THe rise of commercialisation in football

Football in England in the early years of the 21st century looks very different from the game which began in English public schools in the mid 19th century, and was a mass pursuit by the early years of the 20th century. In the 1940s and 1950s the game arguably reached its modernist peak, boasting record crowds, and became a rather troubled, hooligan affected sport in the 1970s and 1980s, before a more recent recovery in image and attendances. Many people seem to believe that the true commercialisation of football has only recently begun. However, a century ago players were paid to play and club owners needed a way to raise money for their salaries, so began charging for entry to matches.

Cigarette football cards were introduced in the 1920s as smoking had become a popular social habit, especially among working people. In order to capture and hold future cigarette markets a vogue was created for the collection of the cards (Walvin, 1994). In 1923, the rules of the FA Cup were printed by the sports equipment and clothing suppliers Lillywhites, which bought the sole rights to publish them. And, from at least the 1930s onwards, it was common to see top football players (Dixie Dean, Stanley Matthews, etc.) advertising and sponsoring products, including cigarettes and men's cosmetics. It is clear, then, that the 'commercialisation' of football really first began long ago in England.

In the post Second World War period, as the influence of the cinema and, later, television grew, so, slowly, did the status of the professional footballer as a sports and television personality who could sell commercial products. through advertising and sponsorship. In 1951, Stanley Matthews received £20 a week from CWS (Co operative society) for wearing the companies football boots; no mean sum, then. However, most footballers in this period were still effectively shackled to their clubs under the maximum wage and the retain and transfer contract system. This meant that many top footballers of the period also held other jobs locally - England international Tom Finney was a plumber, Billy Liddell an accountant - and top footballers such as Finney could spend their entire careers at relatively 'unfashionable' clubs. Russell (1997) argues that Tom Finney's last match at Preston in 1961 signalled the end of an era in which supporters and players shared local attachments and broadly similar lifestyles: the 1960s offered changes ahead.

Of course, the 'new commercialism' in football looks very different from earlier versions. Arguably, the effects of commercial interests accelerated in England in the 1960s with the rise of the popularity of TV, the lifting of the maximum wage for players, and the hosting by England of the 1966 World Cup Finals. Here was the beginnings of the'dis-located' footballer and the 'celebrity' player or superstar - George Best is the most well known example ( Critcher, 1991)). An official song was recorded for the 1966 World Cup tournament and replica 'World Cup Willy' Lions were sold in England and the mascot was used to 'brand' the tournament as petrol stations offered special 'World Cup Medals'. The 1966 World Cup was a major global television event and it was probably the first of the major football finals to be shaped substantially by the concerns of the media, especially TV. Around 400 million people world wide watched the TV coverage (Murray, 1996) and many fans in England bought souvenirs commemorating the event.

World wide audiences totalling 37 billion people watched games on TV during World Cup France'98 and 50 billion were reported to have tuned in to Japan and Korea 2002. The official French World Cup mascot, Footix, was used to sell millions of products before, during and after the event, from mugs and footballs to baby bibs.