Football

Football, or in everyday language simply foot, apocope, or soccer in North American French, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of eleven players. They oppose each other on a rectangular field equipped with a goal at each end. The objective of each side is to put the ball in the opposing goal more times than the other team, without the players using their arms except goalkeepers.

Football Football Association Soccer
International Federation	FIFA (founded in 1904)
Olympic sport since	1908 (demonstration sport from 1896 to 1904)
Clubs	301,000 (2006)
Licensed players	38,287,000 (2006)
Practicing players	264,552,000 (2006)
Professional players	113,000 (2006)

Originally named the football association and codified in the United Kingdom at the end of the nineteenth century, football was established in 1904 by an international federation, FIFA. Played in 2006 by about 264 million players worldwide, football is the most popular sport in the majority of countries. Some continents, such as Africa, South America and Europe, are even almost entirely dominated by this discipline.

The calendar is governed by two types of events: those concerning clubs and those of national teams. The World Cup is the most prestigious international event. It has been held every four years since 1930 (except between 1938 and 1950). For clubs, national championships and other cups are on the program of competitions.

In club competition, the UEFA Champions League played in Europe but with equivalents on other continents, is the most coveted trophy in this sport, despite the recent establishment of a Club World Cup, still in search of prestige.

History of Football

Genesis of the game

Foot ball games have existed since ancient times. These are games, not sports. The Greeks thus know several ball games practiced with the feet: aporrhaxis and pheninde in Athens and episkyros, especially in Sparta where the game seemed particularly violent. The situation is identical among the Romans where pila paganica, pila trigonalis, follis and harpastum are practiced. The Chinese also perform exercises with a ball that they use to juggle and make passes; This activity practiced aimlessly and outside of any competition is used for the physical maintenance of soldiers (蹴鞠, cuju). The first texts concerning the cuju date from the end of the third century BC and are considered the oldest texts related to Chinese sports. At the end of the fifteenth century, the Florentine calcio appears in Italy. It is a distant cousin of football, which disappears completely in 1739.

Football has its real roots in medieval soule (or choule). This sporting game is played in schools and universities but also by the people on both sides of the Channel. In historical records soule was first mentioned in France in 1147 and its English equivalent dates from 1174. Since the sixteenth century, the inflated leather balloon is common in France. Long banned for military reasons in England or economic productivity in France, soule, despite its brutality, remained popular until the early nineteenth century in the British Isles and in a large northwestern quarter of France.

The game was also practiced by North American settlers and was banned by the Boston city authorities in 1657. Named football in English, soule was renamed folk football by English-speaking sports historians to distinguish it from modern football. This activity was indeed mainly practiced by the common people, as a former Eton student pointed out in his Reminiscences of Eton (1831): “I cannot consider the game of football as being gentlemanly; after all, the Yorkshire common people play it” (“I cannot regard football as a gentlemen’s sport; after all, the little people of Yorkshire play it”).

The British Highway Act of 1835 prohibiting the practice of folk football on roads forced him to retreat to enclosed spaces. Variants of the soule have already been practiced for a long time on enclosed grounds. It is here, on the grounds of schools in Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Westminster and Winchester, among others, that modern football germinates. The first written game codes date from the mid-nineteenth century (1848 in Cambridge). Each team has its own rules, making matches problematic. The Football Association was formed in 1863. Its first objective is to unify the regulation.

British example

The British codified and organized football inspired by the examples of cricket and baseball, these two team sports being already structured before the emergence of football. From professional leagues to championships and other cups, football does not innovate. The first non-school club was founded in 1857: Sheffield Football Club. Sheffield FC played the first inter-club match against Hallam FC (founded in 1860) on 26 December 1860 sixteen against sixteen. These two pioneer clubs met again in December 1862 for the first charity match. The Youdan Cup is the first competition. It was held in 1867 in Sheffield and Hallam F.C. won the trophy on 5 March.

The first national event was the 1872 FA Challenge Cup. Professionalism was allowed in 1885 and the first championship was played in 1888-1889. The English Federation played a leading role in this evolution, imposing a single regulation by creating the FA Cup, then the clubs took the lead. The creation of the championship (League) is not the fact of the Federation but an initiative of the clubs seeking to present a stable and coherent calendar. The existence of a railway network makes possible this evolution initiated by William McGregor, president of Aston Villa. This first championship is professional, and no club from the South of the country participates.

England was then divided in two: the North fully accepting professionalism and the South rejecting it. There are social explanations for this difference. The South of England is dominated by the classic spirit of sports clubs reserved for a social elite. In the industry-dominated North, professional football is run by big bosses who do not hesitate to pay their players to strengthen their team, in the same way that they recruit better engineers to strengthen their companies.

For five seasons, the championship was limited to clubs in the North. London club Arsenal turned professional in 1891. The London League then excluded from its competitions the Gunners of Arsenal who joined the League in 1893. The Southern League was formed in reaction (1894). This competition gradually opens up to professionalism but can not avoid the departures of many clubs to the League. The top clubs still in the Southern League were incorporated into the League in 1920.

Regarding the game, the transition from a dribbling game (individual dribbling ) to passing game is an important evolution. Originally, football was very individualistic: the players, all attackers, rushed towards the goal ball at the foot, that is to say by chaining the dribbles. It’s dribbling. But as Michel Platini likes to recall, “the ball will always go faster than the player”. It is on this simple principle that the passing game is built. This innovation appeared in the late 1860s and became established in the 1880s. As early as the late 1860s, matches between London and Sheffield introduced passing to the North. This is the version of Charles Alcock, who places in 1883 the first real demonstration of passing in London by the Blackburn Olympic. Between these two dates, the new way of playing found refuge in Scotland.

Following the model of the English Football Association, national federations were founded in Scotland (1873), Wales (1876) and Ireland (1880). Matches between the selections of the best players of these federations took place as early as November 30, 1872 (Scotland-England), a few months before the official foundation of the Scottish Federation. Annual matches pitted these different teams against each other, and from 1884, these friendly matches were transformed into a first international competition: the British Home Championship. By practicing passing rather than dribbling, the Scots dominated the first editions.

International Football

Unlike “noble” sports such as cricket, tennis, field hockey and rugby, football was not very developed within the sports clubs established in the British Empire. Thus, this discipline is still not very popular in India, Pakistan, North America or Australia, in particular. In South Africa, the British colonists imported football from 1869 then a Natal Cup was organized in 1884, but football, king sport in the townships, remains very badly perceived by the white supporters of apartheid who prefer rugby, tennis and cricket. Football was, it is true, at the forefront of denouncing apartheid and from April 9, 1973, a team mixing black and white players represented South Africa in an unofficial international match against Rhodesia.

The British played an important role in the spread of football, thanks in particular to the workers sent to the four corners of the world to carry out projects. For example, football was introduced to South America by workers working on railway construction sites. They set up teams and set up competitions initially reserved for British players only, and which gradually opened up to players and then to local clubs. The South American case is complex. There are also British clubs that practice this discipline and students from England play an important role in the introduction of football between Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Thus, football settled permanently in nations such as Uruguay or Argentina from the years 1870-80. In North America, competitions were created in the 1880s (1884 in the United States on the East Coast).

Belgium, where English universities play a leading role, the Netherlands (first club founded in 1879), Switzerland (introduction of football in the 1860s and first club in 1879) and Denmark (first club in 1876) are among the first countries in continental Europe affected by football.

The expansion of football is also due to travelers of various nationalities who have made stays in the United Kingdom where they were introduced to the game. In France, the introduction of football is thus done mainly by the action of English teachers who bring back from their language trips across the Channel rules and balls in the schoolyards. The British were also instrumental in introducing football in France. The action of the British Parisian clubs White-Rovers and Standard AC makes the Union of French Athletic Sports Societies (USFSA) fold on January 9, 1894, which, in line with the stilted British clubs, feared an expansion of football and its vices, such as professionalism, transfers and betting and refused to recognize this discipline.

In Germany, football was first clearly perceived as a foreign body to the nation and was disdainfully nicknamed the “sport of the English” by nationalists. However, football took root in the cities (the first club founded in 1887: SC Germania Hamburg) where workers and white-collar workers gathered around a common passion. Football gradually spread to Northern Europe between the 1870s and the early 1890s, before spreading to Southern Europe (including southern France) between the 1890s and the early twentieth century.

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris in 1904 despite the British refusal to participate in an enterprise launched by the French leaders of the USFSA. The Union’s primary goal is to silence other French sports federations playing football, and it requires in FIFA’s founding texts that only one federation per nation be recognized by the international body. The trap turned against the USFSA in 1908. The Union slammed the door of FIFA, leaving its main competitor, the French Interfederal Committee (direct ancestor of the current French Football Federation), its seat at FIFA; the USFSA found itself isolated, but its opposition to professionalism remained the rule until the late 1920s. The racing man Frantz Reichel prophesied in 1922 that “English professional football will perish if it remains confined to British soil”.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, several European and South American nations allowed professionalism in order to put an end to the scandals of brown amateurism that had plagued these countries since the 1910s. French international goalkeeper Pierre Chayriguès refused a “golden bridge” from English club Tottenham Hotspur in 1913; he admitted in his memoirs that Red Star players were paid handsomely despite their official status as amateurs. Austria (1924), Czechoslovakia and Hungary (before 1930), Spain (1929), Argentina (1931), France (1932) and Brazil (1933) were the first nations (outside the United Kingdom) to allow professionalism in football. In Italy, the Carta di Viareggio, set up by the fascist regime in 1926, ensured the transition between amateur and professional status, definitively adopted in 1946.

At the continental level, confederations manage football. The first confederation created was that of South America, CONMEBOL, founded on July 9, 1916. Placed under the hierarchical authority of FIFA, the confederations nevertheless take care to preserve their independence. They have certain freedoms, for example, to organize World Cup qualifiers within the framework of the rules defined by FIFA and are autonomous to manage the calendar of their continental competitions, despite FIFA’s attempts at harmonization without much scope. The African and South American cases are significant. The African Cup of Nations (AFCON), for example, is played every two years in the middle of the European season, posing problems for clubs employing African players. As FIFA does not have authority over the specific continental calendar, only the African Confederation has control over this issue.

According to a count published by FIFA on May 31, 2007, football is played worldwide by 270 million people, including 264.5 million players (239.5 million men and 26 million women). There are about 301,000 clubs for 1,700,000 teams and 840,000 referees. 113,000 players play under professional status. This last figure should be handled with caution because there are considerable differences between nations regarding the definition of a professional player. Germany is thus absent from the ranking of the top twenty nations at this level while other nations, less strict in the definition of professional status, put forward artificially high data.

At the national level, China leads with 26.166 million players. Behind China are the United States (24.473 million), India (20,588), Germany (16,309), Brazil (13,198), Mexico (8,480), Indonesia (7,094), Nigeria (6,654), Bangladesh (6,280), Russia (5,803), Italy (4,980), Japan (4,805), South Africa (4,540), France (4,190) and England (4,164). These figures take into account licensees and unlicensed practitioners. Regarding licensed players, the table below presents the data of the twelve national federations with the most licensed players. It should be noted that after participation in the final of the 2006 World Cup of the France team, the number of dismissed players exceeded the 2 million mark in France (2,020,634).

