A History of English Football – in Waves

In the 1950’s American professor Clare Graves identified what he called ‘worldviews’ from the writings of his students. He described how these ‘world views ‘evolved upwards in an ever-increasing spiral of complexity. He linked the spiral to how people, teams and organisations develop over time.

Graves’ theory has been applied to analyse historical, political and business changes. It is also widely used in leadership coaching, and team development. The Danish football club Midtjylland have even reportedly used a questionnaire based on this thinking to develop their team.

In this article, I use Graves’ model to explain the history of football, as well as its future. The modern game has moved through four of Graves’ waves and we can expect the game will evolve through at least two more to in the next 20-30 years or so.

Wave 1- The Age of Paternalism- 1860s

Football as we know it today evolved through the English private schools, where the rules were codified first as the ‘Cambridge rules’ and then on 26 October 1863 at the Freemasons tavern in London as the Football Association rules.

This first wave paternalistic because the game aimed to develop ‘Gentlemen’ who would go on to administer the Empire. An extension of the private education ethos. The Corinthians and The Royal Engineers, ‘gentlemen’ teams were the first winners of the FA cup, first played 1871-1872.

The Church also played a key role. The laws of the game even dictated that the referee was to be dressed in black. The uniform of priests. 

The Methodist church in particular played a key role in footballs early development. Everton Football Club was founded in 1879 by St. Domingo’s Methodist Church.[1]  Fulham St Andrew’s Church Sunday School F.C., later became Fulham F.C., was founded by members of the nearby Church of England. In November 1880, St. Mark’s Anglican Church in West Gorton, established  a football club which later became Manchester City F.C. St. Mary’s Church, Southampton set up a team in 1885, which later became Southampton Football Club.

These early days saw the gradual evolution of the rules of the game. The offside rule was installed. Hacking opponents down was outlawed, dribbling skills were mastered. The long boot up field gave way to the passing game.

The  purpose of the game was educational and religious development, health and wellbeing.  A sort of ‘Muscular Christianity[2]’. But these rather polite resosn for existence didn’t last.

Wave 2- The Age of Professionalism and Power

By about 1880s, the game’s purpose changed. It became about control.

The early days of the industrial revolution meant that the new industrialists needed to ensure large groups of people turned up for work at the Mills and Factories every day, and not be drunk. Many factory owners like Lever, Cadbury, Wedgewood built model villages – to keep their people close. Nearly all industries adopted local football teams to provide weekend entertainment, typically timed to start at 3 PM on a Saturday afternoon at the end of the morning shift.

So, the gentrified Royal Engineers and Corinthians gave way to Blackburn Olympic in 1883, a team of mostly working men. Mickael Correia, in his brilliant book ‘A People’s History of Football’, summed it up perfectly:

‘In line with other sports that became standardised in this period, such as cricket and tennis, association football adopted the leading traits of the industrial revolution, its standardised rules enabled as many people as possible to reproduce a single corpus of bodily practices in a rationalised time and space. The specialisation of players and positions within the team reflects the division of labour required by industrial society. The organisation of the game under the eye of the referee, a tutelary figure who imposes his law, embodies the discipline and spirit of an intiative channeled towards a single production target: to score goals. The first match reports in the press similarly borrowed an industrial vocabulary; the teams were ‘well well-oiled machines. The players have legs like ‘pistons’ or transform into ‘dynamos’ that ‘hit like a sledgehammer’.[3]

Correia tells the story of Arnold F Hills owner of the Thames Ironworks and shipbuilding company. Confronted with strikes and trade unions, he founded the Thames Ironworks football club in 1895, with the express aim of bringing the workers closer to the Company executives. This team nicknamed ‘the hammers’ is today known as West Ham United.

Many workers football clubs emerged during this time. The Lancashire and Yorkshire railway team was to become Manchester United. The football team of the Royal Arsenal factory in Woolwich became The Arsenal (and the first franchise club when they moved to North London from their native Woolwich).

Professionalisation reared its head. The Netflix series ‘the English Game’ captures this era.

Blackburn Olympic, the winners of the 1883 FA Cup, had arranged jobs for players and paid them additional income. “Shamateurs’ arrived. With teams in the north “signing’ Scottish professionals, using jobs, real or fabricated, as a means of payment. Following a series of disputes and a near split, the FA finally allowed professionals to play in 1885.

Tactics started to develop. According to Jonathan Wilson in his now classic ‘Inverting the pyramid”, the 2-3-5 formation began to be widely deployed. England playing a 2-3-5 pyramid system for the first time against Scotland in 1884.

The pivotal figure in the game at this time was the star player. it was the likes of Dixie Deans for his goals and William Foulke for his girth that attracted the fans’ attention.

