the game in the 20th century. Association football has become
one of the most popular of all national sports in the United
Kingdom. It is slowly but surely taking a similar position on the
continent of Europe and is making progress even in the Far East,
Japan being one of its latest adherents. In the season of 1871–1872
the Football Association inaugurated its popular challenge
cup competition which is now competed for by both amateur and
professional clubs. In the first year fifteen clubs entered, all of
which were from the south of England. The first winners of the
cup were the Wanderers, who defeated the Royal Engineers in the
final tie by one goal to nothing. For the first ten years the
competition was mostly limited to the southern clubs, but in the
season of 1881–1882 the Blackburn Rovers were only defeated in
the final tie by the Old Etonians by one goal to nothing. Professionalism
was then unknown in the game, and comparatively
little interest was taken in it except by the players themselves.
In the following season of 1882–1883 the cup was for the first time
taken north by the Blackburn Olympic Club, and it remained in
the north for the next nineteen years, until in the season of 1900–1901
it was again brought south by the Tottenham Hotspur
Club, who defeated the Sheffield United Club at Bolton by three
goals to one. In the following season the cup was again taken
north by the Bury Club. In the early days of the competition a
few hundred people only attended the final tie, which for many
years was played at Kennington Oval in London. In the course
of time, however, the interest of the public so largely increased
that it became necessary to seek a ground of greater capacity;
accordingly in 1893 the final was played at Fallowfield, Manchester,
where it was watched by forty thousand people; in 1894
it was played at Everton and in 1895 at the Crystal Palace.
The attendance during the following ten years averaged 80,000
people. The record attendance was in the season of 1900–1901,
when the south were contesting with the north, the spectators
then being upwards of 113,000. In the season of 1908–1909
356 clubs entered the competition; in 1910–11 the number had
increased to 404.
The great development of the game necessitated many changes in the system of control. About the year 1880 (although contrary to the rules) a practice of making payment to players crept into the game in the north of England and slowly developed. After some years of debate as to the best method of dealing with this development the Football Association decided in 1885 to legalize and control the payment of players. The rules define a professional player as one who receives remuneration of any sort above his necessary hotel and travelling expenses actually paid, or is registered as a professional. They further provide that training expenses not paid by the players themselves will be considered as remuneration beyond necessary travelling and hotel expenses. Players competing for any money prizes in football contests are also considered professionals.
In 1888 the Football League, a combination of professional clubs of the north and midlands of England, was formed; and a new scheme was inaugurated for the playing of matches on what is known as the “League” principle, the essential advantage of which is that the clubs in membership of a league agree to play with each other “home and home” matches each season, and also bind themselves under certain penalties to play their best team in all league matches. Six years later the Southern League came into existence, primarily with the object of increasing the interest in the game in the south and west of England. The Football League and the Southern League very soon had their imitators, and in 1909 there were upwards of six hundred league competitions playing under the sanction and control of the Football Association. The league system also found favour in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and has extended to most of the colonies where Association football is played. In the season of 1893–1894 the Amateur Cup Competition, restricted to amateur clubs in membership with the Football Association, was inaugurated. In the first season 32 clubs entered, and the growing popularity of the competition is shown by the fact that in the season of 1908–1909 there were 229 entries.
The Football Association, founded in 1863 with its eleven clubs, had in 1909 under its jurisdiction upwards of 10,000 amateur clubs and a quarter of a million of amateur players, and 400 professional clubs with 7000 professional players. It has also directly affiliated 52 county, district and colonial associations, and indirectly in membership a large number of minor associations which are affiliated through the county and district associations. The Army Association includes 316 army clubs in Great Britain and Ireland, together with clubs formed by the various battalions in India, South Africa, Gibraltar and other army stations; and the Royal Navy Football Association comprises all ships afloat having Association football clubs.
The regulations of the Football Association, which is the recognized administrative and legislative body for the game in England, make provision for the sanction and control of leagues and competitions; and its rules, regulations, principles and practices very largely prevail in all national associations. The king is the patron, and the council consists of 56 members, a president, 6 vice-presidents, a treasurer, 10 representatives elected by the clubs in the ten divisions into which the country is subdivided, together with representatives of the army, the navy and of county associations in England which have upwards of 50 clubs in membership, each representative being directly appointed by his association. In 1905 the Football Association became incorporated under the Joint Stock Companies Acts, and as a consequence the word “Limited” appears in its title. It is not, however, a trading body; the shareholders are not entitled to any dividend, bonus or profit, nor may the members of the council, who are the directors, receive any payment for their services. The Scottish Football Association is also an incorporated body with similar powers. Many of the leading clubs of the United Kingdom have also become incorporated, but under the regulations of the Football Association they may not pay a larger dividend to their shareholders than 5%, nor may any of the directors receive payment for their services.
The whole policy of legislation in Association football of late years has been naturally to make the game faster by bringing every one into full play. The great aim accordingly has been to encourage combination and to discourage purely individual efforts. In the early days, though there was a certain amount of cohesion, a player had to rely mainly on himself. Even up to the middle of the ’seventies dribbling was looked upon as the great desideratum; it was the essential for a forward, just as long kicks were the main object of a back. The development of the game was of course bound to change all that. The introduction of passing, long or short, but long in particular, placed the dribbler pure and simple at a discount, and necessitated methods with which he was mostly unacquainted. Combined play gradually came to be regarded as the keynote to success. Instead of one full back, as was originally the case, and one half-back, the defence gradually developed by the addition first of a second half, then of a second full back, and still later of a third half-back, until it came to show, in addition to the goalkeeper of course, two full backs and three half-backs. The eight forwards who used to constitute the attack in the earliest days of the Association have been reduced by degrees, as the science of the game became understood, until they now number only five. The effect of the transition has been to put the attack and defence on a more equal footing, and as a natural consequence to make the game more open and thereby generally more interesting and attractive. Association football is indeed, from the standpoint of the spectator, a much brighter game than it was in its infancy, the result of the new methods bringing every one of the eleven players into full relief throughout the game. The players who, as a rule, make or mar the success of a side in modern football are the centre forward and the centre half-back. They are the pivot on which the attack and the defence respectively turn. Instead of close dribbling and following up, the new formation makes for accuracy of passing among the forwards, with intelligent support from the half-backs. The net result is practically the effective combination of the whole side. To do his part as it ought to be done every member of an eleven must work in harmony with the rest, and on a definite system, in all cases subordinating his own
