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.