Wave 3- The Age of Process

The offside law was changed in 1925. This was an early sign of changing times. The process wave was arriving. Instead of requiring three players behind the ball, the rule was amended to two players. Herbert Chapman manager of Huddersfield town and then Arsenal was the first process manager in the game. He introduced the W-M formation, to take advantage of this law change. Professional star players were now supported by professional managers, with control over the whole club. Chapman’s name is often coupled with that of his star player Charlie Buchan- modernising the game, and even getting the name of the London tube station Gillespie Road changed to The Arsenal in the 1930s.

The ethos of the game became less about scoring goals and more about securing a win.

The purpose of the game had also evolved. It became less about control of workers, and more about control of players. Planning and professionalism became the thing. The pivotal figure became the Manager. The combination of the professional manager and the well-disciplined professional players meant we saw true teams for the first time.

Plans and tactics were copied and developed. The Spurs push and run team of the early 1950s introduced movement and space. Tactical developments, particularly in Austria, then Hungary, followed.

1953 marked the first time England lost on home soil to a brilliant Hungarian team famously led by `Puskas. Jonathan Wilson describes the Hungarian tactics as ‘a hairsbreadth from 4-2-4. Another step up in process excellence. Alf Ramsey’s wingless wonders deployed 4-1-3-2 to win the world cup for England in 1966.

Jimmy Hill, known in his later life as a football pundit was the epitome of this age. He was a reasonable journey- man player for Brentford then Fulham. Hill went on to manage & chair Coventry City. He introduced the first all seater stadia, the matchday programme and championed the concept of 3 points for a win. Pre- Hill it used to be just 2 points. Most significantly however, as Chairman of the players union, he ensured the abolition of the maximum wage. For the first time leading players could earn salaries proportionate to their stardom.

The game was thriving. Grounds were modernised. The famous football architect Archibald Leach built and left his legacy. Floodlights arrived. Players played to positions and started to earn the salaries of senior middle managers rather than craftsmen.

The process era was long lived. Lasting from the 1930s through to the 1980s. For many of us, of a certain age, the is the golden age of ‘proper’ football. Spurs did the double in 1961. The famous brawl that was the Chelsea – Leeds cup final, in the early 70’s, Arsenal achieving the double after Spurs. The great Liverpool teams. Manchester United – from tragedy to glory in 1968. Nottingham Forest dominating Europe. ……. ‘Bobby Charlton!’

Pragmatism, however, began to outweigh fun. This was epitomised by Don Revie’s Leeds; the game became clinical. The Italians took things to the next level with catenaccio, an ultra-defensive system of football that relied on defence almost to the exclusion of any attacking intent.

Fortunately, there were still idealists such as Matt Busby and Brian Clough who could develop stars. Clough would invite the lads to ‘go out and enjoy yourselves’. But increasingly the age of process was dictated by the magnetic marker boards, playing systems, scouts and dossiers.

The administration of the game also calcified. Sir Stanley Rouse led a FIFA organisation that still saw its role as primarily administrative. Local clubs in England transitioned from being industrial teams to being civic ventures owned by a local businessman. Most clubs suffered with underinvestment and decaying stadia as we entered the 1970s. With a declining fan base and a rise of hooliganism, the game was fast becoming irrelevant to the modern world. The Ibrox disaster of 1971 followed in the 1980’s by the Heysel, Bradford and Hillsborough disasters signalled things had to change.

The World Cup of 1990 probably reflected the end of the process era on the football field, and the start of the profit era. For FIFA the end came earlier in 1974 when Joao Havelange overthrew Rouse. Then in the early 1990’s, in England, a revolution was borne, midwifed by Sky TV.

Wave 4- The Profit and Performance Wave

Hillsborough preceded by Heysel and the Bradford fire, had been the nadir of the Process era. From the end of the 1970s through the 1980s, people were literally taking their lives in their hands attending a football game. Football hooliganism ran rife, real and imagined. Club owners neglected their stadiums, concluding that there was little return on investing. Chelsea and Spurs who had both rebuilt parts of their stadia during this era ran into serious financial trouble.

The 1970’s was the apogee of the process era. The West German national team was its standard bearer – all muscle and discipline. But change was afoot. Most thrillingly we saw the arrival of Total Football. We were blown away by the sight of the Dutch team playing in their striking orange kit and led by Johan Cruyff. Positions were no longer ‘set’. Their football no longer sterile. The Dutch pressed and turned the off-side game into an attacking tactic. Interchangeability, and aggression surged.

Despite the German victory, in the 1974 world cup we’d all first glimpsed the future.

