Football was and remains a huge part of life in Liverpool and tens of thousands of loyal fans watch Liverpool and Everton home and away every week. This was true of the interwar period, attendances were high and Everton fans were supporting their team with mass numbers; their highest average attendance for a season during the interwar period was in the 1927-28 season with 37,461 fans supporting their team.[1] Football was managing colossal crowds throughout the interwar period within Liverpool. Cheap prices and local success meant that football became a means of distraction from the harsh conditions of the interwar period where fans could forget their turmoil for ninety minutes a week.
In the modern era footballers are accustomed to earning hundreds of thousands of pounds each week and retire from the game as multi-millionaires. In the 2012-13 season the ‘average player in the Premier League earned £1.6 million’.[2] During the season 2015-16, the highest paid footballer in Britain was Liverpool-born Wayne Rooney who reportedly earned ‘£260,000-a-week’, illustrating the astronomical amount of money in the game today.[3] During the interwar period, Liverpool and Everton both won the First Division Championship meaning at one point they had the best team and best players in England. One such hero of the interwar period was Everton striker Dixie Dean, signed from Merseyside neighbours Tranmere. In the ‘final act of the 1927-28 season’ Dean was on the cusp of ‘breaking all English League records by getting three goals’ and with ‘50,000 spectators’ present Dean broke the record and won the league with Everton.[4] Dean was at the peak of his powers and still holds the record for most goals scored in a season in England his ‘amazing total was exactly 100 goals’, a feat that was only beaten in Europe by FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi in 2012.[5] ‘Football has changed dramatically since Dixie Dean was terrorising defences in the 1920s and 1930s’ as players today can retire in their thirties and wages are incomparable.[6] Comparing Messi and Dean illustrates the gulf in financial recognition that players received in the inter-war period. Messi earned close to ‘£600,000 a week’ including ‘extras and endorsements’, Dean earned ‘£8 a week’ during their record breaking seasons. Messi has a collection of sports cars whereas Dean ‘never owned a car and travelled to training and matches by tram’. It is also unlikely that Messi copied Dean’s diet of ‘a bowl of tripe, poached in milk and washed down with a glass of bitter’, when breaking his record.[7] Although Dean’s £8 wage seems dismal in comparison to modern footballers, it does equate to nearly £500 a week in today’s money, which is certainly enough to live on. ‘In 1938 87.2 per cent of Britons earned less than £250, with 33 per cent earning less than £125’, meaning that Dean was better paid than the average working man in Britain.[8] Dean and Messi are exaggerated examples of footballers as both are legends for their respective clubs and not all footballers attract as much attention and money as the two men. Footballers did earn a good wage, but they were still on a fee that was low enough for them to be involved in Merseyside interwar depression. Footballers today are almost inhuman as they earn so much money they will not face financial problems, however, interwar stars earned a much more modest wage and so were immersed in interwar Liverpool culture.
Dean was amongst the highest paid players as ‘the FA attempted to limit the role of money by imposing an £8 maximum weekly wage for footballers’.[9] This wage cap meant that football remained a more level playing field as money could not really lure players to bigger clubs and players were more loyal to the team they played for which is not as common today. The introduction of the wage cap shows that football has always been consumed by money, ‘though only ten per cent of players received that much’ which also further illustrates the prestige of Dixie Dean.[10] This illustrates how football provided a distraction for footballers too. Not only were they able to distract themselves from worldwide issues whilst playing but they were earning a fair amount of money for themselves and their families. Many of the footballers in the English First Division had fought in the First World War and so were happy to have financial security in harsh economic times. Obviously, many would have played because they loved football, but the wage provided meant that most top-class players would not need another job to be able to survive. Therefore, players were somewhat removed from the cultural struggles of interwar Merseyside and could live a relatively secure life during their playing career.
Today UEFA hosts The Champions League and the Europa League which brings together the top teams in Europe, however no such competitions existed in the interwar period and England had a very insular opinion when it came to football. Football was rather successful on Merseyside in terms of attendances and ability. Everton were a major force in English football and this led to interest from further afield. Football teams often play pre-season friendlies (or holiday games as they were formally known) against foreign opponents to test themselves against new opponents and try and increase their fan bases internationally. This was also true for the teams on Merseyside in the interwar period. In 1932 Everton was invited to play matches abroad yet they did not give a good representation of themselves. Performances were damned with reports like ‘Our Degrading Football. England’s lost prestige’ and ‘the results of these Continental matches, holiday games as they must be called, do matter ... The people who let British football down are letting Britain down’.[11] To fans in Liverpool and across England, English football was dominant, yet its popularity was increasing internationally. England had ‘exported football, especially to Europe and South America’ yet deemed foreign football ‘too delicate and artificial’ and as a result ‘the sport became very insular and nationalistic between the wars’.[12] This may help to explain why few foreign players came to the country and failed to have an impact across England. Again, this illustrates the cultural role of football, Everton were representing the whole of England during these matches and presented an inferior depiction of British life in comparison to other European powers at the time. Football had an enormous impact on English and Merseyside culture, yet this cultural influence of English football, did not travel much further than the British Isles.
