Football is in its infancy, an amateur game dominated
by the upper class teams who invented its rules.
Arthur Kinnaird, the captain of the Old Etonians, has
played in more FA Cup Finals than any other player, and won the cup three
times.
Until 1879, no working class team had ever reached the
Quarter Finals of the FA Cup.
And so begins The English Game, Netflix’s historical
drama on the early days of association football and how it moved from the
public schools to bfellecome ‘the working class game’ it has been perceived to be
ever since. Developed by Julian Fellowes (of Downton Abbey fame), the six-part
series places its focus on two figures at opposite ends of the social scale; the
aforementioned (future Lord) Kinnaird and Fergus Suter; a Scottish player who moves
south in the pursuit of fortune.
After codifying a set of rules from the various forms of
football played throughout the country, the Football Association quickly
recognised that their game needed a ‘Challenge Cup’ to take place for its members. Initially featuring alumni from public schools, the FA Cup opened
up to include teams from working class towns and cities to broaden the game’s
appeal. Competing was difficult for the working class, however – as their
players had shift work for 6 days-a-week, travelling south to meet these
well-honed Gentlemen and beat them in a match was a difficult prospect. Then
local business owners hit upon the idea of compensating their players for loss
time so they could take time off work to practice – something that the
Gentlemen objected to, and quickly outlawed the practice…
The story initially focuses on Suter's move to the Lancashire mill town of Darwen, and the football team's Quarter-Final clash against Kinnaird's Old Etonians. Later, the series charts Suter's move to Darwen's rivals 'Blackburn' (a composite team of Blackburn Rovers and Blackburn Olympic) – bringing into focus the growing professionalism in the game and the northern clubs' ambition to establish themselves as leaders on the pitch.
The story initially focuses on Suter's move to the Lancashire mill town of Darwen, and the football team's Quarter-Final clash against Kinnaird's Old Etonians. Later, the series charts Suter's move to Darwen's rivals 'Blackburn' (a composite team of Blackburn Rovers and Blackburn Olympic) – bringing into focus the growing professionalism in the game and the northern clubs' ambition to establish themselves as leaders on the pitch.
Although the series plays fast-and-loose with some
historical facts (more about this is an upcoming blog post), the detail in
which they go to present a genuine 19th century spectacle
should be admired. Aside from things like the costumes and social etiquette
being portrayed to a tee (again, no surprise, what with it involving Julian
Fellowes), they didn’t compromise anything to present a realistic portrayal of
what the play would have looked like. I particularly enjoyed a reference to
Arthur Kinnaird’s ‘handstand’ goal celebration – which I saw at the National Football Museum recently.
Kinnaird (played by Edward Holcroft) is arguably the main
driver of the story as his outlook on life changes from someone willing to gain
an advantage any way he can, to someone who is willing to lose if it means to
play fair – as a proper Gentlemen should. Conversely, Suter (Kevin Guthrie)
is the working class hero that seems to be more of a Gentleman – despite him
wrestling with guilt at being a professional footballer, whilst his Darwen teammates get nothing. The rest of the plot
features Kinnaird and his wife’s attempts to have children, Suter’s REAL reason
for moving south, his relationships with the locals, the labour conditions of the era and the attitude of the
upper class towards their game being uspured by the working class.
As for the play presented in the series, the most successful
tactics of the time seemed to involve a ‘kick and crowd’ style – reminiscent of
what rugby union came to be. Working class teams tended to play the
‘combination game’ (a major reason being that they were not as ‘conditioned’ to
play the same way as upper class teams was because they couldn’t train anywhere near as much. So the passing lets the ball do the running, solidifying football as a quick, fast-moving, exciting game to watch). This was explained well in the series, as the
attitude towards the play of the working class was summed up by one of the Old
Etonians who said “All that absurd
passing, it’s nonsense”. How times change!
A major criticism I have of the series is that it leant too much
on placing upper class characters as villains. Whilst I do not doubt that many
of them did hold the attitude that was shown, I doubt that it
would have been as widespread as it seemed to be. Another aspect that needed focusing on
was the businessmen who bankrolled these teams – they’re portrayed as benevolent
champions of the working class when in reality, it was a means to generate
money (for most of them). Having an upper
class vs. working class conflict, with clear positions defined on both sides,
just feels a bit cartoonish.
Another issue that I’d like to pick up on is a plot point
involving Suter’s reason for moving away from Glasgow to make his money – it has
no basis in reality and simply acts as a motivation for his character. Even
though these events happened some 140 years ago, it felt somewhat disrespectful
to (potentially) besmirch the name of a real, historical family just to give a character some depth.
Overall, The English Game is a decent-enough binge-watch but
ultimately feels like a missed opportunity to explore the social impact of the
game in the depth that it deserves. It feels very-much like a cut-and-shut of the
intricacies of early football and the domestics of Downton Abbey – and it could
have easily done without the latter. Concentrating solely on the football would
have made for a great vehicle for a feature film and I hope one day that we get
to see something like it.
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