Guardiola and Klopp developed Cruyff’s ‘total football’ into ‘tiki taka’ and ‘gegenpressing. Mourinho and the Portuguese school went another route. But the coach was king now. The ability to blend the system and the individual into a compelling whole, took football through the doldrums of the 1990 world cup into the age of coaching masterclasses.

Alongside this development of tactics in the profit wave, came the development of football as a business.

Tottenham Hotspur, under then chairman Irving Scholar were first movers. They became the first English club to be quoted on the London Stock exchange in 1983. ‘There used to be a football club over there’, Keith Burkinshaw, their successful power/process manager said on leaving the club.

While the world cup of 1990 in Italy, was a tactical nadir, football was being transformed into the world of entertainment. Gazza’s tears caught the zeitgeist of the nation- and suddenly football was something the middle class were declaring an interest in.

Sky TV, the newly launched satellite provider in the UK, seized the opportunity and in their stunning coup bought the rights to the newly formed premier league. The Premiership as it was originally called saw a big influx of international elite players and managers. Jose Mourinho epitomised the very model of the ‘Profit Wave Manager’.

But as with all waves, decline set in.. The profit wave entered a crisis period, as the rise, restructuring and re-branding of the European cups took centre stage. We witnessed the spectacle of FIFA delegates being subject to dawn raids, initiated by FBI warrants for their arrest, in the Bar au Lac hotel beside Lake Zurich in 2015.

Players wages began to spiral higher and higher. Players were tapped up and hoarded, agents syphoned away money, and Club administrators at the top levels began to pay themselves salaries way above market levels, significantly higher than even those paid to executives running much larger businesses. Attempts at breakaways and super leagues were threatened and attempted. Lawyers suddenly came to the fore, with Manchester City fans holding up a banner in praise of a famous Kings Counsel.

The crisis of the profit wave spawned the emergence of the next evolutionary wave.

Wave 5- The People Wave

Look closely into the heart of any crisis and you can always see the seeds of evolution. As greed and corruption swirled around football the green shoots of the People wave emerged, first in the early 1980’s in Brazil. As Brazil convulsed through its struggle for democracy in the 1980’s a 35-year-old sociologist called Adilson Monteiro Alves emerged. Along with the now iconic doctor turned footballer Socrates, Alves turned Corinthians into a worker co-operative and a socialist endeavour. In the Peoples History of soccer, Mickael Correia records:

”All deliberations were heard collectively and then voted on. Every employee of the club had a vote, whether they were players, trainers, bus drivers or groundsmen. The Corinthians voted first to redistribute ticket sales, sponsorship and television rights to all employees. We abolished the paternalistic process by which football managers rendered players helpless, not allowing them to be adults’’ Socrates said later.[4]

Today, we see clubs like Sankt Pauli in Germany declaring boldly ‘No place for homophobia, fascism, sexism or racism’ at the entrance to their ground, ironically neighbouring the famous red-light district of Hamburg.

In England, clubs like Forest Green Rovers have emerged, championing and living sustainability.

Progressive club owners like Jason Stockwood at Grimsby Town write regularly on the social impact of football, and we watch on TV the rise of Wrexham FC as their Hollywood based owners narrate a story of community and belonging through the medium of the football club.

Many in England are now looking across in admiration at the fan led model in Germany, where Clubs are actually clubs, not businesses and fans needs are acted upon.

But the real emergence of the people wave is evident in the rise in popularity of non-league football in England. The English national league is recording that weekly crowds at games  up 10,000 in total, versus pre-Covid times.

We’re also seeing the rise again of Women’s’ football. Having attracted huge crowds during the first world war, women’s football was subsequently banned in 1921. The resurrection we see today, reflects the changing values of the times. The People Wave. With an emphasis on diversity and inclusion in the game coupled with the collegiate ethos the women’s game better represents inclusivity than the elite level of the men’s game.

Those of us who remember the 3 or 4 days when a breakaway European league was a reality, will also remember briefly re-thinking our whole football outlook. The concept of a ‘second team’ in the lower leagues became a ‘real thing’ for many.

The sense of community and identity for fans is being gradually stripped away at elite level. Historic stadiums are losing identity due to ‘naming’ rights. Globalisation is driving increasing sales of tickets to so called ‘club tourists’. Season ticket holders are seen as a drag on revenue. Games are being subordinated to VAR, a designed for TV experience, leaving supporters in the stadiums themselves literally standing around waiting to be told what has happened by their friends watching at home[AW1] . We can all see the accelerating emergence of an entertainment product rather than a game.

However, at local levels (leagues 1 downwards) and in the Women’s game, there is no VAR. Fans are welcome, and can get involved, the feeling is of an authentic community sport played for fun and for the people attending.

