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 A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

rewarding players for using their

apparel Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

or products. This phenomenon has been found in amateur sports for centuries. The term "boot money" became popularised in the late 1880s when

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

leagues prohibited

professionalism Professionalism is a set of standards that an individual is expected to adhere to in a workplace, usually in order to appear serious, uniform, or respectful. What constitutes professionalism is hotly debated and varies from workplace to workplac ...

, but it was not unusual for players to find a half crown (two shillings and sixpence) in their

boot A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...

s after a game (worth around £66 in 2009, calculated by the rise in average earnings). Before the breaking of the £20 wage-cap by

Johnny Haynes John Norman Haynes (17 October 1934 – 18 October 2005) was an English association footballer who played as an inside forward. He made 56 appearances for his country including 22 as captain. He was selected for three World Cup finals squads ...

, many British football players received ciphered boot money, by fans paying for entrance but not being counted in an official match attendance. This method was also a way of escaping tax deductions too.

Scandals

In 1982,

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

was paying British Olympic athletes to wear their gear. The main person involved in the scandal was Horst Dassler. A scandal broke out over payments alleged to have been made to some Welsh

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

internationals during the 1970s. Many other ways were found to work around the laws of rugby union amateurism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boot Money Boots Association football controversies Rugby union controversies Sports scandals in Wales

Scandals

See also

References