The Origins of Football Debate: The Evidence Mounts, 1841–1851

In response to recent articles by Eric Dunning and Graham Curry, this article presents a wide range of new material from the period 1841 to 1851 in the ‘Origins of Football Debate’, using evidence gleaned from the British Library's digitisation of nineteenth-century newspapers. It responds to the charge that the works of ‘revisionist historians’, John Goulstone, Adrian Harvey and Peter Swain, are misleading and have led to hasty conclusions, and rejects their analysis that argues they are part of an academic community seemingly frantic for working-class influence to the detriment of public schoolboys. The article adds extensive evidence that records a much broader footballing culture across the country in mid-century than previously thought. In so doing, it addresses concerns, which have troubled many scholars, of the alleged disappearance of football in the wider community in the mid-nineteenth century, not least because of the sport's rapid expansion amongst the working and middle classes in the 1870s. The evidence presented does suggest that many forms of football other than folk football or games under the influence of public schools or public schoolboys were played, challenging ‘orthodox’ historian's views surrounding the influence of public schools and public schoolboys on the development of the game.     

The Origins of Football Debate: The Continuing Demise of the Dominant Paradigm, 1852–1856

This article presents original and compelling new material in ‘the origins of football debate’, this time from the period 1852–1856, using the British Library's digitisation project of nineteenth-century newspapers. In so doing, it addresses the alleged disappearance of football in the wider community in mid-century, a problem that has troubled a number of scholars, not least because of the rapid expansion in the game amongst the working and lower middle classes from the 1870s onwards. In addressing this allegation it outlines a much broader and more stable footballing culture across the country than hitherto thought, based on games played at church, work and school outings, rural fetes and galas, alongside those played at celebrations and as street football or casual games in meadows, fields or greens, arguing that those historians who have simply looked for formal games were looking for the wrong forms of football in the wrong places, based on twentieth-century notions of what constitutes a ‘game’ of football. Overall, the article has added yet more evidence of the cultural continuity of football across the mid-century and contributed to the continuing demise of the so-called ‘dominant paradigm’ in the ‘origins of football’ debate.     

The Origins of Football Debate: The ‘Grander Design and the Involvement of the Lower Classes’, 1818–1840

This article presents extensive new material in ‘the origins of football debate’ by using the British Library's digitisation project of nineteenth-century newspapers. In so doing, it responds to claims from Graham Curry and Eric Dunning that previous works of the ‘revisionist historians’ John Goulstone, Adrian Harvey and Peter Swain are misleading and have led to hasty conclusions. It evidences a football culture beyond the domain of the public schools and highlights the shift in the locus of games from urban areas to paddocks and fields complying with the Highways and Police Acts. This compliance reduced the number of prosecutions covered in newspaper reports of the day but other games, in which misdemeanours took place, are recorded, suggesting that a broad football culture did still exist in this period. The article rejects Curry and Dunning's thesis surrounding a mid-century ‘civilising spurt’ in sport in favour of explanations surrounding the structural changes taking place in the nineteenth century, including increasing industrialisation, urbanisation, population growth, and migrationary movements. It also emphasises the emergence of a horizontally stratified class-based society and an attack on football games from an emerging social and industrial elite who were looking after their property and commercial interests.     

Football Club Formation and the Lancashire Leisure Class, 1857–1870

This paper outlines the transition from football games played for occasional amusement to a system of organized football clubs playing regular matches in Lancashire in the mid-nineteenth century. This was led by young men of an emerging Lancashire leisured class being, in the main, the public school educated sons of the northern county’s commercial and industrial elite. These families had accumulated sufficient wealth, especially in the first half of the nineteenth century, to exempt a considerable part of their population from work both at weekends and during the normal working week with football becoming an act of conspicuous consumption. Three case studies of individual clubs and leading individuals within those clubs are presented with detailed archival research carefully avoiding the teleology implicit in much historical writing of the past. It also swells the paucity of good historical material about the organization of sport at levels below national bodies. In so doing, it aims to illuminate some of the shadows in the big picture of the evolution of sport and leisure in Lancashire and Britain itself while informing the ongoing orthodox/revisionist debate into the origins of football in the nineteenth century.     

A Competition that Shook European Football: The Origins of the European Champion Clubs' Cup, 1954–1955

This article examines the establishment of the men's football European Champion Clubs' Cup in the mid-1950s. Its aim is to explain the reasons which led to the realization of this contest at this time in the sport's history. The creation of the competition was the result of the daily newspaper L'Équipe's undertakings. Its financial capacity, its experience in developing competitions and the ties it maintained with important figures in the field of football equipped the newspaper with the assets to foster a keen interest around the project and thus capitalize on a context in European football that was particularly favourable to the creation of this contest. This study was conducted based on the reading of the issues of L'Équipe and France Football from that time period, on unprecedented research in the archives of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), complemented with documentation obtained from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). In addition, this research benefited from a long interview conducted with Jacques Ferran, a journalist who participated directly in the development of the project.     

