Soccer and Society

South Wales, 1900-1939

Martin Johnes

‘ . . . a very readable social history.’ Soccer History

‘ . . . Martin Johnes tells the story with depth, insight and compassion . . . a lucid and rewarding study.’ (Welsh History Review)

‘ . . . sensitive and exhaustively-researched account of soccer in South Wales in the first 40 years of the twentieth century . . . ’ (Soccer and Society)

‘ . . . a first rate social and cultural history. . . the book is a valuable addition to the history of nationalism and identity in Great Britain and furthers our understanding of the ways in which people used multiple, overlapping cultures of the region, nation, home, class, work, leisure, and religion to add richness and meaning to their lives. . . ’ (Albion)

Winner of the British Society of Sports History Aberdare Literary Prize 2003

In 1927, Welsh football reached a peak when Cardiff City beat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final. The game’s popularity had grown at a notable rate in early twentieth-century south Wales and by 1939 football was an integral part of the region’s popular culture. Rugby’s claim to be the national sport looked tenuous when measured against the equally large crowds that football attracted and the significantly larger numbers who played the ‘dribbling code’ across the region.

Soccer and Society surveys soccer’s early history in south Wales. Through an exploration of the entire spectrum of the game, from international matches and professional clubs to schoolboy games, this fascinating book illustrates how soccer was shaped by wider social, cultural and economic forces. Drawing on a broad range of primary sources, Martin Johnes places football in its wider historical context. He shows how soccer was incorporated into a redefined national identity that emerged from the depression and political realignment in inter-war south Wales, and demonstrates the significance of the sport for twentieth-century Welsh history and culture.

'It offers a compendium of the benefits professional historians have brought to the study of sport: recognition that insights are as likely to be drawn from the front pages of newspapers as from the back pages; that the relationship between sport and society operates in both directions; and a sense of perspective and profound enthusiasm tempered by detached academic judgement. ... Johnes also shows how sport can illuminate a society, using the game and its followers to develop a subtle, sophisticated analysis of the complexities of identity in South Wales, ... If only Welsh sport were as well served by its teams and administrators as by its historians.' Times Higher Education Supplement

‘This well-researched book is the latest addition to the University of Wales Press’s excellent series, ‘Studies in Welsh History’ . . . Anyone who has walked alone on a wet and windy day to watch local lads stride out across the fields of praise, will enjoy this excellent book.’ www.gwales.com

Martin Johnes is a lecturer in Sports Studies at St Martin’s College, Lancaster. He is the author, with Iain McLean, of Aberfan: Government and Disasters (2000) and has published widely on the history of and sport.

As the World Cup kicks off in Japan and South Korea people from across the globe will be waving flags, painting their faces and celebrating their nationality. Wales may not have qualified but a new book has been released that claims that football still has much to say about Welsh national identity.

Soccer and Society: South Wales, 1900-39 argues that despite south Wales’s reputation as rugby hotbed, football was historically an equally important and popular part of the region’s culture. It argues that rugby's claim to be the national sport looks tenuous when measured against the equally large crowds that football attracted and the significantly larger numbers who played the "dribbling code" across the region.

As the book shows, football’s popularity in south Wales became apparent in 1927 when Cardiff City won the FA Cup. The victory was acclaimed across Wales as a national achievement and an estimated 100,000 took to the streets of Cardiff to welcome the team home.

The author, historian Dr Martin Johnes, says “Welsh national identity is somewhat fragile and thus the importance of the aspects of Welsh culture which are different to England, such as the language or rugby, are exaggerated in order to promote a stronger picture of Welshness. Football is a global game and one which Wales has enjoyed little success in at an international level. It has thus been marginalised in the clichéd but dominant pictures of Welsh culture.

“What this book shows is that when Welsh football has enjoyed real success, such as in the 1927 cup final, then the people of Wales have been quite happy to celebrate the sport as symbol of Welshness. The fact that only three of the team that day were Welsh didn’t matter to fans. The achievement was symbolic and, after all, modern Welsh society itself has always contained migrants from other parts of the United Kingdom.”

“My book is trying to argue that Welsh national identity is not incompatible with Britishness. For most people Wales has been characterised as much by what unites it with the rest of the UK as by what makes it unique. Sport is a powerful symbol of this and this is as true today as it was between the wars. Current fans of Swansea City or Cardiff City are very proud of their Welshness but most also see themselves as British and hence are happy to represent Wales in an English league.”

The book explores a whole host of themes in football’s history that are both relevant to the game today and a wider understanding of Welsh history. Incidents of hooliganism shows that recent events at Ninian Park are nothing new, while rifts between fans and directors show that are plenty of historical precedents for the anger Tony Petty caused at Swansea City earlier this season. Johnes argues that the culture of fans, the place of football in schools and the importance of small village teams all shed important light on life in South Wales before the Second World War.

Conventional Welsh history may have concentrated on politics and trade unionism but a typical miner was more interested in having fun than working. As thousands look for ways to escape the office or factory to watch the World Cup, it would seem that some things haven’t changed.