Amateurism (from Fr.
amateur "lover of," from O.Fr., from L.
amatorem nom.
amator, "lover,"). As a value system, amateurism elevates things done with self-interest above those done for pay (
i.e., professionalism). The term has particular currency in its usage with regard to
sportSport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as...
s. By definition
amateur sports require participants to participate without remuneration. Amateurism was a zealously guarded ideal in the 19th century, especially among the upper classes, but faced steady erosion throughout the 20th century, and is now strictly held as an ideal by fewer and fewer organizations governing sports, even as they maintain the word "
amateurAn amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without formal training or pay. An amateur receives little or irregular income from their activities, and differs from a professional who makes a living from the pursuit and typically has some formal...
" in their titles.
Present day
By the early 21st century the
Olympic GamesThe Olympic Games are a major international event of summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes compete in a wide variety of events. The Games are currently held every two years, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in...
and all the major team sports accepted professional competitors. However, there are still some sports which maintain a distinction between amateur and professional status with separate competitive leagues. The most prominent of these are
golfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
and
boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
.
Problems can arise for amateur sportsmen when sponsors offer to help with an amateur's playing expenses in the hope of striking lucrative endorsement deals with them in case they become professionals at a later date. This may jeopardize their status as amateurs, and if allowed to let slide, may be seen as corruption or cheating rather than as true "shamateurism."
Where professionals are permitted, it is hard for amateurs to compete against them. Whether this is a triumph of the
free marketA free market describes a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to regulate against force or fraud. The terminology is used by economists and in popular culture. A free market requires protection of property rights, but no regulation, no subsidization, no single...
or an example of corruption depends on the viewer's perspective. To some an amateur means an incompetent or also-ran, and to others it means an idealist. To say that the athlete should not be paid can prevent performances only possible for an athlete who is free to pursue the sport fulltime without other sources of income; to make payment for performance the driving engine of the sport can invite cynicism and inflated wages.
The term "stamateurism" is used to describe state-sponsored athletes. It was used as a means of funding athletes in the Eastern Bloc countries.
North American collegiate athletics
All North American university sports are conducted by amateurs. Even the most commercialized college sports, such as
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada...
footballCollege football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies. It was the venue through which American football first gained popularity in the United States...
and
basketballCollege basketball most often refers to the American basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III.-Division I:There are 347 schools in 32...
, do not financially compensate competitors, although coaches and trainers generally are paid. College football coaches in Texas and other states are often the highest paid state employees, drawing salaries of over one million US dollars annually.
Athletic scholarshipAn athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport...
programs, unlike academic scholarship programs, cannot cover more than the cost of food, housing, tuition, and other university-related expenses. A school can pay an athlete to attend classes. However, a school cannot pay an athlete to play.
In order to ensure that the rules are not circumvented, stringent rules restrict gift-giving during the recruitment process as well as during and even after a collegiate athlete's career; college athletes also cannot endorse products, which some may consider a violation of free speech rights.
Some have criticised this system as exploitative; prominent university athletics programs are major commercial endeavors, and can easily rake in millions of dollars in profit during a successful season. College athletes spend a great deal of time "working" for the university, and earn nothing from it at the time; basketball and football coaches, meanwhile, earn salaries that can compare with those of professional teams' coaches.
Supporters of the system say that college athletes can always make use of the education they earn as students if their athletic career doesn't pan out, and that allowing universities to pay college athletes would rapidly lead to deterioration of the already-marginal academic focus of college athletics programs. They also point out that athletic scholarships allow many young men and women who would otherwise be unable to afford to go to college, or would not be accepted, to get a quality education.
Olympics
Through most of the 20th century the Olympics nominally only allowed amateur athletes to participate. The amateur code was strictly enforced.
Jim ThorpeJacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe * Gerasimo and Whiteley. pg. 28
* , americaslibrary.gov, accessed April 23, 2007. was an American athlete...
was stripped of track and field medals for having taken expense money for playing baseball in 1912.
