‘We’re the lassies from Lancashire’: Manchester Corinthians Ladies FC and the use of overseas tours to defy the FA ban on women’s football

ABSTRACT

The FA banned women’s football from the grounds of Association-affiliated clubs in 1921, on the grounds that the organisation perceived that football was ‘unsuitable’ for women and too much money raised for charity had been absorbed in player expenses. But women continued to play. This article analyses how Manchester Corinthians Ladies Football Club, which had been formed in 1949, was able to sustain a varied range of overseas tours and domestic matches in spite of the ban. Using a range of methods, including oral history, family history interviews, a reunion of the surviving players and player memorabilia, firstly, the article provides a history of Corinthians and Nomads from 1949 onwards. Secondly, the article uses oral history to reflect what the players felt about playing for the club and particularly its overseas tours, and charity work. Not all of the players are represented due to constraints of space, but this is an introduction to a larger ongoing project to reclaim the teams’ history. Finally, the article argues that it is important to examine the 1950s and 1960s, decades when women’s football was an unregulated activity, in order to understand that which followed once the FA ban was lifted in 1969.     

From Butlins to Europe: Fodens Ladies in the 1960s and 1970s

ABSTRACT

Emerging out of the shadows cast over women’s football following its marginalisation by the Football Association in the inter-war years, Fodens Ladies, formed at a lorry manufacturing plant in Sandbach, Cheshire, contributed to a new vibrancy in the game between 1960 and 1980. Emulating many similar works-based predecessors, the team established itself as one of the pioneers of a female football revival and provided a public arena for several prominent international players of the period. From its early days playing charity matches the company team became a regular participant in the Butlin’s Cup, winning it in 1969 and 1970, before beating Southampton in the 1974 Mitre Cup final. The team also undertook overseas tours with team members receiving only minimal support from the company. This paper draws on private personal archives, company records, holdings at the National Football Museum, national and local newspapers, and an in-house magazine, The Foden News, to situate the team within the context of Fodens Ltd and the wider context of women’s football in the 1960s and 1970s. The paper concludes by signposting the next phase of research, which will explore in detail the biographies of key individuals involved in the Fodens team during this period.     

Exit,voice and loyalty: the dislocation of football fan communities

The creation of a new non-league community-led football team, borne out of opposition to the commercialization of the modern fan experience, presents a range of challenges both on and off the football pitch. FC United of Manchester emerged from the fan protests at the Glazer family takeover of Manchester United FC (MUFC) in 2005. Positioning itself in direct opposition to the corporatization of league football, it has come to prominence as a model of democratic and innovative cooperative social enterprise and, as such, a viable alternative for football fan self-organization. The sustainability of the FC United model requires long-term financial and cultural security. This article applies Hirschman’s lexicon of exit, voice and loyalty to the process of dislocation of fans from MUFC and their relocation to an area of relative deprivation in east Manchester to illuminate the challenges of creating shared community assets between an extant community and football’s arrivistes.     

Bone quality in young adults with intellectual disability involved in adapted competitive football

The objective of this study was to analyse bone quality parameters of football players with intellectual disability (ID) participating in adapted competitive football. Sixty-seven male football players with ID were studied: 22 with Down syndrome (DS) and 45 without DS. The average age was 26 years (range: 16 ? 50 years). A group of 25 age-matched sedentary individuals with ID (11 DS and 14 non-DS) and another group of 20 healthy participants of the same age group not involved in competitive football were comparatively analysed. There were no differences in the bone quality parameters when the healthy sedentary individuals were compared with both the sedentary and the football players with ID. However, the speed of sound (SOS), T-score, and estimated bone mineral density (BMD) were of higher values in the football players with ID than in the sedentary ID group (p?p?T-scores (p?p?T-scores less than ?1.5. Two of the 14 sedentary non-DS participants (14.3%) had T-scores indicating osteoporosis. In summary, the ID population actively involved in football showed higher values of bone mass parameters than their sedentary ID and healthy peers. The participants with non-DS ID showed a higher prevalence of osteoporosis than the football players with DS. Participation in sports seems to prevent bone loss in individuals with ID.     

Epistemology and the Use of the .05 Level of Significance: A Rebuttal to Inductionism

In the first part of this study, the football potential of 67 football players was predicted from their scores on a football-potential test. The test battery consisted of motor ability items as well as football skill items. Substantial correlations were obtained between most test items and the test criterion, the sum of T scores. Size, as depicted by McCloy's classification index (C.I.), had a negative, nonsignificant correlation with the criterion. The discriminative power of the battery was evidenced by the highly significant correlation between the test criterion and the coaching staff's ranking of individual players (rho = .840). It was concluded that athletic potential in football can be predicted by testing. In the second part of the study, football teams from three different strata of competition were evaluated on the basis of the test battery. The battery substantiated a step-wise progression between the teams on most items, with significant differences being noted. The test showed validity, in that the test criterion (the sum of T scores) was significantly different between the teams.     

