The Emergence of Football in Nineteenth-Century England: The Historiographic Debate

The work details the history of football that became established in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the view that social and economic changes resulted in football disappearing from the general community, only surviving in the various public schools, who played a codified game. It was these games that were transplanted to the general population, becoming the sports of rugby and soccer. This remained the established history of football until almost the twenty-first century, whence it was replaced by an increased acknowledgement that during the nineteenth century football did not die out. In fact, popularly played football during this period was conducted under strict rules. It is maintained that rugby and soccer were produced in the nineteenth century by a fusion of influences from both the public schools and wider communities.