FROM 12 QUID A WEEK TO 240,000… HOW IT ALL BEGAN

MIKE MILES meanders through a mind-boggling maze of money madness

ON my office wall is a two-page spread from the Picture Post of October 12, 1946 with the headline: “Is a footballer worth £12 a week?”Evidently, the answer they were looking for at the time was “No”.But in 1947 the maximum wage was raised to £12 from £8 by a National Arbitration Tribunal.In the 1950s it steadily increased: In 1951 to £14 a week; in 1953 to £15; in 1957 to £17; and then in 1958 to £20 a week.The post-war period had seen a boom in atte...

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