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THE PEOPLE’S GAME: FOOTBALL AND SOCIALISM CIARA GARCHA / HERTFORD, HISTORY
There is a reason why football is known as the people’s game. With its roots in community and common ownership, football, now a multi-billion dollar industry, is unrecognisable when contrasted with its humble origins. Recent high-profile campaigns for the ‘50+1’ rule to be introduced in English football have created the prospect that the people’s game could be returned to the people. The socialist values rooted in the game could be rejuvenated and the link between football and socialism could be strengthened once more. Commercialisation of the game was thrust under the spotlight by proposals for the creation of a European Super League (ESL). The contest would have set up a catalogue of elite European men’s teams in closed competition with one another, free from threat of relegation. Outcry was sparked over the manner in which football clubs committed themselves to the competition (the extent to which the ESL truthfully was a ‘competition’ was hotly debated), without consulting the supporter base and bringing fans into the decision in any way. Fans across the country streamed into the streets and stadiums demanding a greater say in the governance of their clubs. ‘Created by the poor, Stolen by the rich’ read one banner. This aptly highlights the class and power dynamics at play in the controversy over the ESL and modern football, more generally. What was once a game for working people and working-class communities has been gradually corrupted and distorted by private entities. Manchester United, today one of the world’s biggest clubs and one of English football’s
most profitable exports, was formed in 1878 by local labourers in the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath, in north Manchester. This club was expressly designed to unite and entertain the local laboring community, competing initially against other departments at the company and other railway companies. North London’s Arsenal was established by a group of munitions workers, who collectively funded and organised their club. Today the team bears a name that pays tribute to these roots, derived from the Royal Arsenal complex in Woolwich, a centuries-old industrial hub, primarily focused on armaments and proofing. Football performed a vital function for these communities in Newton Heath, Woolwich and other places all over the country too: uniting people around a shared interest and creating important social bonds. Historically rooted in values of collectivism, harmony, and the politics of class, English football was above all underpinned by community. The 20th century, particularly the second half, saw football shorn of its socialist organising principles and opened to ruthless commercial exploitation. Football no longer belonged to local communities, but became privatised. The football industry was transformed into a cash cow for large corporations; the community element of the game was lost. Transfer fees, sponsorships and broadcasting deals saw the money in the so-called ‘football economy’ spiral out of control from the 1970s onwards. A game forged by and for the working classes and for working communities was gradually and increasingly appropriated. The slogan ‘Created by the poor, Stolen by the rich’ does indeed seem a 9