Genesis of women’s football

Women have been playing football since the late nineteenth century in England and Scotland. France set up the first national championship just after the First World War. The revenues are such that the players are paid via the practice of brown amateurism. The barrage against women’s football intensified and the death of a player, Miss C.V. Richards, in the middle of a game in 1926, strengthened the supporters of the ban. Henri Desgrange (L’Auto) was even more radical in 1925: “That young girls play sports among themselves, in a rigorously enclosed field, inaccessible to the public: yes okay.

But that they put on a show, on certain festive days, where the public will be invited, that they even dare to run after a ball in a meadow that is not surrounded by thick walls, that is intolerable! Since the early 1920s, the men’s authorities have already refused to admit female licensees and they have to organize themselves into an independent federation on both sides of the Channel. The women’s football France championship, where Fémina Sport shone, ended in 1933. Although favorable to women’s sport, the Vichy regime “strictly prohibited” the practice in France in 1941. Football is considered “harmful to women”.

Almost anecdotal, the practice continued after the Second World War but it was not until the second half of the 1960s that the revival of women’s football was revived: in 1969-1970, the English, French and German federations recognized women’s football. There were 2,170 licensees at the FFF for the 1970-71 season, then 4,900 the following season.

At the international level, the first European Cup was organized in 1969. It pitted England, Denmark, France and Italy against each other. As women’s football is not officially recognized by FIFA and UEFA, this competition is “unofficial”.

At the world level, the first World Cup was played in July 1970. It is still an “unofficial” competition. After multiple organizations of this type, UEFA (1984) and FIFA (1991) agreed that “official” competitions, such as the Women’s World Cup and the Women’s European Football Championship, should be set up.

Controlled designations

The English football association, founded in London in 1863, adopted the generic term “football” and, in codifying the rules of the game, added the mention “association” (association football) to distinguish it from other forms of football played at the time. However, some of the clubs that are members of the FA continue to follow very different rules; Blackheath RC, in particular, which campaigns for the use of hands and the authorization of plating.

The FA-led unification of the rules, which marked the period from 1863 to 1870, placed Blackheath in an isolated position. The London club then left the FA and left in 1871 to create the Football Rugby Union, a football union according to the so-called Rugby rules. Thus, from 1871, two main forms of football, on the one hand, the football association and on the other hand Rugby football (rugby football) are codified and have governing bodies. These two sports spread all over the world and gave birth to American, Australian, Gaelic or Canadian variants.

Very early, a slang variant of the name “football association” appeared among English speakers by abbreviation: first “assoc. football” then “assoc.” and finally the diminutive “soc” completed by the suffix “-er” which will give the term “soccer“. The latter name has become widely popular over time in North America to the point of completely overshadowing any mention of “football“. The name changes of the United States Football Federation during the twentieth century reflect this evolution: in 1913, when it was founded, in 1945, it was called the United States Football Association, then until 1974 it was renamed the United States Soccer Football Association.

It then adopted the name United States Soccer Federation. Soccer is officially in use in three countries: the United States, Canada and Samoa, the only three English-speaking national federations that use the term soccer (excluding football) in their name. However, this slang term for other English speakers is sometimes used, especially in the press. It is thus very common in South Africa and rarer in the United Kingdom.

Among Francophones, the FIFA quadrilingual dictionary gives “football” as the only official name of the game currently in French, although Canadian Francophones have adopted the term “soccer” because of its common and widespread use in Canada.

These naming issues do not only affect countries giving rise to local “football”. Thus, in France, the panic fear of betting, professionalism and the rise of club power provoked a boycott of the discipline by the USFSA. For this federation, the only recognized football is that of the variant of rugby because the English authorities of this discipline had managed to prohibit the adoption of professionalism. Also, the term football used alone refers in France to that of Rugby (rugby football) until the early twentieth century. From 1894 and the late recognition of the discipline by the USFSA, the name “football association” (French translation of “association football”) or more simply “association” is naturally imposed.

The “association” was thus played in France during the Belle Époque and the term “association” was found in some provincial newspapers until the 1920s. It was also in France, in Paris, in 1904 that the International Federation of Association Football was founded (with French as its first official language). The French Federation of Association Football was founded only in 1919 following the break-up of the USFSA’s Omnisports structure. In the world of association football, the term football is increasingly used alone to name the game, and the mention “association” then gradually loses its use: the specialized magazine Football, created in 1929, then the FFFA which becomes FFF at the Liberation illustrates this evolution. For its part, rugby, split into two different sports, XV or XIII, has lost the use of the term “football” while the other variants are perceived as exotic in Europe and in French-speaking countries, except Canada.

They are therefore named after their origin: American football, Australian football, Gaelic football and Canadian football.

French, as is generally the case in the field of sport, has thus retained the original term (at least in part at the time, because the mention association has been translated, which explains the inversion from the English “association football” to the French “football association “). This is not the case in most other languages where local-sounding terms have been coined, from German Fussball to Spanish Fútbol (or also very rarely Balompié) to Dutch Voetbal or Portuguese Futebol. In Italy, the term calcio was adopted in 1909 in reference to the ancient game of Florentine Calcio.

Football practice

Rules

First menstruation

The first game code dates from 1848: the Cambridge Rules. Other universities are following Cambridge’s lead and issuing their own regulations. Harrow thus put in place a code authorizing the use of hands that gave birth to rugby and its variations, such as American football and Canadian football. Football is based exclusively on the Cambridge rules, which are the simplest. This notion of simplicity is foundational to football itself, as the subtitle of J’s rules makes clear. C. Thring who refined the Cambridge rules in 1862: The Simplest Game.

When the Football Association (FA) was founded in London on October 26, 1863, E.C. Morley was charged with summarizing the various rules in use. Blackheath RC, who followed Harrow’s rules, was then a member of the FA and the debate became heated when a first code of 14 rules inspired by the Cambridge Rules was presented on 24 November 1863. After several days of debate and amendments, a regulation of 13 rules was adopted on 1 December by 13 votes to 4. On January 9, 1864, the first match played under its new laws of the game was played.

They are rather vague, especially in the areas of the number of players and the dimensions of the field or goals because an agreement could not be reached on these points. The teams then had thirteen to fifteen players and gradually increased to eleven, despite resistance from many teams in the late 1860s. In 1867, when Surrey FA offered Cambridge University FC an eleven-on-eleven match, Cambridge University FC replied by mail: “We play at least fifteen per team and we cannot play with less than thirteen players per team”. Bill 11 specifies that the use of hands is prohibited. In fact, it is broadly the revival of the Cambridge Rules and the J Rules .C. Thring, hailed by all as the simplest.

On 1 December 1863, Sheffield F.C. applied for membership of the FA. The Sheffield clubs then follow a particular code of play but close to the Cambridge Rules and which is played eleven against eleven. For more than a decade, the two codes coexisted and influenced each other while some clubs enacted internal regulations stipulating that only their internal regulations were applicable. This very heterogeneous situation does not prevent the FA from refining its regulations. The position of goalkeeper was thus created in 1870. Similarly, between 1867 and 1870, the Sheffield rules underwent some changes such as the abandonment in 1868 of the red (a form of points similar to Australian football, with two additional posts located 4 yards from the goals). Clubs in the Nottingham area, which also had regulations inspired by the Cambridge Rules, adopted FA rules in 1867.

The FA Cup was founded in 1871 on the principle of “one cup, two codes”. The FA’s hope is to push Sheffield clubs to adopt its rules. Almost the opposite is true. In fact, the two codes merged in 1877. Since then, the rules have been unified and entrusted to the custody of the International Board, created on December 6, 1882.

Principles of the game

Football pits two teams of eleven players against each other on a rectangular field 90 to 120 meters long and 45 to 90 meters wide. For international matches, the dimensions of the field are reduced between 100 and 110 meters long and 64 to 75 meters wide. The objective is to penetrate a spherical balloon of 68 to 70 cm in circumference for a weight of 410 to 450 grams in a long goal of 7.32 m by 2.44 m in height. The goal is considered scored when the ball has completely crossed the goal line drawn on the ground between the two posts.

The only player allowed to use his hands when the ball is in play is the goalkeeper in his penalty area. In the same area, a foul usually punished by a direct free kick is punished by a penalty kick. The latter is executed on a point located 11 meters from the goal line. In addition to hand faults, other faults mainly concern unsporting behavior and contact between players. The tackle is allowed but regulated. A tackle from behind is often punished with a red card synonymous with expulsion. In the event of a less serious foul, a yellow card may be given by the referee to the offending player. If this player receives a second yellow card during the same game, he is sent off.

The offside rule forces attackers to not just wait for balls behind the defense. For a player to be in play, he must be in front of the last defender. The assistant referee signals with a flag the offside which is judged at the start of the ball, that is to say at the moment when the passer makes his pass, and not at the arrival of the ball in the feet of the attacker.

The match lasted 90 minutes in two 45-minute periods interspersed with a quarter-hour half-time. In some cup matches to determine a winner or a qualifier (one can qualify in home-and-away matches without necessarily winning the second leg), an extra time of two times fifteen minutes is played. At the end of this period, in the event of a tie, the penalty shoot-out separates the two formations.

Laws of the game

Football has seventeen “laws of the game” governed by the International Board. The rules are the same for professionals and amateurs, senior or youth. FIFA ensures the uniform application of the same laws of the game throughout the world.

The 17 laws of the game:

1 The playground 2 The balloon 3 Number of players 4 Player equipment 5 The arbitrator 6 Assistant referees 7 The duration of the match 8 Kick-off and resumption of play 9 Ball in and out of play

10 Goal scored 11 Offside 12 Fouls and unsportsmanlike behavior 13 Free kick 14 Penalty kick 15 Re-entry 16 Goal kick 17 Corner kick

Very conservative, the International Board rarely changes the rules unlike many other sports. Since the creation of the Board, the most important reform was that of 1925 which increased from three to two the number of opposing players who had to be between the goal line and the one who received a pass to avoid being offside. This reform has important tactical implications. Note also the reforms related to the goalkeeper with the prohibition to take the ball in hand on a pass from a partner (1992) and the limitation to the use of hands in the penalty area only (1912). Other important developments took place in 1891: they concerned the arbitrator.

Referee

In the field, the application of the regulation was entrusted to an arbitration body which was set up definitively in 1891. A time-evoked, double refereeing was in use at the beginning of the game and a third referee, located in the stands, made the decision in case of conflict between the two main referees. This system proved ineffective and in 1891, the referee, formerly placed in the stands, was now positioned on the field, while the double of referees (umpires) was put on the sidelines (linesmen). The central referee is quickly given broad powers to fully direct the game.

Before these reforms, penalties did not exist and the referee did not have control over playing time. Since 1874, umpires have been able to whistle free kicks and send off players. Before this date, expulsions were discussed with the captains. Yellow and red cards were introduced in 1970 following an incident during the England-Argentina World Cup match in 1966. Sent off, Argentine captain Antonio Rattín refused to leave the pitch on the pretext that he did not understand German referee Rudolf Kreitlein; The case lasted seven minutes. To avoid such problems, the Board set up a universal system of yellow and red penalty cards.

The refereeing body now consists of a main referee who travels on the field, as well as two assistant referees who play along each sideline and carry flags. In the professional environment, a fourth referee is present to ensure a replacement in case of injury of one of the other three; It is also used to report changes of players and to ensure the maintenance of order in the technical areas (players’ benches) and at the edge of the field. At the highest level, referees undergo regular physical tests (the Cooper test, in particular).

