New book showcases Sheffield's role in British football history

This book is partly inspired by Football in Sunshine and Shadow, Eduardo Galeano’s work on South American football. It offers 80 short stories on the people and events that have made British football what it is today.

The book shows how football in Britain has very different roots, meanings, and character from the South American game, and how Britain took the modern game to the world. Then, for many years, we stood outside the international football order. The book starts from the invention of the football itself, and moves right up to the formation of the global Premier League.

Our game is often played out in defining wintry conditions, and perhaps our attacking stars have been praised less than those abroad. The great Stanley Matthews was revered here – that famous 1953 FA Cup final victory - but Len Shackleton and George Best were British virtuosos from very different eras who had their critics. Scotsman Alex Jackson from the 1920s was a marvel, and the Scouser, Wayne Rooney, has stirred the English soul much more recently. Stories about all these - and many more - are covered here.

The book deals with national teams as well as clubs, both big and small. The 80 stories cover six periods, and range across the key events and the people (men and women) who invented, coached, ran, managed, watched, and played in British football at different moments. It also says something about stadiums and those who reported and wrote about the game in all its guises. The book carries plenty of stories involving the city of Sheffield in the origins of the game and includes an account about its infamous United goalkeeper William ‘Fatty’ Foulke.

John Williams said: “Foulke was loved by United fans and was quite a character. At the end of the drawn 1902 FA Cup Final – his third - the blubbery and naked Foulke charged out of the United dressing room and lumbered after referee, Tom Kirkham, to protest that Southampton's equaliser should have been chalked off. The officials took refuge in a broom cupboard.

Saints’ captain Harry Wood had been loitering in an offside position, tying up his bootlaces, when the ball reached him to score with just two minutes to go. Foulke certainly had a case: where was VAR when it was needed? Mercifully, United won the replay 2–1. William Foulke then wore his medal round his neck, walking out in Sheffield. Why not: he was far too formidable a figure for any Sheffield Wednesday fan to challenge!”

The book’s narrative reveals great drama, plenty of tragedy, but also moments of unmatched togetherness and joy. It is a quite magnificent warts-and-all journey. You can pick and choose where you want to start and finish. All four Home countries - and lots of individuals and clubs - have their own football stories to tell. You will find plenty of them here.

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