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Soccer & Society


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Who killed English football an analysis


of the state of English football, by
K.P.C. Exall
a
Subhransu Roy
a
Department of History , Rabindra Bharati University , Kolkata ,
India
Published online: 17 Mar 2011.

To cite this article: Subhransu Roy (2011) Who killed English football an analysis of
the state of English football, by K.P.C. Exall, Soccer & Society, 12:2, 309-312, DOI:
10.1080/14660970.2011.548452

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2011.548452

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Soccer & Society 309

story of the setback with them into the community, not simply as a tale to be told, but
as an experience to be related and relived, animated by traces of the passion and
energy that fired them at the spectacle. Moreover, Rookwood does not mention the
drinking cultures which are often said to be part and parcel of hooliganism in England.
Yet there is no denying the fact that this book has a flavour of its own, and it distinctly
focuses on various unexplored aspects of spectator behaviour, making it a bold
attempt to document the history of football fandom in Britain.

Amitava Chatterjee
Ramsaday College, West Bengal, India
Email: bubaiapu@yahoo.com
2011, Amitava Chatterjee
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References
Alabarces, P. Aguante and Repression: Football, Politics and Violence in Argentina. In
Fighting Fans: Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon, eds E. Dunning, P.
Murphy, I. Waddington and I. Astrinakis, 2336. Dublin: University College Dublin
Press, 2002.
King, A. Football Fandom and Post-national Identity in the New Europe. British Journal of
Sociology 51, no. 3 (2000): 41942.
Nash, R. Contestation in Modern English Professional Football: The Independent Supporters
Association movement. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 35, no. 4 (2000):
46586.
Sparkes, A., ed. The Paradigms Debate: An Extended Review and a Celebration of Difference.
In Research in Physical Education and Sport: Exploring Alternative Visions, 960. London:
Falmer Press, 1992.

Who killed English football an analysis of the state of English football, by


K.P.C. Exall, London, Authorhouse, 2007, 146 pp., ISBN 978-1-4343-4948-4

It was the evening of the 2009 UEFA Champions League final. A number of football
fans were gathered in a caf at Kolkata. Some of them were exited and vocal. They
were all discussing Manchester Uniteds eventful win in the semi-final, with almost
half of them wearing Manchester United jersey or T-shirts. The names of Sir Alex
Ferguson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and others were coming up time and
again. Even two or three boys and girls had joined the discussion wearing the jerseys
of Chelsea and Liverpool. All of them were quite sure about Manchester Uniteds
triumph in the Grand Finale, and sadly only one marginalized FC Barcelona fan could
be found shouting for his team to win. The match was won by FC Barcelona, and the
next morning in the city many gloomy faces could be seen. This is a measure of how
much popularity and media attraction the English Premier League has gained in India
and the rest of world. Even in countries like Nigeria, the news of deaths due to clashes
between fans of two English Premier League clubs hit the headlines, while in Dhaka,
the suicide of a heartbroken English club football fan came to occupy a prominent place
in local newspapers. But when it comes to international tournaments, such as the World
Cup or the European Championship, the scenario changes drastically. The streets of
Kolkata, Dacca or most other world cities become full of colourful flags of giant foot-
ball nations and only very rarely will one find Union Jacks among those colours. A
very simple logic lies behind it. In the World Cup and the Euro Championships Team
310 Book reviews

England is not considered to be a superpower. The question therefore naturally arises:


why does the English national team not attract the kind of attention among the elite
football-playing nations that its domestic league does across the world? The book Who
killed English Football An Analysis of the State of English Football is written to
address this complex and vexed question. The author of the book, K.P.C. Exall, a math-
ematician by training and a whole-hearted football fan, makes an honest effort to under-
stand the mystery of the success and survival of Team England.
Football in England witnessed a sharp decline in the 1970s and 1980s due to the
poor infrastructure of football stadiums, recurrent hooliganism and other reasons. But
the situation underwent a dramatic change in the early 1990s when some of the top
English clubs decided to break away from the traditional Football League and formed
the English Premier League (EPL). From the day of its formation, the EPL has been
able to captivate the hearts of football lovers around the globe. More importantly, it is
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also the worlds most lucrative football league. For the last five years, the EPL has
ranked first in the UEFA rankings based on performance in European competitions,
ahead of Spains La Liga, and Italys Serie A, the other most viewed football leagues
in the world. By contrast, Team Englands performance in recent years is no doubt
very frustrating to its supporters. After their 1966 World Cup win, England has never
been able to repeat that feat. It has also failed to win the Euro Championships on even one
occasion.
K.P.C. Exall attempts to provide a broader understanding of the potential causes
for Englands continued failings. The first chapter entitled The Current Domestic
Scene throws light on the present condition of domestic English football and its
major components. The author points to the top English clubs like Manchester
United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal that are now owned by billionaires from a
range of countries. Indeed, the domination of these four clubs has become phenome-
nal in the EPL. Every year, these clubs form their team with a huge budget. The
weekly wages for a player at a top Premier League club can routinely reach 135,000
(or almost 7 million per year). This attraction of big money has brought numerous
foreign players into the English Premier League, playing for different clubs. The
initial contract value can be changed depending upon the performance level. In this
context, Exall also discusses the important role of football managers in the process.
The pivotal and dominating role played by Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United
is well known worldwide. The names of Jose Mourinho or Rafael Bentitez, too,
should be mentioned here as they have also made their presence felt as influential
managers. Managers are now paid in line with their clubs top stars and sometimes,
the managers appear more influential even than players. The famous Sir Alex Fergu-
sonDavid Beckham controversy remains a perfect example of such clash of egos,
ultimately leading to the exit of Beckham from Manchester United. British clubs
generate this huge amount of money mostly from selling TV rights and media
networks.
The second chapter titled The Governor highlights the other side of the coin
the various authorities that run the show. English football had been under the author-
ity of the Football Association (FA) since 1863 and in 1888 the Football League was
established with 12 clubs. A Second Division was formed in 1892 and in 1920 a
Third Division was added with a divisional relegation system. In the post-Second
World War period, English football enjoyed a boom in popularity, and in 1950, for
the first time, the England team participated in the Word Cup, held at Brazil. In 1960,
the FA introduced a new knockout tournament named the Football League Cup and
Soccer & Society 311

few more new initiatives were added in the 1970s and 1980s. However, with the
introduction of the EPL in the early 1990s, the traditional Football League competi-
tion lost importance in the domestic soccer arena, and the FAs power as the games
pre-eminent authority began to wane. In a very practical sense, the activities of the
FA at the top level have now become confined to running Team England and organiz-
ing the FA Cup, the oldest football tournament in the world. The transformation in
the de facto football authority in England has been well discussed in the broader
context of the role of FIFA and UEFA as the world and the European governing
bodies of soccer respectively.
Team England is the most interesting chapter of the book. It provides a detailed
account of the England team, its administration, its managerial jobs, its international
fixtures, participation in international tournaments and recent results. It also analyses
the apparent overflow of foreign players into top English clubs. The author argues
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that overseas players have not only come to outnumber local players, but have also
badly affected the confidence level of them. Too much emphasis on foreign recruit-
ment is also said to be preventing new talents from blossoming. Exall puts forward a
range of interesting data in this context. As he shows, when the English Premier
League started, 78% were English players, whereas in 2007 that percentage had
decreased to 22%.
The next chapter deals with the people whose interests are involved in the EPL in
one way or the other the financiers of the game, the TV network companies and the
club owners. The title of the chapter The Givers and the Takers is apt to the way
Exall weaves the contemporary nexus of money, markets and media in English soccer.
According to him, the TV networks are the the Givers, while the players and their
football agents are the Takers. Initially, the FA authority was not interested in any
kind of TV coverage due to fear of losing audience at the grounds. Although a law was
passed by the British parliament back in 1952 for the coverage of sports events on
condition of paying the requisite compensation for the loss of revenue to the organiz-
ers, things started changing only from the mid 1970s. It was BBC, which started
broadcasting highlights late at night, followed by live telecast of matches in the 1980s.
The rising costs forced both the FA and the club authorities to allow TV networks to
cover the matches live or through delayed telecast. With the introduction of satellite
television in the early 1990s, the broadcasting of soccer witnessed a revolution across
the world. The overseas rights for the game are now sold in millions (if not billions)
of pounds. This TV revolution really changed the course of the English game. First, it
created a global viewership and overseas support base. More importantly, due to this
global outlook, many foreign investors increasingly became interested in purchasing
British clubs with the result that top EPL clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea
are now owned by foreign millionaires. The Takers in this high commerce of soccer
are obviously the players and their football agents. Lucrative TV deals help top clubs
to go for new foreign football stars, and every transfer makes not only the players, but
also their agents rich.
In the sixth and final chapter, the author, while trying to assess the problems and
prospects of English football in light of his arguments enumerated in earlier chapters,
provides a comparative study of four neighbouring countries Italy, Spain, Germany
and France in terms of the success rate of these countries national teams, and their
top clubs dominance in the European circuit. But what is the ultimate remedy for
mitigating the ills of national football in England? The author concludes: To nurture
English players and improve and protect the England national team and therefore
312 Book reviews