Since the end of the twentieth century, the use of video has often been mentioned to remedy arbitration problems. However, this system is very controversial, especially because it is not absolutely reliable and is not applicable to all levels of football, from juniors to veterans. On 8 March 2008, at its 122nd annual meeting, the Board suspended, until further notice, technological options after inconclusive video refereeing tests tested in Japan and technical difficulties encountered by teams working on goal line control by electronic means. On the other hand, the Board authorizes the implementation of tests with two additional assistant referees to monitor the penalty surfaces.

As in other disciplines, arbitration faces problems of corruption. The latest cases in Germany, Belgium, Italy and Portugal have highlighted the role of certain clubs in these cases but also the intervention of bettors. In other cases, players may also be involved. Sanctions (demotion, title canceled, points withdrawn and legal proceedings of those involved) and precautions (in Germany, the referee is now appointed 48 hours before the match) do not prevent the continuation of these practices. Also, many voices call for the establishment of a real professional status for referees.

The status of referees, professional or not, has been a recurring topic in recent years. Most referees are amateurs. FIFA and its president Sepp Blatter are campaigning for professional refereeing. For high-level matches, referees are under contract with their federation in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and France, linked to the Premier League in England, and under a kind of contractual relationship in Italy.

The feminization of the refereeing body began before the recognition of women’s football. In France, it was thus expected until 1970 to admit female licensees to the FFF but the first woman-certified referee was certified on November 10, 1967 (Martine Giron, 21 years old). Since the 1990s, women (Nelly Viénot, in particular, from 23 April 1996) have reached the status of assistant referee in the first division. In 2003, the first UEFA men’s match was refereed by a woman, Nicole Petignat.

Facilities

The player’s equipment

Regulated by Law 4, players’ equipment includes a jersey, shorts, a pair of socks, shin guards and shoes. Gloves and goggles are allowed. Guards sometimes wear caps when facing the sun. They must also wear a jersey of a different color. The possibility of wearing skirt-shorts has been mentioned for women’s teams since 2008, but the official regulations do not currently mention it.

The teams have several sets of jerseys. Usually, a team plays with its colors at home and must adapt to the colors of the opponent on the road. The exchange of jerseys at the end of the game is a tradition for important matches.

The first jerseys are quite thick woolens. They lightened during the first half of the twentieth century with the adoption of cotton shirts, then, thanks to synthetic fibers from the 1960s, they became very light. Polyester and polyamide are mainly used with sweat-wicking systems.

Shoes are originally common high shoes to which crampons were attached. It was not until the 1950s, and the first football boots marketed by Adidas, to see the appearance of modern shoes. Since the 1990s, the best shoes have usually been made of kangaroo skin with plastic sole and aluminum cleats.

The balloon is codified by Law 2. Its dimensions were fixed in 1872. The ball must be spherical, made of leather or other suitable material, have a circumference of not more than 70 cm and not less than 68 cm, a weight of not more than 450 g and not less than 410 g at the beginning of the match and a pressure of 0,6 to 1,1 atmosphere (600 – 1,100 g/cm²). These dimensions are smaller for balls used by players under 13 years of age. Since January 1, 1996, only balls that have passed FIFA tests (FIFA Approved) can be used in international competitions organized by FIFA or continental confederations.

The stadium

From the playground to the stadium

The cricket grounds remain deserted during the winter, they are used at the beginning of the history of the game. Those who can have cricket facilities that also include changing rooms and stands, however, are in the minority. Most often, you have to be content to play on a more or less well plotted field and change at the local café. However, some matches quickly attracted a certain attendance, and the first attempts at paid entries were made in England in the 1860s. On the European continent, velodromes play the role of cricket grounds in the United Kingdom.

After the stage of the simple pavilion intended to welcome the members of the board and their guests then the installation of covered or uncovered walkways around the field for other spectators, the first stadiums are mainly made of wood, but the dimensions of the stands, always more imposing, quickly require the use of a metal frame. Among the main architects initiating this evolution was the iconic Archibald Leitch, who operated from 1904 to 1939.

After the Second World War, stadiums experienced many revolutions, from the cantilever roof (without support posts in the middle of the stands) to the construction of lighting systems for night matches. The first experiences of matches played in the light of the floodlights date from 1878, but this type of matches, banned in England from 1930 to 1950, remained marginal until after the Second World War. The lighting is only a few hundred lux, but the television requires at least 800 lux to properly film the encounters. This pressing demand for television and advances in lighting systems now allow the best stadiums to have at least 1,500 lux.

The playing field is also undergoing changes with the implementation of heating systems to avoid freezing the field or even the adoption of more or less artificial playing surfaces. The natural lawn is still the most common. Some English clubs installed totally artificial surfaces such as QPR, Luton, Preston and Oldham in the 1980s, but the FA curbed these experiments without however succeeding in banning them. Same remark at the level of FIFA which does not recommend this surface but does not prohibit it.

On the other hand, this type of coating remains banned for a long time by FIFA in the final phase of the World Cup. During the 1994 World Cup in the United States, the stadiums all had to be equipped with natural grass, Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit (Michigan) and Giants Stadium (New Jersey) in the first place. Following changes to FIFA certification tests (2001), it is now possible to use an artificial pitch in the World Cup finals. However, this never happened. Although equipped since 2002 with artificial turf certified by FIFA, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow is equipped with natural turf to host the final of the UEFA Champions League 2007-2008.

Comfort and safety

The comfort and safety of spectators have long remained an anecdotal notion for architects and managers, who only seek to make the most of their enclosures. Despite the multiplication of tragedies and accidents, the authorities belatedly became aware of this problem. UEFA reacted after the Heysel tragedy (1985), but English football, although primarily concerned by the deaths of Heysel, changed its policy only after the tragedy of Sheffield (1989) with the implementation of the “Taylor Report”, banning standing places in England. Germany, which had refused to broadcast the Heysel events live, launched an in-depth reflection on these problems at that time.

It bore fruit at the 2006 World Cup, with speakers fully integrating the needs of comfort and safety. Note the maintenance of a stand with standing places at the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund: the famous Südtribüne which, with its 25,000 standing places, is the largest stand in Europe. This maintenance was negotiated by the supporters. The famous “Kop” of Anfield (Liverpool) was not so lucky. Designed in 1906 to accommodate 30,000 spectators, the capacity of this stand was reduced for the first time in 1970 to 25,000 seats following an incident during a European match between Liverpool FC and Ajax Amsterdam in December 1966: the emergency services had been unable to move to the stands. The last game with standing spectators was played on May 1, 1994 in front of 16,480 kopites. Since then, the Kop has 12,277 seats.

Latin countries strangely stay away from these debates. Even the tragedy of Furiani (1992) does not France raise awareness, and even today, many speakers used by professionals do not meet the minimum safety criteria. The troubles of the 2006-2007 season in Italy highlighted the serious deficit in this area of Italian stadiums. Very heavy investments are needed to upgrade these stadiums and some nations have not seen fit to undertake this work.

France had the opportunity to do so in 1998 by organizing the World Cup, but it preferred to focus its efforts on the Stade de France alone rather than take advantage of this opportunity to equip itself. The League tried to set up in the 1990s minimum criteria for stadiums to play professionally, but it was rejected on November 20, 2003 by the Council of State, requested by the Ministry of Sports, hostile to the criteria: it is impossible for the French League not to admit a club as a professional because of non-compliant facilities.

Thus, England and Germany now offer spectators a seat in modern stadiums, and average spectators are reaching historic highs. In France and Italy, the stadiums are at least a generation behind, and attendance stagnates in France and plunges in Italy (half as many spectators in stadiums as in the mid-1980s).

Among the most emblematic stadiums in America are the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, the Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti stadium in Buenos Aires, the Azteca stadium in Mexico City and Europe, Wembley in London, recently rebuilt, the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid, the Camp Nou in Barcelona and the San Siro in Milan.

Players and the game

Playing football

Young players usually discover football in the playground, on the street (the sport of street football is a derivative of football) or on makeshift pitches on which goals are simply marked by school bags or jackets. The stage of discovery passed, the integration into a football school in a youth club is necessary to acquire some fundamentals. From this period, the most promising players, technically or physically, are detected and join training centers (France), Academies (United Kingdom) or clubs called “trainers” who are responsible for preparing players for the profession of footballer. A minority of players achieve this goal and effectively become professional footballers. The majority is not retained to go pro and these players must be content to evolve at best in semi-professional.

“Technique is not knowing how to do 1,000 juggles, it’s knowing how to pass the ball at the right speed in the right place at the right time. »

Johan Cruyff

Football pedagogy

Two main teaching methods are offered to young players. In the first, analytical, used for decades, the educator divides the activity into technical gestures. He demonstrates each gesture and makes it repeat. In the second, called global or integrated, the educator sets up situations that cause problems for the players. It is up to the players to find solutions and put strategies in place to achieve this. In this method, young players are active in their learning. The educator guides the players and does not give them the answers immediately but proceeds by questioning to allow them to find the solution by themselves.

Game Features

Playing football involves intense and prolonged physical activity. In 90 minutes, depending on his position, a player travels between 6 and 11 km and loses an average of 2 kg. Injuries, usually to the ankles and knees, affect all types of footballers, professional or amateur, young or old. Sudden death, in matches or in training, is also a phenomenon affecting all levels. The cases are rare but raise the question of the physical limits of the players against the backdrop of the eternal debate on the calendar, too busy. An athlete cannot be 100% over the whole season, and calendar management is part of the game.

Doping has long been present in football. Very strong suspicions hover over the 1954 German team that won the World Cup. The investigation finally washes the Mannschaft which would have proceeded only to glucose injections. The position of the authorities that display their desire to fight against this scourge is rather ambiguous. FIFA has long refused to entrust the World Anti-Doping Agency with the management of this issue. An agreement was reached in June 2006 when the International Olympic Committee asked all International Federations to initial the World Anti-Doping Code. FIFA, however, retains its authority over suspensions.

Aside from baseball, football is the team sport most prone to surprises in a game. From West Bromwich Albion FC’s unexpected victory over “Invincible ” Preston North End in the 1888 FA Cup final to the elimination of Olympique de Marseille by USJA Carquefou fans in the 2007–08 France Cup, football history is marked by many astonishing results. As a sporting saying particularly adapted to football says: “on a match, everything is possible”. This possibility left to the “little ones” to triumph over the “big ones” is one of the attractions of football.

Tactical evolutions

From the 1880s to 1925, the essential piece of a team was its center-forward, who was the tip of a formation that included five strikers, three midfielders and two defenders. Attackers must be powerful because offside is signified if fewer than three players are between the opposing goal line and the one receiving a pass. The change from three players to two players for an offside change the game profoundly. The number of goals scored per season in the two divisions of the English League went from 4,700 to 6,373 when this amendment came into effect. Coach Herbert Chapman developed an innovative tactic, called “WM”, that is to say, three defenders, two midfielders, two inters (attacking midfielders) and three attackers. The four players in the midfield constitute the magic square, marking the rise of the position of attacking midfielder (or inter) whose role is to feed the center-forward with balls.

