Book description
"Footeballe is nothinge but beastlie furie and extreme
violence", wrote Thomas Elyot in 1531. Nearly five hundred years
later, the game may still seem furious and violent, but it has also
become the most popular sport on the planet.
This is the story of how the modern, professional, spectator sport
of football was born in Britain in the second half of the nineteenth
century. It's a tale of testosterone-filled public schoolboys,
eccentric mill-owners and bolshy miners, and of why we play football
the way we do. Who invented heading? Why do we have an offside law?
And why are foreigners so much better than us at the game we invented?
Based on exhaustive research, Beastly Fury picks apart the
complex processes which forged the modern game, turning accepted
wisdom on its head. It's a story which is strangely familiar - of
grasping players, corrupt clubs and autocratic officials. It's a tale
of brutality, but at times too, of surprising artistry. Above all it's
a story of how football, uniquely among the sports of that era, became
what it is today - the people's game.
Richard Sanders is a writer and award-winning documentary maker. He
is the author of
If A Pirate I Must Be: The True Story of Bartholomew
Roberts, King of the Caribbean
.
