WORD FROM A MAN OF GOOD WILL
— Maurice Pefferkorn | 31/05/1921 —

The football season ended last Sunday with a match which promised a lot, but which, it must be admitted, did not deliver what it had hoped for. The duel between the famous Glasgow Celtic and the famous Newcastle United (the epithets are not exaggerated here) is one of the most important that can be organized in the whole world. Why did it attract so few people (5,000 people at most) and why this small number of spectators showed very average enthusiasm?

No doubt, the arrival of English professionals at Pentecost had made people suspicious. There was very little fighting between the teams involved. And the public feared that it would be the same last Sunday. This apprehension was only partly justified, because although the two opponents did not give their all, they nevertheless worked hard during part of the match. The fact remains that most of the time, they engaged in some sort of exhibition. However, this is not enough for the spectators who want the firm desire for victory to motivate the adversaries.

But even if the match had been played fiercely, I don't think the public would be much more excited. What did it matter to them whether Celtic or Newcastle won? To vibrate, the crowd needs to take sides, to have its favorite, to experience the anguish of defeat or the excitement of victory. We also understand that they are much more passionate about an interclub, interregional or international match. Football for football's sake is just an empty word for them. Pure and simple exhibition speaks only to their brain. But it's the heart that they need to feel beating. They don't want to see workers at work, but fighters working for an ideal. And I don't think that this feeling of the crowd is as despicable as the dilettantes of sport claim.

THE BRITISH GAME.

And then, the British game, English or Scottish, does not respond to the French temperament. Everything is calm, methodical, learned. This may suit the English public, who are very knowledgeable and very fond of order and regularity. The English players do not give the impression of exerting themselves in vain. When an offensive is missed, they do not try to hang it up; they abandon it and coldly seek another. The public follows them without getting impatient. Certainly he is, like ours, noisy on occasion, because he also has his chauvinism. But what moves him leaves us almost indifferent. The English players do not proceed in fits and starts like ours; but it is these very jolts, these impetuous surges following periods of quasi-somnolence, this disorderly unexpectedness, this sometimes unreasonable fury, which attract the French public as I imagine it attracts the Italian and Spanish public.

But what virtuosity from these English and Scottish pros! What a craft these people have! What a consummate knowledge of football! The feints and dribbles of a Gallacher are truly astounding. However, they stun cold, if I may say so. Everything the British pros do seems mechanical, like the result of a long exercise, like the fruit of hard work; so one is inclined to marvel no more than when one sees a citizen succeed in life by dint of honest perseverance and conscientious turbin.

Our players, even if they become professionals themselves, will never adapt to this method, nor will the public. Both have a temperament which leads them towards other conceptions of the game. However embryonic these may still be, they are very real. Will they allow us to one day stand up to the masters of British football?

No one can say for sure yet? But we have the right to hope so. And if so-called Latin football were to one day triumph over Anglo-Saxon football, the fact would really be very remarkable. We must not hide the fact that there is still a lot to do to get there. It would be necessary for our players to be more athletes, for their individual skills to be more in-depth, for team cohesion to be greater. Truths of the Palisse, one might say? Not. I just want to say this: we still have a lot to learn as a football technique. But when this is acquired, our temperament will do the rest.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!.

Here is the 1920-21 season over! We are all relieved, because we were really approaching oversaturation. This season threatened to be lackluster for French football. Fortunately, the victory over England prevented it from being compromised. Let's not kid ourselves though. Our football is still in a difficult age, it is going through a period of transition. Let's hope that next season will see the qualities become clearer. And now, see you next year.