ABSTRACT
1. During the 1870s, spurred on partly by competition between the new associations, soccer and Rugby spread throughout the country, ceasing to be monopolized by the upper and middle classes. In short, they began to undergo ‘democratization’. We have used this term rather than ‘popularization’ because, as we shall show, diffusion led to a shift in the balance of power within, and hence, to a change in the structure and dynamics of, both games.
