Professional football used to be regarded with superior disdain by some public schools because it was perceived as driven by money and not just by the love of the “beautiful game”. It was seen as grubby and socially unacceptable.

Amateurism was so revered that any talented players who did join professional clubs politely declined to be paid. Most preferred to continue their working careers while representing strictly amateur clubs. The game was the thing.

Not any more. A record 17 former independent schoolboys have taken part in either Barclays Premiership or Coca-Cola League matches this season. They are headed by Frank Lampard, the Chelsea and England midfield player, who was educated at Brentwood, and James Beattie, of Everton, another England player, who went to QEGS, Blackburn.

Even if the proportion at the top in football is still far less than in cricket or rugby union, the growth in recent years is striking. Mark Dickson, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Football Association, said: “No one can remember so many. It has been growing steadily for years. There is just huge interest in the game.”

In 2002, Lampard became the first former independent schoolboy to play in the FA Cup Final since 1883. He was followed by Beattie the next year, for Southampton, then Neil Harris, another Brentwood schoolboy, for Millwall in 2004 and Quinton Fortune, who attended Forest School in East London and represented Manchester United in the 2005 final.

“A long time ago, there was some snobbery element towards football, despite it being the main winter game in schools such as Eton and Winchester, Westminster and Shrewsbury,” Dickson said. “Now there is a classlessness about football and independent schools are reflecting it. There is every chance that the numbers will increase, with our knockout competition, the Boodles Cup, now attracting entries from 47 leading schools.

“Even rugby union lost its supposed moral high ground when it turned professional in 1995. Virtually all major sports now have professionalism in some form or another.”

Between 1945 and the 1970s, there were a handful of former public schoolboys in the Football League, such as Tony Pawson, from Winchester, who played for Charlton Athletic, John Tanner, from Charterhouse, who played for Huddersfield Town, but they retained their amateur status.

John Baugh, from Aldenham, played in goal for Exeter City when they won promotion from the old fourth division in 1976-77 while he was a student at St Luke’s College. Now the headmaster of the Dragon, a prep school in Oxford, he said: “I was not aware of any other former independent schoolboys playing when I was. I think the increase is partly because there is a celebrity culture about football and so more boys are attracted to it.

“But I also think the coaching in independent schools is much better than it used to be. Rather than getting, say, the history master, who just loved the game, to oversee the top teams, there are more properly qualified coaches.”

The huge amount of money in football has become irresistible to talented youngsters. The average annual salary of a Premiership player is £700,000, while even a League Two player averages £50,000. Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, said: “The rewards are there, although our members only have an average career of eight years, so they have to prepare for the future. Independent schools put a high priority on sport, and professional players can afford to educate their children privately.”

Lampard (Frank Lampard Sr) and Luke Webb (Neil Webb, the former England midfield player), who has played for Hereford United this season after being a pupil at Bradfield, are sons of leading professionals.

David Roy, the honorary secretary of the Arthur Dunn Cup, which since 1903 has provided an annual competition for most of the old boys’ teams of public schools, said “When I was at Westminster in the late 1950s, professionalism was almost a dirty word. This is no longer the case. The two main reasons for the number of former independent schoolboys now in the Premiership and Football League are money and respect.”

Numbers game

17 Number of players from independent schools playing professional football in England

£700,000 Average annual salary in 2006 for a Barclays Premiership player

£537,322 Average salary of 6,557 partners employed by the top 100 corporate law firms — perhaps a more traditional job for former independent school pupils

£50,000 Salary earned by Coca-Cola League Two player. League One players earn about £68,000 and those in the Championship £200,000

Lancing education proved academic for Frampton

One key player in Brentford’s struggle against relegation from Coca-Cola League One over the next month will be Andy Frampton, a former public schoolboy and this season a regular left wing back for the West London club (John Goodbody writes).

Spotted by Crystal Palace at the age of 11, he began training with the club before becoming a boarder two years later at Lancing College, in West Sussex. In 1997, he was a member of the Lancing team who won the Boodles Cup, the annual knockout competition for independent schools, and then left to follow a YTS course at Palace, where two years later he captained their under19 team.

“I was fortunate to go to Lancing,” he said. “There was a good academic standard, even if I didn’t make the best use of it. Still, it gave me the right stepping stones for the rest of my life. The standard of football was very good. A few of my contemporaries could have tried to be professional footballers, but other interests and the thought of the short career pushed them a different way.”

Frampton’s father, Clive, owns a firm of chartered surveyors and Andy might have followed him into the same profession if he had not become a footballer. “I have been following my dream of being a professional player. It is a dream that most small boys have,” he said.

Chris Saunders, his headmaster at Lancing and a former Oxford University football Blue, said: “When I was playing, it was very unusual for any public schoolboy to play professionally. This was partly because of the money and partly because it was considered socially not the thing to do. Such a thought would not have been welcomed by parents of pupils. But independent schools are much broader now. I encouraged Andy to try for a career in football.”

Frampton, 27, does get some remarks about his background from his fellow players. “I get a few comments,” he said. “But that is part of football. If you can’t take it, you should not be in the game.”

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