The WM reigned supreme until 1953 and the famous defeat of the English at home against the Hungarians, who were already playing in 4-2-4. Before the triumph of 4-2-4, 4-3-3 and other 4-4-2, the Swiss, French and Italians developed tactics based on defense: the “Swiss lock” (or “Rappan lock” named after the Austrian player-coach Karl Rappan who set up this system at the Servette de Genève in 1932), the “concrete” (initiated by Robert Accard in the early 1930s at the Stade Français and practiced in particular by Charleville in 1936) and the “Catenaccio“.

These tactics were refined after the Second World War by Helenio Herrera and declined in many countries, giving rise for example to the “Riegel” in Germany. The main innovation of this tactical device is the creation of the position of libero originally named locker or concrete mixer. He stands behind the defensive line, usually three and then four players, and has the task of plugging the gaps.

In 1958, the Brazilian team won its first World Cup by relying on an extraordinary squad and a tactical device in 4-2-4. It is a form of compromise between offensive and defensive strategies. New tactical evolution of the Brazilians in 1962, with a 4-3-3 device, where the left winger, Mario Zagallo, is converted into midfield. These rather offensive tactics, however, find themselves struggling against very rigorous formations, such as Inter Milan in Europe or Peñarol in South America. Germany also narrowly failed in the 1966 and 1970 World Cups by practicing a very strict concrete.

The tactical layout is nothing without the animation of the game. Speed plays a major role here. On the principle of passing, Bill Shankly at Liverpool FC and José Arribas at FC Nantes (Nantes-style game) developed a very fast game animation in the early 1960s, leading to inevitable errors. The latter must be compensated by a cohesive collective, not reluctant to perform defensive or offensive tasks, according to the needs of the team. This is the “total football” advocated by Rinus Michels at Ajax Amsterdam in the early 1970s.

By convention, a physical style is attributed to Northern European football and a more technical style to the Latins. It’s a cliché, but this almost philosophical opposition between realism and spectacle leaves a lasting mark on strategic debates. Thus, the game of the Stade de Reims developed from the end of the 1940s and which enchants the French and European crowds until the end of the 1950s, is taxed as “Latin” because it is focused on technique and the passing game. Gabriel Hanot hated the “little game” of the Reims preferring a more physical game, “à la Britannique”. The French specialized press was torn apart in these debates until the early 1970s. L’Équipe and France Football were in favor of efficiency; Miroir du Football defended the football spectacle.

Modern football is rather realistic by relying above all on a solid defensive foundation. We are witnessing the implementation of 5-3-2, 4-5-1 and 5-4-1 devices with corridor players replacing the wingers of yesteryear.

Iconic players

Throughout its history, football has had a large number of exceptional players.

Among these emblematic players, this chapter distinguishes some players who have the best record in terms of the number of selections and titles won at the club or with a national team. By their activity, they cover the period 1894-2008. Football has had its heroes since the late nineteenth century. Some of these players have now fallen into oblivion, but they were hailed in their time as the most brilliant practitioners of the game. The FIFA 100, the list of the 125 greatest living footballers drawn up by former Brazilian international Pelé, is not interested in these great elders. Some nations honor their alumni, such as England, which established the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Among goalkeepers, the Spaniard Ricardo Zamora (1901-1978), the Italian Gianpiero Combi (1902-1956) and the Czech František Plánička (1904-1996) are considered the best goalkeepers of the 1930s. The Russian Lev Yashin (1929-1990), the Englishman Gordon Banks (1937-), the Italian Dino Zoff (1942-), the German Sepp Maier (1944-) and the Argentine Ubaldo Fillol (1950-) won after the Second World War.

The Czech Ferdinand Daučík (1910-1986), the Austrian Gerhard Hanappi (1929-1980), the Englishman Bobby Moore (1941-1993), the German Franz Beckenbauer (1945-), the Dutchman Ruud Krol (1949-) and the Italian Gaetano Scirea (1953-1989) are emblematic of the defensive systems they practiced with intelligence, while in midfield the Uruguayan José Andrade (1901-1957), the Italians Giovanni Ferrari (1907-1982) and Giovanni Rivera (1943-), the Germans Fritz Walter (1920-2002) and Wolfgang Overath (1943-), the Brazilians Didi (1929-2001) and Jairzinho (1944-), the Englishman Bobby Charlton (1937-), the Dutchman Johan Cruijff (1947-2016), the Argentines Norberto Alonso (1953-) and Diego Maradona (1960-2020), the French Raymond Kopa (1931-2017), Michel Platini (1955-) and Zinedine Zidane (1972-) combined creativity, technique and efficiency.

Among the forwards, the Uruguayan Pedro Petrone (1905-1964), the Yugoslav Blagoje Marjanović (1907-1984), the Czech Oldřich Nejedlý (1909-1990), the Italians Silvio Piola (1913-1996) and Paolo Rossi (1956-), the Brazilians Leônidas da Silva (1913-2004), Garrincha (1933-1983), Pelé (1940-2022) and Ronaldo (1976-), the French Larbi Benbarek (1910-1992) and Just Fontaine (1933-), the Englishmen Stanley Matthews (1915-2000) and Gary Lineker (1960-), the Argentines Alfredo Di Stéfano (1926-2014), Mario Kempes (1954-) and Lionel Messi (1987-), the Hungarians Ferenc Puskás (1927-2006) and Sándor Kocsis (1929-1979), the Germans Helmut Rahn (1929-2003), Uwe Seeler (1936-) and Gerd Müller (1945-), the Portuguese Eusébio (1942-2014) and Cristiano Ronaldo (1985-), the Dutchmen Robert Rensenbrink (1947-) and Marco van Basten (1964-) were among the most effective.

The player who has scored the most goals in official matches is the Austrian Josef Bican (1913-2001) (804) ahead of the Brazilians Romário (1966-) (771) and Pelé (765). The two Brazilian players celebrated their 1000th goal with great fanfare, also taking into account the goals scored in friendly matches at the club.

Each year, several titles of the best players are awarded. The most prestigious of these honors are the Ballon d’Or France Football, created in 1956, the FIFA Player of the Year (since 1991), the African Golden Ball (since 1970) and the Best South American Player of the Year (since 1971).

Player environment

Player Status

The first players were mainly students. Gentlemen and workers make up the second wave. The same trend can be found outside the British Isles in many countries. Players retain control of the game in its early stages, and then leaders gain the upper hand at the professional and amateur level. Then began the long period of “slavery” with players linked for life to their club and transferable at the whim of the leaders who managed to pull down wages.

For example, after fifteen years of career, the French international Thadée Cisowski received only 400 francs per month in 1961, about 30% more than the SMIC. Players’ unions were formed at the beginning of the twentieth century in the United Kingdom, but they did not manage to really influence these problems. The situation changed in the 1960s with the formation of modern trade unions, such as the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) in France. The latter are campaigning for an increase in wages, the implementation of the contract on time no longer binding the player and the club for life and an improvement in retirement conditions. Clubs and other governing bodies do not take these demands seriously and then have to give in.

The time contract was adopted in France in 1969. The fight has been waged jointly in England since 1961. The English players’ union obtained some financial advantages but the clubs refused to grant the contract formula on time. Billy Bremner published a famous text in the early spring 1974 that remained under the name “The White Slave”: “There is no reason to discriminate between men and footballers”. The British government intervened in the wake (April 1974) by sending observers to Paris to the FFF, the League and the UNFP to evaluate the system of the time contract. However, it was not until 1978 that England adopted the contract in time.

This type of contract then became widespread. The nations of Eastern Europe thus retained the rights to their players for life until the fall of the communist system. Laws even prohibited any transfer of players abroad or limited this possibility, as in Yugoslavia during the 1980s, to players over 27 years of age.

The practice of transfers

Since the 1970s, “slaves” have gradually turned into “mercenaries”. Advised by agents, they now play with the laws of supply and demand to drive up wages. In the mid-1980s, footballers’ salaries were still lagging behind other disciplines such as Formula 1, American basketball, boxing, golf and tennis in particular. Diego Maradona received only the equivalent of 7.5 million French francs per season in Naples while boxer Larry Holmes received more than 45 million in 1984 alone. In the ranking of the highest-paid sportsmen in 2006, Sports Illustrated places Ronaldinho at the top of the ranking of footballers with $ 32.7 million in income, at the same level as the tennis player Roger Federer (31.3 million), but far behind the golfer Tiger Woods (111.9 million).

The role of player’s agents

The profession of player’s agent has been regulated in France since 1992 by law and worldwide by FIFA since 1995 after numerous abuses noted. The movement grew with the adoption of the Bosman judgment of 15 December 1995, which abolished borders in the European Community. Before this ruling, the number of foreign players playing in clubs was set by leagues and federations, between zero and three, depending on the country and era. At the beginning of 2008, there were 351 foreign players in the Premier League (62.7% of professional squads), 263 in the Bundesliga (53.2%), 182 in Russia (46%), 231 in Serie A (41.5%), 213 in Ligue 1 (39%) and 191 in La Liga (37.1%).

Transfers have always existed in football and their price is rising rapidly. The British Alf Common was the first player transferred for £1,000 (1905). The current record is held by the transfer of Neymar from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 for 222 million euros. Since 1997, the transfer period has been harmonized with two periods in the year: the off-season (two months in Europe from 1 July to 31 August) and mid-season (from January 1, to January 31). The 1997 regulation also provides for the remuneration of training clubs, hitherto totally forgotten.

The coach

The coach appears towards the end of the nineteenth century in Great Britain. He then replaced the captain in many of his duties, from selecting players to directing training sessions. Many players become coaches; However, the status of the coach is framed in some countries by diploma requirements. These diplomas and specific training appeared in France as early as the 1920s, but they did not become essential until the early 1970s under pressure from Georges Boulogne, in particular. The coach can also combine sports and administrative functions. He is then called manager. This is the normal status of the majority of coaches officiating in England while in Latin countries, managers keep control of the administrative aspects. Some leaders do not hesitate to intervene in technical choices, from recruitment to team composition and tactical options.

The replacement

The replacement of players remains absent from the regulations for a long time. This absence, however, does not prevent some isolated cases such as this change of player made on January 20, 1917, in the Scottish League or during friendly international matches. The first change for a World Cup qualifier was on 11 June 1933 when Sweden and Estonia were matched. It was not until the 1965-1966 season that the English Championship allowed a replacement due to injury. Scotland adopted the rule a season later. In 1967, the law of the game allowed the replacement of a player at the convenience of the coach. The rule came into effect in 1967-1968 in national competitions.

The first final phase of the World Cup concerned is that of 1970. Two substitutions of players were authorized from this 1970 edition. In the final phase, the USSR made the first replacement on May 31, 1970 on the occasion of the opening match against Mexico: Viktor Serebryanikov replaces Anatoli Puzach. The second replacement was gradually allowed in national competitions (1976 in France). A third player replacement was authorized in 1995. Originally, only one versatile replacement was available to make the only replacement. It logically goes to two players on the bench in the 1970s and then to a maximum of seven (1996) in international competitions and some national competitions. The number of substitutions is free in friendly matches after the agreement between the two teams, then is limited to a maximum of six in 2005 for international friendly matches between national teams.

