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On Bosworth Field or the Playing Fields of Eton and Rugby? Who Really Invented Modern Football?

Building on previous substantive works by both authors this paper aims to present an original thesis as to who really invented modern football. The paper outlines two strands in the development of modern football; the social environment in which a football culture developed around Sheffield, Yorkshire and second, the emergence in Lancashire of a lower middle-class who have the necessary social and cultural capital to administer and develop foot clubs. Nominal record linkage intimates that the development of football was essentially driven by this social stratum rather than through the transference of public school culture.