Paper Presentation IV:
Past and Future of Football
Friday, April 9, 10.30–12.30

Mike McGuinness

Sport and Exercise Section, School of Social Sciences and Law,
University of Teesside, UK

The United Kingdom is the only nation not to be represented by a single football team but by the ‘home nations’ of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  The latter three have been clear about their identity but England, with its confusion between Englishness and Britishness, has had a problem.  More recently a major debate has emerged about the perceived development of an English identity and representations of the England football team built around, inter alia, the waving of the Cross of St George (eg King 2006, Abell, Condor, Lowe, Gibson & Stevenson 2007).  As a predominant characteristic of English football history the hosting of the 1966 World Cup in England features heavily in most discussions of Englishness and Britishness, including the aforementioned.  However, few authors have acknowledged the relevance of the cultural/commercial inflection surrounding the event.  Moreover I argue that this impacts on representations of the English football team.  The tournament was sold effectively and produced the first mascot at a major world sporting event (‘World Cup Willie’), a tournament record, much merchandising and commercialisation.  With the tournament taking place exclusively in England what representations were most prominent?  Was it a British or English imagery?  With growing nationalist movements in the other nations and a developing process of devolution of power in the United Kingdom how have representations of the England football team changed since 1966?  What does this say about the identity of the team and of the supporters?  The issues are explored through the ephemera of the event as these can create narratives which tell the community much about itself.  These include the mascots, programmes, music, football kits, handbooks, flags and the general detritus of the events.

References

• Abell, Condor, Lowe, Gibson & Stevenson (2007) ‘Who ate all the pride? Patriotic sentiment and English national football support’ Nations and Nationalism Vol 13 No 1 pp 97-116
• A King (2006) ‘Nationalism and Sport’ chapter 21 in ‘The SAGE Handbook of Nations and Nationalism’ ed Gerald Delanty and Krishan Kumar London, Sage