Touching memory of the Babes - 52 years after Munich disaster

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Touching memory of the Babes - 52 years after Munich disaster

Mike Keegan
MEN February 06, 2010


An accounts sheet which poignantly documents the lost talent of the Busby Babes is revealed today – 52 years to the day after the Munich tragedy.

The annual pay ledger submitted by Manchester United to the Football League in 1958 lists the wages of every player registered to the club. But an ink line runs through the records of eight players and a note indicates their employment ended on 6th February 1958.

Next to the names of the eight footballers the word 'deceased' is neatly typed in brackets.

The document was discovered in a skip and will go on sale next week at an auction of football memorabilia.

United were returning from a European Cup match in Yugoslavia when their plane crashed while attempting a second take-off from a snowbound runway in Munich.

A total of 23 people died in the crash, including eight of Sir Matt Busby's young United squad.

The account sheet shows how life at Old Trafford had to carry on after the loss of the players – and also reveals exactly how little they earned compared with their modern day counterparts.

The records reveal Duncan Edwards, the superstar of the day and England international, was the top paid player on the princely sum of about £37 a week.

In today's money that would be the equivalent of around £600-a-week – but still less than one per cent of the sum paid to the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney.

United legend Bobby Charlton, then a dynamic 21-year-old midfielder, picked up around £20 a week while Tommy Taylor, the prolific centre forward, was on around £32 a week.

The sheet is signed by the club's auditors, Walter Cricketer and Les Olive.

Next to each of the eight who perished a Football League official has written 'NR' which is believed to stand for 'No Returns'.

The accounts sheet is one of a number of pieces going before the hammer at Birmingham's Coleshill Hotel.

Robert Adcock, director of memorabilia collectors Sporting Memorys, believes the piece will attract a lot of interest at the auction.

He said: "As a record of all these great players who lost their lives and the sums of money they were paid, this is definitely a museum piece that will be sought after by not only collectors of the club but of football history in general."

The lot, which includes the pay sheet from 1957, has a guide price of £400-£600.



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