 1963 the Judge decided that the contract system was an "unreasonable restraint of trade", "the end of the slavery contact".
Eastham, a canny inside forward, made his way into the 1966 World Cup squad and scored the winner for Stoke in the 2-1 1972 League Cup win over Chelsea at the time being the oldest winner of a major English football medal at 35 years and 161 days. Eastham retired in 1963, tried coaching and briefly as a manager as Stoke were relegated. He did see the end of the maximum wage however.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/cap-wage.html
Jean-Marc Bosman, of RFC Liege, in Belgium, changed the rules of ownership in December 1995, allowing footballers a right to a free transfer at the end of their contract, a European Court of Justice ruling. He was able to move to his chosen club Dunkerque in France
In 1996 Edgar Davids benefitted from this first when he moved from Ajax to Milan.
Happy Birthday Bobby, 80 years old a couple of days ago. (Rodney Marsh was 73 on the same day)
No comments:
Post a Comment