‘A gentleman’s game played by gentlemen’: the FA Cup, amateur and professional footballers in Victorian England
| Deutscher übersetzter Titel: | „Ein Spiel für Ehrenmänner, gespielt von Ehrenmännern“ : der FA Cup, Amateur- und Profifußballspieler im viktorianischen England |
|---|---|
| Autor: | Freeman, Mike |
| Erschienen in: | Sporting traditions |
| Veröffentlicht: | 34 (2017), 2, S. 59-75, Lit. |
| Format: | Literatur (SPOLIT) |
| Publikationstyp: | Zeitschriftenartikel |
| Medienart: | Gedruckte Ressource |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| ISSN: | 0813-2577, 0813-2577 |
| Schlagworte: | |
| Online Zugang: | |
| Erfassungsnummer: | PU201806004285 |
| Quelle: | BISp |
Abstract des Autors
A commonly held view is that football is 'a gentleman's game played by ruffians', a quote attributed to Oscar Wilde. An analysis of the early Football Association (FA) Cup winning teams shows this view to be incorrect. This paper examines the Oxford University team that won the FA Cup in 1874, and a member of that team, Reverend A. H. Johnson. Johnson was a typical sporting gentleman amateur of the Victorian era, excelling at several sports, educated at public school and Oxbridge. Gentleman amateur teams dominated the first ten years of the FA Cup competition, but the growth of professional teams in northern England resulted in the demise of the amateur team's dominance. This paper also examines the transition to the recognition of professionalism by the FA and the eventual establishment of the Football League. New evidence shows the financial and geographical factors that assisted the dominance of the gentleman amateur teams in the first ten seasons of the FA Cup, before northern teams assumed supremacy.