On Bosworth Field or the Playing Fields of Eton and Rugby? Who Really Invented Modern Football?
In the article about the origins of modern football the authors discuss what region of England is truly responsible for the game of modern football we know today. The article discusses early football and how the game looked different then how we think of the game today and how the rules evolved. The Sheffield region seemed to get the game into its more modern form in terms of rules. In the region the sport enjoyed popularity among the elite although it was limited to amateurism due to the preferences of the elite who for religious or other reasons declined to allow the game in that region to be played professionally. Since these men controlled the sport in the region the game was played at the amateur level.
In Lancashire the situation was different. While the region adopted the basic rules of the game from Sheffield the region embraced professional players much more so that the Sheffield region. Much of that difference in preference had to do with who was playing football in Lancashire compared to Sheffield at the time. The Lancaster region players and club organizers were from the emerging lower middle class.
Quotation:
Consequently, it is argued, there was a culture of rich endemic sporting practices in south and east Lancashire including playing football and foot-racing for money that, conjoined to commercial practices through the licensed trade and gambling, eased the transition to full professionalism. Second, there was the emergence of a lower middle class in the form of clerks, accountants, bookkeepers and school teachers who had the necessary social and cultural capital to administer and develop the emerging association football clubs in the late 1870s and early 1880s (1439).
Questions:
- How much was the enthusiasm for soccer among the elites diminished once soccer became popularized and professionalized?
- In the early days which organization had more influence on football the Football association or the Sheffield Club?