Football As An Urban Phenomenon

von: Christoph Wagner

Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. Regulation as a form of control

3. A Case of Identity – The Working class taking the game as a shield for their pride and identity

4. Affirmation of a Sense of Place – The stadium as a place which people consider to be holy.

5. Conclusion

6. Bibliography

1. Introduction

When writing and talking about football the first thought is about which side is going to be German champion, European or World champion, which side will win the Champions League or the UEFA-Cup. Often the words go further onto the players, their wages that players earn too much money and much more that is directly linked with the game itself. Seldomly the talk is about such things as media influence and control, the development of the game, its sociological dimension or anything that plays an important role offside the pitch. Only when the clubs are nearly bankrupt or a new ground has to be built pub talk turns away from the game and its facts onto politics.

Talking about football unites all kind of people no matter what profession they might occupy. This was clearly not the case in the early days of football. Chapter one explains how football served as a metaphor for working-class toughness but also for a certain pattern of control maintained by the upper classes following the principle of panis et ludii. When football became a sport for the masses, the working-class masses in particular, it already had under run several changes in terms of fixed rules and geographical and numerical restrictions. Having something for their recreational entertainment, soon the game became an expression for the rising class conscience which led to a straighter separation between the classes. When it came to encounters between working-class sides and university or public school sides these matches were laden with class rivalries; but these lasted only until 1883 when the Blackburn side defeated the Eton side at the FA-Cup Final. Thus a class pride developed and found its expression in the building of a ground. Where the city halls and churches and other municipal buildings expressions of middle class conscience so did the ground fulfil this function for the working class. This is what chapter two deals with after shortly explaining what defines a class.

The third chapter explains how a grown community is established not only by working together in one factory but also by living in the same quarter, occupying the same pubs and supporting or playing for the same local football clubs. After WWII the old established order was weakened by industrial decline and as a consequence of this the disruption of grown communities by immigrants began. Another factor for the decline of traditional neighbourhoods of working-class people is the growing social mobility which enabled people to move into better areas. The topic of gentrification should be left out here, but it is nevertheless an important factor how to explain the social environment of football in the second half of the 20th.century. The impact on the game was huge and did support a development of it that it became a part of the entertainment industry which was never expected to happen in its early days.

2. Regulation as a form of control

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