Marcelo Bielsa, coach of Uruguay recently stated:

“I am certain that football is in the process of decline. More and more people are watching this sport, but it is becoming less and less attractive. We do not favour what made it the best sport in the world.

We promote business, because business means that lots of people watch matches. But over time there are fewer and fewer footballers worth watching, the game is less and less enjoyable, and this artificial increase in spectator numbers will be reduced.

Football is not a business where we manage the cost of a loss of possession and hope to profit from five minutes of brilliant action. It’s much more than that. It’s a cultural expression of who we are. It’s a form of identification.”

It’s clear that league 1 and below can’t ever match the spending power of the Championship let alone the EPL. Trying to ‘buy success ‘, leads to bankruptcy and false saviours. Better to explore the community model of ownership. Build connectedness and purpose- define yourselves as NOT the EPL.

In the People wave on pitch tactics are changing too. Whilst the individual star, playing for the charismatic coach remains the prime entertainment model, recent years has seen the rise of the team as a collective.

Data analysts, using ever more sophisticated statistical techniques, are blending player profiles to urge Sporting Directors to invest in players who can combine to make teams. The rise of Brighton and Brentford being indicative of the success of this strategy. This is less about recruiting the best players but recruiting the players that can fit the style of the team.

Bielsa has consistently built teams of collectives not teams of stars The workload required for these endeavours is huge. Medical departments play a key role in enabling a total running style of football. Such people-centric thinking has yet to be optimised or create a consistently winning formulae, but this is the direction of travel on and off the pitch.

The advent of more substitutions means gone are the days that teams run out of steam and concede heavily in the last ten minutes. Fresh legs directed by wearables devices and supported by better sports science, sports psychology and performance sciences, suggests that ‘Bielsa ball ‘will win out, someday soon. In support of this we are already seeing elite clubs recruit younger and younger players. Players able to cope with the hard running styles required. It used to be that players peaked at 27. Now many have burned out by then.

The role of the Sporting Director, who curates and integrates the work of the coaches, the medics, the analysts, the psychologists, and performance scientists is rising to prominence at the elite level- as the demands on the total performance system becomes ever more complex.

Wave 6- The Paradox Wave

But, as we’ve said, every wave of evolution eventually fails to be replaced by is successor. The People waves that have emerged in politics, society and sport are all fragile things. Like Bielsa’s teams, they struggle to endure.

This fragility sets the stage for the Paradox wave to emerge. Ironically, the paradox wave will strengthen as the People wave simultaneously stabilises and collapses. We will see an increasing development of community led teams, teams with purpose, like the ‘New Corinthians’ and the collapse of current ecosystem at the top level. The implosion of the People wave is looming:

What if Man City are relegated because of the 155 charges they face for breaking financial rules? Or what if they face no penalty? What if Chelsea must stand and account for the Abramovic era? Or fail to convert their billions spent into silverware. What if FIFA’s world club championship (funded by the Saudi PIF) proves too good for the Big Teams to ignore, and becomes the dominant tournament?

A split in the EPL seems inevitable, the ‘Big 6’ may breakaway, or more likely, the 18 or so who do not get invited to the global table may go their own way. As soon as the long muted EPL league game in the USA is played- local connections will become severed.

FIFA and UEFA will struggle with being regulators and event promoters at the same time. New federations are then a possibility, as choices will need to be made.

The FIFA world cup may become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Saudi PIF, whilst new tournaments emerge. Many featuring local non fashionable teams and other sporting entrepreneurs pitching the super clubs of different continents against each other.

Private equity backed owners won’t care. The new breed of sporting entrepreneurs may thrive. There will be a product to sell – and sell it will,

But it will not be football as we have known it historically. To quote the Sky add – “it will be a whole new ballgame”

In the Paradox wave tactics at the elite level are also likely to change beyond recognition. AI enhanced player data will see games being played virtually before physically to run AI scenarios and tactical optimisation with team avatars. Coaches will prepare based on probabilistic ‘war-game’ scenarios rather than their own playbooks.

In the paradox age we will likely see the existence of two distinct worlds of football.

A global ‘NFL’ like offering, driven by AI tactics and ‘events’ alongside a local Community based game fuelled by identity and connection.

We will watch the big teams for sure, but we will increasingly identify with our local ‘authentic’ team.

It will be sad for those of us who identify today with a ‘big club’. But we are ‘legacy’ fans, we will have to learn to live in the age of paradox.

[1]  Prentice, David (15 July 2015). “Why are Everton FC called Everton FC when they have never actually played there?”. Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 15 March 2016.

[2] A phrase most associated with Thomas Hughes author of ‘Tom Brown’s schooldays

[3] Mickael Correia A people’s History of Football. P. 28. Pluto Press 2023

[4] The People History of Football Chapter 8