Beastly Fury

"The myth is that football is a British game. The truth is that football has existed wherever people have eaten animals and discovered that, at the end of their meal, they were left with a bladder which, useless as it seemed, was great fun to blow up and kick around. What was invented in Britain was the modern, professional, spectator sport. Beastly Fury is the story of how it happened. From the chaos and violence of early folk football, killed off by the twin forces of puritanism and the industrial revolution, to the remarkably similar public school football that kept the sport alive, Richard Sanders traces the history and the colourful personalities that abounded in the game as it moved from riot to a system of rules. He charts how the changing social fabric of Britain resulted in a shift of power from the south to the north, and how the working classes took control again of football. 31 March 1883 was the turning point for modern football. It was the last time a team of former public schoolboys wo"