Soccer History Research Articles

Soccer in the west: the world game in Australia’s western periphery

This study examines aspects of the history of soccer (Association Football) in Perth, Western Australia. The game was introduced in the late nineteenth century but it did not become central in the local sporting calendar. The game was reborn with the arrival of the ‘new Australians’ after the Second World War yet it remained marginal. Soccer’s place in Perth has often been represented as being due to the overwhelming ethnic involvement in the sport, as in other parts of Australia, but there is more to the story than such a reductionist explanation. Adopting a figurational approach this study examines established and outsider relations in the development of the game in Western Australian society. The account that emerges is of a complex organizational struggle over control of the sport. The focus on established and outsider relationships in a figurational context provides a useful way of accounting for this history.

Avulsionsverletzungen der Spina iliaca anterior inferior bei Fußballern - eine Differenzialdiagnose zum Neoplasma Jahrzehnte nach einem Trauma

Pelvic apophyseal injuries typically involve adolescents, ranging gradually from apophysitis as a chronic traction injury to avulsion fractures after a sudden contraction of a muscle to the immature musculo-skeleton adolescent. While avulsion fractures to the anterior superior iliac spine, the iliac crest and the pubic bone are common, injuries to the anterior inferior iliac spine (AIIS) are only rarely encountered. We report on two 42 and 43-year old male soccer players complaining of groin pain. Both had AIIS avulsion fractures diagnosed by conventional plain x-ray of the pelvis, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. One patient had an acute adductor longus muscle injury with concomitant asymptomatic AIIS avulsion fracture. Conservative treatment of the muscle injury with initial RICE therapy followed by pain-restricted jogging brought him back to sport within four weeks. The other patient had local tenderness and exercise pain at AIIS with a large exostosis on imaging studies mimicking a pseudotumor. Surgical resection was applied and the rectus femoris muscle was reattached. After three months of intensive physical therapy he could be return to sport. Avulsion fractures of the AIIS may cause persistent pain syndrome and mimic a pseudotumor decades after the initial trauma, which can be treated by surgical resection and reattachment of the rectus femoris muscle with good results. Conservative treatment for minor dislocated AIIS avulsion fractures can be effective in sportsmen. Differential diagnosis often involves bony tumors, so patient's soccer history gives important information regarding past avulsion fractures of the pelvis, which often occur during kicking in the adolescence.

Explaining International Soccer Rankings

Existing research on the determinants of FIFA's international soccer rankings suffers from serious statistical problems, particularly sample selection bias and nonnormal errors. The authors correct for this by extending the data set by an additional 100 countries. Furthermore, they find important roles for new variables in the form of the size of population and a long history of international soccer in explaining world football rankings. The authors also investigate the determinants of an alternative ranking measure to that constructed by FIFA.

The Cruyff Turn: Performance in the Cultural Memory of International Soccer

This essay examines the performance history of international soccer, employing ideas developed in the fields of theatre and performance studies to consider the self-conscious referencing of the sport's cultural history at the moment of the international match. Centring on the influence in England of the Cruyff turn, and on its quotation by Paul Gascogine at the 1990 World Cup, the essay examines how specific moments of soccer performance acquire significance as indicators of national performance history and suggests that the fields of theatre and performance studies may provide useful models for further analysis of sporting events.

The American soccer history archives

The American soccer history archives

National Sports and Other Myths: The Failure of US Soccer

Despite its undisputed popularity as the world’s number one sport and despite recent successes, soccer in the US remains in the minor leagues. Notwithstanding the growth of the US soccer market since the 1994 World Cup, the US Major League Soccer (MLS) teams continue to struggle despite their anticipated market potential. The economics of professional sports has much to do with this failure. Without a large fan base, the MLS cannot secure the broadcasting fees necessary to escape its conservative economic model. How will a large and loyal fan base for US soccer emerge? The recent emergence of 14‐year‐old Freddy Adu as the youngest professional player in soccer history, however, may prove to be helpful in helping to create a star system within the US soccer world. One cannot overlook, however, the powerful draw of nationalism that sport evokes. The popularity of baseball, basketball or football in the US has much to do with how these sports have come to be identified with being American. This essay reviews the recent history of soccer in the US and analyzes several cultural and economic factors in order to argue that for the next foreseeable future, soccer in the US remains problematic.

