From the Guardian archive, 5 September 1970: Questions asked as Spurs suspend Souness
Tam Dalyell MP is calling for an investigation into Tottenham Hotspur's suspension of Graeme Souness. The homesick teenager broke his contract with the London club when he returned home to Scotland
Graeme Souness in 1972 during his time at Spurs. The club temporarily suspended him in 1970. Photograph: Roger Jackson/Hulton Archive
Graeme Souness, who is under a full player's contract with
Tottenham Hotspur, broke the terms of his engagement by going home to Edinburgh and refusing to return to honour it. Yesterday the club suspended him for two weeks without pay "and thereafter the suspension will be extended at fortnightly intervals if necessary," stated the club. A Scottish MP, Mr
Tam Dalyell, said last night he was seeking an investigation.
Such are the bare facts of a sad human drama which may have far reaching implications. Souness is 17. He signed a contract after his birthday in May and Spurs have the power under FA rule 27 to deprive him of playing in his chosen profession for the full year in which they have him under contact. They also have an option on his services for a further year by suspending him every fortnight.
Technically there might be sympathy for Spurs, who are losing the services of a potentially gifted player. Morally they will have few admirers even though Souness has broken a contract, and at a meeting on Wednesday with Bill Nicholson, Spurs manager, he said he would not return to honour it.
"My mistake was in going South when I was too young," Souness said yesterday. "I left Edinburgh when I was 15 and straight from school. There was an element of novelty about the experience but recently I have felt completely at sea in the London scene.
"It wasn't so bad when we trained mornings and afternoons. That just made for lonely evenings. But when training was restricted to forenoons the days seemed interminable. I couldn't stand it any more.
"I don't want to give up football. What I want is to be allowed to join a Scottish club for a year or two until I am older."
The "homesick" Souness has been told by Spurs he has right of appeal against the club's decision to the FA. His next move will be to contact Archie Wright, the secretary of the Scottish Players' Union and Cliff Lloyd, secretary of the Professional Footballers Association, who said yesterday that he would welcome a talk with the player.
Last night Mr Dalyell, MP for West Lothian, chairman of the Labour Party's sports group, said he had asked Mr Robert Carr, Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, for an investigation.
In his letter to Mr Carr Mr Dalyell states: "I am most concerned in the principles involved in the Souness case. I have no authority to act on behalf of the family who are not my constituents. The issue which concerns me is, should an employer, be he the boss of a great corporation, a small greengrocer, or the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, acting through an employer's association - in this case the English Football League - have a right to deprive a minor of following his chosen profession, simply because he wants to go home, or on account of some evidently non criminal offence?"
[Souness
returned to Tottenham in October 1970 and remained with Spurs until 1972. He made his league debut with Middlesbrough a year later.]