‘Old’ Football and the ‘New’ Codes: Some Thoughts on the ‘Origins of Football’ Debate and Suggestions for Further Research

A close reading of recent contributions to the ‘origins of football’ debate suggests that there is now more consensus among scholars about the broad sequence of events than is rhetorically allowed. However, this consensus itself rests on some shared conceptual and methodological illusions. These include: a continual naivety about the use of the name ‘football’ in the primary source materials; asystematic underestimation of forms of play (and a collateral overestimation of the importance of rules and codifications) in the development of football; and, above all, a widely shared, and very dubious, conviction that the pursuit of the historical origins of football is a meaningful activity. This article analyses each ofthese illusions in turn and suggests some methodological and substantive alternatives to them. These alternatives sum to the conclusion that the origin of both modern football codes is a far more remarkable and many-sided story than has been appreciated, even in the very best research to date. Moreover, it is a story whose many dimensions and implications go well beyond the borders of Britain, and indeed beyond the history of ‘soccer’ or ‘rugby’ alone.     

The ‘Chimera’ of Origins: Association Football in Australia before 1880

It is generally accepted that organised Association football (soccer) commenced in Australia in Sydney in 1880. This article challenges that starting point by revealing earlier games of codified soccer – not in order to establish an earlier point of origin but to challenge the very idea of origins. Recent work on football in Australia in the 1850s has begun to gather the unearthed traces of rule-bounded small-sided games brought to Australia from Britain and Ireland. Some of these were games with a strong developmental link to present day soccer in Australia. Yet the nearly disabling problem for this kind of research is that as researchers venture archivally backward in time the images become more blurred and the distinctions between codes become harder to make. Even as potential origin points become temporally closer they recede into the shadows of archival absence. The dilemma for football historians lies in the necessity of engagement with the established origins that lie at the heart of the historiography of all major sports, origins that both orient and limit debate. Present-day administrators use anniversaries of origin to generate publicity. They help to get stories rolling: ‘Once upon a time Wills or Webb Ellis or Doubleday did something so special that they got a great game started.’ Aside from often being simply incorrect, origin theses tend to nurture hegemonic narratives that by their very nature rule counter-narratives out of bounds.     

The Structural Adjustment of Football in Zambia: Politics,Decline and Dispersal, 1991–1994

Abstract

This paper explores multiple and complex relationships between football (soccer), politics, and the economy in postcolonial Zambia. Based on archival and oral sources collected in Zambia, the paper argues that President Frederick Chiluba’s government failed to support football development when it came into power in 1991 because it was elected on a platform of liberalizing the collapsing national economy. Chiluba privatized state-owned companies that were sponsoring the game resulting in the plummeting of the local standards and migration of talented footballers abroad in search of better livelihoods. Furthermore, the paper argues that while the exodus of talented footballers led to the deterioration of the standards of the local league, their transnational experience boosted the performance of the Zambia national football team. This led to the emergence of one of the best national teams the country has ever had. Unfortunately, this particular team perished in the Gabon air disaster in 1993 following the government’s disinvestment in the game. However, a few months after the disaster, the country managed to rebuild a national football team, which emerged as runners up to Nigeria in the 1994 African Cup of Nations final as a result of a large pool of local and foreign-based football players.     

The People's Poet of Cricket and Football,Popularist and Parodist: Albert Craig 1849–1909

The centenary of the death of Albert Craig is an appropriate moment for a retrospect of his contribution to the popular sporting poetry of the time. Occasional brief personal reminiscences or short appreciations of Craig have surfaced after his death. This article attempts to remedy the previous lack of a full-length study of a remarkable figure who entertained huge numbers of sporting spectators with his compositions and his conversation. Craig's progress through an unrivalled career is followed chronologically and thematically. It is supported by contemporary reports and by collecting together some 500 surviving examples of his work culled from sources previously unconsidered.     

‘The Best Football Team,The Best Platoon’: The Role of Football in the Proletarianization of the British Expeditionary Force, 1914–1918

This article examines the role of football, alongside other working-class pastimes, in engendering the proletarianization of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) during the Great War. The article details how the nature and longevity of the Great War, allied to the associated need to raise a predominantly working-class ‘civilian army’, stimulated new approaches to sustaining morale which embraced working-class-derived values and customs. The raison d’être of the BEF's combat motivation (why a soldier should fight) increasingly depended upon workplace-centred notions of solidarity and mutuality. In military terms, these proletarian set of motivational influences became known as ‘loyalty to the primary group’, and the proletarian sport of football became one of the major vehicles for their diffusion. Concurrently, troop entertainments and recreations became dominated by some of the temporary escapes of proletarian culture – most notably organized football tournaments, but also music hall, cinema, fairs and trips to the seaside. By 1918 the BEF was decidedly proletarian, not just in its composition but also in its values and customs.     

