Pretiumque et what?

Pretiumque et Causa Laboris

The Prize is the Cause of our Labours

After an exclusive piece of research carried out by Bob Lord's Sausage we can now reveal the latest, and possibly most embarrassing mistake, that the club has made since the beginning of the new administration.

Obviously no-one at Turf Moor passed O-Level Latin in their dim and distant school years. For almost 2 years Andrew Watson, Barry Kilby and co have been pedalling the myth that this is the motto which was proudly displayed on the Burnley Football Club shirts from 1882 until 1970.

Guess what? It isnt! The correct translation is the prize as well as the cause of our labours. There is a huge semantic difference in the two interpretations.

All Clarets should remember that the old club crest was, in fact, the town crest. The board of directors were forced to change to the new design in 1972 when the County Borough of Burnley was abolished and the old design was withdrawn from use. In a lucky twist of fate for the club, they were then able to copyright the new badge as they weren't sharing it with the town.

The real motto pays a humble tribute to the work ethic of the men and women who toiled for Burnley in the 19th Century. Not only was Burnley the prize for their labours, it was also the cause. Did you get that? It is Burnley that is the prize. The motto is a manifestation of civic pride.

In the formative years of football, our local club chose to adopt the motto but they did not change it. This is a marked difference from the glory-hunting, greedy interpretation of the motto now made by the club where it implies that the only reason to labour and work is to get the prize at the end.

A cursory glance at any book charting the history of Burnley town will verify this discovery. It is a sorry state of affairs when the football club doesnt know its own history. But then when you have Clive "we are not bothered about the past" Holt roaming the corridors of Turf Moor, it would be foolish to expect anything resembling our true history.

Spong

We have copyrighted the real translation of the Latin motto and anyone found using this will be pursued through the courts. Only joking.