Later on, however, successful Olympians from Western countries often accepted endorsement contracts from sponsors. Complex rules involving the payment of the athlete's earnings into trust funds rather than directly to the athletes themselves, were developed in an attempt to work around this issue, but the intellectual evasion involved was considered embarrassing to the Olympic movement and the key Olympic sports by some. In the same era, the nations of the Communist bloc entered teams of Olympians who were all nominally
studentThe word student is etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb studēre, meaning "to direct one's zeal at"; hence a student could be described as "one who directs zeal at a subject"...
s,
soldierA soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full time basis. (
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
,
North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
, and to some extent
ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
still do this; although China allows professionalism in popular team sports, it can be assumed that athletes in disciplines such as gymnastics from these countries are trained in state academies and have state-given stipends.)
After the 1972 retirement of IOC President
Avery BrundageAvery Brundage was an American athlete, sports official, art collector and philanthropist. A controversial figure, he has been widely criticized for attitudes expressed and decisions he made as a member of the United States Olympic Committee and as president of the International Olympic...
, the Olympic amateurism rules were steadily relaxed and in many areas amount only to technicalities and lip service. In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the
Amateur Sports Act of 1978The Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act establishes a United States Olympic Committee and provides for national governing bodies for each Olympic sport...
prohibits national governing bodies from having more stringent standards of amateur status than required by international governing bodies of respective sports.
Olympic regulations regarding amateur status of athletes were eventually abandoned in the 1990s with the exception of boxing, where the rules for participation still require
amateurAmateur boxing is practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games, and in many other venues sponsored by amateur boxing associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration and fighters wear head protection, so this type of competition prizes point-scoring rather...
status rather than
professionalProfessional boxing, or prizefighting, emerged in the early twentieth century as boxing gradually attained legitimacy and became a regulated, sanctioned sport. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse which is divided among the fighters and promoters as determined by contract...
status for the safety of the participants.
Cricket
English
first-class cricketFirst-class cricket refers to the class of cricket matches of three or more days scheduled duration, between two sides of eleven players and officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
distinguished between
amateur and professional cricketersThe history of English amateur cricket describes the concept and importance of amateur players in English cricket. The amateur was not merely someone who played cricket in his spare time but a particular type of first-class cricketer who existed officially until 1962, when the distinction between...
until 1963. Teams below
Test cricketTest cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It is generally considered the ultimate test of playing ability in the sport.The name "Test" may have arisen from the idea that the matches are a "test of strength and competency" between the sides involved...
level in England were normally, except in emergencies such as injuries, captained by amateurs. Notwithstanding this, sometimes there were ways found to give high performing "amateurs", for example W.G.Grace, financial and other compensation such as employment.
On English overseas tours, some of which in the nineteenth century were arranged and led by professional cricketer-promoters such as
James LillywhiteJames Lillywhite was the first ever captain of the English cricket team, captaining 2 Test matches against Australia in 1876/7, losing the first, but winning the second....
,
Alfred ShawAlfred Shaw was an eminent Victorian cricketer. He made two trips to North America and four to Australia, captaining the English cricket team in four Test matches on the all-professional tour of Australia in 1881/82, where his side lost and drew two each...
and
Arthur ShrewsburyArthur Shrewsbury was an English cricketer who was widely rated as competing with W. G. Grace for the accolade of being the best batsman of the 1880s; Grace himself, when asked who he would most like in his side, replied simply, "Give me Arthur".An opening batsman, he played his cricket for...
, a more pragmatic approach generally prevailed.
In England the division was reflected in, and for a long time reinforced by, the series of
Gentlemen v PlayersThe Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between teams consisting of amateurs and of professionals . The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture did not recur until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter till 1962...
matches between amateurs and professionals. Few cricketers changed their status, but there were some notable exceptions such as
Wally HammondWalter Reginald Hammond, known as Wally Hammond was an English cricketer, who played for Gloucestershire and England, in a career that straddled the Second World War...
who became (or was allowed to become) an amateur in 1938 so that he could captain England.
