Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Football & English Society

    Uploaded by

    Jose Pablo Gaona
    267 views3 pages
    This document discusses the history and development of football in English society from the 19th century to the early 20th century. It explains that early folk football was a rough and disorderly game played locally on holidays. By the mid-19th century rules and organization were developing, and the game became popular in public schools and among the privileged classes. The establishment of the Football Association in 1863 led to standardization of rules and the division between rugby and soccer. Football continued spreading widely across English society in the late 19th century, becoming professionalized and commercialized, with increasing numbers of teams, players, and spectators. By the early 20th century it had become a defining feature of English culture and an important commercial industry.

    Original Description:

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    This document discusses the history and development of football in English society from the 19th century to the early 20th century. It explains that early folk football was a rough and disorderly game played locally on holidays. By the mid-19th century rules and organization were developing, and the game became popular in public schools and among the privileged classes. The establishment of the Football Association in 1863 led to standardization of rules and the division between rugby and soccer. Football continued spreading widely across English society in the late 19th century, becoming professionalized and commercialized, with increasing numbers of teams, players, and spectators. By the early 20th century it had become a defining feature of English culture and an important commercial industry.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    267 views3 pages

    Football & English Society

    Uploaded by

    Jose Pablo Gaona
    This document discusses the history and development of football in English society from the 19th century to the early 20th century. It explains that early folk football was a rough and disorderly game played locally on holidays. By the mid-19th century rules and organization were developing, and the game became popular in public schools and among the privileged classes. The establishment of the Football Association in 1863 led to standardization of rules and the division between rugby and soccer. Football continued spreading widely across English society in the late 19th century, becoming professionalized and commercialized, with increasing numbers of teams, players, and spectators. By the early 20th century it had become a defining feature of English culture and an important commercial industry.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Gaona Aviles Jose Pablo FES 3

    17/05/1
    1

    Football & English Society

    Football is a world-known, world-played game. However, few people know how


    it was created. In this essay I will explain part of the history of this Amazing
    sport and how it has changed through time and how it has affected English
    society and how the society has changed the game.

    The early game of football was not like the one we know nowaday, it was a
    rough game placed only in special occasions, such as local or religious
    holidays. The best example of this particular game is the Shrove Tuesday
    football played in Derby, this game is played by the whole town, which is
    divided into two teams and “each side sought to drive an inflated pig´s bladder
    through the porch of their opponents church.”1

    Although folk football matches were all across England, they did not constitute a
    nacional game up to that time. Nevertheless, is relevant to mention that even
    though the game was played by most communities or towns, there were several
    edicts between 14th and 17th Century which tried to ban or prohibit football due
    to damages to property, injuries or even death.

    By the mid 19th Century the game had developed certain discipline and order,
    but it was still played mostly by people in small towns and villages. Few years
    later it began to be popular hmong more priviledged sectors, specially public
    schools. However, many people such as “Samuel Butler, Head of Shrewsbury
    said football was more fit for farm boys and labourers than for young
    gentlemen”2. With time, the game emerged as a key element in english
    education, because it was responsable for building carácter, manliness,
    organisation and Leadership skills.

    Football had such importance in english society during the 19th Century that
    most schools had their own team, even churches, civil services, and collages
    like Oxford or Cambridge were influenced . Nevertheless, the same problem
    persisted, there were not specific rules for the game, but in Cambridge a group
    of students tried to codify this rules. However, the first ones to make a real code
    were the first clubs (Sheffield and Blackheath), this resulted in the formation, in
    1863, of the Football Association and subsequently the division of Rugby
    football.

    But the game in public schools was still different from the one played by the
    workers, which came from small towns into the big cities due to the Industrial
    Revolution. This people maintained the game they played in their home-towns
    1
    WALVIN, James: “The Only Game” Ed. Pearson Education Limited,
    2001; p. 23
    2
    WALVIN, James: “The Only Game” Ed. Pearson Education Limited,
    2001; p. 25
    but they could only play it during weekends, specifically on saturdays.
    As it might be appreciated, football was present in every social status (from
    workers to public schools and from farmers to lords), this “democratisation” of
    football is what permitted this game to be a world phenomenon. In his book,
    The Only Game, James Walvin mentions how this game put down it roots and
    emerged as an increasingly popular game, with great commercial potencial
    (page 29), which was later discovered and exploited by business men.

    With the incresement in the number of teams across england, more leagues
    and competitions proliferated, such as the FA Cup, local enterpreurs observed
    the growth of public willing to watch football matches and took advantage of this
    by building stands and charging for watching and skilled players found a way to
    earn money.

    The expansion of football in England was so massive that by 1914 the number
    of professional clubs was 158 while the number of boy´s club was around
    12000. Not only the number of players increased but the number of spectator
    too. (Eg. in 1872 the number of people watching the FA Cup final was 2,000, by
    1880 the number of spectators was 9,000 and by 1913 it reached 120,000
    people). By the end of the 19th Century, football was an inescapable feature of
    urban life, it could be found anywhere, in parks, schools, local fields, etc.

    During the professionalisation process of football, there were several social


    complaints because people argued that it was against the essence of its
    creation, wich was pure pleasure. However, authorities decided they Could not
    ban the game so they decided to regulate it.

    The demand of football spectators increased amazingly after the 1890s, in 63


    matches the attendance to football matches reached 1,200,000 people and in
    the first years on the 20th Century the figures reached 2 million spectators. By
    this times the majority of the crowd was conformed by working-class men.
    There was a need to create more adequate venues for spectators and by 1910
    58 clubs moved into new facilities. However, football was not yet the profitable
    Business we know nowadays, in those times “only six of the 62 prominent clubs
    paid a dividend to their shareholders”3. The Business of football was quite
    different to the others, millions of fans culd be seen attending the matches, yet
    the wages for players were low and the profit for shareholders was low and
    infrequent.

    On the other hand, the game was accesible for the fans. Firstly because the
    entrance fee to a football match was very cheap, between 1 and 6 pence, but
    also because of the cheap transport systems, such as trains or buses. Even
    though the unemployment rates increased in the early 20th Century, people
    kept going to football matches.

    3
    WALVIN, James: “The Only Game” Ed. Pearson Education Limited,
    2001; p. 40
    Football unleashed many social and economical changed during the 1910s, the
    expansion of the game resulted in commercial interests such as newspaper
    specials, cigarrote cards, custom-made kits, but, definitely the most affected
    was the gambling industry which suffered a huge boost due to increasing
    rivalries between teams. This sport was so important that it was given the royal
    approval when the King watched the Cup Final in 1914, and unlike many sports,
    it was not suspended until 1915, at the end of the season.

    You might also like