Economics of football

Box office receipts

Football became a business in the mid-1880s in the United Kingdom. The significant box office revenues finance the professionalization of championships and the construction of stadiums. If the jerseys remain for a long time devoid of any advertising, the stadium is very quickly equipped with advertising panels while the derivatives, from match programs to gadgets in the colors of the clubs, also appear from the end of the nineteenth century in Great Britain. In terms of attendance, the first season of the English championship (1888-1889) averaged 4,639 spectators per game. The bar of 10,000 average spectators is crossed before the end of the nineteenth century, that of 20,000 before the First World War.

Box office receipts remained the main element of club budgets until the 1990s.

Retransmission rights

The rights paid by television represent between one-third and two-thirds of the clubs’ budgets.

In 2014, the state of football rights shows the following orders of magnitude:

Competitions	Teams	Periodicity	Rights holders	Beneficiaries	Amount (M€)
World Cup	National selections	every four years	FIFA	TF1 and BeIN Sports (France)	130
European Championship	National selections	every four years	UEFA	BeIN Sports, TF1 and M6 (France)	110
Matches of the France national team	National selections	annual	FFF	TF1	45
Champions League	Clubs	annual	UEFA	Canal+ and BeIN Sports	111
Europa League	Clubs	annual	UEFA	BeIN Sports and W9	16
Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 France championships	Clubs	annual	LFP	Canal+ and BeIN Sports	607
League Cup	Clubs	annual	LFP	France Televisions	?
France Cup	Clubs	annual	FFF	France Television and Eurosport	19
Premier League	Clubs	annual	.PL	CANAL+ and RMC SPORT	?

The advertising contribution

Advertising has also been an important item of revenue, especially since the late 1960s. Advertising on shirts was authorized in France in October 1969 after an abortive attempt in 1968: the League wanted to impose on all clubs the same partner. Nîmes Olympique and Olympique de Marseille were the first French professional clubs to display advertising on their jerseys. UEFA allowed advertising on shirts in European Club Cups from 1982, except for finals where the ban was lifted in 1995. FIFA bans advertising on national team jerseys.

Club budgets

The clubs with the most revenue (2006-2007) are Real Madrid (Spain) with 351 million euros, Manchester United (England) 315.2, FC Barcelona (Spain) 290.1, Chelsea FC (England) 283 and Arsenal FC (England) 263.9.

The financial amounts are significant and the deficits of some clubs can also reach record amounts. The financial health of clubs is a double challenge: ensuring their sustainability and avoiding financial doping, i.e. buying a team on credit. In the mid-1990s, France set up the DNCG whose mission is to control the financial accounts of professional clubs with the power to relegate them, ban a promotion club or limit their wage bill. Long in chronic deficit, Ligue 1 clubs have had profit accounts since 2006: more than 42 million euros in net profit in 2006-2007 on the 20 L1 clubs.

Often mentioned, a European DNCG remains to be created in order to avoid certain abuses. The listing of clubs on the stock exchange is a recent development affecting only a few clubs. At the end of the 2006-2007 season, 11 English, 5 Danish, 4 Turkish, 4 Italian, 3 Portuguese, 2 French, 1 Scottish, 1 Dutch, 1 Swedish and 1 German were listed on the stock exchange.

Clubs or communities owning stadiums that cannot cope with certain works rent the name of the stadium to a sponsor. This form of advertising already existed in France before the First World War with the Stade du Matin, the future Olympic stadium of Colombes, which bears the name of the Parisian daily newspaper Le Matin from 1907 to 1919. In 1996, this practice was reintroduced by the Americans, and it affected Europe from 1997 with the new stadium of Bolton Wanderers called Reebok Stadium.

FIFA did not accept this innovation, and on the occasion of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the names of the stadiums did not officially include any sponsor name while their construction was partly financed by this way. In France, the first naming contract was signed in 2008 at Le Mans for its stadium, named MMArena, which was inaugurated on Saturday, January 29, 2010, with a 3-0 victory of Le Mans against AC Ajaccio.

The organization of matches also leads to all sorts of economic benefits that do not directly concern the club or even the world of football. Auxerre, a small medium-sized French town, owes much of its notoriety, in France and abroad, to its football team. AJ Auxerre is a true ambassador of the city, which benefits from more direct benefits in terms of hotels and increased activities for café-restaurants. Similarly, the organization of a World Cup or a Euro allows a nation (or a pair as is the case in Switzerland-Austria for Euro 2008) to carry out an effective promotional campaign and to equip itself with stadiums but also with means of transport or hotels. The consequences on the increase in GNP remain debated, but the World Tourism Organisation points to the World Cup to explain the significant increase in international tourism in Germany in 2006 (+9.6%).

Bets and excesses

On 3 February 2013, Europol, after carrying out an investigation into distorted encounters in connection with bet-fixing, revealed that it had just dismantled a criminal network that allegedly rigged hundreds of matches.

Competitions

Club competitions

National competitions

Before the emergence of the first official competitions, the club calendar consisted only of friendly matches. Today this type of meeting still very popular until the 1960s has become anecdotal. They had to fade in the face of the multiplication of trials. However, in 1871, some English clubs were unable to register for the first edition of the FA Cup; Their calendars were already full. In search of stability, English clubs set up a first championship in 1888-1889. The two basic elements of the calendar are in place: the championship and the cup.

Most countries have two types of competitions: the national championship, which is the major national competition, and the national cup(s), the number of which varies depending on the country. In England, Spain and France, in particular, the National Cup was created before the championship. Also, the FA Cup, the Copa del Rey or the Charles Simon Cup, have a special aura. On the other hand, the Coppa Italia, which was created after the emergence of the Serie A championship, was not a very popular competition for Tifosi and Italian clubs. In South America, the idea of national cups is very uncommon. There are also so-called League cups, bringing together in some countries only professional clubs. It was Scotland that introduced this innovation in 1947 (Scotland League Cup).

The championships remain the justices of the peace because they allow to evaluate the value of a club over a full season. Some irregular clubs that can excel in cups hardly win league titles, and vice versa. Regular clubs can struggle with the particular games involved in cup matches, at the end of which one of the two protagonists is definitively excluded from the competition.

The champion is usually determined at the end of the season by adding up the points earned throughout the season. In the past, a win earned two points, a draw one point and a loss no points. Since the 1980s, championships have gradually adopted the three-point winning system to give a premium to risk-taking. Some championships do not end at the end of the so-called regular season. The champion is then chosen after play-offs involving the highest-ranked clubs. This typical system of American sports is rare in football, but it is for example in use in the United States. In 2008-2009, the Belgian championship adopted the play-off system with an elite going from 18 to 16 clubs.

Another major difference with the classic American system is the ability to move up and down divisions. When English Division 2 was created in 1892, the elite clubs initially refused to give up the privilege of playing in Division 1. Small Heath, champion of D2 in 1892-93, was not promoted to D1. The so-called automatic promotion/relegation system was introduced in 1899 after a transition period with play-offs between the first of D2 and the last of D1. However, the League remained hostile for a long time to any automatic promotions with the so-called “Non-League” leagues (outside the League).

A vote of the professional clubs then determined the fate of the last of the last division of the League and decided whether or not to replace him with the champion of the semi-professional championship. In 1986, the League agreed to the creation of an automatic promotion/relegation system with the Conference (D5 level). France made this evolution in 1970 with the establishment of a pyramidal system of championships after using the closed professional league system from 1932 to 1970. A few amateur clubs turned professional during this period, but these promotions had nothing to do with the results recorded on the field. In search of large cities to host professional clubs, the League even suffered refusals from some clubs and municipalities, Dijon in the first place. In a few countries such as the United States, there is no promotion/relegation system (automatic or not) between the different levels.

Unlike the English model, championships are generally created on a regional basis with play-offs between the different regional champions at the end of the season to determine a national champion. This system remained in use in France from 1894 to 1919, in the Netherlands from 1897 to 1956, Italy from 1898 to 1929, and in Germany until 1963, when the Bundesliga was created.

In many Latin American countries, the championships are held according to the opening and closing formula crowning two champions each year. In Brazil, on the other hand, competitions are held without this duplication. The national championship is relatively recent (1971) and the state championships that are played during the first months of the year retain an important aura. Unlike South American countries, Brazil has a national cup, the Copa do Brasil, created in 1989.

International competitions

The first international club competitions are tournaments usually held during the Easter or end-of-year holidays. Let us mention here one of the oldest, the Challenge International du Nord which opposes each year French and Belgian clubs mainly between 1898 and 1914. Tournaments of this type are very numerous. Some of them remain in the memories because of the set of teams present. This is particularly the case of the 1930 Nations Cup played in Geneva (Switzerland) and the International Tournament of the Universal Exhibition of Paris 1937 which bring together the main clubs of the Old Continent.

The link between these tournaments and current continental competitions is ensured in Europe by the establishment of regional international events. Central European clubs have competed every year since 1927 in the Mitropa Cup, while the Latin Cup (1949-1957) involves the champions of Italy, Spain, Portugal and France.

The development of air transport and the installation of lighting systems for night matches, played during the week, make possible the creation of modern continental competitions. The European Champion Clubs’ Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) was initiated in Paris by the sports daily L’Équipe. The first edition took place in 1955-56. Once reserved only for national champions, the “C1” underwent a gradual mutation during the 1990s to open up to some vice-champions and even the third and fourth of the best nations. The UEFA Coefficients, which take into account the cumulative results over the last five seasons, are used to establish an objective hierarchy assigning nations a certain number of participating clubs. In addition to the Champions League, the European Cup Winners’ Cup (ex C2), the Europa League (ex-UEFA Cup) (C3), the Intertoto Cup and the UEFA Super Cup are the other competitions organized by UEFA.

On the European model, the other confederations have similar competitions such as the Copa Libertadores (since 1960) in South America, the CAF Champions League (since 1964) in Africa or the AFC Champions League (since 1967) in Asia. The winners of the European C1 and the Copa Libertadores met between 1960 and 2004 for the Intercontinental Cup. In order to open the other continents to these inter-club competitions of the highest level, FIFA is setting up, not without difficulty, a Club World Cup. The first edition was held in 2000, then the event became annual in 2005.

National team competitions

The British Home Championship (1883–1984) was the first competition between national teams. The project of a World Cup has been part of FIFA’s plans since its creation in 1904. It finally saw the light of day in 1930, under the pressure of the rise of the Olympic football tournament. With the professionalization of football outside the British Isles from the 1920s and 1930s, the national teams present at the Games were no longer the A teams, but Olympic teams with only amateur players. The eastern nations, officially amateurs, dominated Olympic tournaments after World War II.

In 1992 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed professionals to compete at the Games, but FIFA refused to send the A teams. The teams involved are the hopefuls (under 21 at the beginning of the knockout phase, more than a year before the Olympics; the IOC calls these teams “under 23”) reinforced by three players over 23 years old. Some teams do not use the latter option and simply send their hopeful teams to the Games.

The World Cup, held every four years, is the flagship competition on the calendar. It was created by Jules Rimet, then president of FIFA. Currently, 32 national teams are taking part in the final phase, the last edition of which took place in 2018 in Russia. They are qualified at the end of qualifying phases under the jurisdiction of the confederations that take place during the two seasons preceding the final phase. Eight teams have already won the World Cup at least once: Brazil (5 times), Italy (4), Germany (4), Argentina (2), Uruguay (2), France (2), England (1) and Spain (1).

