Football Nation : Sixty Years of the Beautiful Game

by Ward, Andrew; Williams, John

• ISBN13: 9780747596080
• ISBN10: 0747596085
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-22
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Summary

Football is at the heart of British national identity, intrinsically linked to our social history. Through more than forty fascinating stories Football Nation reveals the hidden and not-so-hidden history of the game since 1945. From the mass audiences of austerity Britain and the introduction of floodlights at Accrington Stanley in the 1950s, through the escalating hooliganism of the 1970s and the arrival of the first all-seater stadium at Coventry in the 1980s, to the Hillsborough disaster and the coming of the Premiership, Andrew Ward and John Williams reveal the truth about the national game as it was once and is today in the age of satellite TV, celebrity lifestyle and extreme wealth. Looking back at the days when footballers were amateurs who travelled to the match with the fans, right through to the present day where top-flight players command a higher weekly wage than the average spectator can earn in a year, Football Nation is informed, wryly amusing, often surprising and always vastly entertaining. It offers an entirely fresh perspective on the history of the beautiful game in Britain.

Author Biography

Andrew Ward is a freelance writer. His football books include Kicking and Screaming (with Rogan Taylor), Football Strangest Matches, Ward’s Soccerpedia and Barnsley: A Study in Football, 1953-59 (with Ian Alister). He lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

John Williams is an academic researcher and lecturer in the sociology of sport at the University of Leicester. He has pioneered football research since his studies of hooliganism in the late-1970s and has written twelve books on football and fan culture. He lives in Leicester.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Introduction to Part One	p. 7
Don't Mention the War The State of Football in 1946	p. 9
'Surely They'd Fainted' The Bolton Disaster	p. 16
Abide With Me The First Post-war FA Cup Final	p. 25
Never Have So Many Attended The Seasons of Peak Admissions	p. 32
The Flying Horse at Wembley Pegasus and the FA Amateur Cup	p. 39
'Run it Off, Son' The Risks to Players in the early 1950s	p. 46
Shine a Light on Stanley The Coming of Floodlights	p. 54
On the Road Travelling on the Team Bus	p. 61
Introduction to Part Two	p. 71
'If This Is Death...' The Munich Air Disaster, 1958	p. 73
On the Production Line Football and Factories in Oxford	p. 82
A Bit of a Flutter Doing the Football Pools	p. 89
'Mr Football' Joe Richards as Football League President	p. 95
Saturday Afternoon and Sunday Morning Football and the Sabbath	p. 103
Football, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah The Coming of Kop Choirs	p. 110
Wembley 1966 and After What England's World Cup Win Did for Women's Football	p. 118
Chester's XI Takes the Field The Football Enquiry, 1968	p. 128
Introduction to Part Three	p. 137
The Boss and His Bosses Managers, Directors and the Media	p. 139
The Referee Said, 'Play on' Leeds United v West Brom, 1971	p. 148
'Mum, They Haven't Got Tails' The Rise of an African-Caribbean Football Club	p. 155
'Never in My Life...' Newcastle United v Nottingham Forest, 1974	p. 162
Don't Call Us, We'll Call You Scouting for Players	p. 171
Jimmy Hill Will Fix It The First English All-Seater Stadium	p. 175
If You Think You're Hard Enough The Reasons for Terrace Unrest	p. 184
Dodgy Knees, Groin Strains and Metatarsals Studying Football Injuries	p. 192
Introduction to Part Four	p. 201
The Club v Country Show International Football and the Clubs	p. 203
Task Force England Fans at the 1982 World Cup Finals	p. 210
Chester's Six-a-side Team Football's Economic Crises	p. 218
Fire and Rain Bradford and Birmingham, 11 May 1985	p. 226
'Corrupt to the Point of Murder' The Heysel Stadium Disaster	p. 235
'What Studs Will it Take?' Tales from the Dressing-room	p. 243
Members Only The Luton Town Scheme, 1986-7	p. 252
'Soccer on the Rates' When Calderdale Council Owned Halifax Town FC	p. 260
Introduction to Part Five	p. 269
'Amen to the Kop' Hillsborough, 15 April 1989	p. 271
Don't Trust the Press International Players and the Media	p. 280
A Whole New Ball Game The Formation of the FA Premier League	p. 289
Looking After the Locals Football Goes into the Community	p. 298
Moving Grounds Stadium Change After the 1990 Taylor Report	p. 305
Where Have All the Players Gone? When Professional Footballers Retire	p. 313
'Thirty Thoosand on the Waiting List' Excluded Fans in 1998	p. 321
The Tutorial Making Football Sexy	p. 328
Introduction to Part Six	p. 339
A Family Sport Becoming a Fan in the Early 2000s	p. 341
'Cup of Tea, Ref?' Long Live the Referee	p. 351
Franchise FC Wimbledon's Move to Milton Keynes	p. 358
An A-Z of the New Professional Game How Big Money Changed Football	p. 365
Football and Englishness Outsiders and Insiders	p. 374
Appendix	p. 385
List of Illustrations	p. 397
Sources	p. 399
Authors' Note and Acknowledgements	p. 421
Index	p. 423
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