Wiping the Stain Off the Field of Plassey: Mohun Bagan in 1911

Every soccer‐loving Indian, even in 2006, takes a legitimate pride in the first worthy indigenous club Mohun Bagan’s IFA Shield victory in 1911, defeating civil and military European teams. The present essay reconsiders the first momentous event in Indian soccer history, examining the varied responses to, and larger meaning of, the historic event in trying to destabilize rigidly imperialist or nationalist historical interpretations of this occasion. By focussing analysis on the varied responses to the phenomenon of Indians having defeated the British, the essay argues that in each case the writer of the report brought his (in all cases) ideological commitments to bear on his interpretation of the victory. The analysis of an entire range of newspaper reports documents how the larger meaning of Mohun Bagan’s victory came into being only through the very particular connotations football had acquired in the cultural and political schema of early twentieth‐century Bengali society. The essay also tries to reveal how received notions of modernity, tradition, race, governance and masculinity acquired significantly different and, at times, conflicting meanings in the minds of the football and Mohun Bagan crazed newspaper correspondents, and presumably, the newspaper‐reading public. It accounts for the larger significance of this event in terms of the differences and similarities both between and within nationalist (Indian) and imperialist (British) interpretations.

The American soccer history archives

The American soccer history archives

The American soccer history archives

The American soccer history archives

Feminization of the 2002 World Cup and women's fandom1

The history of soccer shows a happy union of masculinity and nationalism. In the case of the 2002 World Cup games, however, at least in Korean society, soccer seems to have become a feminized event...

The encyclopedia of American soccer history

Many believe that soccer's popularity in the United States is a recent phenomenon, that Pele introduced the sport to the U.S. market. Soccer has in fact enjoyed a long and illustrious history in this country. This book examines American soccer from the 1860s up through the 1999 Women's World Cup and the 1999 MLS season. Entries are present for the many professional and semi-professional leagues that have existed since the 1890s and their great players, teams, and coaches. Important cup competitions, national teams, and major international competitions are also noted. Over two hundred individuals who have contributed to American soccer - coaches, players, administrators, and referees - also have entries. The perfect reference resource for sports scholars, but is also of interest to the ardent soccer fan.

Soccer and Croatian Nationalism

In 1990, the Yugoslav Federation was on the verge of dissolution. Slovenia and Croatia had just voted communists out of power and were threatening to secede. The purpose of this study is to examine the role that soccer played at this critical juncture to bolster Croatia’s efforts to gain independence as well as to inflame ethnoreligious passions that would soon lead to the outbreak of war. By focusing on two soccer matches—one that led to the worst soccer riot in Yugoslavian soccer history and the other that Croats celebrate as the restoration of their national team—this study examines the often intimate relationship between sport, politics, and war.

The tale of Little Franz and Big Franz: the foundation of Bayern Munich FC

The aim of this article is to elucidate the rather complex history of the foundation of one of the world's leading soccer clubs, FC Bayern Munich, and to shed light on the personalities involved and their careers later in life. Such an attempt has never been made before, and not even the club's 100th anniversary this year has persuaded its officials to make efforts in this direction. The club official tends to lack a sense of tradition and a responsibility to acknowledge the past, and the men who once paved the way are forgotten completely, no matter how many honorary titles (which cost little or nothing at all) may have been lavished upon them. Generally speaking, the story of the foundation of Bayern Munich constitutes an intriguing facet of the evolution of soccer around the turn of the century. For one, the club's foundation should be viewed against the background of the fierce antagonism between the nationally minded German gymnasts sailing up‐wind after the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, and the English‐orientated Games Movement (German Spielbewegung). For another, it is a remarkable instance of the important role played by Jewish sportsmen and officials at the dawn of European sport, a fact which has either been ignored or underestimated. By writing the story of the club's beginnings, it is hoped that a first step will be made towards a history of European soccer as a whole.

