Early Football Professionalism in Sheffield


Book Description

Over the past two decades, academic, sociological and historical writing on football has blossomed. This book adds to that debate, providing more information on early professionalism in Sheffield. Professional football in England has always been linked to the importation of players from other regions - largely, Scotland - to East Lancashire by the likes of Preston North End and Burnley. However, the first stages of importation took place in Sheffield. This trend has been touched on in articles on the subject, but has never been subjected to in-depth study in a book-length manuscript before. As well as introducing academic theories regarding football professionalism in the text, the narrative will focus on the careers of individuals in the city who were heavily involved with the process, illustrating their lifestyles, reactions and general participation in the early payment of footballers.







How Football Began


Book Description

This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world’s football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.




Football: The First Hundred Years


Book Description

The story of the creation of Britain's national game has often been told. According to the accepted wisdom, the refined football games created by English public schools in the 1860s subsequently became the sports of the masses. Football, The First Hundred Years, provides a revisionist history of the game, challenging previously widely-accepted beliefs. Harvey argues that established football history does not correspond with the facts. Football, as played by the 'masses' prior to the adoption of the public school codes is almost always portrayed as wild and barbaric. This view may require considerable modification in the light of Harvey's research. Football's First One Hundred Years provides a very detailed picture of the football played outside the confines of the public schools, revealing a culture that was every bit as sophisticated and influential as that found within their prestigious walls. Football, The First Hundred Years sets forth a completely revisionist thesis, offering a different perspective on almost every aspect of the established history of the formative years of the game. The book will be of great interest to sports historians and football enthusiasts alike.




Association Football


Book Description

This book presents a synthesis of the work on early football undertaken by the authors over the past two decades. It explores aspects of a figurational approach to sociology to examine the early development of football rules in the middle part of the nineteenth century. The book tests Dunning’s status rivalry hypothesis to contest Harvey’s view of football’s development which stresses an influential sub-culture outside the public schools. Status Rivalry re-states the primacy of these latter institutions in the growth of football and without it the sport’s story would remain skewed and unbalanced for future generations.




Research Handbook on the Law of Professional Football Clubs


Book Description

This original Research Handbook examines the key legal aspects of a professional football club’s actions. Reflecting also on the role of key governing bodies such as UEFA, the Handbook informs and contributes to the ongoing debate surrounding the governance and behaviours of professional football clubs.




Myths and Milestones in the History of Sport


Book Description

The conventional history of sport, as conveyed by television and the sports press, has thrown up a great many apparent turning points, but knowledge of these apparently defining moments is often slight. This book offers readable, in-depth studies of a series of these watersheds in sport history and of the circumstances in which they came about.




Sport’S Great All-Rounders


Book Description

On July 3, 1958, Arthur Milton and MJK Smith opened the batting for England in the third Test against New Zealand at Headingley. Coincidentally, Milton was the last Englishman to play football and cricket for England and Smith the last Englishman to play rugby and cricket for England. However, both before and after that Test in 1958, there have been a number of sportsmen and sportswomen who have represented their country in more than one sport. In this book are listed biographical details of 172 sportsmen and sportswomen, including some of whom are disabled, who have excelled at more than one sport. Some, such as CB Fry and Denis Compton, will be well-known; others, such as Aramugam Vijiaratnam, who represented Singapore in four sports and Ken Hough, who played three different sports for three different countries may be less well-known. But everyone listed has excelled at more than one sport and this book serves to recognize their achievements.




The Making of Association Football


Book Description

This book is concerned with the early development of association football. The underlying hypothesis here is that the modern game was essentially ‘made’ between the years 1857 and 1877. By the latter date, soccer in England was finally governed by a single set of laws which stressed the use of the feet over the hands, thus confirming and further accentuating the split between association and rugby football. The book makes extensive use of the original minutes of the Football Association of the time, which tell a tale of disagreement, possible conspiracy and the rise of Charles Alcock, the creator of the FA Cup and international football. By 1877, a governing body for soccer had been in existence for 14 years, a national cup competition had begun six years previously, international matches had been played, examples of professionalism had surfaced, and the modern game had effectively been ‘made’.




The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly: Issue Twenty Four


Book Description

First published in March 2017, Issue Twenty Four contains 19 articles in 7 sections, including: Anthony Clavane on the decline of heavy industry and the sad logic of Brexit in Yorkshire; Peter Frankopan looking at how in politics, economics and football the role of Asia is becoming more significant; and David Stubbs on the glorious summer of 1996 when all things seemed possible.




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