The confederations also organize continental competitions: European Nations Championship, African Cup of Nations, Gold Cup, Asian Cup of Nations, Copa América and Oceania Cup.

Created in 1992, the Confederations Cup takes place every four years between 2005 and 2017, the date of the last edition. It usually pits the continental champions of each confederation against the reigning world champion.

This scheme is valid for senior men, but there are the same types of competitions for women and different age categories (Under-20 Football World Cup, in particular).

Expansion and diversification of football

Modern women’s football

Following the revival of women’s football that began in the late 1960s, the discipline was able to organize competitions modeled on the men’s model with national championships, international club and national team competitions. In Europe, this movement is supervised by national federations while in the United States, it is school and university sport that makes this evolution possible. The adoption on June 23, 1972, of Title IX to finance American school and university women’s sport is decisive; women’s football benefits fully even if high-level play is limited to only a few universities, North Carolina Tar Heels in the first place.

With a considerable player base of several million players (more than all UEFA nations combined), it makes sense to see the emergence of a top-tier U.S. national team that won two World Cups in 1991 and 1999 and two gold and one silver medal in all three Olympic tournaments (1996-2004). Unlike its men’s version, the women’s Olympic tournament brings together the best teams, regardless of age and has established itself since its first edition in 1996 as one of the major events on the calendar.

Europe and South America did not remain inactive, but decided to apply the same patterns as those followed by male practitioners. The federations set up national competitions whose level gradually rises, then integrate a female component into their national selections. Norway, winner of the 1995 World Cup and two-time European champion in 1987 and 1993, and Germany, the four-time European champion from 1989 to 1997, relying on a larger player base, dominated the end of the twentieth century.

Norway then experienced a sharp decline in the hierarchy following the rise of other nations such as England, Sweden or France in Europe, Brazil in South America and China in Asia, while Germany established itself as a world reference by winning the 2003 and 2007 World Cups and three new European titles in 2001. 2005 and 2009. FIFA publishes a ranking of the best national women’s football teams four times a year, and this ranking is dominated by the United States and Germany.

At the club level, American private interests organized the first women’s professional championship in 2001: the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA). Eight franchises bringing together the best players in the world, and not only American, compete for three seasons. At the end of the 2003 edition, the League ceased operations due to large financial deficits. Since then, the best club competitions have been played in Germany, Sweden or England, where players play as semi-professionals. In France, the status of the federal (semi-professional) player, yet possible for male players playing up to the Division d’Honneur (D6), is not allowed for female players, even internationals.

However, Olympique Lyonnais has set up a semi-professional women’s pennant team since the incorporation of the women’s section of FC Lyon into OL in 2004. Similarly, the French media give little space to women’s football, while clubs in France drag their feet in setting up women’s teams. In Germany, the situation is quite different. The German Federation announced in April 2008 that it had exceeded the milestone of one million female licensees; In France, there were only 60,521 female licensees in the 1 July 2007. Of the 301,000 clubs listed worldwide by FIFA, 26,000 have at least one women’s team.

The best European clubs have met every season since the 2001-2002 season in the UEFA Women’s Cup (renamed to the UEFA Women’s Champions League in 2009-2010). German and Swedish clubs dominate the rankings. South America decided to organize a similar competition in 2009 with the creation of the Women’ s Copa Libertadores. There are also international tournaments featuring the best national teams such as the Algarve Cup which has been played every year in Portugal since 1994.

Sports derivatives of football

Futsal

Futsal or indoor football is a team sport derived from football with adapted rules. This discipline was created in 1930 in Uruguay and gradually came under the umbrella of FIFA from the end of the 1980s.

The South American nations dominated this discipline for a long time, then Europe set up specific structures allowing the emergence of an elite that imposed itself at the highest level. Thus, three European countries are among the four semi-finalists of the edition of the FIFA World Cup in 2008, and again two four years later.

Beach football

Beach soccer is a sport that is similar to football and is played on beach sand. It pits two teams of five players, who can be replaced at any time, in three twelve-minute thirds on a field of 28 × 37 meters. The first World Cup was held in 1995. This event and discipline depend on FIFA since 2005.

On the model of futsal, South Americans, Brazilians in the first place, remain dominant in beach soccer for a long time. With nine titles out of the ten editions contested before the passage under the aegis of FIFA, they are present on the podium of the competition in the seven editions contested since that date, including four successive titles. Guided by Eric Cantona, France, won the first FIFA World Cup in 2005, Russia winning the 2011 and 2013 editions.

Other variants

Football has two disabled sports variations, wheelchair football (played with four per team) and blind football (or five-a-side football). Since 2005, wheelchair football has been managed by the International Powerchair Football Association while blind football has been a discipline of the Paralympic Games since 2004. Brazil won the World Championship in 1998 and 2000, then Argentina won in 2002 and 2006.

Jorkyball and ball tennis are other variants with a more or less distant relationship with football.

Cooperative football is a variant that is played with six to twenty players grouped into two teams. When a player scores a goal, he changes teams with an opposing player.

The sixteen game is a variant of football, played with six players per team, on half of a football field, with a playing time reduced to 10 minutes.

Football social phenomenon

Element of popular culture

Football culture

Football, a “universal language” for some authors, creates a specific culture with its codes, vocabulary, initiation rites and its entire cohort of artistic productions. From cinema to song to all the arts, football has indeed been a universal source of inspiration for more than a century. The French humanist Albert Camus, a former goalkeeper, paid a vibrant tribute to football by declaring: “All that I know most for sure about the morality and obligations of men, I owe it to football”. Camus would have been the ideal goalkeeper on the France of Philosophers team if it had been invited to the Monty Python Philosophers’ Football Game (1972). Raymond Aron could have completed this training, he wrote two months before the start of the 1982 World Cup:

“Let us not shy away from this great celebration, not of friendship, but of competition between nations through fragile artists. A competition subject to rules, controlled by referees, is it not, in the final analysis, the image of the only reconciliation between peoples compatible with the nature of collectivities and perhaps of man himself? »

Songs hold an important place in football culture. Clubs and national teams create songs, some of which are genuine commercial successes, from Allez les Verts! by Jacques Monty in France in the mid-1970s to the many English club songs published from 1971 onwards. These include Leeds United (Leeds Utd), No. 10 in the English charts in April 1971, Good old Arsenal (Arsenal) No. 16 in May 1971, The blue is our color (Chelsea) No. 5 in March 1972, I’m forever blowing bubbles (West Ham) No. 31 in May 1975, We can do it (Liverpool FC) No. 15 in May 1977, and Glory glory Man United (Manchester United) No. 13 in May 1983. However, fans generally prefer to recycle songs that have nothing to do with football.

Thus, the iconic anthem of the supporters is You’ll Never Walk Alone since 1965 and its adoption by fans of Liverpool FC and Celtic Glasgow. This song was created for an American musical unrelated to football. Some artists, on the other hand, are directly inspired by the football phenomenon. The group Queen exploits this influence in its titles We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions.

In the field of cinema, all aspects of the game have been explored since 1911 and the first film of its kind, Harry the Footballer by British Lewin Fitzhamon: from the madness of some supporters in À mort l’arbitre by Jean-Pierre Mocky (1984, a year before the Heysel Drama) to social satire with Coup de tête by Jean-Jacques Annaud (1979) and in particular through the historical fresco with Le Miracle de Bern (Das Wunder von Bern) by Sönke Wortmann (2003) and exoticism with The Cup, an Australian-Bhutanese film by Khyentse Norbu (1999) telling us the adventures of two young Tibetans who have taken refuge in a Buddhist monastery, who try to follow the 1998 World Cup on television, examples that illustrate again and again the universality of football.

In the field of painting, Les footballeurs, abstract Nicolas de Staël, are a series of 25 canvases and several sketches painted by the artist during a match France-Sweden in 1952 at the Parc des Princes.

In literature, Nick Hornby published Fever Pitch in 1992 which changed the perception of the phenomenon supported by the British. Let us also mention authors such as Pierre Bourgeade (Le Football, c’est la guerre pursuee par d’autres moyens at Gallimard in 1981) or the lighter René Fallet (Le Triporter at Denoël in 1951) without forgetting the pioneer Henry de Montherlant (1895-1972), Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944) and Albert Camus (1913-1960) who introduced football into literature.

In Germany, plays focused on football were staged: the burlesque play A Footballer and an American Indian (Fussballspieler und Indianer, written in 1924 and staged in 1926), a satire already pointing to the place of the media in sport, Under the Red and White Jersey (Stimmung Rot-Weiss, 1971) and The War of the States (Länderkampf, 1971), denouncing the nationalist passions engendered by football. German radio broadcast plays designed for this medium such as Le Match (Das Fussballspiel, 1967-1969), La Balle (1974; short runs by supporters’ counters) or Der syntetische Seler (1973).

Playful at the base, football is also available in a range of outdoor games, boards or video. The most emblematic are the Foosball and the Subbuteo. Since the advent of video games, football has been one of the most promising themes. The football video game Pro Evolution Soccer was the best-selling cultural product in France in 2006. There are also fantasy league games, such as Mon Petit gazon en France.

Other products are directly related to football, such as Panini stickers that children collect, or match programs, which play an important role in the relationship between clubs and supporters in the United Kingdom, in particular. Similarly, betting on football matches holds a prominent place in the field of sports betting. The Italian Totocalcio (created on May 5, 1946) and the Spanish Quiniela (1946-1947 season) are real institutions, not to mention the British who practice betting since the beginning of the game and in a more supervised way since 1923. France is the last nation in Europe to allow betting on football matches (17 April 1985). A tax, more or less heavy depending on the country, is generally levied on these bets to finance the sports movement.

The historical study of football is an important part of football culture. Any supporter worthy of the name is unbeatable on the history of “his” club. Long abandoned to journalists who often indulge in emphasis, the history of football has passed since the 1980s into the field of historians and sociologists, especially Marxists and neo-Marxists who see it as a new “opium of the people”, while the political, media and intellectual elites who have long despised this sport, see in it virtues of training, of ascension for the working classes (and for the children of immigrants, of social integration through sport), even civilizing virtues at work in democratic societies (the values it conveys — physical and moral rigor, as well as esprit de corps, break down hierarchical barriers—are supposed to limit violence and conflict).

The Anglo-Saxons are at the forefront of this field of study while the Latin nations still prefer to leave the pen to journalists. At the end of the 1980s, the French historian Alfred Wahl called for evolution, but the work of historians weighed nothing in the face of the often legendary communication of clubs relayed by the media.

Supporters

Football leads to a vast movement of popular support, sometimes unconditional: the phenomenon of supporters. Fans of the same club can organize themselves into movements called groups or associations of supporters. Some groups are indulging in hooliganism.

The phenomenon of supporters has existed since ancient times, and even before the codification of football, all the benefits and shortcomings of this movement are already well known. English cricket was hit hard by a wave of violence from its supporters from the 1770s to the early nineteenth century. The overwhelming majority of sports fans are peaceful and festive, so it is simplistic to treat this theme solely from the angle of violence. Similarly, reducing the supporter to a mere consumer of merchandising products is also commonplace. The sports authorities themselves have still not fully integrated fans into the “football family”. Michel Platini, president of UEFA, planned to correct this oversight.

