On Boswoth Field or the Playing Fields of Eton and Rugby? Who Really Invented Modern Football?, by Peter Swain and Adrian Harvey

I think it is important to begin this PCQ by acknowledging how the ascension of football to athletic prominence in the British Isles follows a trickle down pattern. Originally a sport for gentlemen, the lower middle class are largely responsible for introducing football as a spectator sport and popularizing it nationwide. This trend is similar to the trends that football followed in Brazil. Played by the landed nobility in their bucolic settings, it spread to the lower tiers of society with the arrival of immigrants and factory sponsored teams.

I think it is not ironic that the patterns of British soccer are very close to that of Brazil. First of all,  soccer’s early proponents were young educated individuals in or finishing school. In England, football “stemmed from public schools” (Swain and Harvey). To elaborate on further parallels, there was some ethnic tension in recruiting athletes. Like black people in South America, Scots were often met with obstacles when attempting to play in English clubs and their admittance on to a team was contentious. Overtime, this prejudice diminished; the same deterioration occurred in Brazil.

Quite astonishing is the fact that the authors reported that soccer was very close to being abandoned as a sport in Britain; the Football Association (FA) was at the point of dissolution. This mere extinction was due to the ineffective rules of the league. Attendance at games was low; support was meagre. However, the more standardized rules of Sheffield FC made the game more popular. The FA soon adopted the penalty procedures and reformed the rules of soccer based off of Sheffield’s codes. The process yielded results. The Sheffield system was more appealing to spectators as well.

Another parallel to Brazil, thee was opposition to professionalization. One reason, the author cites, is the links football in Britain had to gambling, liquor trade, and other bacchanalian activities. But by 1881, Lancashire “became the new home for the next stage of professional football” (Swain and Harvey). Football overtime became more commercial as well. Southeast Lancashire became the center of this style of football. Sports became a big business in this county. Clearly, one can divine that this illustrates the human tendency to respond to incentives. Once there was money to be made from the lucrative sport industry, it made this behemoth of economics. There was a strong incentive to grow. This lesson applies today. By having the ability to note the incentives in the football industry, there is a high probability that behaviors can be predicted.

Another point on British football is that it was mostly popularized by the lower middle class. Men such as Thomas Hindle at Darwen serve as an example. These activists for football were not the titled nobility, but men with skilled employment in clerical jobs who sedulously rose through the ranks of business to prominence. British soccer became a means of some vertical mobility. The Athletic News, a publication, reported “thriving” news on the game. Again, the media plays a pivotal role in ingratiating a sport with a larger audience. This phenomenon takes place in the contemporary world, where the media exercises immense power.

Paris: Challenges Faced by Sport Practiced within a Capital City

When French football was in its germinal stages, Paris was the center of the nascent, yet blooming, soccer scene in France. Arguably, it was the center of football on the continent of Europe, discounting the growth of football in the British Isles. FIFA was founded in Paris in 1919. Part of this leading trend was that Paris was, and is, the mainsail of culture in France. This trend was global in the 19th century as well. French styles and fashions were emulated all over the globe, including Brazil. The French language was the tongue of sophistication and urbanity.

These trends offer unique points of analysis in urban studies. Paris is, incontrovertibly, a primate city, whereby one urban center is the leading economic, political, and cultural force in a realm. This primacy in France is subsequently reflected in Paris’ headfirst role in the inception of football as the sport of popular approval. Furthermore, the administrative lead of Paris in football was revealed as time went on. The city was the charging head in the institutionalization of football in France. This gave legitimacy to a fledging sport that had been popularized previously.

Part of this rise of to prominence is owed to the Catholic Church. To begin, the Catholic Church has historically been an unshakable and hegemonic institution in France culturally and politically. Throughout the various attempts to dethrone Catholicism from its high perch during the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, it has always managed to preserve its potent status in France. I find it unsurprising that the church influenced the establishment of soccer in France. Early soccer organizations collaborated, as the article suggest, with Catholic sports associations along with some proselytism helped spread football.

Part of the soccer’s early traits in France was the mystique it had. Paris clubs had a high reputation. The early leaders of associations were claimed to have “dynamism.” Team visits o the suburbs, friendly games, exhibitions, and other events popularized soccer. There is much to note from the “interface” of British teams. Clubs from across the Channel visited France and helped develop the sport. Certainly, there is something to be said about globalization. As illustrated, British-French action helped football take root in Europe. I think this proves that there is an argument to be made about how globalization and soccer have always worked and grew in tandem. Particularly, soccer’s entanglement with worldwide connectivity began very early in its formation and indubitably contributed to its diverse array of fans and players.

Eventually, provincial centers eclipsed Paris as the centers of football’s activity. There was a resurgence of mistrust for Paris as the center of nearly all activity in France. Plus, more games were being played in areas outside the Île-de-France region. These sport clubs had lucrative benefits. Additionally, there was a balkanization of management in municipal centers, which lead to the decline of the unitarian and national power in soccer. Paris might be the nucleus of France save French football.

Additional Quotations

1. “What is critical in this paper is the identification of the individual social actors who made choices within these structural constraints and opposed using their social and cultural capital acquired through their occupations as part of a newly emerging class structure.”

2. “Thus, the football culture evident in this area [Lancashire] represents the antithesis of the hegemony of ex-public school and university gentlemen amateur with which it co-existed.”

3. “The formation of modern association football in Lancashire between 1830 and 1885 can then be seen to be effected through linear continuities in local pop culture and the emergence of a lower middle class rather than public school tradition.”

4. “The Parisian domination of football was exclusively linked to the extrinsic political, economical, and cultural influence of Paris and thus the sport was unable through its lack of autonomy to define its own standards for excellence and recognition.”

Questions

1. What is it meant in the the quotation when the authors mention cultural and social capital?
2. Is it plausible, and indeed correct, to say that the rise of soccer in Brazil closely mirrors the process by which the sport arose in Britain?
3. Some people deplore the commercialization of football and other sentimental sports. Is commercialization a good thing?
4. To what extent could one argue that the decentralization of soccer in France was a organic process that was achieved by the sport’s gain in popularity?