Football and Britain - Essay Example

?Football and Britain Football is the most popular sport in the world and is played by men, women and children. Fame of football is greater than any other sport worldwide. However, to Britain and its people, football is more than a sport. True it is an athletic experience, but also it is an important social event. Football has influenced many aspects in British culture and is present in British history, literature, music, cinema, television and thus, has become a major part in British popular culture. Football is also a big business in Britain and plays a significant role in politics and economics. It also plays its fair portion in UK’s violence and crime too. Therefore, understanding football culture in Britain is a sure way to understand the British culture and a fitting approach to recognize the significance of a sport to a country, especially with the 2018 World cup and London Olympic 2012 in site. The purpose of this report is therefore to understand how the football culture has influenced the society of Britain and British people. England is considered as the ‘mother of football’. This is not surprising when considering the fact that the world’s oldest association football club (Sheffield F. C.), the oldest national football governing body (The Football Association), the first National football team and the oldest national football league (The Football League) have all raised in England There are many football clubs in UK at national, regional and local levels and all the home nations (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish) have separate teams and domestic competitions. Currently, the Premier League, UK’s topmost domestic league, is one of the wealthiest and most popular sports league in the world (Football in England, 2011). British football fans consider playing football as a social event and will travel greater distances to participate in their favored sport, made more enjoyable with an occasional visit to a pub before and after the game and meeting old friends. They may also have a sentimental attachment to the location or the ground where the game is played. The high ticketing costs of the Premier League matches have not discouraged the loyal fans away from their beloved sport and as reported by Guilinotti (2005), ‘some estimates value soccer- related business at over ? 250 billion in 2003’ Rise of the future football talents are encouraged by means of football scholarships given by universities, colleges and charitable trusts (eg. Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, Youth Sport Trust) and children of all ages play football in UK and get trained in football clubs. All these factors points to the fact that football is an important issue in cultural, social and economical aspects of Britain. Why the sport football happen to be a great event in Britain? That is because this game has been able to interwoven into the British culture as no other game could. There are British football magazines and papers, television and radio channels competing with each other to provide the British people with latest football news and events, it is in arts, music, films and books and there are many football souvenirs like shirts and caps and even sticker books for children. Talented football players have become role models, especially to young children. Football has the capacity to change people’s mood, according to the victory or defeat of their supporting team. No other sport has this level of influence upon the British society or the people in UK. The football culture is the cultural aspects surrounding the game of association football. Thus, it is worthwhile to discuss the manner in which this simple game has diffused into the British culture, its people and their lives. Generally, ‘culture’ is defined as a set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or a group (Culture, 2011) and ‘Culture of UK’ refers to the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with UK and its people (Culture of the United Kingdom, 2011) ). Presence of this game with the British society for a long period of time may be one reason for its integration into the British culture since football history in UK dates back to several centuries. As described in the History of Football (2011), William FitzStephen wrote the first description of a football match in England around 1170. He observed that in London, "After dinner all the youths of the city goes out into the fields for the very popular game of ball." This game of ball, played using an inflated animal bladder as the ball, continued to be played throughout the centuries in different styles and in different manner. The game was banned repeatedly by country rulers of different time periods, with the allegation that, youth wasted time in playing football and not in learning archery which was essential to build up the national defense and by Church leaders since youth spend much time playing games on Sundays. There were times when football was considered as “beastly and violent” and it was needed to “suppress the evil game” Despite all these obstacles, the game of football continued to flourish throughout the Britain and the enthusiasm of people in this sport could not be waved off. Gradually, it was accepted and permitted by the country leaders and by 1750’s football has entered into prestigious schools such as Eton, Westminster, Harrow, Shrewsbury, Winchester and Charterhouse. Introducing a half-day working on Saturday for English workers in 1860s and 1870s made the more participation of working class people in the game (Mason, 1980). As the game was played by different regions in different manner in various parts of the country, the need to unifying the game was felt. Hence a meeting was held in Cambridge University to lay down the rules of football and on 26th October 1863, the Football Association (FA) was established in England. Main aim of FA was to establish a set of fundamental rules to the football game that can be accepted by all parties involved. The first meeting was held at Freeman’s Tavern in London and was represented by high ranking sports clubs. These Laws of the Game defines the associate football and currently consist of 17 rules which describes every minute detail of the game (the size and shape of the ground, the size and shape of the ball, number of players, how the game should be played, what should and should not be done during the game etc.). In 1871, umpires and referees were