Category Archives: European Football Leagues

Early Football History in England and France – by Cole Sylvester

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Cole PCQ 1/8/2014

In Peter Swain and Adrian Harvey’s article on the origins of modern football, they explain how football’s origins center around a rudimentary rule system that is almost completely different from any of the rules we know now.

In this early form, football and rugby were very similar in their rules and styles of play.  It wasn’t until Sheffield FA’s football culture improved to the point where they were able to host their own cup competition.

This first football cup was sponsored by a local businessman who even contributed a trophy to the winner of the 12 team competition.

Because of this influence, Sheffield FA was able to prevent the disbandment of the FA.  These early games were not commercial pursuits, rather presided over by amateurs.  But as interest in these games increased, the clubs began charging admission to the games as they were now played in commercial gardens and enclosed public house fields.

French Contributions to the Game of Football:

“During the Third Republic conscripts were required to undergo military service, which was often carried out in regiments far from the Seine De´partement. As soon as Parisian players arrived in their regiment, they almost always got together a football team and, insofar as sport did not figure on the athletics programme of French military training, encouraged practice of it by, among other things, requesting that their home teams sent footballs.

Questions:

  • How did the competition between France and Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries contribute to the quality of the players and game of football we know today?
  • How did the changing social and economic dynamics of the players and supporters of the game of football influence the spread of the popularity of the game?

About the “TIFO” (Things I Found Online) Articles

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TIFOs (“Things I Found Online”) are brief pieces in which students post the link to an article, a video, photo or other types of documents they found online that address a theme each student chose to follow during the course.

Sheffield (England) Football Club, 1890s (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

Sheffield (England) Football Club, 1890s [Source: Wikipedia Commons]

During the January 2014 J-Term, students and the instructor will post TIFOs dealing with the history and contemporary realities of football as part of the course Hist. 203, “Soccer, Race and Nationalism,” taught by Prof. Luis Figueroa-Martínez, Associate Professor of History, at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut.

Student TIFOs are usually related to the themes each student will explore in his or her final paper.

For example, in the case of the photo that appears above, while obtained from the Wikipedia Commons as public domain, the original image appears to have come from an article on Sheffield F.C. (football club) and the origins of “association football” in England in the mid-nineteenth century that was published in the BBC News website published in 2007.

The Sheffield F.C. is considered the oldest football club in the world. The article by the BBC provides more details about its origin and the role it played in the origins of modern “association” football in the mid-nineteenth century.

TIFO: “Djibril Cisse Hits Out at ‘Racist’ Greek League . . .”

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While this incident occurred over two years ago, this is simply a prime example of blatant racism in the footballing world.

Djibril Cisse was the victim of racial abuse during the 2011 season in the Greek football league and claimed that racism was an issue throughout the entire league. Players even stormed the field after a game and attacked him.

Cisse insisted, “I was their target. Some of them hit me and I retaliated to defend myself. It’s a disgrace”.

Read more here.

TIFO: “Neuer Named World’s Best Goalkeeper” – by Cole Sylvester

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This article shows how German players are reaching the pinnacle of their careers just as the World Cup is coming around again. Neurer’s upsetting of Spanish icon Iker Casillas’s five year reign over the award demonstrates how Spain’s aging national team is losing its grip on the world stage.

Gabriel Maletta TIFO 2

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This TIFO focuses on Football Against Racism in Europe or the FARE Network.  The FARE network is a dedicated group of NGOs, player Unions and Leagues which act to erase racism from soccer through campaigning and events throughout Europe. FARE focuses many of its efforts in Central and Eastern European countries where racism at football events has become an increasingly prevalent issue.

TIFO: “More than Ever, Barca More than Club for Catalans”

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Here is the article, “More than ever, Barca more than club for Catalans.”

I chose this article because I want explore the tensions between the distinct regions of Spain, specifically Cataluña and Paìs Vasco, and the central government as seen through soccer.  This article does a great job of explaining the history of the Barcelona football club and the relationship it has had with nationalistic tendencies for the Catalans.  In the past, it has been used as a catalyst of the Catalan movement, like how they used the stadium as a place to speak Catalan while under the regime of Franco.  It’s really cool to see that this relationship has continued, as seen through this quote from the article, “tens of thousands of Catalans in the city at the heart of their separatist movement chanted in unison: “Independence!”” (AP)

TIFO: “How Eusebio’s Soccer Exploits Challenged European and African Identities”

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This article I found discusses the player Eusébio da Silva Ferreira who was born in Mozambique before the country was independent and played soccer for a Lisbon club team along with the Portugal national team.

Also despite being from Africa he was voted European player of the year in 1965. The article discusses the impact he has had on soccer in Mozambique and Africa and how his career blazed the trail for African players to play for European clubs.

Race, Nationalism, Globalization and Sports – by Cole Sylvester

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Cole PCQ 1/6/2014

The article, Theories of “Race” by Michael Banton, takes a look at the idea that “race” does not have a biological reason or empirical existence. Rather, the idea that there are separate “races” of humans who are in some way cognitively or physiologically different from one another gets turned on its head in the 1920s with the advent of racial sociology. Race became known as a mental reaction that “made [distinctive peoples] conscious of what distinguished them” thus “social life built up frustration which individuals released on to scapegoats in the form of displaced aggression”.

The “distinctive peoples” mentioned in Robert E. Park’s ecological theory were only made separate by European capitalism’s need for cheap un-free labor. Because of the early advent of the idea of separate distinctive races, human society has created an environment of subconscious discrimination for anyone who is perceived as different, much like the thinking of 19th century scientists divided Homo sapiens into three subspecies (or races). Instead of a philosophy of inferiorization and exploitation of the 19th century subspecies, our modern globalized society has instead turned to ethnic, religious, and economical “races” that we still create prejudices and discriminate against. Continue reading →

Race and Science, Nationalism and Globalization – by MS

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Unequal Development:

In the eighteenth century was the first attempt to utilize race as a scientific concept. A French anatomist Cuvier started this in 1817 and he divided the races into three subspecies Caucasians, Mongolians and Ethiopians.  All this make different races start being more superior to others. Cuvier states “ whites had gained dominion over the world and made the most rapid progress in science. ‘Yellows’ were less advanced, and blacks degraded”. So race was used as a taxon. To spread the ideology they used novels and people who were notable.

Early Social Science:

The ecological theory developed by Robert E. Park in Chicago maintained that migration brought distinctive people into contact; competition made them conscious of what distinguished them, and those in a superior status developed prejudice as a defensive reaction.

Reaction: Competition creates racial tension and this is why we see migrant people face difficulties when they migrate to a new country. How can science be the way Continue reading →