Scoring for Britain: International Football and International Politics, 1900-1939

Despite traditional images regarding the separation of politics and sport in Britain, the history of British international football illuminates the emerging use of sport as an instrument of British foreign policy, most notably, in terms of complementing the government s cultural propaganda programme. This study considers the nature and development of linkages between international football and politics in Britain between 1900 and 1939. It provides also a history of international football in Britain. Beck examines how the growing politicization of sport in other countries, encouraged British governments to interpret sport as offering an instrument of policy supportive of British interests in the wider world. He points out that association football, Britain's major sport, came to be seen as a means of projecting favourable images of Britain as a 'great nation' to a large and often responsive overseas audience. The British government's intervention in international football is examined. Throughout thisstudy football is viewed alongside other types of international sport, including the Olympics. Other themes highlighted include the official attitudes towards professional sport and the ongoing debate about international sport as a potential cause of international co-operation or conflict. It is based on British government records, private papers, the press as well as the archives of FIFA and the four British football associations.

Peter J. Beck is Professor of International History at Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames.