Over the past two decades, academic, sociological/historical writing on football has flourished, mainly on the back of the debate over the game’s early development led by Eric Dunning, Graham Curry, Tony Collins, and Adrian Harvey. This book adds to that debate, providing more information on the early international game. The centrepiece chapter presents an analysis of the reasons for the positive turnaround in fortunes of England’s international eleven against Scotland in the late 1880s and early 1890s. How far was this linked to NL Jackson’s founding of Corinthian Football Club or did the onset of professionalism in England contribute to this shift in footballing power? Was the initial story of Welsh football confined to North Wales? Where was Irish football’s power-base in those early years? The book brings together the narrative of early international soccer in Britain in a single volume, enabling the reader to make comparisons between the four competing nations. The text will ‘drill down’ emphatically into individuals involved, significant matches, attempting an analysis of those events, as well as exploring themes and ideas connected with the growing globalisation and seriousness of football towards the end of the nineteenth century.