The First Division was not as globally recognised as the Premier league is today and the number of foreign players in the game is almost incomparable. In August 2015 of the ‘220 players who started for their clubs at the weekend, only 73, or 33.2 per cent, were eligible to play or England’.[13] This is a good statistic to present how foreign players and football has influenced the game in England today. However, in the interwar period foreign players were in the minority. There are very few examples of foreign footballers on Merseyside. Jacob Lewin signed for Everton in 1913 and became their first foreign and Jewish player. The Swedish international never featured for the first team whilst he was at the club.[14] Other than Lewin, and he did not have much impact on football in Liverpool, most players were locals from Britain. Instead players from across the United Kingdom were viewed as foreigners and the thought of a European or South American player was rarely entertained. When England faced Wales on the 17th of October 1936 in Cardiff the commentator stated ‘and just to show how far they’ve gone in invading English soccer, 10 men out of the Welsh team normally play for English clubs’.[15] The £8 a week wage cap on players helped keep English players in England as no one club could really dominate and buy all the best players so English talent was spread throughout the leagues and teams had no need to look abroad. This perhaps can help explain the love for football in the country and in Merseyside as fans could relate to the players on the pitch if they were from their own country. Players would travel around England to play for teams but vary rarely from anywhere other than the United Kingdom. A wonderful way for fans to distract themselves from interwar turmoil was football, if fans could aspire to be one of the players on the pitch and help escape the poverty they were in by football then the best way for them to have these aspirations would be for them to relate to players on the field and foreign players were not a part of football culture.
Football was huge during the interwar period in Liverpool. Merseyside fans enjoyed a fair amount of success in this period and this is a major reason why fans used football as a distraction from interwar Liverpool. Football played a key cultural role for fans to aspire for better lives and enjoy their weekends away from, often labour intensive, work. Football can have huge cultural significance and was certainly more than just a game. Success of the Merseyside teams meant that fans could use their trips to Anfield and Goodison Park to remove themselves from harsh economic realities they lived in and enjoy a sociable day out away from interwar struggles.
Next Tuesday I will be focusing on the role of Everton fans and the club's role in the community during the Interwar Period
ARTICLE BY PETER JONES
TWITTER @PeterKennyJones
WEBSITE https://peterkj.wixsite.com/football-historian
REFERENCES
[1] ToffeeWeb, Everton History, at http://toffeeweb.com/history/records/attendances.asp accessed 7.May.2016.
[2] ESPN Staff, Average Premier League wage hits £31,000 per week, at http://en.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/312907.html accessed 7.May.2016.
[3] Bernstein J, Wayne Rooney will earn around £73million on his current Manchester United deal while five Manchester City players are among the 10 best paid in the Premier League, at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3227651/Wayne-Rooney-earn-73million-current-Manchester-United-deal-five-Manchester-City-players-10-best-paid-Premier-League.html accessed on 7.May.2016.
[4] ‘The Champions at Play: Everton and Arsenal wind up an historic season’, Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, 5.May.1928).
[5] Lupson P, Everton FC & Liverpool FC, Across the Park, Common Ground (Liverpool, 2008), p.52.
[6] Keith J, Dixie Dean: The Inside Story of a Football Icon (London, 2001), p.5.
[7] Prentice D, Everton FC legend Dixie Dean scored 85 goals in a year – just like Lionel Messi and Gerd Muller, at http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/everton-fc-legend-dixie-dean-3327234 accessed on 7.May.2016.
[8] Kitchen M, Europe Between the Wars (London, 2006), p.87.
[9] Pugh M, We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars (London, 2013), p.296.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Beck P.J., Scoring for Britain: International Football and International Politics, 1900-1939 (London, 2013) p.162.
[12] Pugh M, We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars (London, 2013), p.296.
[13] Kay O, English talents afforded fewer chances to impress, at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/premierleague/article4523432.ece accessed 7.May.2016.
[14] ToffeeWeb, Everton History, at http://toffeeweb.com/history/records/attendances.asp accessed 7.May.2016.
[15] British Pathé, International Football 1936, at http://www.britishpathe.com/video/international-football-2/query/england+v+germany accessed 7.May.2016.
