A semi-professional athlete is one who is paid to play and thus is not an amateur, but for whom sport is not a full-time occupation, generally because the level of pay is too low to make a reasonable living based solely upon that source, thus making the athlete not a full professional athlete. A sportsperson ( British and American English) or athlete (principally American English is any person who participates regularly in a Sport. An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit study or science without formal training or pay Sport is an Activity that is governed by a set of rules or Customs and often engaged in competitively Professional sports, as opposed to amateur Sports are those in which athletes receive payment for their performance

Likewise the term semi-professional can be applied to an artist such a photographer or musician who derives some income from their artistic endeavors but who must nevertheless take a day job in order to survive. A photographer is a person who takes a Photograph using a Camera. A musician is a person who plays or writes Music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music An instrumentalist plays a A day job is a form of occupation taken by a person in order to make ends meet while working another low-paying (or non-paying job in their preferred career track When applied to vocational tools and equipment, it refers to products that lie between the amateur and professional levels in both quality and cost, though nowadays the term prosumer is often used instead. Prosumer is a Portmanteau formed by contracting either the word pro fessional or pro ducer with the word con' sumer'.

North America

In North America, semi-professional athletes and teams were far more common in the early and mid-20th century than they are today. There are many benefits, such as collegiate eligibility and the attendant scholarships, in maintaining amateur status. An athletic scholarship is a form of Scholarship to attend a College or University awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to Eligibility for participation in the Olympics in some sports is still dependent upon maintaining a purely amateur status (although far less so than was previously the case), and such athletes may be supported by government money, business sponsorships, and other systems. The Olympic Games is an international Multi-sport event established for both summer and winter games A business (also called firm or an enterprise) is a legally recognized organizational entity designed to provide goods and/or services to At the same time, professional sports have become such a massive and remunerative business that even many low-level feeder teams can afford to have fully professional athletes.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom there are many semi-professional football teams at non-League level. Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a Team sport played between two teams of eleven players and is widely considered Non-League football is football in England played at a level below that of the Premier League and The Football League. The bottom division of The Football League (the fourth tier of the English football league system) has traditionally been the cut-off between professional ("full-time") and semi-professional ("part-time") in English football. The Football League, also known as the Coca-Cola Football League for sponsorship reasons is a league competition featuring professional football clubs The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in England (although Football is the National sport of England and plays a significant role in English culture. However, many teams in the top non-league competition (the Football Conference) have become "full-time" in an effort to achieve league status. Organisation The Football Conference stands at the top of the National League System (NLS a comprehensive structure linking together over 50 different leagues under the

Women's football in England is semi-professional at the top levels, as finances depend both on promotion and relegation of parent male teams as of the female teams themselves. In many Sports leagues around the world (with North American and Australian professional leagues being the most notable exceptions promotion and relegation Full professionalism for women is thus still in the planning stages; top female players often depend on other sources of income (such as coaching and physical training), and many attend university or college while playing.

English rugby league and rugby union each have one full-time professional division, with semi-professional divisions at the next level down. Rugby league is a popular team sport played in England The sport receives funding from Sport England as an 'English priority' sport Rugby union is one of the leading professional and recreational team sports in England.

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic