Pride of Anglia - Ipswich Town Football Club
since 1878
Evening Star & Daily Herald, Thursday May 11, 1911
IPSWICH FOOTBALLERS ABROAD
SOME IMPRESSIONS
Though English football teams frequently arrange tours on the Continent no little interest is awakened by these periodical visits of English players. Even to-day there are half-a-dozen or so teams on the Continent, and judging from the manner in which the various contests in which they are taking part are being advertised, Association football is fast becoming popular with players and spectators alike even in central Europe. At Prague, the capital of Bohemia, the long promised visit of Ipswich Town was eagerly awaited, notwithstanding that as recently as Easter the Slavia Football Club received a visit from Eastbourne. A tour such as Ipswich undertook, while involving a tedious journey, was of no little value from an educational standpoint, and specially to those who continental travels were either nil or limited just to flying visits to Holland, whither several East Anglian Clubs have gone in the past. In this connection it is not without interest to remark that Continental clubs, excepting of course the French Rugby organisations, first made the acquaintance of English footballers in East Anglia. If memory serves on right, Harwich and Parkeston was the first English club to receive Netherland and Belgian players in this country. The Rotterdam Sparta and Antwerp clubs both had enjoyable contests with that North Essex club. The outcome of it all was that the Dutch soon made East Anglia a touring ground for their early visits to this country. When, however, London ultimately became their objective other clubs soon undertook tours in Belgium and the Netherlands, with the result that new clubs sprang into existence not only in those countries but in Central Europe. Only last week Englishmen resident in Moscow were visited by a team of German footballers. Thus it can be seen the influence of Englishmen in the matter of Association football abroad has been considerable during the last twelve or fifteen years, since which time interest in the game has been rapidly spreading.
The fact that English footballers are divided into two camps – and be it said apparently with little chance of any early re-union – has tended somewhat to complicate affairs on the Continent. However, evidence is not wanting that efforts are being made to bring reconciliation, and as an instance of this it is only necessary to point out that the Slavia Club of Prague are about to receive a visit from the runners-up for the championship of the Scottish League – Aberdeen. This will make the fourth English team that has gone to Prague since Christmas; it has probably been a contributing factor to the improving football of the Bohemians, judged, of course, on their exhibition at Ipswich a couple of years ago. Being like France, linked with the A.F.A., for football, Bohemia is in a very isolated position; save French and English clubs the Bohemians are debarred from playing any other Continental clubs, and hence competition is confined to the not over numerous clubs around Prague. If, sooner or later, the A.F.A and the F.A. became one organisation again, it would be acceptable to the Bohemians, seeing that it would afford them greater opportunities for international contests. However, the change would only be welcomed if such an arrangement was made between the various National Football Associations, whereby Bohemia was allowed to remain a separate organisation for the management of its own affairs. This is indeed what the Bohemians are yearning for in regard to the government of their country; not only do they want Home Rule, but the complete severance of the kingdom of Bohemia from the Austrian Empire is their one aim.
Football to politics may seem a far cry, but they are inseparably connected in Bohemia. As footballers the Bohemians are as keen and as sporting a lot of players as can be found on the whole of the Continent of Europe, and their desire to be proficient exponents of the Association game has been fully realised, as the Ipswich Town players found to their cost. However, patriotism, as in practically every other phase of public life in Bohemia, enters strongly into the management of sport. The Bohemians are determined, come what may that in no sense will they be subservient to the Austrian F.A. Should, therefore, the A.F.A., ever again be merged in the F.A., the Bohemians are determined , unless allowed to have a separate association, to become an isolated organisation and content themselves by playing amongst themselves. Such a claim or right could not be denied when the four countries of Great Britain have been each accepted as members of the International Federation of Football Associations. The desire of the Bohemians to have an organisation of their own, in the unlikely event of the A.F.A. becoming disbanded, has grown stronger, owing to the recent action of the Austrian F.A., who have been endeavouring to induce the Scottish F.A. to prevent Aberdeen, the runners-up of the Scottish League, from fulfilling their forthcoming visit to Prague, where they are due a fortnight hence, on the occasion of a match with the Slavia Club. Luckily their efforts have been in vain, and as arranged, the Aberdeen professionals will be playing Continental A.F.A. players. As is perhaps well known, Bohemia is the richest and most progressive state in the Austrian Empire, but the Czechs, to give the Bohemians their proper description, are yearning for the day when the country shall again become a separate Kingdom. No one visiting Prague cannot but be impressed with the earnestness of their hopes to attain this end. The Czechs, who in the past have suffered from Germany, have a great antipathy to that nation, and they are longing for a lessening of the influence of Germany in Austria, which, as they declare, still has no small bearing on Austrian politics. It is this, and this alone which the Bohemians contend would operate against their having a separate organisation in the unlikely event of the A.F.A. becoming extinct. The discussion of this topic by the leading members of the Slavia club with their English visitors inevitably led to some interesting conversations on topics of wider and greater importance. None of those in the Ipswich team could have but profited by his visit in this connection, for nothing could have been more conducive to the reading of the history of Bohemia that the impromptu but most informing lecturettes with which the Ipswichians were entertained during their rambles through the old world city of Prague in company of such agreeable and well informed guides as Mr. Max Egon Ryam (hon. Secretary of the Slavia Club and a high official of the Bohemian National Bank), Mr. Schwarz (secretary to the English Consulate at Prague), Prof. Dr. Jar Hrubant, also an official of the Slavia Club, and Mr. Josef Laufer. All four gentlemen were unremitting in their attentions upon their visitors, whose stay under such circumstances might with advantage have been prolonged.
