ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that football was colonised by the middle-class establishment, operating with a capitalist imperative long before its modern era. It explains the different stages of English football’s capitalism, outlines its origin as a ritualistic leisure pursuit before its formal professionalization, and reviews the formation of the bureaucratic system that defined football culture for nearly a century before the ideological shift that ushered in the game’s modern capitalism. While developing the culture of English football, it is vital to acknowledge that like the public school alumni, the entrepreneurs who sponsored football among their employees displayed a shrewd appreciation of their own self-interest. The popularity of the Football Association Cup lead to the organization of regional supplementary competitions organized to capitalize financially on the improved social status and leisure time afforded to the working-classes. Like ‘futeball,’ the Cup had a ritualistic and symbolic role in the development and assertion of self-identity.
