The Business of Soccer
Swain’s article reflects on the progression of football from a private school boy’s game into a professional sport in the later half of the 19th century in the region of Lacashire, England. Towards the middle of the 19th century rules were set in place to cement what is today known throughout in soccer. One of our early class discussions and readings focused on the various factors that led to the development of football in Brazil, specifically into a very technical and free-flowing style. A question posed by a member of the class asked why only in Brazil was this style invented. Swain seeks to answer the same question as to why in Lancashire, England was soccer able to take hold and fully evolve into a professional sport. Swain brings up many reasons, varying from the regions private schools to the Lancashire team’s easy attitudes toward player recruitment.
Of particular interest is Swain’s focus on Lancashire’s unique location as a center of ‘a highly developed commercialized sporting culture’ (1434) that allowed football to gain widespread prominence. With the addition of new regulations of the game, it was easy to turn the game into a money-making business, with ticket sales and a local populace with spending money. Lancashire already had a very well established sporting infrastructure, so soccer was adopted into the mix with ease. The monetary rewards for players attracted prospects from throughout the U.K. allowing for a flow of talent to and from the city. While many other factors contributed to football’s growth in Lancashire the business aspect is especially interesting considering today’s open discussion about professional soccer and the amount of money that flows through it.
Parisian Football
Sorez’s article focuses on the developement of soccer in the Paris and its suburbs around the turn of the 19th century and into the early 20th century. He focusses on a number of factors which led to Paris become the central hub of French soccer, particularly its role as the French capital and the natural pull of the city. Going back to our readings on immigrants and their role in fostering soccer, the British as they had done in Brazil, played an important role in establish football clubs throughout Paris. The British expats brought a natural knowledge of the game as well as the experience of establishing club leagues. Parisian football benefitted greatly from their knowledge, as well as from being a central location for French sporting interest during the century.
Of interest is the roll that French military conscription played in exporting soccer to other regions of the country. French conscripts from Paris, who had been introduced early to soccer, brought the sport to their Regiments throughout the Republic allowing for competition between Regiments and exposure to the new sport.
“Sport was big business in Lancashire generally…and while football had yet to develop rules that were sufficiently appealing to enable the game to cultivate a mass audience, the changes…were creating a sport, played by professionals, that would become a mass industry.” (Swain 1433)
“The evidence suggests then that south and east Lancashire had a highly developed commercialized sporting culture well before the introduction of professional football. Indeed, this was the cultural base upon which the professional association game was built.” (Swain 1434)
Questions
- If the business aspect of professional soccer, i.e. ‘the money’ was such an important factor in fostering the new sport and allowing it to grow, why is there such a call nowadays to limit the growth of professional teams buying power?
- How much credit should be given to the British for the development of football as a world sport?