ABSTRACT

This fascinating collection brings together leading football historians and sociologists from the UK, Germany, the USA and Australia to offer fresh perspectives on the early development of football (soccer), not only illuminating our understanding of the early history of the world’s most popular sport, but also the importance of sport in our broader social and cultural history.

The book presents new evidence and fresh perspectives which will inform the robust debate that has been raging about the origins and early development of football. It addresses key issues at the centre of this debate, including the influence of former English public schoolboys, the development of football subcultures outside of prestige educational institutions, and the intersection and divergence of the various football codes around the world.

The Early Development of Football is an important resource for anyone working in the history of football or sports in general, football studies or the sociology of sport. It is also a useful read for those interested in sport management and the development of sports organisations and rules.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

chapter 3|15 pages

Researching the origins and early history of the football codes

A view from down under

chapter 4|18 pages

The beginnings of soccer in Melbourne

The eternal recurrence of the game

chapter 5|18 pages

The emergence of club football in ‘The Potteries’

Bottle kilns for goalposts

chapter 6|22 pages

A review of early football in Lincolnshire

County town, market towns and grammar schools

chapter 8|15 pages

Football grows far and wide in the North East

Development to 1890 and the creation of the Northern League

chapter 9|19 pages

Early football in and around Shrewsbury

Soccer in the sticks

chapter 10|18 pages

Football in Winchester, in town and college, before 1884

‘Very fast and interesting to look on at’