War guest player
Guest players in the war were athletes , usually soccer players , who were entitled to play for different clubs at the same time under the special conditions of the Second World War in Germany and the occupied territories. The term was also used in other countries, such as the United Kingdom .
Germany
At the beginning of the war in 1939, Hans von Tschammer und Osten, as Reichssportführer, had initially forbidden all club changes, but ordered: "Military service providers have the right to play as guest members in local clubs." They remained members of their home club and were eligible to play again after a short period of embargo if they were on vacation or were released to travel home for important reasons. The regulation also applied to athletes who did labor service or were relocated from their home town for other reasons considered to be important to the war effort. In this way they were kept in play and normality could be demonstrated - albeit limited and subordinate to warfare.
In everyday game operations - as far as "everyday" could be used during the war - guest memberships rarely led to conflicts, as the two clubs in each case usually belonged to different Gauligen . In the German Championship and the Reichsbundpokal, however, it happened that players competed in the same competition every week for both the current and the “actual” team, so in 1944 Alfred Stahr for Hertha BSC and Wilhelmshaven 05 . Occasionally, improper use of the guest player rule was criticized in the specialist press.
The guest player rule was particularly advantageous for the military clubs. Newly founded and temporarily successful clubs such as the Luftwaffe Sportverein Hamburg or HSV Groß-Born relied almost exclusively on guest players who were easy to attract and - because they were stationed at the club - were always available. Therefore, there were disputes with some established civil clubs, some of whose players had been on the front line for months, about which even the press dared to report.
The special situation of double playing eligibility, otherwise unprecedented in world or at least European football, has made it difficult for statisticians to assign players, periods and clubs between 1939 and 1945.
International matches , which were played until the autumn of 1942 , are usually assigned to the player's home club in today's official statistics, even if he was a guest player elsewhere at the time.
The war guest players should not be confused with the war syndicates from two or more neighboring clubs, which were often found in both world wars. They were able to use all available assets of the clubs involved and did not require the guest player rule, which was also open to them from 1939.
England and Scotland
The professional football on the British Isles , with its very different traditions and structures also knew from 1939 war guest players (Guest Wartime player) . Regular league play was discontinued immediately after the start of the war and only continued in 1946. In the meantime, football in England took place in regional leagues, the names and dimensions of which changed several times, and there was a War League Cup, all of which, however, was strictly labeled "unofficial". Since then, all the titles won during that time have not been taken into account in association and league statistics, nor have individual performance or goal records by players.
What weighed more heavily was the fact that the clubs no longer had any calculable income, especially since there were upper limits for admitted audience numbers in the first years of the war. All professional contracts were therefore already frozen (suspended) in September 1939, first in Scotland , two days later also in England. As a consequence, all players were free agents , that is, they could hire themselves out at any club and were paid per game, whereby the permitted payments were also capped.
Guest players mainly migrated to the military centers: "The best clubs were those in areas where a large number of troops were stationed". In this way, the third division Aldershot FC , founded in 1927, took off for a while. Wartime guest players such as Tommy Lawton and Stan Cullis played in its ranks and - for war conditions - attracted a large number of spectators.
International matches also took place during the Second World War, but these were and are still considered "unofficial". Stan Mortensen , after the war international for England, made his debut for Wales during this time , because their side had no substitute in an encounter with England and Mortensen stepped in.
Individual evidence
- ↑ quoted from Jankowski / Pistorius / Prüß : Fußball im Norden , Bremen and Barsinghausen 2005, p. 79
- ↑ Carl Koppehel, press attendant of the DFB , which was still in existence at the time , explained in January 1940 that “the intention was to make gaming operations as simple as possible and to remove all fetters and obstacles that stand in the way of widespread gaming traffic (. ..) Comradeship, loyalty to the association and complete integration into the self-chosen community are a matter of course in the hard times of war. That is why a change of club is forbidden on site. ” Der Kicker No. 5/1940, page 26
- ^ So in November 1941 in the football week following the cup final ; it was about the players Karl Miller , Gustav Carstens and Karl Barufka .
- ↑ so in May 1944 the Hamburger Anzeiger , cf. Skrentny / Prüß: LSV Hamburg: Obey and win , in: Always first class , Hamburg 1998
- ↑ Examples: Karl Miller from FC St. Pauli was at Dresdner SC at the time of his international matches , as was Friedo Dörfel from Hamburger SV actually at Dessau 05
- ^ Marshall / Cavendish Book of Football , p. 363
- ^ "The best clubs became those in areas where vast numbers of troops were quartered"; ibid
- ↑ cf. ibid