Professionals were often expected to address amateurs, at least to their faces, as "Mister" or "Sir" whereas the amateurs often referred to professionals by their surnames. Newspaper reports often prefaced amateurs' names with "Mr" while professionals were referred to by surname, or sometimes surname and initials. At some grounds amateurs and professionals had separate dressing rooms and entered the playing arena through separate gates.
After the Second World War the division was increasingly questioned. When
Len HuttonSir Leonard Hutton was an English cricketer, who dominated the national and international cricket scene for the decade after the Second World War and was honoured with the England team captaincy, breaking an age-old tradition that the position...
was appointed as English national cricket captain in 1952 he remained a professional. In 1962 the division was removed, and all cricket players became known as "cricketers".
Australia
In Australia the amateur-professional division was rarely noticed in the years before
World Series CricketWorld Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
, as many top level players expected to receive something for their efforts on the field: before World War 1 profit-sharing of tour proceeds was common. Australian cricketers touring England were considered amateurs and given the title 'Mr" in newspaper reports.
Pre-partition India
Before the
Partition of IndiaThe Partition of India was the partition of British India that led to the creation, on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947, respectively, of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India...
some professionalism developed, but talented cricketers were often employed by wealthy princely or corporate patrons and thus retained a notional amateur status.
Association football
Boot money has been a phenomenon in amateur sport for centuries. The term "boot money" became popularized in the 1880s when it was not unusual for players to find half a crown (corresponding to 12½ pence after
decimalisationDecimal Day was the day the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies.-The old system:Under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence , with twelve pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a...
) in their boots after a game.
The Football AssociationThe Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...
prohibited paying players until 1885, and this is referred to as the "legalization" of professionalism because it was an amendment of the "Laws of the Game". However, a maximum salary cap of twelve pounds a week for a player with outside employment and fifteen pounds a week for a player with no outside employment lingered until the 1960s even as transfer fees reached over a hundred thousand pounds; again, "boot money" was seen as a way of topping up pay. Today the most prominent English football clubs that are not professional are semi-professional (paying part-time players more than the old maximum for top professionals; this includes all the major existing
women's clubsWomen's association football has been played for a long time, but was associated with charity games and physical exercise in the past before the breakthrough of organized women's association football came in the 1970s...
, in which full professionalism has not taken root yet) and the most prominent true amateur men's club is probably Queens Park F.C.. The oldest football club in Scotland, founded in 1867 and with a home ground which is one of the twenty-nine UEFA five-star stadia. They have also won the Scottish Cup more times than any club outside the Old Firm. Amateur football in both genders is now found mainly in small village and Sunday clubs and the
Amateur Football AllianceThe Amateur Football Alliance is a County Football Association in England. It is unusual among County FAs in not being based around a particular geographical area. It was founded in 1907, as the Amateur Football Defence Foundation, quickly changed to Amateur Football Association, when The FA...
.
Sailing
SailingSailing is the art of controlling a boat with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to change the direction and speed of a boat...
has taken the opposite course. Around the turn of the century, much of sailing was professionals paid by interested idle rich. Today, sailing, especially
dinghyA dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel. The term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor, but some are rigged for sailing...
sailing, is an example of a sport which is still largely populated by amateurs. For example, in the recent Team Racing Worlds, and certainly the American Team Racing Nationals, most of the sailors competing in the event were amateurs. While many competitive sailors are employed in businesses related to sailing (primarily sailmaking, naval architecture, boatbuilding and coaching), most are not compensated for their own competitions. In large keelboat racing, such as the Volvo Around the World Race and the America's Cup, this amateur spirit has given way in recent years to large corporate sponsorships and paid crews.
Figure skating
Like other Olympic sports,
figure skatingFigure skating is a Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
used to have very strict amateur status rules. Over the years, these rules were relaxed to allow competitive skaters to receive token payments for performances in exhibitions (amid persistent rumors that they were receiving more money "under the table"), then to accept money for professional activities such as endorsements provided that the payments were made to trust funds rather than to the skaters themselves.
