ABSTRACT
The IFA’s Annual Report 1903–04 reminded readers about the rapid advance, even primacy, of the sport for which it was responsible: ‘The game has increased in popularity, going steadily onwards, gathering new adherents every day, and conquering new districts, until it would appear there is nothing that can stem the onrushing force of Association Football as the popular game in town and country’. 1 An even faster period of growth occurred during the next decade, as demonstrated most vividly by ‘the enormous increase in the popularity of the game’ (SFA) in Scotland. 2 In April 1906, the Scotland-England match, played at Hampden Park (Glasgow), attracted the first-ever 100,000-plus attendance, but by 1914 even this figure was exceeded by a crowd of 127,000 yielding gate receipts approaching £7,000. Reasons for growth, whether measured by the number of players or spectators, go beyond the scope of this study, but the need for ‘a new urban identity’ and sense of ‘belonging’, identified by Mason and Holt as key factors explaining support for local clubs, are relevant in terms of raising questions about the link between Britons and their respective national teams. 3 For example, was British football ‘too self-absorbed’ in club loyalties and league rivalries to give itself wholeheartedly to the national cause, especially as compared to cricket? 4 If ‘professional football helped flesh out a distinctive sense of place within the wider framework of national competition’, did international football perform the same role in the broader international context, given the competitive, insecure conditions characterising the pre-1914 period? 5 How far did the rapid growth of the media promote football’s image as the national game?