The polygenic profile of Russian football players

Abstract

Research concerned with predictors of talent in football has highlighted a number of potentially important and partially inherited measures such as body size, anaerobic power, aerobic capacity, agility, psychological profile, game intelligence and susceptibility to injuries. Genotyping for performance-associated DNA polymorphisms at an early age could be useful in predicting later success in football. The aim of the study was to investigate individually and in combination the association of common gene polymorphisms with football player’s status. A total of 246 Russian football players and 872 controls were genotyped for 8 gene polymorphisms, which were previously reported to be associated with athlete status. Four alleles (ACE D, ACTN3 Arg577, PPARA rs4253778 C and UCP2 55Val) were first identified, showing discrete associations with football player’s status. Next, we determined the total genotype score (TGS, from the accumulated combination of the 4 polymorphisms, with a maximum value of 100 for the theoretically optimal polygenic score) in athletes and controls. The mean TGS was significantly higher in football players (52.0 (17.6) vs. 41.3 (15.5); P < 0.0001) than in controls. These data suggest that the likelihood of becoming a football player depends on the carriage of a high number of “favourable” gene variants.     

The Cups That Cheered – A History of the Sigerson,Fitzgibbon and Higher Education Gaelic Games

This article follows up on Adrian Harvey's piece ‘The emergence of football in nineteenth-century England: the historiographic debate’ [International Journal of the History of Sport 30, no. 18 (2013): 2154–2163]. It reviews the historiography of Scottish football on the period before the First World War. There is considerable literature on the topic, but it is not by any means evenly distributed to cover Scotland's geography, nor does it give balanced coverage to a wide-enough variety of thematic subjects. The author places this historiography into six broad categories which reflect the audience, research interests and methodology of the pieces, and offers a critical assessment of work still to be done in what is a disparate field.     

Exploring athletic identity in elite-level English youth football: a cross-sectional approach

Abstract

This study is the first empirical investigation that has explored levels of athletic identity in elite-level English professional football. The importance of understanding athletes’ psychological well-being within professional sport has been well documented. This is especially important within the professional football industry, given the high attrition rate (Anderson, G., & Miller, R. M. (2011). The academy system in English professional football: Business value or following the herd? University of Liverpool, Management School Research Paper Series. Retrieved from http://www.liv.ac.uk/managementschool/research/working%20papers/wp201143.pdf) and distinct occupational practices (Roderick, M. (2006). The work of professional football. A labour of love? London: Routledge). A total of 168 elite youth footballers from the English professional football leagues completed the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS). Multilevel modelling was used to examine the effect of playing level, living arrangements and year of apprentice on the total AIMS score and its subscales (i.e., social identity, exclusivity and negative affectivity). Football club explained 30% of the variance in exclusivity among players (P = .022). Mean social identity was significantly higher for those players in the first year of their apprenticeship compared to the second year (P = .025). All other effects were not statistically significant (P > .05). The novel and unique findings have practical implications in the design and implementation of career support strategies with respect to social identity. This may facilitate the maintenance of motivation over a 2-year apprenticeship and positively impact on performance levels within the professional football environment.     

Push-and-Run between Power,Participation and Performance: Political Playmaking and the Tactics of the Asian Football Confederation

In the wake of the nomination of Qatar as host country for the World Cup 2022 and the subsequent debate on ethical and organizational aspects of running world football, more public attention has been drawn to actors that play an important role in the politically, economically, and culturally globalized ‘game’ of football. Journalists, academics, and fans have therefore spotlighted the significance of sport governing bodies in the context of aspects relating to power, profit, participation, and performance. This article provides an insight into the significance of political issues in sport in general and particularly with regard to football in Asia and the role of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Referring to the political processes within the football system as well as the political relations between non-governmental, governmental, and business actors this analysis produces an account of the complexity of football politics. Under consideration of three theoretical perspectives – globalization, neo-institutionalism, and governance – the paper assesses the AFC as Glocal Player, Corporate Actor, and Skilful Negotiator.     

