NGB's and development of football

Question 1

Mob football case study before the industrial revolution (pre 1850)

Answer 1

• Mob football was only played by the lower class as it was a violent sport. The upper classes only wanted to be associated with civilised and sophisticated sports.
• People lived in the rural countryside and had lots of space so it was easy to play mob football
• People worked on the land but were given time off for religious and church festivals - this gave them time to play football occasionally
• The lower classes were not educated, so they could not read and write, therefore, mob football was very easy for them to play as it had very little rules they needed to be able to understand
• There was no police force at the time and society was unruly, therefore mob football was acceptable as it reflected the harsh society we are living in
• Each village had its own version of mob football as it was only played locally within the village, this was because the lower classes had no access to transport.
• Mob football was played by men, it was considered too violent and unladylike for women to play

Question 2

Mob football after the industrial revolution (post 1850)

Answer 2

• Mob football declined after the industrial revolution for a number of reasons
• There was less space in towns and cities and you need a lot of ground to play mob football
• People were working in factories which meant that they had to work long hours and 6 days a week, so they had no time to play mob football
• Factory owners also didn’t give workers time off on the holidays that they used to get for wakes and fairs, so they couldn’t play mob football on the traditional days anymore
• Due to long working hours people had no energy to play mob football
• The factory owners also discouraged workers from playing mob football because it led to injury which meant their workers had to take time off work
• The middle classes also discouraged mob football because they wanted a more civilised society
• The police force was also introduced and people could be arrested for unruly behaviour

Question 3

Subsequent development of sport and its rising popularity

Answer 3

• Limited space due to the cramped nature of towns and cities led to the development of purpose built football stadiums
• It also led to the limit of number of people playing so 11 a side football developed
• This also meant that more people now wanted to watch as they couldn’t all play like they could with mob football
• There were changes in the law to the number of hours people could work in factories, this was called the saturday half day act. It meant that people had to work less and got saturday afternoons off, giving them time to play football and spectate and support their local team.
• Factory owners realised that encouraging their workers to participate in non-violent sports made their workers healthier and more loyal. This lead to the creation of factory teams, giving people more opportunities to play.
• Following the industrial revolution the railways developed. Access to transport meant people could now travel to play sport, this meant that football leagues and competitions could be set up and played nationally, meaning that more matches could be played.
• Growth of sporting press. The development of machinery during the industrial revolution also meant that newspapers could be printed on a large scale. Football results and match reports could be published and this led to an increases spectatorship because they could find out game outcomes even if they couldn’t go watch it.
• As the popularity of football increased some players began to get paid more and this was the beginning of professional football
• Factory workers also started to get paid more, this gave them money to buy tickets to go and watch football which they wouldn’t have been able to afford before. This is another reason why spectatorism increased.
• The development of trains also meant that it was possible for spectators to travel far so football matches started getting big crowds.
• High moral code for football: Middle classes also bought more respectability to association football as they put the emphasis on sporting ettiquite.

Question 4

Development of early NGB’s

Answer 4

• An NGB is a national governing body which is an organisation that oversees the organisation of one particular sport in that country
• For example FA - football association, LTA -Lawn Tennis Association and, England netball
• NGB’s help form agreeing rules, overseeing organisation of national competitions and fixtures, choosing national teams, managing advertising and commercialisation of sport and training match officials
• Early NGB’s were set up by ex-public school boys
• Society was becoming more civilised so there was need for rules/ introduction of referees to control the game and improve behaviour who were overseen by NGB’s
• Middle classes wanted sport to be more organised, so there was a need for rules and organised competition
• Improved education meant that there were written rules now
• It was the beginning of professional so rules were needed to make it fair
• People could now travel so a common set of rules was needed so that the same version could be played by everyone (codification.)
• Shorter working hours (Saturday Half Day Act) meant more people had time to play/ sport was played more regularly, so rules needed to make sport more organised