"The People's Joy" Vanishes: Considerations on the Death of a Soccer Player

people's joy is the phrase that, from the early 1960s, was attached to the person of Garrincha, who, with Pele, was the most notable player in the best phase of Brazilian soccer history. Unlike Pele, Garrincha never managed to adapt to professional sport, and after his retirement he sank into alcoholism. His unpredictable, disconcerting, and effective style seems to be related to the mysteries of the little�known social group from which he originated. The spectacular but short�lived intrusion of his amateur�like style into toprank competition illustrates the subordinate creativity developed by workers who lived in the closed world of company towns. The death in 1983 of this ex�factory worker and soccer player seems to have been accompanied by the disappearance of the popular euphoria generated by the economic and social boom in the democratic context of the 1950s

"The People's Joy" Vanishes: Considerations on the Death of a Soccer Player

"The people's joy" is the phrase that, from the early 1960s, was attached to the person of Garrincha, who, with Pele, was the most notable player in the best phase of Brazilian soccer history. Unlike Pele, Garrincha never managed to adapt to professional sport, and after his retirement he sank into alcoholism. His unpredictable, disconcerting, and effective style seems to be related to the mysteries of the little–known social group from which he originated. The spectacular but short–lived intrusion of his amateur–like style into toprank competition illustrates the subordinate creativity developed by workers who lived in the closed world of company towns. The death in 1983 of this ex–factory worker and soccer player seems to have been accompanied by the disappearance of the popular euphoria generated by the economic and social boom in the democratic context of the 1950s.

Soccer in sun and shadow

In this witty and rebellious history of world soccer, award-winning writer Eduardo Galeano searches for styles of play, players, and goals that express unique personality of certain times and places. In Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Galeano takes us to ancient China, where engravings from Ming period show a ball that could have been designed by Adidas to Victorian England, where gentlemen codified rules that we still play by today and to Latin America, where crazy English spread game only to find it creolized by locals. All greats--Pele, Di Stefano, Cruyff, Eusebio, Puskas, Gullit, Baggio, Beckenbauer-- have joyous cameos in this book. yet soccer, Galeano cautions, a pleasure that hurts. Thus there is also heartbreak and madness. Galeano tells of suicide of Uruguayan player Abdon Porte, who shot himself in center circle of Nacional's stadium; of Argentine manager who wouldn't let his team eat chicken because it would bring bad luck; and of scandal-riven Diego Maradona whose real crime, Galeano suggests, was always the sin of being best. Soccer is a game that bureaucrats try to dull and powerful try to manipulate, but it retains its magic because it remains a bewitching game--a feast for eyes ...and a joy for body that plays it--exquisitely rendered in magical stories of Soccer in Sun and Shadow.

The world's game: a history of soccer

Known as much for emotional outbursts and violence of its fans as for its own stars, soccer (or football, as it is known outside United States) is a global game. Its international controlling body, FIFA, boasts more members than United Nations. Bill Murray traces growth of what during pre-industrial times was called the simplest through its codification in nineteenth century to 1994 World Cup, held for first time in United States. Murray weaves sport's growth into culture and politics of countries where it has been taken up, analyzing its reputation as a game that has seen more riots and on-field brawls than all other types of football combined. He vividly illustrates how soccer has become world's most popular sport, one that has resisted interference of politicians, dictators, and profiteers and - more recently - demands of television, through which it has spread to virtually every corner of globe. The World's Game will be entertaining and enlightening to anyone from most avid, knowledgeable fan to those who merely hope to learn a little about sport.

The world encyclopedia of soccer

This reference guide to soccer aims to cover all aspects of the game and provides a global view of the world's most popular sport. It includes: the history of soccer; biographical profiles of players; the rules of the game; great rivalries and occasional riots; women's soccer; and olympic soccer.

The Burden of Success: Futebol and Brazilian Society through the 1970s

Futebol, Brazil's national sport‐best‐known to American audiences through the brilliant play o f Pelé one of its superstars‐is more than simple mass entertainment. Robert Levine traces the evolution of the trends in the history of Brazilian soccer to explain what may be behind the current unprecedented dissatisfaction with the sport. Beginning with the 189Os, he illustrates how futebol is a barometer by which national pride, exuberance, frustration, rage, and hope may be measured. He shows that as the game changed from an activity restricted to the upperclass to a popular form of entertainment with a mass audience, it became a means used by the government in the 1930s and 1940s to foster national integration. More recently, it has been used by an unpopular military regime to bolster its popularity. In the second part of his study, Levine focuses on Pelé who reintroduced an appreciation of individualistic skills to the game and loaned his mass popularity to the military regime. In short, the author makes a convincing case on how the sport of futebol has been used as a political weapon.