British Ambassadors in Soccer Kit or Transnational Actors?

Football League Clubs on Close Season Foreign Tours, 1900-1939
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-37229-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 244 Seiten, Format (B × H): 170 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 595 g

Reihe: Sport in the Global Society – Contemporary Perspectives

This book explores the fascinating evolution of close-season foreign tours conducted by Football League clubs between 1900 and 1939, a period when these tours became a cornerstone of the British footballing calendar transforming the nature and role of the close season.

During the close season, clubs ventured beyond British fields to play abroad, serving as footballing missionaries spreading the game, tourists engaging with foreign football cultures, and participants in cross-cultural exchanges. Acting as "ambassadors in soccer kit," as Arsenal manager George Allison described, clubs complemented England’s role in showcasing the dominance of British football while contributing to the soft power of British governments through soccer diplomacy.

Through a transnational lens, this book examines how these tours became vehicles for cultural encounters, profoundly shaping the identities and experiences of players as transnational actors. It highlights the transformative impact of these interactions on both British and foreign footballing landscapes.

Co-authored by two leading sports historians, this archival study combines cultural diplomatic and transnational perspectives to provide a comprehensive analysis of Football League club tours. It situates these tours alongside foreign fixtures played by England and Scotland as pivotal moments of elite-level footballing exchange.

Covering themes of sports history, propaganda history, cultural diplomacy, and transnational studies, this book is ideal for scholars, students, and enthusiasts of football history, international relations, and cultural studies.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core

Autoren/Hrsg.

Beck, Peter J.

Taylor, Matthew

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Sport Ballsportarten American Football Fußball

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Football League clubs and close season foreign tours 2. Raising serious questions about the close season 3. ‘The winter game’, the close season, and foreign tours, the 1890s 4. The Football Association changes direction on foreign tours, the 1900s 5. Giving a ‘new meaning’ to the close season, 1904–1914 6. Showcasing overseas the power of British football, the 1920s 7. A year of ‘disastrous and controversial’ Football League club tours, 1929 8. ‘Should F.A. ban continental tours?’, 1929 9. ‘Admirable examples of British propaganda as it should not be’, the 1930s 10. The Football Association’s ‘new course’ regarding close season tours, 1938–1939 11. Reflections on Football Club tours, cultural encounters and transnational history

Über Autor(innen)

Peter J. Beck is Emeritus Professor of International History at Kingston University, UK. His publications include International Football as Cultural Diplomacy: Britain versus the Dictators in the 1930s (2025), Using History, making British Policy: the Treasury and the Foreign Office, 1950-76 (2006), and Presenting History: Past and Present (2012).

Matthew Taylor is Professor of History and Director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. His publications include Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-45 (2020) and World of Sport: Transnational and Connected Histories (2025).