Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 9 February 1899, page 3


THE ENGLISH FOOTBALL TEAM.

General regret was expressed amongst footballers and those who support the game at the decision of

tho Rev W Mullineux to abandon the Australian tour. The matter of arranging matches had reached almost a final stage the correspondence- has been extended over the past l8 months and the hon. secretary of the New South Wales Rugby Football Union (Mr Rand) has had the task of drawing up a list of fixtures. Club football has been interfered with to such an extent that in order to admit of the best team being placed in the field against the Eng

inhmen the introduction of electorate or district football has been delayed till the season after next, unless indeed, the abandonment of the tour now causes those who control the game in Sydney and who some time since agreed upon having electorate football for next season to pull together for the good of the game. Everyone who knows anything about football in New South Wales, Queensland and New Zealand was looking forward to the Eng lishmon's visit, and consequently keen disappoint-ment will be felt far and wide. It was originally intended that the trip should take place last season, but owing to the difficulty of carrying out a pro-gramme at short notice it was postponed till the season of 1899.