Leicester sports sociologist examines the making of British football

The history of British football and its people is the subject of a book from University of Leicester sports sociologist, John Williams.

Filled with succinct observations and narrative stories, Football in Wind and Rain charts changes in the people, events and culture of the game from its origins in 1863 to the modern-day global dominance of the Premier League. Its short, episodic chapters highlight the unusual, the epic, the remarkable or simply vital lost detail.

It includes the sporting lives and experiences of women right from the start. The voices of commentators, observers, fans, managers and players all feature, with topics such as fandom, stadia, great events, legal changes, memorable goals, players, managers, owners and regional difference given due coverage.

Here, John, who is now retired, but a University Fellow in Sociology, explains more about Football in Wind and Rain – The Making of the British Game:

‘How is football like God? Each inspires devotion among believers and distrust among intellectuals.’ Eduardo Galeano

The above quotation comes from In Sunshine and Shadow, Eduardo Galeano’s marvellous 1997 book on the characters of South American football. You can see now exactly where my own title originates. I cannot, by any stretch, match Galeano’s insight and poetic storytelling – few writers could - but what I thought I could do in Football in Wind and Rain was to point to how football in Britain has very different roots, meanings, and character from football in much of South America and elsewhere.

For one thing, British football is often played out in very defining autumnal and wintry conditions. We, in Britain, must ‘enjoy’ the challenges of dealing with whatever the elements throw at us. Historically – and partly because of our climate – the British have tended to prize rather different, perhaps more prosaic, qualities from both our players and our clubs, than those typically explored by Galeano and others in South America. Perhaps our attacking stars have not been praised quite so much as those in Uruguay, Brazil, or Argentina. Defenders and midfield workers are more our thing. The great post-war winger Stanley Matthews was revered here, but little rewarded. Len Shackleton and George Best were British virtuosos in very different eras, but both men also had their weaknesses and their many critics. They were also routinely kicked. The talented Scouser, Wayne Rooney, has stirred the English soul much more recently, but has had his own troubles. Stories about all four are covered in my new book.

What South America necessarily lacks, I have also argued, is convincing material on the origin stories about the modern game: indeed, it was the Brits who helped to devise and spread organised football across that continent and elsewhere. I try to tell that tale here. For over 30 years as a sports sociologist at the University of Leicester, I taught my students the importance of analysing the game and its wider socio-cultural roots and societal impact. I instructed them on the key significance of history, as well as the shifting effects of class, gender, race, and place over time. We also pored – as this book does - over the combined processes recently of mediation, commercialisation, and globalisation in the development of today’s elite Premier League.

I can tell you now, my students were very smart. But they invariably began by seeing football as simply working class in its origins and roots, knew nothing about early black influences on the game in Britain, and had little or no idea that some women demanded to play the game in every era of British football’s development arc. They also typically overlooked the crucial role of the Scots in football’s origin story and took for granted the unique and contrary dual leadership and values still offered in England today by the FA and the Football League, respectively. Important knowledge about the reasons for British professional football’s self-isolation between 1900 and 1950 had also largely evaded them. And the 1950s to the 1980s? Surely, they were a lifetime ago!

Rather than bore you (and them) by simply revisiting my lecture slides, I decided instead to try to tell British football’s incredible history through a popular collection of short vignettes, 80 in all. Most of these stories are based on academic research and a host of other material, which is covered in the listed sources. The vignettes are presented broadly chronologically, but they cover six periods, and range across the key events and the people who invented, coached, ran, managed, and played the game at different moments. I also say something about those who reported and wrote about it, and the changing nature of the crowds who have watched British football over time. An account of women’s struggles and triumphs are included in every section. Lots of different clubs and communities, big and small, also have their part to play.

You may think this is a somewhat creaky and evasive narrative I have adopted here, but it is one that reveals great drama, some tragedy, but also plenty of moments of unmatched togetherness and joy. You can pick and choose where you want to start and finish. To be perfectly honest, I could have written 180 stories (or more) and still not covered what is important and interesting about almost 200 years of various types of organised football played in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. I know readers will have their own views on my choices, and why not? I have been forced, under duress, to edit my long list down to this present version, simply to make Football in Wind and Rain a well-informed, but unusual and easily digestible, bedtime resource for all readers, and one offered at a reasonable price. That is my excuse, and I am sticking with it. Enjoy!

John Williams, November 2024