introduced in to the game and in 1880, state schools were allowed to play football. Gradually the game of football gained its fame in other countries too and by 1912, 20 national associations were affiliated to FIFA, the International Federation of Association Football. The first international football game was played between England and Scotland in 1872 and in 1930, the first FIFA world cup match was played. As expressed by Giulianotti in 1999, “probably the most important reason for its popularity is the relative simplicity of football’s laws, equipment and body techniques.” Currently, Association football, also known as football or soccer, is a leading national sport event in England and has over 40,000 association football clubs. Some of the most notable football teams are the England’s Barclays Premier League and FA cup and the Scottish Premier League and Scottish cup. The English Premier League is a most popular league worldwide and its main clubs include Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. Football is a leading business enterprise in UK and exerts a high political as well as economical influence on the country. It has all the features associated with a major business, and is tremendously influenced by global media corporations, enhanced by the inventions of cable television and satellites. In addition, the influence of football has spread across the globe and become a major sport in many other leading countries of the world which makes it more attractive as a business event. A review of the ‘social significance of associated football throughout the world, ranging from Europe to Asia, USA and the Pacific’ is given in the book of Wagg (1995). Despite its huge success in Britain as well as in other countries, football has generated some social problems too, among which, football hooliganism, otherwise known as the ‘English disease’, is a main one. Hooliganism is characterized by the unruly and destructive behaviour of football fans in the vicinity of the playground where a game is played or outside. It may be limited to some shouts, comments or small-scale fights or it may be a serious clash that may lead to a disastrous tragic end. Usually such animosity arises between supporters of different football clubs who are known as hooligans or football gangs. Racial and cultural differences may emerge during these conflicts which can intensify the hostility and lead to serious social misconduct, ultimately making it a matter to be handled by the police. The problem of hooliganism is not limited to Britain, but has been observed in Belgium, Holland, Netherland, Poland, Russia, Italy, South America and sub Saharan Africa. The British government as well as the Football Association pays serious attention to this problem and actions are being taken to minimize its occurrence. Football hooliganism has become such a serious problem that many a book has been written solely on this subject (Murphy and Williams 1988, Frosdick and Marsh 2005, Tsoukala, 2009). Ethnicity is another setback that was associated with football. In the ancient times football was played as a Folk game and then a past time game of the working class. However, gradually this turned out to be a game of the superior sector of the society. Perhaps English conservativeness played a role here as the people of different races were not accepted to European football. However, this situation is changing now as the best players are needed to make a challenging and a powerful national teams and talent has to be extracted from all levels of society. Globalization of the football game is much responsible at this juncture as services of the very best players are sought out by football clubs at great costs and as a result, many clubs have players of different ethnicity. English Premier League, which is a leading football league in the United Kingdom has more number of foreign players than English players in it (Association Football culture, 2011). There is no doubt that Associate football is a great sport that has the power to integrate in to the lives of British people and combined as a part of their popular culture. This report describes how the simple sport of football has entered into the British society and influenced British culture, the way it has come through history and the manner in which it has blended with the economy. Also it discusses the problems football has brought into the British culture. The future of football in UK is an issue that needs to be closely investigated. Despite the excellent stadiums and strong teams, not to mention the great enthusiasm of British government and all involved in football, Britain lost their bid for the 2018 FIFA world cup to Russia. This shows that time has come for Britain to look at football in a different perspective if they are to maintain their prestigious position in the commercialized world of football. Thus analyzing and forecasting the factors which determine the success of football at global level is an important theme for future research. However, there will be football in Britain for a long time to come as the love and admiration for this game will never perish from the hearts of British people. References Association Football Culture (2011). Association football culture: Globalization. [Online] [Accessed 26 March 2011] Culture (2011). Culture. [Online] [Accessed 25 March 2011] Culture of the United Kingdom (2011). Culture of the United Kingdom. [Online] [Accessed 25 March 2011] Football in England (2011). Football in England. [Online] [Accessed 25 March 2011] Frosdick, S. and P. Marsh (2005). Football Hooliganism. Willan Publishing, Oregon, USA Giulianotti, R. (1999). Football a sociology of the global game. Polity Press, Cambridge Guilianotti, R. (2005) 'Playing an Aerial Game: The New Political Economy of Soccer', in J. Nauright and K.S. Schimmel (eds.) The Political Economy of Sport, Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, pp. 19–37. History of British football (2011) The Encyclopedia of British football: History of football [Online] [Accessed 26 March 2011] Mason, T. (1980). Association football and English society 1863-1915. Murphy, P. and J. Williams (1988). The roots of football hooliganism. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London Tsoukala, A. (2009). Football hooliganism in Europe, Security and Civil Liberties in the balance. Palgrave MacMillan, Great Britain Wagg, S. (1995). Giving the game away. Leicester University Press, London Read More