football season are more important than the four months of cricket. There
are plenty of amateur association football (or 'soccer') clubs, and
professional football is big business. The annual Cup Final match, between
the two teams which have defeated their opponents in each round of a knock-
out contest, dominates the scene; the regular 'league' games, organised in
four divisions, provide the main entertainment through the season and the
basis for the vast system of betting on the football pools. Many of the
graffiti on public walls are aggressive statements of support for football
teams, and the hooliganism of some British supporters has become notorious
outside as well as inside Britain.
Football has been called the most popular game in the world, and it
certainly has a great many fans in Britain. And now I want to mention the
English terminology for football.
Association football (or soccer) is the game that is played in nearly
all countries. A team is composed of a goalkeeper, two backs, three half-
backs and five forwards.
Association football remains one of the most popular games played in
the British Isles. Every Saturday from late August until the beginning of
May, large crowds of people support their sides in football grounds up and
down the country, while an almost equally large number of people play the
game in clubs teams of every imaginable variety and level of skill. Over
the last 20 years though, the attendance at football matches has fallen
away sharply. This is because of changing lifestyles and football hooligans
about I have already written but I want to add that violence at and near
the football grounds increased, there was an ever-increasing tendency for
people to stay away, leaving the grounds to football fans.
After serious disturbances involving English supporters at the
European Cup Finals in Brussels in 1985 which led to the deaths of 38
spectators, English clubs were withdrawn from European competitions for the
1985-1986 season by the Football Association. The Cup Final at Wembley
remains, though, an event of national importance. Here is a drawing of a
football field, or "pitch", as it is usually called.
The football pitch should be between 100 and 130 metres long and between
50 and 100 metres wide. It is divided into two halves by the halfway line.
The sides of the field are called the touch-lines and the ends are called
the goal-lines. In the middle of the field there is a centre circle and
there is a goal at each end. Each goal is 8 metres wide and between 21/2
and 3 metres high. In front of each goal is the goal area and the penalty
area. There is a penalty spot inside the penalty area and a penalty arc
outside it. A game of football usually lasts for one and a half hours. At
half-time, the teams change ends. The referee controls the game. The aim of
each team is obviously to score as many goals as possible. If both teams
score the same number of goals, or if neither team scores any goals at all,
the result is a draw.
The final of the football competition takes place every May at the
famous Wembley stadium in London. Some of the best known clubs in England
are Manchester United, Liverpool and the Arsenal. In Scotland either
Rangers, Celtic or Aberdeen usually win the cup or the championship.
Today, many people are only interested in football because of the
pools and the chance of winning a lot of money.
Football pools
"Doing the pools" is a popular form of betting on football results
each week. It is possible to win more than half a million pounds for a few
pence.
The English have never been against a gamble though most of them know where
to draw the line and wisely refrain from betting too often. Since the war
the most popular form of gambling is no doubt that of staking a small sum
on the football pools. (The word "pool" is connected with the picture of
streams of money pouring into a common fund, or "pool" from which the
winners are paid after the firm has taken its expenses and profit.) Those
who do so receive every week from one of the pools firms a printed form; on
this are listed the week's matches. Against each match, or against a number
of them, the optimist puts down a I, a 2 or an x to show that he thinks the
result of the match will be a home win (stake on fun’s team), an away win
(stake on a team of opponent) or a draw. The form is then posted to the
pools firm, with a postal order or cheque for the sum staked (or, as the
firms say, "invested"). At the end of the week the results of the matches
are announced on television and published in the newspapers and the
"investor" can take out his copy of his coupon and check his forecast.
Rugby
There is another game called rugby football, so called because it
originated at Rugby, a well-known English public school. In this game the
players may carry the ball. Rugby football (or 'rugger') is played with an
egg-shaped ball, which may be carried and thrown (but not forward). The
ball is passed from hand to hand rather than from foot to foot. If a player
is carrying the ball he may be 'tackled' and made to fall down. Each team
has fifteen players, who spend a lot of time lying in the mud or on top of
each other and become very dirty, but do not need to wear such heavily
protective clothing as players of American football.
There are two forms of rugby - Rugby Union, which is strictly amateur,
and Rugby League, played largely in the north, which is a professional
sport. Rugby Union has fifteen players, while Rugby League has thirteen,
but the two games are basically the same. They are so similar that somebody
who is good at one of them can quickly learn to become good at the other.
The real difference between them is a matter of social history. Rugby union
is the older of the two. In the nineteenth century it was enthusiastically
taken up by most of Britain's public schools. Rugby league split off from
rugby union at the end of the century. There are two versions of this fast
and aggressive ball game: rugby union and rugby league. Although it has now
spread to many of the same places in the world where rugby union is played
(rugby union is played at top level in the British Isles, France,
Australia, South Africa and New Zealand; also to a high level in North
America, Argentina, Romania and some Pacific islands). Rugby can be
considered the 'national sport' of Wales, New Zealand, Fiji, Western Samoa
and Tonga, and of South African whites. Its traditional home is among the
working class of the north of England, where it was a way for miners and
factory workers to make a little bit of extra money from their sporting
talents. Unlike rugby union, it has always been a professional sport.
Because of these social origins, rugby league in Britain is seen as a
working class sport, while rugby union is mainly for the middle classes.
Except in south Wales. There, rugby union is a sport for all classes, and
more popular than football. In Wales, the phrase 'international day' means
only one thing — that the national rugby team are playing. Since 1970, some
of the best Welsh players have been persuaded to 'change codes'. They are
'bought' by one of the big rugby league clubs, where they can make a lot of
money. Whenever this happens it is seen as a national disaster among the
Welsh.
Rugby union has had some success in recent years in selling itself to
a wider audience. As a result, just as football has become less exclusively
working class in character, rugby union has become less exclusively middle
class. In 1995- it finally abandoned amateurism. In fact, the amateur
status of top rugby union players had already become meaningless. They
didn't get paid a salary or fee for playing, but they received large
'expenses' as well as various publicity contracts and paid speaking
engagements.
Cricket
The game particularly associated with England is cricket. Judging by
the numbers of people who play it and watch it (( look at ‘Spectator
attendance at major sports’), cricket is definitely not the national sport
of Britain. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, interest in it is
largely confined to the middle classes. Only in England and a small part of
Wales is it played at top level. And even in England, where its enthusiasts
come from all classes, the majority of the population do not understand its
rules. Moreover, it is rare for the English national team to be the best in
the world.
Cricket is, therefore, the national English game in a symbolic sense.
However, to some people cricket is more than just a symbol. The
comparatively low attendance at top class matches does not give a true
picture of the level of interest in the country. One game of cricket takes
a terribly long time, which a lot of people simply don't have to spare.
Eleven players in each team. Test matches between national teams can last
up to five days of six hours each. Top club teams play matches lasting
between two and four days. There are also one-day matches lasting about
seven hours. In fact there are millions of people in the country who don't
just enjoy cricket but are passionate about it! These people spend up to
thirty days each summer tuned to the live radio commentary of ‘Test’ (=
international) Matches. When they get the chance, they watch a bit of the
live television coverage. Some people even do both at the same time (they
turn the sound down on the television and listen to the radio). To these
people, the commentators become well-loved figures. When, in 1994, one
famous commentator died, the Prime Minister lamented that 'summers will