However, fans have a decisive role in financing clubs, animating stadiums and allowing players to give the best of themselves on the field. The nickname “twelfth man” is not usurped. They also represent a form of counter-power vis-à-vis the leaders. Thus, in England and France, the club moves, American-style, are tempted by some leaders in search of better “markets”. The pressure from the fans is such that these purely mercantile moves are now prohibited in France after the controversial merger of Toulouse FC’s first version with Red Star in 1967 and exceptional in England: the isolated case of Wimbledon FC which moves to Milton Keynes in 2003 becoming Milton Keynes Dons Football Club. In response to this move, Wimbledon fans created their own club: AFC Wimbledon.

Rivalries in football mainly affect fans. Derbies and other gala posters are important events for fans who compete in the fields of singing or animation of the stands (and sometimes violence) to gain ascendancy over rival supporters. The most spectacular rivalries in Europe are those between Celtic and Rangers and Glasgow, while in South America the Super-Clasico Boca-River Plate reaches heights in the genre.

Supporters quickly gather in fan clubs. By the end of the nineteenth century, such groups already existed in the United Kingdom. They are usually under the direct authority of the club. These are so-called “official” supporters ‘ clubs. One of the main goals of these associations is to raise money for their club. Since the creation of the Torcida movement in Brazil in the 1940s, some fan groups have become independent of the club and even claim to deserve subsidies from it. This is the basis of the so-called “ultra” movement. Ultra culture is highly developed in Latin America and begins to affect the former Yugoslavia in Europe in 1950.

This movement spread via Italy in the 1960s. The ultra wave reached France in the mid-1980s. If the majority of these groups display real pacifism, violence is not foreign to the ultra movement. However, the codes used are not the same as those used by British hooligans, who are more individualistic, and therefore totally unrelated to rivalries between certain groups within the same clubs. After the Heysel tragedy, the term hooligan became synonymous with the barbarian. A more radical movement of British-German-Dutch inspiration, the hools, took over. The latter often use violence for purely private purposes, with no real links to the club. Some authors designate the term hooligan all violent supporters, while there is more than a nuance between an average supporter suddenly becoming violent and an opposing stand takeover.

Excluded from European competitions following the Heysel tragedy, England is the first nation to enact strict rules to fight violence. Despite this will and the legal arsenal that accompanies it, the problem persists in England on the sidelines of matches and in the lower divisions. After testing the bunkerization of stadiums with the installation of fences and other harrows to channel the crowd, the authorities now prefer to deal with the problem upstream by banning violent fans from the stadium allowing the abandonment of a defensive and very aggressive attitude, still de rigueur in many nations, which give some stages the appearance of war zones.

It is often considered that France, which remains relatively unaffected by these violent phenomena, does not effectively address the problem. Clubs, police, justice and political authorities pass the buck. In Italy, where the ultra-violent movement is very active, the authorities are often perceived as ill-equipped to deal with the phenomenon. Ditto in Spain, in particular. In South America, where the ultra movement was born, we have been witnessing a radicalization of supporters for several decades. Repression is as ferocious as it is ineffective with ultra-violent Barra Bravas groups.

Similarly, leaders are often criticized for perpetuating the racist actions of some supporters through their passivity. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we note that a large part of fans banned from stadiums in France or Belgium, for example, are for attempts to introduce smoke bombs into the enclosures. If Valenciennes player Abdeslam Ouaddou had not drawn attention to the Messi fan repeatedly using racist insults against him on February 16, 2008, he would never have been worried. He was finally arrested at the exit of the stadium.

Most often peaceful and festive, the invasions of fields at the end of some matches giving, in particular, a title are also very spectacular. For security reasons, this type of event is becoming rare. Other invasions of fields, much less festive, occur exceptionally on the occasion of certain matches, in the middle of a match. This was notably the case during the France-Algeria match on 6 October 2001 at the Stade de France. The match was definitively stopped a quarter of an hour from the end.

After being among the most violent supporters, Scottish fans have become more peaceful since the 1970s. Studies have shown a significant age difference between violent and festive fans: 23 years on average for English fans during Euro 1988 against 31 years for the Danes. 15% of Danish fans were women compared to only 2% among the English. Some clubs also have audiences of unfailing loyalty despite mediocre results for several generations. One example is Newcastle UFC in England.

The role of the media

Print

Football enters the general press then the omnisports press from the nineteenth century. Some titles, however, refuse to deal with this sport with too popular roots; The Field (created in 1853), which dealt mainly with “noble” sports such as tennis, golf, horse racing and hunting, opened its columns to football only to denigrate it. The same goes for France with the daily L’Auto, which multiplies the headlines on rugby but refuses to give football its first page until the Great War.

A less stilted sports press emerged at the end of the century, and these titles gave a large place to football. This press still records solid circulations at the beginning of the XXI century with daily, weekly or monthly periodicities. Headlines in the daily Omnisports press include A Bola, O Jogo and Record in Portugal, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Tuttosport and Corriere dello Sport – Stadio in Italy, Marca and As in Spain, Olé in Argentina and L’Équipe in France.

It was not until the interwar period that a specialized press appeared. Thus, in France, in addition to the weekly Le Football Association, the official organ of the FFFA created on October 4, 1919, the first title dedicated exclusively to football is the weekly Football (1929-1944) which proudly displays in the header “The strongest circulation of football weeklies around the world”. This title served as a reference until the Second World War. France football succeeded him after the Liberation.

The written press plays a major role in the media coverage of the game, but also in the organization of competitions, especially in France. Hachette is thus the “indispensable support” of the French federation during the first ten editions of the Coupe de France. The daily newspaper Le Petit Parisien took over for the last editions of the Cup before the Second World War and also became the partner of the first editions of the professional France championship. The European Champion Clubs’ Cup was created by the French daily newspaper L’Équipe in 1955. At first, the young UEFA (founded in 1954) did not oppose this private organization, but FIFA, fearing the privatization of organizations, pushed UEFA to take over an event whose draw for the first round had already taken place.

The clubs have long-standing print media, primarily a match program. The Celtic View, a weekly magazine dealing only with the news of the Scottish club Celtic FC has been published since 1965. Many other clubs then set up weeklies or monthlies or were treated by press titles more or less independent of the clubs. AS Roma is to date the only club covered by a specialized daily: Il Romanista, whose number one was released on September 10, 2004. This title has a circulation of 10,000 copies.

Audiovisual media

Radio covered football as early as the 1920s. In Italy, the first radio broadcast of a match took place on 6 October 1924.  In Belgium, Adrien Milecamp provided commentary in 1927 for the first radio match broadcast in the kingdom (Belgium-England on May 11). Georges Briquet, the “king of radio reporters” who began his career in 1931, was the great French voice of sports and football until the 1950s. It was he who created the concept of Sunday afternoons “sport and music” just after the Second World War. The arrival of television changed the situation, but did not condemn the radio which adapted and set up multiplexes and talk shows about the news of the game.

On 16 September 1937, the BBC broadcast a training match between Arsenal and their reserves. Arsenal was chosen because of its proximity to the Alexandra Palace television studios. Apart from German attempts at the Olympic Games in the summer of 1936 and the Germany-Italy match on November 15, 1936, this is a first.

The relationship between football and television remained contentious for a long time. Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, demanded in 1957 for his players the same respect as movie stars: “Footballers must be paid on their value. No remuneration, no television”. This position is adopted in England and France, and despite some attempts at broadcasting and high-profile crises, football stadiums remain generally inaccessible to television cameras. This concerns exclusively the clubs, which finally won this tug-of-war with television during the 1980s (1983 in England and 1984 in France) when broadcasters agreed to abandon the compensation policy and agreed to pay a fair price for the “football show”. National teams are not concerned by this debate because matches have generally been broadcast since the early 1950s. The 1954 World Cup was the first edition covered by television.

Now paying a high price for the broadcasting rights of the matches, some broadcasters are becoming demanding in terms of scheduling, especially for the staggering of championship days to allow the broadcasting of several matches. But football is also becoming a major issue in terms of competition. The channels that own these rights are leaders: Sky in the United Kingdom, TF1 and Canal+ in France.

Rights prices are high, but audience rates are at record highs. Thus, of the eleven best audiences of French television since 1989 (creation of Médiamat), there are ten football matches and one rugby union matches. Similarly, at the international level, the 2006 World Cup was broadcast by 376 television channels around the world for a cumulative audience of 26.29 billion viewers for 52 matches, an average audience per match of 506 million viewers.

The arrival of television does not only have financial consequences. The broadcasting of matches creates problems with the game itself and its perception by the media and the public, in particular by pointing out refereeing errors. This is not a new phenomenon. As early as the 1950s, some matches triggered major waves of protests. On March 2, 1960, the only French channel broadcasts the return match of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup: Real Madrid – OGC Nice, whose questionable refereeing to the advantage of the Spaniards shocks many viewers.

Instead of playing a mediating role, the French media are adding fuel to the fire, yesterday as now, placing arbitrators in complicated situations. And the “Mr. Foote, you’re a bastard! What a scandal this arbitration is unbelievable! Never seen such an individual, he should be in prison and not on a football field” launched by Thierry Roland during the Bulgaria-France match of 1976 against the referee, systematic smear campaigns marking the first years of the twenty-first century, French television was particularly illustrated by its lack of fair play, which also includes compliance with the arbitrator’s decisions.

Some clubs have their own television channels. Middlesbrough FC is the first English club to equip itself with such a tool. Boro TV operated from 2001 to 2005. Other club TV channels include OM TV, OL TV, Inter Channel, Milan Channel, Roma Channel, Manchester United TV, Real Madrid TV and Barça TV. Other clubs simply broadcast matches, summaries and reports via their websites.

Football and politics

Local issues

According to Alfred Wahl: “At the most modest level, that of the village, the sports association constitutes a field of confrontation between notables because it can become a stepping stone for the accession to power”. The football match between Peppone’s Dynamo and Don Camillo’s La Gaillarde in Don Camillo’s film The Little World (1951) illustrates this situation in a humorous tone. The existence of several rival clubs in the same city is generally a thing of the past, especially in medium-sized cities. Some large cities have managed to keep several clubs of the same level, except in France, where the authorities have ensured, since the 1930s, to apply the rule: “one club, one city”.

The last French examples of clubs of the same level located in the same city are those of Vannes (Vannes OC is the result of the merger of the two historic clubs of the city in 1998) and La Roche-sur-Yon (ditto for La Roche VF in 1989). In these cases, it is a merger between a club with Catholic patronage and a club claiming to be secular.

This opposition born in France at the beginning of the twentieth century masked the classic right/left oppositions found in the rest of continental Europe. In France, when the “Reds” faced the “Whites”, it was a match between secularists and Catholics; elsewhere, as in the example of Don Camillo, it was rather a question of a left/right opposition, even if the Church was most often behind the “White” clubs. The only French professional club with Catholic patronage is AJ Auxerre. Its local rival, the secular Stade Auxerrois still exists, but plays in the Burgundy championship.

The presence of a single club in a city poses other problems, such as the municipalization of the club, with all possible abuses at this level. Municipalities generally own sports facilities and have long had the right of life or death over clubs by granting or refusing subsidies. The rise of television fees allows professional clubs to emancipate themselves a little, but the problem remains at the amateur level.