In 1992, trust funds were abolished, and the
International Skating UnionThe International Skating Union is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, The Netherlands in 1892, making it one of the oldest...
voted both to remove most restrictions on amateurism, and to allow skaters who had previously lost their amateur status to apply for reinstatement of their eligibility. A number of skaters, including
Brian BoitanoBrian Anthony Boitano is an American figure skater from Sunnyvale, California. He is the 1988 Olympic champion, the 1986 & 1988 World Champion, and the 1985-1988 U.S. National Champion. He turned professional following the 1988 season...
,
Katarina WittKatarina Witt is a German figure skater. In Germany she was commonly affectionately called "Kati" in the past, but today her full name is used more often....
,
Jayne TorvillJayne Torvill, OBE is a British ice dancer who with her skating partner Christopher Dean won a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics.-Ice skating:...
and
Christopher DeanChristopher Colin Dean, OBE is a British famous figure skater who won a gold medal in ice dancing at the 1984 Winter Olympics with his skating partner Jayne Torvill...
, and
Ekaterina GordeevaEkaterina Alexandrovna Gordeeva is a Russian pair skater. Together with her late partner and husband Sergei Grinkov, she was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion.-Biography:...
and
Sergei GrinkovSergei Mikhailovich Grinkov was an Olympic and World figure skating champion.-Biography:Sergei Grinkov was born in Moscow, RSFSR to parents Mikhail Kondrateyevich Grinkov and Anna Filipovna Grinkova...
, took advantage of the reinstatement rule to compete at the
1994 Winter OlympicsThe 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. In 1986, the IOC voted to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same year since the latter's inception in...
. However, when all of these skaters promptly returned to the pro circuit again, the ISU decided the reinstatement policy was a failure and it was discontinued in 1995.
Prize money at ISU competitions was introduced in 1995, paid by the sale of the
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
rights to those events. In addition to prize money, Olympic-eligible skaters may also earn money through appearance fees at shows and competitions, endorsements, movie and television contracts, coaching, and other "professional" activities, provided that their activities are approved by their national federations. The only activity that is strictly forbidden by the ISU is participating in unsanctioned "pro" competitions, which the ISU uses to maintain their monopoly status as the governing body in the sport.
Many people in the skating world still use "turning pro" as jargon to mean retiring from competitive skating, even though most top competitive skaters are already full-time professionals, and many skaters who retire from competition to concentrate on show skating or coaching do not actually lose their competition eligibility in the process.
Rugby
Rugby has provided one of the most visible and lasting examples of the tension between amateurism and professionalism during the development of nationally-organised sports in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
in the late-1800s. The split in rugby in 1895 between what became
rugby leagueRugby league football is a full-contact form of football, played with a prolate spheroid ball by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. Rugby league is one of the two codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union...
and
rugby unionRugby union is a full contact team sport, a form of football which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, outdoors on a level field, usually with a grass surface, 100 m...
arose as a direct result of a dispute over the pretence of a strict enforcement of its amateur status - clubs in
LeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. The historic core at the heart of Leeds in 2001 had an estimated subdivision population of 443,247, whilst the entire city, that includes the urban and suburban areas incorporated into the city in 1974, had an estimated...
and
BradfordBradford is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
were fined after compensating players for missing work, whilst at the same time the
Rugby Football UnionThe Rugby Football Union is the rugby union governing body for men's rugby in England - women's rugby is currently administered by the Rugby Football Union for Women . Among the Union's chief activities are conferences, organising international matches, and educating and training players and...
(RFU) was allowing other players to be paid, such as the 1888 England team that toured Australia.
Rugby football, despite its origins in the privileged English
public schoolsAn independent school in the United Kingdom is a school that is not financed by taxpayers or through the taxation system by local or national government, and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so not...
