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From Custom to Code. a Sociological Interpretation of the Making of Association Football

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From Custom to Code. a Sociological Interpretation of the Making of Association Football From Custom to Code From Custom to Code A Sociological Interpretation of the Making of Association Football Dominik Döllinger Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Humanistiska teatern, Engelska parken, Uppsala, Tuesday, 7 September 2021 at 13:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Associate Professor Patrick McGovern (London School of Economics). Abstract Döllinger, D. 2021. From Custom to Code. A Sociological Interpretation of the Making of Association Football. 167 pp. Uppsala: Department of Sociology, Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-506-2879-1. The present study is a sociological interpretation of the emergence of modern football between 1733 and 1864. It focuses on the decades leading up to the foundation of the Football Association in 1863 and observes how folk football gradually develops into a new form which expresses itself in written codes, clubs and associations. In order to uncover this transformation, I have collected and analyzed local and national newspaper reports about football playing which had been published between 1733 and 1864. I find that folk football customs, despite their great local variety, deserve a more thorough sociological interpretation, as they were highly emotional acts of collective self-affirmation and protest. At the same time, the data shows that folk and early association football were indeed distinct insofar as the latter explicitly opposed the evocation of passions, antagonistic tensions and collective effervescence which had been at the heart of the folk version. Keywords: historical sociology, football, custom, culture, community Dominik Döllinger, Department of Sociology, Box 624, Uppsala University, SE-75126 Uppsala, Sweden. © Dominik Döllinger 2021 ISBN 978-91-506-2879-1 URN urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-441189 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-441189) Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................... 7 Chapter One. The Playing Field ...................................................................... 9 Games People Play ................................................................................... 10 Origin Stories ............................................................................................ 13 The Goals of this Study ............................................................................ 17 The Structure of the Book ........................................................................ 18 Chapter Two. The Historical Sociology of Football ..................................... 20 Football’s Historiography ......................................................................... 20 A Historical Sociology of Folk Football .................................................. 26 Chapter Three. A History in Matches ........................................................... 34 Pitches in Practice ..................................................................................... 35 Looking for a Match ................................................................................. 38 Critical Archival Research ........................................................................ 43 Chapter Four. The End(s) of Folk Football ................................................... 49 Football Under Siege ................................................................................ 49 The People’s Game ................................................................................... 59 Chapter Five. Enclosing a Rustic Game ........................................................ 73 Enclosure Riots ......................................................................................... 74 The Theater of Deeds ............................................................................... 76 Playful Paternalism ................................................................................... 83 Chapter Six. The Folk Football illusio .......................................................... 90 Illusions and Institutions ........................................................................... 91 Wargame Sociability .............................................................................. 101 Chapter Seven. Football’s Total Institutionalization ................................... 108 Dodo-Games and Barracks ..................................................................... 109 Playing and Pecking in England’s Public Schools ................................. 114 Public-School Football ........................................................................... 117 Chapter Eight. Association Football ........................................................... 127 The Struggles of the Football Association ............................................. 127 The Impact of Sheffield FC .................................................................... 132 The Spirit of Association Football .......................................................... 135 Chapter Nine. Conclusion ........................................................................... 149 Summary of my Findings ....................................................................... 149 Forms and Contexts ........................................................................... 149 From Custom to Code ........................................................................ 150 Rational, Civilized, Apollonian .............................................................. 151 Bibliography ................................................................................................ 157 Acknowledgments Dissertation projects are like the Old Testament: raw and rough around the edges and occasionally fatalistic. The writing of this monograph was no ex- ception. It regularly confronted me with previous selves that had been less educated, quite confused, yet, surprisingly cocky. By finishing this dissertation, I will become the first person in my family to receive a doctorate. We are no academics. We are workers and farmers. We are vulgar, loud and we use cheap perfume. But what I learned in the course of this dissertation evoked a feeling of pride in me. A famous Swedish philosopher once said that you can take a boy out of his local community, but you can never take the community out of the boy. This presumably prolific reader of Bourdieu was right. I never thought much about my countryside upbringing until I entered academia. I never felt the peasant before an urban academic culture made me feel him. Shortly after I became a PhD student, I realized that I would have been better off as a former tennis or badminton player. Football didn’t resonate that well in the Bourgeois echo chamber. That I eventually turned to football as my object of study was per- haps not wise. But it was important. It allowed me to do what I had always done best: play, provoke and prosper. I would like to thank my first supervisor Patrik Aspers and my second su- pervisor Tora Holmberg for their continuous support and incredible patience on this journey. I know that every PhD student is different, but I do wonder if some may actually be more different than others? Daniel Ritter has been a fantastic commentator in my final seminar and his suggestions and critiques have helped me tremendously throughout this last year. I would also like to thank Mats Franzén for his great input at my half- time seminar and offer my condolences for what has happened to his favorite German football club (a name I refuse to write here). A special thanks goes to my double reader Hannah Bradby who has not only in this capacity provided incredibly valuable feedback and insightful sug- gestions that improved this dissertation. However, dropping an Elton John ref- erence in written feedback must be punished with an enthusiastic interpreta- tion of Tiny Dancer. The Uppsala Lab of Economic Sociology (ULES) and the Cultural Matters Group (CMG) gave me many opportunities to present papers and chapters. Our discussions were always encouraging and inspiring, and they made me think harder about every aspect of my work and thinking. This whole PhD-thing began in an office that was shared among five more or less chatty PhD students who started the program together. Had we re- mained there, who knows if any of us would have ever finished? But I am sure that not-finishing would have been a lot of fun, too, and for that, I thank you, Pernilla, Maricel, Marie and Phil. I also thank my colleagues and friends Christoffer, Alexander, Jonas, Tobias, Tom and many others for being with me on this journey. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents Roland and Sabine who have al- ways trusted and supported me. My wife Lillian has been the most encourag- ing, supportive and forgiving partner one can imagine. And my wonderful son River has constantly reminded me of what really matters in life. I dedicate this book to George Young who drowned in the river Derwent as he tried to recover a foot-ball in 1828, to the son of Mr. Horax, blacksmith, who died suddenly during a football game at Hockham, near Thetford in 1794, to the eight-year old boy who was trod to death in a fight that ensued during a football match upon Heath Common, and to the many lives that were lost after the police interfered in a football game in Dublin in 1811. You are the soul of football. Chapter One. The Playing Field Football is inscribed into the everyday life of billions of people. One will most likely encounter people
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