The HMS Malaya Cup Football League, 1921–1941: Towards the Institutionalization of Football in British Malaya

Abstract

This research is part of a larger phenomenon about the diffusion and transmission of football in various British colonies, particularly in Asia. After the British occupied the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore and enforced indirect rule in the Federated Malay States of Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang and Unfederated Malay States of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, and Trengganu and Johore, they established sports clubs and played football. They also introduced the game to the Malay, Chinese, Eurasian, Indian, and Sikh communities. In 1921, the British donated the HMS Malaya Cup for football. The inaugural football league consisted of seven colony or state teams and players from the European and local communities. During the first decade (1921–1930), two outstanding European and six local players were highlighted. By the end of next 11 years (1931–1941), 10 teams took part in the competition. During this period, 10 outstanding players emerged from the local communities. Singapore appeared in all 21?Cup finals winning 12 times and drew twice. Selangor was 14 times finalists winning four times and drew twice. Perak won twice out of three final appearances. Kedah and Penang were losing finalists 1940 and 1941, respectively.     

The Singapore Football League, 1904–1941: Towards the Institutionalization of Football in the Colonial Port City of Singapore

Abstract

The Singapore Football Association (SFA) was founded in 1892. In 1904, the YMCA initiated the first football league with 12 teams from military and European clubs and School Old Boys’ teams. The first phase from 1904 to 1913 was restricted to European and Eurasian only. The military teams won six out of the nine tournaments. The second phase of the league began in 1917 and from 1921 to 1941. The Straits Chinese Football Association (SCFA) took part in the league and the rejuvenated SFA included a representative from the SCFA. The Singapore Football League started with two divisions 1921 and participating teams from the SCFA in the same year and the Malaya Football Association (MFA) in 1924. The SCFA won the league for the first time in 1925 and subsequently in 1930, 1937, and 1938. In 1929, the SFA was renamed the Singapore Amateur Football Association (SAFA). The MFA won the League for the first time in 1931, and the first local team to win three years in succession from 1931 to 1933. From 1931 to 1941 the local teams won seven league titles out of 11. By 1940 the League grew with 44 teams in three divisions.     

Virtual Patriot Games: American Football in The Times of London, 1888–1910

Abstract

This study examines the American football press coverage in the Times of London from 1888 to November 1910. The time span covers the paper’s first mention of the game to the first game played in England. This period also coincides with increasing anxiety about the strength of the British Empire and unwanted American influences. During this time, athletic contests between the two nations turned into sites for the construction of national identities. Adapting the sport scholar Emma Poulton’s concept of ‘mediated patriot games’, the author argues that the American football coverage of the Times of London could be considered ‘virtual patriot games’, as the absence of domestic American football teams did not allow for direct competition. Two related narrative elements. The stories in the Times framed gridiron football as the pastime of the ‘other’, including translating rules and comparing the merits of rugby and American football. The reports also focused on the American game’s violence, confirming older traditions in British imaginations of America. Advancements in communication technologies, especially the telegraphic wire, were critical for the immediacy with which British readers consumed American sporting news. Contrary to current scholarship, British interpretations of American culture through gridiron football developed much earlier than the post-1970s information age.     

The Origins of Football in Spain: From the First Press Appearance to the Constitution of the First Clubs (1868–1903)

This research focuses on the origins of football in Spain and seeks to show how and where it was introduced in the country, to comprehend the historical context, and to understand why it took roots so rapidly despite the rivalry with the well-established tradition of bullfighting. The period of study spans from 1868 (first news piece on football in Spain) to 1903 (celebration of the first football championship in the country). The methodology focused primarily on identifying the primary sources and selecting the secondary sources, followed by the interpretative analysis and the mapping of football associations created in Spain in the sport’s early days. The large urban cities led the process of creating football clubs from 1889: Barcelona (61), Madrid (15), and Bilbao (9) steered the process of legitimization and institutionalization of football in the country. In the last 11 years of the nineteenth century (1889–1899), 29 clubs were created in 12 different cities. In the first four years of the twentieth century (1900–1903), a further 103 clubs mushroomed all over the country. Thus a total of 132 clubs were founded between 1889 and 1903 in Spain, which laid the necessary foundations for the implantation and legitimization of football.     

The Origins and Development of Athletics Among the Military,European and Migrant Communities in Nineteenth-Century Singapore, 1819–1899

There is no detailed study about the origins of athletics in nineteenth-century Singapore. This research relied primarily on newspaper records, official census reports, club membership and school enrolment to study the origins and degree of participation in athletics in the military, European, Eurasian, Chinese, Malay and Indian communities. It also makes comparison to the diffusion and transmission of athletics within the global and the various local communities. The findings suggest that a ‘foot-race’ was first introduced primarily to the Malay and Chinese community in the annual New Year regatta since 1837. Athletic events were held by the troops at Tanglin Barracks and Fort Canning in 1877 following the practice and tradition of the military colleges and camps in England. The athletic meets were also organised by the European, Eurasian, Straits Chinese, Malay and Tamil sports clubs starting in 1880 thereafter. It was introduced to three English boys' schools since 1887 after the establishment of the Education Department in 1872 and the organisation of Government and aided English schools. There were no physical education or athletic programme in the English girls' schools and in the elementary Malay, Chinese and Anglo-Tamil schools.