, was a popular game throughout
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by around 1880, including in the large working-class areas of the industrial north. However, as the then-amateur sport became increasingly popular and competitive, attracting large paying crowds, teams in such areas found it difficult to attract and retain good players. This was because physically fit local men needed to both work to earn a wage - limiting the time that they could devote to unpaid sport - and to avoid injuries that might prevent them working in the future. Certain teams faced with these circumstances wanted to pay so-called 'broken time' money to their players to compensate them for missing paid work due to their playing commitments, but this contravened the amateur policy of the
Rugby Football UnionThe Rugby Football Union is the rugby union governing body for men's rugby in England - women's rugby is currently administered by the Rugby Football Union for Women . Among the Union's chief activities are conferences, organising international matches, and educating and training players and...
(RFU).
Following a lengthy dispute on this point during the early 1890s, representatives of more than 20 prominent northern rugby clubs met in
Huddersfield Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city.Huddersfield is near the confluence of the River Colne and the River Holme...
in August 1895 to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU), a breakaway administrative body which would permit payments to be made to players. The NRFU initially adopted established RFU rules for the game itself, but soon introduced a number of changes, most obviously a switch from 15 to 13 players per side. It became the
Rugby Football LeagueThe Rugby Football League is the governing body for rugby league in the United Kingdom. Based at Red Hall in Leeds, it administers the England national rugby league team, the Challenge Cup, the Rugby League National Leagues and Super League...
in 1922, by which time the key differences in the two codes were well established, with the 13-a-side variant becoming known as rugby league.
The RFU took strong action against the clubs involved in the formation of the NRFU, all of whom were deemed to have forfeited their amateur status and therefore to have left the RFU. A similar interpretation was applied to all players who played either for or against such clubs, whether or not they themselves received any compensation. Such players were effectively barred
sine die from any involvement in organised rugby union. These comprehensive and enduring sanctions, combined with the very localised nature of most rugby competition, meant that most northern clubs had little practical alternative but to affiliate with the NRFU in the first few years of its existence.
Rugby football in Britain therefore became subject to a de-facto schism along regional, and to some extent class, lines, reflecting the historical origins of the split. Rugby league - in which professionalism was permitted - was predominant in northern England, particularly in industrial areas, and was viewed as a working class game. Rugby union - which remained amateur - was predominant in the rest of England, as well as in
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Rugby union also had a more affluent reputation, although there are areas - notably in
South WalesSouth Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
and in certain English cities such as
GloucesterGloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
- with a strong working-class rugby union tradition.
Discrimination against rugby league players could verge on the petty - even as late as the 1970s an English rugby union club was instructed to dismiss a cleaner who was married to a professional rugby league player. One
Member of ParliamentThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
,
David HinchliffeDavid Martin Hinchliffe is a politician in the United Kingdom. He was Labour member of Parliament for Wakefield, from 1987 to 2005 when he stood down and was replaced by Mary Creagh.-Early life:...
, described it as "one of the longest (and daftest) grievances in history" with anyone over the age of 18 associated with rugby league being banned forever from rugby union.
The
Scottish Rugby UnionThe Scottish Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. It is the second oldest Rugby Union, being founded in 1873.-History:...
was a particular bastion of amateurism and extreme care was taken to avoid the 'taint' of professionalism: a player rejoining the national team after the end of the Second World War applied to be issued with a new shirt and was reminded that he had been
supplied with a shirt prior to the outbreak of hostilities.
In Wales the position was more equivocal with clubs attempting to stem the tide of players
going north with
boot money a reference to the practice of putting cash payments into player's footwear whilst they were cleaning up after a game. Sometimes payments were substantial.
Barry JohnBarry John is a former Welsh rugby union player. He is considered by many to be the greatest in the sport's history, and became known as "the King"....
was once asked why he hadn't turned professional and responded
I couldn't afford to.