English football, we need to urgently limit the number of overseas players at our
leading clubs. This conclusion, however, leads to more important questions: why
has England failed to achieve success in international football despite the global
popularity of its domestic football league, viz. the English Premier League? Exall has
made a decent attempt to find the reasons behind this through his painstaking
research. He identifies three basic reasons: the overflow of money or over-commer-
cialization of top grade domestic English football; the dominance of foreign players;
and the lack of sound planning on the part of English football authorities in searching
for new talent.
Throughout this book, Exall invites his readers to think critically about the pale
shadow of the England team now representing its nation. Written in a popular and
lucid style, the work rightly hints at the fact that a countrys football prosperity does
not necessarily depend upon its domestic football. Football authorities should look for
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new talent and run youth-development projects more effectively. Restrictions on the
numbers of foreign players could also be applied with due sensitivity and consider-
ations of legal issues. However, one is left with the feeling that nothing short of a
steady transformation in the overall anatomy of the national football culture will
provide an effective panacea for future of English football.

Subhransu Roy
Department of History, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India
Email: subhransu_roy1@rediffmail.com
2011, Subhransu Roy

Playing for freedom: a historic sports victory, by Kausik Bandyopadhyay, New


Delhi, Standard Publishers, 2008, xii + 174 pp., bibliography, index, ISBN 978-8-187-
47145-5.

In this book, Kausik Bandyopadhyay reconstructs the social, cultural and commercial
significance of Mohun Bagans epoch-making Indian Football Association Shield
victory in 1911, when they became the first Indian team to beat a British team (East
Yorks Regiment by a score of 21). He does this by placing the final in its proper
historical context, against the backdrop of Indias struggle for freedom. It is a work
long overdue given the events historical legacy as the most glorious moment in the
history of colonial Indian sport.
The author traces the evolution of football in Bengal from its introduction and
organization at Indian middle class schools and the British-run Anglo-Indian
colleges in Calcutta towards the late nineteenth century. He argues that the game
quickly grew outside the confines of schools and colleges, and captured the imagina-
tion of young people in general. Simple rules and low costs contributed to the spread
of football as a popular sport. He also argues that football became a tool to counter the
satiric criticism the Bengali were often subjected to by the British with regard to their
physical effeminacy. By the end of the nineteenth century, football became an arena
of competition between the Indians on one side and the British and the Anglo-Indians
on the other.
The author elucidates the catalytic roles played by certain educational institutions
in the development of football (Presidency College, Sibpur Engineering College,
Bishops College, Calcutta Medical College, Scottish Church College, etc.), as well as

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