Beastly Fury: The Strange Birth Of British Football

by Richard Sanders

"Footeballe is nothinge but beastlie furie and extreme violence", wrote Thomas Elyot in 1531. Nearly five hundred years later, the game may still seem furious and violent, but it has also become the most popular sport on the planet.This is the story of how the modern, professional, spectator sport of football was born in Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century. It's a tale of testosterone-filled public schoolboys, eccentric mill-owners and bolshy miners, and of why we play football the way we do. Who invented heading? Why do we have an offside law? And why are foreigners so much better than us at the game we invented?Based on exhaustive research, Beastly Fury picks apart the complex processes which forged the modern game, turning accepted wisdom on its head. It's a story which is strangely familiar - of grasping players, corrupt clubs and autocratic officials. It's a tale of brutality, but at times too, of surprising artistry. Above all it's a story of how football, uniquely among the sports of that era, became what it is today - the people's game.

Genres: Nonfiction, Football, Sports, History

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 4, 2009

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched book about the birth of modern football and how it grew from ruffians in the English towns and countrysides to the early football stadia

It covers corruption ( yes nothing new) autocratic owners (nothing new either) and how brutal the game was. It also covers some of the reason why English football is so tribal and helps to make you understand that.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was well researched, balanced, and didn't get bogged down in dates of specific rule changes too much. Nor did it grip me though, as it was a bit too dry for my taste and felt more like research than reading for pleasure.

This did not have the historian's writing style as with David Goldblatt's books on football, but it did seem that Sanders had looked up contemporary reports as well as other histories to piece together association football's beginnings. He countered the common history of public schools taking up the codified game first, and recounted the gradual changes of the best and most effective teams. Despite referencing news reports there was still a tendency to make assertions without a reference, such as teams discouraging ball work in training in order to have a hunger for the ball 'well into the twentieth century' and I think a casual style needs a bit more wit or flair if it is not going to cite all of its claims.

The section on women's football was interesting but a bit too accepting of the newspaper reports suggesting it was a laughing stock, and it didn't go into too much detail as to why it was stopped by the FA which I found a considerable oversight. Especially so, as he was prepared to describe the career of Billy Meredith quite comprehensively which seemed less relevant to the theme of the book.

I still learnt a lot and Sanders was careful to check his sources in order to flesh out a true account of events rather than the conventional wisdom. It just required me to concentrate as I would for a textbook rather than being engaged by the writing itself, which is a considerable element to a more general piece of non-fiction.

[Martin Barnet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any football fan. An amazingly detailed history of the game and it’s evolution, both in terms of the rules and styles of play to the pioneering players and clubs that took football from a game of the elite to the game of the working class in Britain. Superb.

[Ian Collis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book which is a must read for anyone interested in early British football history. Replete with interesting stories and characters. For me, it hit the right balance between demonstrating sound research whilst providing an entertaining read.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author manages to blend history, sociology and football in a very interesting read. Even as a self-confessed football nerd there was a lot I didn't know about.

[Glyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating piece of British social history.

Though it describes itself as merely a history of the brutal rise of British football, in truth this offers much more to a wider readership than merely those who follow "the Beautiful game".

Sanders traces the game back to it's "roots" in the Shrove Tuesday game and the violence and social pressure venting that it served as. We get hints at ideas that will shock many people's ideas about football. Those who believe that women's football is a new thing and a product of modern social developments and late 20th/ early 21st Century outlooks on gender are in for a seismic shock. Sanders reports a game of women's football being played in East Anglia in 1747. He then goes on to detail the Crouch End Ladies club of the early 1890s who regularly played in front of 6 - 8000 spectators. It should be said that their first game was 2-1 at half time - all own goals which, as Sanders tactfully observes, suggests that many of the players were still hazy on the rules of the game. it was this team, and the disorder that occurred at several of their games that caused the F.A to ban affiliated clubs from playing against women. He then records the Ladies charity match at Goodison Park on Boxing Day 1920 that sold out the 50,000 places and turned thousands more away.

That is not the only piece of historical re-evaluation here. He credibly challenges the shibboleth that it was born out of the games of Public Schools across England. We see the political battle between the classes as the working class increasingly challenge and come to own the game of toffs. To emphasise the point he draws comparision with the development of rugby whose history is sketched briefly here including the split of the codes.

One unexpected gem was the cautionary tale of Billy Meredith at Manchester City in 1907. |Uncommon evidence that history is cyclical. and that Manchester City have seen it all before.

A woonderful read and a strong recommendation

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

This well researched book tells the story of how the game of football became to be the most popular sport in the world. From its humble beginnigs as a game played by ruffians to its gentrification by the public schools to it becomming the working mans favoutite spectator sport.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superbly researched & well-told tale of the birth of football. Excellent book for both football aficionados and social historians.