To what extent has football in England evolved in parallel with society?

England's premier football division, named Premier League since 1991, symbolises the elite of football. In England, football is synonymous of national identity, it reflects the country and a constant source of discussion, disappointment and collective hysteria.

To what extent has football in England evolved in parallel with society?

Football was first built on a social dimension before breaking away from it and reaching an economical dimension.

I.        To begin with, English football can be divided into three periods. Each of them corresponds to a different era.

a)        Football has appeared in the middle of the 19th century, it was a collective game characterised by violence and lack of rules. Football was mainly played by the working classes, while the upper classes mainly played the national sport, rugby.  The Cambridge Rules are the beginnings of the main rules of today’s football. Then the English football federation was created to supervise and thus develop this new sport.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, football became largely professional, clubs had stadiums and equipments and competed in a national league called the football league. The clubs that dominated the league like Manchester United Liverpool Sunderland are located in the north of England, a highly industrialised and popular region. Football was then a pastime for the most impoverished and insecure people in the country.

It was from these bases that football emancipated itself across Europe mainly.

b)        English football has evolved over the ages. The golden age of English clubs began in the mid-seventies. This glorious period was accompanied by the euphoria of the fans who adopted and invented music for their stars. The same stars who have become emblems for their clubs and their cities, like Sir Bobby Charlton for Manchester United.

However, this period was followed by the worst decade in English football. This period was marked by a boorish game that English experts have called kick and rush. A game that required very little technique but a lot of physics. At the time a lot of players were really aggressive on the field, like Vinnie Jones who has since become an actor. (lock stock and two smoking barrels)

England was then marked by a high level of violence on the part of its policemen and football fans, which in reality reflected the country's strong de-industrialisation and the consequent rise in unemployment. English supporters were then categorised as hooligans.  

Hooligans were also considered to be responsible for many dramas, including the Heysel drama and the Hillsborough tragedy. The Heysel drama led to the banning of English clubs from all European competitions. The Football League and its clubs lost a lot of income and were left behind by other European clubs, especially from Italy and Spain.

To counter this, the elite clubs decided to create their own league regardless of the football league and the English football association. The Premier League was thus created.

c)  The desire to return to the forefront of the European stage necessarily requires good sporting results. To do this, you have to buy the best players and coaches on the market, which is what the biggest clubs have done, leaving many English players out of the picture. On the one hand, the arrival of players and coaches from all over the world has brought to England a new way of playing football, considered more spectacular and more efficient by many specialists. One of these is the arrival of Arsene Wenger as a coach at Arsenal, which revolutionised English mentalities. On the other hand, the English championship has seen the gap between its teams widen, with smaller clubs unable to afford expensive players.

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