Rugby union was declared "open" in August 1995 - almost exactly 100 years after the original split occurred - meaning that professionalism has been permitted in both rugby codes since that date. However, while the professional-amateur divide remained in force, there was originally very limited crossover between the two codes, the most obvious occasions being when top-class rugby union players 'switched codes' to rugby league in order to play professionally. Welsh international Jonathan Davies was a high-profile example of this switch. Since professionalism has been allowed in Rugby Union the switches have started to come the opposite way. Union has swiftly grown to embrace the professional game with many League players joining union to take a slice of the larger amounts of money available in the sport.
Nowadays, somewhat ironically, while rugby union no longer makes the professional-amateur distinction, the professional-amateur split still exists within rugby league with the
British Amateur Rugby League AssociationThe British Amateur Rugby League Association is the governing body for social and recreational rugby league in the United Kingdom...
(BARLA) strictly amateur, though it allows some ex-professionals to play provided they are no longer under contract. The most recent club to get a ban for fielding a contracted professional was Brighouse Rangers who were expelled from the
National Conference LeagueThe National Conference League is the top league in the pyramid of amateur rugby leagues run by the British Amateur Rugby League Association...
during 2007-2008 season, and the player handed a sine die ban (though in part for gouging
http://brighouserangers.org.uk/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=108&Itemid=48), although the club itself has since been admitted to the Pennine League.
High school sports
Sports teams commonly exist at the
high schoolHigh school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
level; students who participate, commonly referred to as
student athleteA student athlete is a participant in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which he or she is enrolled. The term student-athlete is used to describe the direct balance of a full time student and a full time athlete...
s, do so during their course of study. Occasionally, sports success in high school sports may lead to a professional career in the field.
The benefit of sports in high school is debated; some believe that they promote discipline and teamwork, while others find that they can cause injury.
Other sports
Rowing is one of the most sincere forms of amateur sports. In Ireland, the
Gaelic Athletic AssociationThe Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders. The GAA also promotes Irish music and...
, or GAA, protects the amateur status of the country's national sports, including
Gaelic footballGaelic football , commonly referred to as "Football" , "Gaelic" or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...
,
HurlingHurling is an outdoor team sport of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. The game, played primarily in Ireland, has prehistoric origins and is thought to be the world's fastest field team sport...
and
CamogieCamogie is an Irish team sport. Played with a stick and ball, it is the women's variant of hurling, and is organised by the Camogie Association of Ireland...
. Major
tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
championships prohibited professionals until 1968 but the subsequent admission of professionals virtually eliminated amateurs from public visibility.
GolfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
still has amateur championships but their champions are far more obscure than professional champions and very few of those who compete in open events are not professionals. Paying players was considered disreputable in
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
until 1869.
In motorsports, amateur racing is more commonly known as Club Racing, sanctioned by the
SCCAThe Sports Car Club of America is a club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rally, and autocross in the United States and was formed in 1944...
and others.
See also
- History of English amateur cricket
The history of English amateur cricket describes the concept and importance of amateur players in English cricket. The amateur was not merely someone who played cricket in his spare time but a particular type of first-class cricketer who existed officially until 1962, when the distinction between...
- Gaelic Athletic Association
The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders. The GAA also promotes Irish music and...
- Boot money scandal
Boot money refers to money paid privately or anonymously to amateur athletes, often to circumvent laws or league regulations prohibiting athlete compensation. It can be paid as an incentive to win or as a reward for a good performance, but especially in more recent times can involve a company...
- History of rugby union
The history of rugby union follows from various football games played long before the 19th century, but it was not until the middle of that century that rules were formulated and codified....
- History of rugby league
The history of rugby league goes back to 1895 in Northern England when the Northern Rugby Football Union broke away from the established Rugby Football Union to administer its own rugby football competition...
- Professional sports
Professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, are those in which athletes receive payment for their performance. While men have competed as professional athletes throughout much of modern history, only recently has it become common for women to have the opportunity to become professional...
- Athletic director
Athletic director is a position at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, which oversees the work of the coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic programs. At some colleges, the athletic director may...
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