15 July 2011

Austen more popular than offside

Sotheby's made a small fortune yesterday selling off two old documents - one Sheffield FC's original rule book - the other an unfinished Jane Austen novel.

As Channel 4 news pointed out the Austen proved more popular - at least in terms of the price people were prepared to pay.

Given the wealth showered on semi literate professional footballers - who are happy to name their offspring after numbers and Disney characters (sometimes at the same time) - I find it a shame that the world's oldest football club is forced to sell off historically significant documents to keep the club running when the game at the top tier has never been richer.

The £881,000 paid for the rule book is a few week's pay for the Premiership's top stars - who owe everything to the men of Sheffield (and obviously this week's other big news - Rupert Murdoch's millions).

2 comments:

  1. To be fair we have a century difference in time too!

    Also Sheffield FC was founded after Cambridge University FC, but FIFA politics mean they recognise Sheffield as older not facts. (Better narrative to have a northern industrial town than the University.)

    It appears (from wikipedia) an older version if the rules is in a school library too.

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