Some clubs are emblematic of claims. FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao are thus strong symbols of Catalan regionalism and Basque. Even today, you have to be born in the “historic” Basque Country or have been trained at the club to be able to play for Athletic Bilbao.

Religious claims also have their place in football. In Northern Ireland, Belfast’s main club, Linfield FC is composed exclusively of Protestant players. For a long time, its matches against Cliftonville FC, a club located in the heart of the Catholic Quarter, were played for safety reasons on neutral ground at Windsor Park. Following the increase in home and away incidents, Derry City Catholic Football Club now plays in the League of Ireland. The situation is also tense in Glasgow between the Protestants of Glasgow Rangers and the Catholics of Celtic FC.

Conversely, football can serve as a symbolic gathering element, as was the case in France after winning the 1998 World Cup or in Iraq in 2007 after winning the Asian Cup of Nations. “Iraqis live only for football, and this is their secret to face difficulties,” says Hussein Saeed, former emblematic player of the 1980s and president of the Iraqi federation.

According to journalist Mickaël Correia: “Appearing from 1968 in an Italy in full social unrest, the ultras are then young demonstrators from far-left processions who import into the galleries practices specific to radical political organizations: independence from institutions, the culture of anonymity, solidarity between members and self-financing. The first Italian ultras went so far as to draw inspiration from the names of the armed organizations of the extreme left of the time, such as the Red and Black Brigades of AC Milan or the Tupamaros (in reference to the Uruguayan movement of the same name) at AS Roma”.

During the events of the Arab Spring, the ultras sometimes mobilized to defend the demonstrators against the police. Thus, the ultras of Espérance Sportive de Tunis and Club Africain, another major Tunisian club, found themselves in January 2011 in the front line of the demonstrations. In February and November 2011, the ultras of Al-Ahly and Zamalek, the two main clubs in Cairo, physically defended Tahrir Square against the militias of power during the Egyptian revolution.

International Issues

Football and nationalism

Football has often served as a vehicle for nationalist sentiments. Many totalitarian or authoritarian regimes have used it as a means of propaganda. Benito Mussolini thus promoted the Italian team to the rank of “soldiers of the national cause”. The Italian fascists were clearly hostile to football, too English and not manly enough when they came to power. They try to replace it with the local game of the Volata; without success. Soviet leaders, like Mussolini, were not really keen on football but exploited the vein from the 1950s after having taken over the main clubs of the capital via the army, the police and the KGB from the years 1920-1930.

In the former Yugoslavia, football clubs are also becoming strong symbols of identity. The structuring of ultras groups from the 1950s favored this evolution and the mutation into active paramilitary groups (such as the Arkan Tigers, in particular, ultras of the Red Star of Belgrade at the base) during the civil war of the 1990s.

Football and diplomacy

Football has sometimes caused tensions between states with poor diplomatic relations.

In 1969, a football match marked the start of a war known as the Football War or the Hundred Hour War. In the play-off to reach the finals of the 1970 World Cup, El Salvador won 3-2 against Honduras. In the wake of this victory, El Salvador invaded Honduras to settle an old border dispute. This short war caused more than 2,000 deaths and did not settle the problem between the neighbors.

Border incidents also occurred after the 1930 World Cup final between Uruguay and Argentina, while 320 deaths were recorded in riots after a Peru-Argentina match on May 23, 1964.

Similarly, football was used as a propaganda weapon by the FLN during the Algerian War. Between April 1958 and March 1962, the FLN football team was a powerful ambassador of the Algerian cause, despite FIFA’s ban on playing against this formation.

Football can also serve as a diplomatic mediator as was the case in 1998 during the World Cup in France during the Group F match between the United States team and that of Iran – a match won 2-1 by Iran – or in 2002 when the World Cup was held jointly in South Korea and Japan. Not wanting to decide between these two historically rival nations, FIFA has indeed decided, against all sporting logic, to entrust them with the organization of this World Cup in order to promote their reconciliation.

In 2008-2009, Armenia and Turkey accompanied their selection matches for the 2010 World Cup with a diplomatic rapprochement. This “football diplomacy” culminated four days before the return match in October 2009 in the signing of a historic agreement between the two countries.

Human rights

By encouraging dialogue between peoples, sport, and football in particular, can be seen as contributing to changing mentalities and advancing human rights. Football is credited with promoting gender parity, combating racism and intolerance, and freedom of expression.

The dates of selection of the first black or mulatto players in the European national team are significant: 1881 in Scotland (Andrew Watson), 1927 in Turkey (Vahap Özaltay (en)), 1931 in France (Raoul Diagne) and Wales (Eddie Parris), 1937 in Portugal (Espírito Santo), 1960 in the Netherlands (Humphrey Mijnals), 1965 in Austria (Helmut Köglberger), 1974 in Germany (Erwin Kostedde), 1978 in England (Viv Anderson), 1979 in Ireland (Chris Hughton), 1987 in Belgium (Dimitri Mbuyu), 1990 in Sweden (Jean-Paul Vonderburg), 1994 in Spain (Donato Gama da Silva), 1998 in Norway (John Carew), 1999 in Hungary (Thomas Sowunmi), 2000 in Poland (Emmanuel Olisadebe) and Switzerland (Badile Lubamba), 2001 in Italy (Fabio Liverani), 2004 in Croatia (Eduardo), 2007 in Denmark (Simon Poulsen), 2011 in Ukraine (Edmar), 2014 in Finland (Nikolai Alho), 2018 in Russia (Ari). In addition, reactions to some of these firsts are difficult for many players.

Viv Anderson, selected in 1978 to wear the jersey of the England team, not only receives death threats, but also has to endure throughout his career racist chants coming down from the stands. The latter, such as “Everton are White“, remained common in English stadiums until the late 1980s. The situation is clearly more peaceful in France for Raoul Diagne and Larbi Ben Barek in the 1930s.

Under the communist regime, the football stadium remained one of the few spaces where a protest against the regime could be expressed. Indeed, declaring oneself a supporter of this or that club then had a major political significance, while the chants of the supporters against the clubs run by the Communist Party and its various politico-military-industrial organs were as many cries of opposition to the regime. Some players even refuse to play for these clubs. Eduard Streltsov, the “Russian Pele”, refuses to leave the popular Torpedo Moscow for CSKA Moscow or Dynamo. He then served seven years in prison in the gulags. On his release, he won the title of champion of the USSR in 1965 with the Torpedo in the shape of a thumb of the nose to the regime.

Football as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The UNESCO World Heritage Football Candidature is an initiative publicly launched on 7 December 2018 by the Organization “Football World Heritage of UNESCO”, Vanessa Modely, Deputy President of the Circle of France at UNESCO and Ambassador-Delegate to UNESCO Member States and Forbes Magazine.

In collaboration with the magazine “Forbes”, the official announcement of the candidacy is accompanied by the publication of the ranking of the 100 most influential personalities of world football: “TOP 100 Football World Leaders” in which appear leaders of football bodies such as Gianni Infantino, Aleksander Čeferin, Fatma Samoura, political leaders such as Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Hamad ben Khalifa Al Thani, club leaders such as Josep Maria Bartomeu and Florentino Perez and players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar or Kylian Mbappé.

The objective of the publication of this ranking is to launch a global appeal to influential bodies in the world of Football to bring the inscription of Football to the Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted by UNESCO in 2003. This multinational candidacy aims to be the most universal in the history of the United Nations by uniting 185 states with the most support of political, economic, cultural and sports personalities.

Criticism of football

Historical opposition

At the time of the soule, many clerics threatened those who practiced this discipline with ex-communication. As already indicated, good English society has never really admitted this too popular discipline. Football is also attacked at the level of its principles of play and is long nicknamed “paralytic sport” in France by its opponents. Many countries refused to recognize this discipline at its beginnings, preferring rugby and cycling (France) or gymnastics (Germany). By 1905, however, football had France more clubs and licensees than rugby, defended by the elites. The USFSA thus multiplies the vexations against football, and schedules in 1911 the international football match France-England as a curtain raiser of a match of the France rugby championship.

In the 1901 Sports Almanac, Frantz Reichel, an emblematic figure of the USFSA, wrote: “The degenerate Frenchman goes more willingly to the Association; in twenty years, only Rugby will triumph. After noting that “the English race is at the beginning of its degeneration…; For the moment, my only proof of this degeneration is the taste that leads athletes and spectators to the Football Association. Reichel notes that the Association now “triumphs” over Rugby, but he devotes little space to it in his notice entitled “Football”, in fact, almost entirely devoted to Rugby.

The criticism of the professionalization of football appeared in 1885 and the adoption of professionalism in England. Reluctance is important, especially in France, even today, and in Germany until the 1960s. For the record, cycling, professional since the 1880s, has never suffered this type of attack in France. The FFF, itself, is not very comfortable with this situation, and refuses to recognize the existence of semi-professionalism. It prefers to name its semi-professional national championships (from National to CFA2) “amateurs”.

In 1945, after Dynamo Moscow’s tour of matches in the United Kingdom, which sometimes degenerated verbally and physically, the British writer George Orwell, an opponent of nationalism, wrote an essay entitled “The Sportsmanship” for the London newspaper “Tribune”. He is appalled by the sport. “Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play,” he denounces, “it is linked to hatred, jealousy, boasting, disregard for all rules and a sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus shooting”.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, some authors considered that “football is a disease”. Authors such as the sociologist Jean-Marie Brohm and the architect-sociologist-philosopher Marc Perelman perpetuate this school during the twentieth century with works with evocative titles: Football, an emotional plague: Planet of the Apes, animal festival (1998), Intellectuals and Football. Montée de tous les illaux et recul de la pensée (2000) or Le football, une peste émotionnelle: La barbarie des stadedes (2006) where the latter considers that football is a “global scourge”.

Football and class struggle

The critical theory of sport (and especially football), rather derived from libertarian circles and developed in the 1970s by the sociologist Brohm, is today questioned by academics and historians such as Catherine Louveau, Christian Pociello or Georges Vigarello who reproaches the fascist character that Brohm attributes to this sport: Analyzing football as a “capitalist subsystem” that reproduces the class struggle, Brohm omits that players from working-class backgrounds who play the game do so not from a political perspective but because they enjoy it above all.

Homophobia and Football

Homophobia is present in football culture with openly homophobic demonstrations present until the twenty-first century. Although the situation is changing in some countries (e.g. Germany) the situation has not been resolved.

Hooliganism and football

Although the violent behavior of sporting crowds is not new, it is considered a specificity of modern football. The first historical mention of football hooliganism dates back to the fourteenth century, with the ban of this sport by Edward II in England due to the troubles surrounding the matches. England is considered the birthplace of football-related hooliganism. The causes of these abuses are complex and differ depending on the situation, but different common elements can be highlighted: excitement, hyper-masculinity, territorial identification, reputation, solidarity and belonging, and representation of a form of sovereignty and autonomy.

Corruption in football

Football is criticized because of corruption facts uncovered at different levels: local, national and even international.

References (sources)

« Early Scottish Football », The Association of Football Statisticians; « Le monde du football s’arrange pour ne pas voir le dopage », LeMonde.fr, 2010; Article, Wikipedia; « ‘Surprise’ key to football appeal », BBC News, 2006; « World Cup 1934 – Qualifying », sur RSSSF.com.