Nothing could have struck one more forcibly than the intense love of the Czechs for their country. “Bohemia for the Bohemians” is ever likely to be their one ambition. Until the influence of Germany, not only in Bohemia, but throughout the whole of Austria, has been effectually checked and weakened, will the Bohemians lessen their efforts towards the attainment of this end. The enmity of the two races is almost too difficult to describe, and oftentimes it is the outcome of many unpleasant situations. Having regard to the long period of oppression to which the Bohemians have been subjected, and the many disabilities their countrymen in the past have endured, then this race hatred is to a large extent understood. As an illustration of the feeling existing between Czech and German – the former now outnumber the latter by two to one in Bohemia – it is only necessary to remark that the Bohemians will not be found in the same street as the Germans on the occasion of the evening and Sunday parades; in the churches, of which all but very few are Roman Catholic, that being the State religion, the confessional boxes are labelled “Czech” and “German”, so necessary is it to keep the two apart. From the Lord Mayor downwards every Czech is at no pains to demonstrate his love for Bohemia, and when it means ostracism, particularly in high social circles, then it is possible to gauge something of that great enthusiasm which they have for everything which is essentially Bohemian. Until the last thirty or forty years, German was the principal language used, but since that time a remarkable change has been effected. The shop people in Prague have all but forsaken German, and it is now the exception to find that language used in shops or other business premises. The same kind of thing has happened, although [only] in another way, in regard to the municipal life of Prague and the other important cities and towns of Bohemia, except, of course, on the extreme north and western boundaries of the country, where Germans still predominate. The city and town councils, which hitherto were chiefly composed of Germans, now almost exclusively consist of Czechs, and therefore it is only natural to expect that in the local official life, Germans, who hitherto held the best positions, are disappearing in favour of Czechs. Notwithstanding the encouraging headway they feel they are making, the Czechs, who are extremely hospitable people, are fearsome of the Germanising influence at work in Austria. Because of this, they unhesitatingly declare that Germany’s aims in this direction are a menace to Britain to whom she is only waiting to give a crushing blow. Such strong views are fathered by the leaders of political thought in Bohemia, and to substantiate the truth of their prophecies they point to the building of the Austrian Dreadnoughts. These, they state, were ordered by the votes of the Germans in the Austrian Parliament, the Bohemians, who were strongly opposed to such a policy, being outvoted. One learned gentleman, a doctor of law, in the discussion of these matters went so far as to describe Germany as the common foe of England and Bohemia. He also asserted in all seriousness that the Germans wanted to have not only a powerful fleet in the North Sea, but it was their ambition to see established in the Mediterranean Sea another such fleet which they could also depend upon. Such is the trend of thought, which although possibly in advance of the views of many in this country is at all events worthy of respect, if not consideration.
It may be asked what such matters have to do with football. The answer is supplied, so far as Ipswich Town’s hosts in Bohemia are concerned, by what is happening in regard to the control of sport and football in particular on the Continent. There is strong opposition, both in Bohemia and in Austrian Poland – where Association football has claimed hundreds of players, as well as others in the Slavonic countries of the Austrian Empire – to the Germans with a population of nine millions out of a total of twenty-five millions, holding the sway in football management. The refusal of Bohemia to become associated with the Austrian F.A. is finding support in the other States, and more particularly in Poland, where, as already indicated, great strides are being made. In furtherance of this idea, the Bohemians, who are the most strenuous and loyal supporters of the A.F.A. movement, have enlisted the help of the Austrian Polish players, who at Cracow a fortnight hence will be receiving the Aberdeen professionals, following upon their visit to Prague. So anxious are the Bohemians about the continued success of the A.F.A. that, apart from their own necessities, they are striving to get engagements for Polish teams with English clubs. Ipswich Town have had a very cordial invitation to rev-visit Prague again next May, and then to extend their tour to Cracow. In reverting to the question with which this paragraph was opened, attention need be directed to an argument used at Prague. It is said that when the Germans in Austria, to the number of nine millions, but backed up by sixty millions over the border, have dominated political and official life of that country, then, unless every support is forthcoming from England and France for the A.F.A. movement in Northern Austria, the same thing is likely to happen in football, especially if the A.F.A. movement should ever become defunct. The President of the Slavia Club, Mr Zdenko Krulig, a very wealthy contractor, pointed out that trouble somewhat of the same character is expected in relation to the Olympic games, which are to take place in Sweden this year. There certainly seemed good ground for his proposal that if, as is hinted, the A.F.A. footballers are denied the the opportunity to take part in these contests, it behoves all athletes from the Universities, public schools, etc., to take no part in these contests, so long as the A.F.A. players are barred.
The Town’s two matches, both with the Slavia Club, produced some good football. Although in the first match Ipswich were beaten by 4 to nil, this was partly attributable to the fatigue of the previous two days’ journey. However, in the second match, which was drawn one all, a well-contested game was seen. A descriptive account of these games will be given in to-morrow’s issue.