Parish to Planet: How Football Came to Rule the World

In 1872, less than 2,000 people watched the first FA Cup Final. On 9th July 2006, 5% of the human beings that have ever lived watched the World Cup Final on television. How has the simple act of kicking a spherical object become the most all-encompassing, all-consuming passion of the entire planet, irrespective of creed, culture, religion or race? "Parish to Planet" traces the pre-history of football from the towns and schools of old England through the 'nativity' of football as a codified sport with the establishment of the Football Association in 1863 and the game's consequent spread across the globe. As the major cultural interest and activity of the planet, football now dominates all other forms of collective participation, including religion. Always alive to the social and political canvas behind football's epic story, "Parish to Planet" offers a comprehensive account of the evolution of football into an unprecedented global phenomenon.

In "Parish to Planet", noted social historian Dr Eric Midwinter OBE brings over seventy years of enthusiastic watching and intensive learning to bear on a penetrating commentary on the development of football from its obscure origins in medieval villages to the glittering World Cup showpieces of today's global cult by a welter of new research which reveals discoveries, such as the snobbery which saw England's first professional international play in a different coloured shirt to his amateur 'gentleman' team-mates, examples of how the FA has failed to move on from its 1921 stance that 'football is unsuitable for females', how despots such as Hitler, Peron and Mussolini have aided the development of football across the planet. It also reveals the on and off-field ructions in some of football's greatest 'derby' matches, including the battles between middle class Orgryte IS and audaciously working class IFK Gothenburg; which all makes "Parish to Planet" definitive reading for every student of the game.