Playing With "patriotic fire": women and football in the Antipodes during the Great War

The revelation that women first played Australian Rules football during the period of the Great War is an important element in overall understandings of how both masculine and feminine ideals were challenged and redefined by sporting practices in a time of general social flux. This paper reveals that the genesis of the women's code was in Western Australia, where contests occurred as early as 1915. Three years later, with the war nearing its conclusion, the template of women's involvement in charity matches with strong military and patriotic overtones was adopted in the state of Victoria, the code's heartland. Investigations such as this one, indicative of the complex relationships between sport and gender during the First World War, offer scope for deeper comprehension of a much-studied military conflict, and point the way forward for those that bemoan the static agenda of research into women's football.     

Social Change,Astro-Turfs,and Entrepreneurial Activities in the Context of German Non-Elite Football: The Example of Lower-Division Club BSV Bielstein

Abstract

This article explores the efforts of a German non-elite football club to revitalize itself using a combination of modernization strategies to overcome a perceived existential crisis. The modernizing strategies involved improving facilities (laying an artificial pitch and building a new club house) while at the same time actively pursuing a community role via, for example, work with refugees. The interdisciplinary approach used here stresses the peculiar character of institutionalization/bureaucratization (clubs/associations) in combination with the social world of club football as emotional community in Germany since the nineteenth century. In contrast to an emphasis on the systemic character of football as a closed social system with its specific set of rules in which the logic of action is historically predetermined, this article focusses on social actors and their constant struggle to recreate and redefine the social world of football through their actions.     

Not just Any Wintry Afternoon in England: the curious contribution of C.R.W. Nevinson to ‘football art’

This paper considers the painting Any Wintry Afternoon in England (1930) (AWA) by the prominent artist and social commentator C.R.W. Nevinson (1889–1946). The painting is one of few, and perhaps the best-known, by an English fine artist to take football as its subject matter during the first 40 years of that sport's professional existence. The paper concentrates on gaining an understanding of this painting within the context of Nevinson's biography. Of course, a painting may well be admired by viewers without any knowledge of the painter at all, and no issue is taken in the paper with the possibility of totally independent readings. But from an art-history and cultural-history perspective, knowledge of a painter's biography is significant in allowing for consideration of the artwork as a product of its time. In the case of AWA, knowledge of Nevinson's hostility to sport supports the view of a leading critic, on the occasion its of its exhibition, that the painting was intended as a satire on the mass popularity of football in England in the 1920s. Forearmed with this knowledge, wariness can be taken against subsequent attempts to locate AWA within a genre of ‘football paintings’ that represent an enthusiasm for the game. Nevinson's earlier involvement with Futurism had acquainted him with that movement's tendency to take aspects of popular culture as inspiration for art. But Nevinson took football as a derisory subject matter rather than inspiration and in doing so put AWA at odds with the contemporaneous visual representations of football that had begun to appear in popular mediums such as postcards and film. Yet, contrary to some wishful interpretations though it may be, AWA, owing to its very contrariness, remains an important historical image in the visual representation of football as popular culture.     

Can subjective comfort be used as a measure of plantar pressure in football boots?

Comfort has been shown to be the most desired football boot feature by players. Previous studies have shown discomfort to be related to increased plantar pressures for running shoes which, in some foot regions, has been suggested to be a causative factor in overuse injuries. This study examined the correlation between subjective comfort data and objective plantar pressure for football boots during football-specific drills. Eight male university football players were tested. Plantar pressure data were collected during four football-specific movements for each of three different football boots. The global and local peak pressures based on a nine-sectioned foot map were compared to subjective comfort measures recorded using a visual analogue scale for global discomfort and a discomfort foot map for local discomfort. A weak (r_s = ?0.126) yet significant (P < 0.05) correlation was shown between the peak plantar pressure experienced and the visual analogue scale rated comfort. The model only significantly predicted (P > 0.001) the outcome for two (medial and lateral forefoot) of the nine foot regions. Subjective comfort data is therefore not a reliable measure of increased plantar pressures for any foot region. The use of plantar pressure measures is therefore needed to optimise injury prevention when designing studded footwear.     

From childhood to senior professional football: elite youth players’ engagement in non-football activities

Abstract

Despite the large amount of research available on how engagement in football practice relates to future performance level among football players, similar information about the contribution of non-football activities is scarce. Based on data from 745 elite youth players this study aimed to identify the characteristics and contribution of diverse participation towards elite youth and senior professional status. The data were collected using a retrospective questionnaire where the players reported the amount of time spent in other sports than football, in addition to their perceived contribution of different non-football activities for developing football skills. The accumulated hours of time spent in other sports of players who had obtained a senior professional contract were compared to non-professional players, using multilevel modelling (n = 558), while a t-test compared the activity ratings to each other. No significant differences were identified between professional and non-professional players’ engagement history, but overall, the players rated sports similar to football to be significantly more relevant for developing football skills than other sports. The results suggests that spending time in non-football activities did not contribute to present differences in performance attainment in football, but also that potential advantages of such activities may be related to their characteristics.     

Nigerian football: a case of social media and sport insider information

The increasing use of information and communication technology, particularly social media, has extended the reach of football discourse beyond traditional boundaries determined by in-groups of administrators, other football stakeholders and legacy media gatekeepers. Privileged football information refers to football information that would otherwise be restricted to insiders and may include ongoing, real-time or proposed decisions or events by football administrators, players, and other key football stakeholders. The relative anonymity of social media provides football administrators, insider journalists, player agents and others who have access to privileged information, with a communication channel to clandestinely disseminate the information. The paper explores possible motivation of an insider, Muyiwalawal, who posted insider information on Eagles Nest, a discussion board for Nigerian football fans, before and during the 2014 World Cup. We also report on the impact of the information on members of Eagles Nest. We find that the insider in this case is motivated by identity as an insider, prestige and member appreciation. Additionally, we find that persuasive impact of the information narrative is dependent on recipient's interpretation of narrative fidelity.     

Developing football expertise: a football-specific research review

About 265 million people regularly play football, of which only 0.04% play in a professional league. This suggests that reaching expertise specifically in football is difficult and highly competitive. In recent decades, research on the development of football expertise has increased substantially. However, most of these studies have focused on isolated aspects of the developmental process, and consequently there has been a lack of overview of how these different aspects interact to produce football experts. The aim of this study is to review available research on the development of expertise specific for football. The review is limited to papers found in the electronic SportDiscus database. The 2007 Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP) has been used as the conceptual framework. The results highlight the importance of football-specific practice in early developmental phases in becoming an expert in football. It is also proposed that football-specific nuances may need to be applied to the DMSP in order to make the debate of early specialization versus diversification sufficiently valid for this particular context. Consequences for practice engagement and future research are discussed.     

Assessment of decision-making performance and in-game physical exertion of Australian football umpires

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of in-game physical exertion on decision-making performance of Australian football umpires. Fifteen Australian football umpires (M_age = 36, s = 13.5 years; M_{games umpired} = 235.2, s = 151.3) volunteered to participate in the study. During five competitive Australian football pre-season games, measures of in-game physical exertion (blood lactate levels, global positioning system [GPS]) and decision-making performance (video-based test) were obtained. There were no significant correlations between physical exertion in a particular quarter and decision-making performance in either the same quarter or any other quarter. Video-based decision-making performance was effected by time in game χ²(3) = 24.24, P = 0.001, with Quarter 4 performance significantly better than both Quarter 2 and Quarter 3. In-game physical exertion (blood lactate) significantly decreased over the course of the game χ²(3) = 11.58, P = 0.009. Results indicate no definable link between in-game physical exertion and decision-making performance. It is, however, presumed that decision-making performance may be affected by the time or context of the game. Future research is warranted to explore the relationship between physical exertion and decision-making performance to potentially inform Australian football umpire training programmes that replicate in-game physical and decision-making demands.     

Football,Control and Resistance in the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the 1970s

This study analyses forms of political manifestations related to football (soccer), observed in Brazil in the course of the 1970s. The article observes, in the context of football, the outbreak of a dispute between conservative powers and left wing forces in the Brazilian political scene. In this period, different subjects, linked to opposition groups, also used the communicative space created around the sport in order to externalise their political ideals. Thus, the sport served the interests of both the state and the Brazilian leftists. These actions generated the involvement of football players, artists and the media in general. In this context, the sports press figured as the main mediator of the symbolic battles engaged amidst football players, coaches, managers and fans, and the official acts and actions of the state.     

Amerika: The Super Bowl and German Imagination

Abstract

The Super Bowl has played a central role in the diffusion of American football in Germany, as interviews with the ‘founding fathers’ of ‘gridiron’ football clubs and analysis of German media accounts reveal. American football and the Super Bowl have also played an important role in the construction of traditional German Amerikabilder – images, ideas, and symbols associated with America. German media rarely covered American football until the late 1970s. At that time, brief highlight shows of the Super Bowl on German television and broadcasts on the American Forces Network significantly contributed to the diffusion of American football and the emergence of an American football league in Germany in the late 1970s. In the process of covering the Super Bowl, German journalists reproduced Germany’s double-headed Amerikabild: America as a model of modernity on the one hand, and as a violent, cultureless society on the other. The press further invoked historical clashes between German Kultur and the dreaded Zivilisation of the West. This exploration of the social processes surrounding the reception of the Super Bowl in Germany employs the theories of cultural globalization, migration, and electronic mediation developed by the anthropologist Arjun Appadurai to explain the complexities of contemporary global cultural flows.