Football in Russia and Great Britain

Due to the large extension of the country, the top Russian division and its European-based clubs have often had problems adjusting to having to play clubs from Siberia, particularly those from the Far East, such as Okean Nakhodka, Luch-Energia Vladivostok and SKA-Energia Khabarovsk. Although it is very rare that a Far Eastern club competes for the Russian league title or spots in UEFA competitions, European-based teams often complain about lost matches due to jet lag or other such factors. The Russian national team gained attention when they beat traditional European powerhouses The Netherlands 3-1 in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions Spain. Nevertheless, four players made the Team of the Tournament. Some players such as Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko earned big-money moves to the English Barclays Premier League after impressing at the tournament.

Association football is a national sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association football clubs, England has more clubs involved in the code than any other country.

England is home to, amongst others, the world's oldest association football club (Sheffield F.C.), the oldest national governing body (The Football Association), the first national team, the oldest national knockout competition (the FA Cup) and the oldest national league (The Football League). Today England's top domestic league, the Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest sports leagues in the world, and is home to some of the world's most famous football clubs.

The modern global game of association football was first codified in 1863 in London. The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university football games.

Football was played in England as far back as medieval times. The first written evidence of a football match came in about 1170, when William Fitzstephen wrote of his visit to London, "After dinner all the youths of the city goes out into the fields for the very popular game of ball." He also went on to mention that each trade had their own team, "The elders, the fathers, and the men of wealth come on horseback to view the contests of their juniors, and in their fashion sport with the young men; and there seems to be aroused in these elders a stirring of natural heat by viewing so much activity and by participation in the joys of unrestrained youth." Kicking ball games are described in England from 1280.

Modernisation followed in the 1960s, with revolutions in the game such as the George Eastham case allowing players greater freedom of movement, and the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961. Tottenham Hotspur became the first club to win the Double in the 20th century in 1960-61, and the first English club to win a European trophy, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1962-63 when they beat Atlético Madrid 5–1 in the final. In 1966–67 Leeds United reached the final where they lost 2–0 to Dinamo Zagreb. The following season they went one better, beating Ferencvárosi 1-0 in the final. Newcastle United won the 1968–69 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup beating Újpest 6-2 in the final. The following season Arsenal made it a hat-trick of English triumphs beating Anderlecht 4-3 in the final. In the last Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970–71, Leeds United again were winners once again, when they beat Juventus on away goals.

Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup in 1967–68 when they beat Benfica 4–1 at Wembley in the final. However, it was Liverpool who dominated the game in England from the early 1970s onwards, for nearly two decades. They won eleven league titles and four European Cups between 1972 and 1990. Other successful clubs in the 1970s and 1980s included their rivals Nottingham Forest, who won a league title and two European Cups in the late 1970s, and Everton, with two titles in the mid-1980s, and Aston Villa with a European Cup triumph in 1982. However while club sides thrived in European competition, the national team struggled, failing to qualify for both the 1974 and 1978 World Cups.

By this time serious problems had surfaced. The rise of football hooliganism marred the game throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with attendances dipping. In August, 1974, a Blackpool fan was stabbed to death at the back of the Spion Kop, Bloomfield Road at Blackpool's home match with Bolton Wanderers. It was widely reported as being the first hooligan death at an English football match and together with Manchester United fans behaviour, during their one season in the Second Division that year, it ushered in a dark era of hooliganism in England. The nadir came in 1985, when Liverpool fans hooliganism, combined with poor policing and infrastructure, led to the deaths of 39 Juventus fans before the European Cup final, in the Heysel Stadium disaster. English clubs were banned from Europe for five years as a result. England's ageing and poorly-built stadiums were responsible, along with other factors, for two disasters, one at Bradford in 1985 and the other at Hillsborough in 1989, killing 56 and 96 people respectively.

Up until the 1985–86 season there was no direct promotion and relegation between the Football League and non-league football, with the bottom four clubs in the Fourth Division each year having to apply for re-election for the following season. A few non-league clubs were successful forcing league clubs to leave the Fourth Division, such as Hereford United. However, in 1986–87 automatic promotion and relegation was introduced, with the bottom club in the league being relegated to the Conference. Eventually this was increased to two clubs in 2002–03. In the 1980s, play-offs were introduced throughout the Football League for promotion each season, with one club each season being promoted via the end of season play-offs in addition to those clubs promoted automatically.

The post-Hillsborough Taylor Report forced the conversion of major stadia to all-seater. At the same time, the money from television coverage was increasing rapidly. These, combined with England's relative success at the 1990 World Cup, reaching the semi-finals only to lose on penalties to West Germany, and a concerted effort to drive out hooliganism reinvigorated the national game. In the spring of 1992, the 22 clubs in the First Division resigned en masse from the Football League, forming a new top-level competition, The FA Premier League, overseen by The FA, largely to capitalize upon their status as the biggest and most wealthy clubs in the country, and negotiate more profitable television rights. The Football League was consequently re-organised, with the Second, Third and Fourth Divisions renamed as the First, Second and Third Divisions respectively. Thus, the First Division, while still the top level of the Football League, became the second level of the entire English football league system with the top clubs inheriting the promotion playoff system from the old Second Division.

Despite the success of the domestic game, and a resurgence in fortunes for English clubs in Europe (Liverpool won the Champions League again in 2005 as did Manchester United in an all-English final in 2008), the national team's fortunes have been decidedly mixed. They missed the '94 World Cup entirely. They had their best post-1990 performance in Euro 96, where they were knocked out in the semi-finals on penalties by Germany. Penalty shoot-out defeats went on to haunt England at the 1998 World Cup, Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup as well. England also failed to reach the finals of Euro 2008, with manager Steve McClaren being sacked as a result in November 2007 and the appointment of Fabio Capello.

The Premier League also has the highest total attendances of all football leagues throughout the world based on the 2007-8 season with 13,676,390. The Championship, despite being the second tier in English football, is the fourth most watched league with a total of 9,396,144, behind only the Premier League the Bundesliga in Germany (11,815,215) and La Liga in Spain (11,067,020), but ahead of every other top-flight league including Serie A in Italy, Ligue 1 in France, the Primera División in Argentina and the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A in Brazil. League One with 4,133,928 was also ahead of a large number of top-flight leagues including the Scottish Premier League, Major League Soccer in the United States and the Belgian Pro League in Belgium. Even League Two with a total of 2,281,416 had higher total attendances than the top-flights in a lot of countries including Ukraine, Russia and Norway.

3.2 Leagues in Russian and Great Britain

There are some differences in the league system in both countries. The Football League in Great Britain, established in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor, was the first professional football league in the world. Since its founding, however, many other leagues have been founded in England. Over the years there has been an increasing effort to link all these leagues together in a Pyramidal structure allowing promotion and relegation between different levels. The primary motivation for this drive is to maintain the possibility that any club in England may dream of one day rising to the very top, no matter what status they currently hold. In a study made by FIFA in 2006 there are around 40,000 clubs registered with the FA, which is 11,000 more than any other country, the closest being the Brazilian Football Confederation who have 29,000 registered clubs. Even without taking relative population into account, England has more football clubs than any other country in the world.

Premier League

The Premier League was founded in 1992 after England's top clubs broke away from the Football League in a successful effort aimed at increasing their income at the expense of clubs in the lower divisions. Links with The Football League were maintained, and each season the bottom three clubs are relegated from the Premier League and replaced by three from the Championship. The Premier League is contested between 20 clubs each season. Each club in the Premier League in any given season owns one twentieth of a share in the league itself, meaning that they are all supposedly equal owners with equal rights and responsibilities.

The Football League

Although the oldest league in the world, The Football League now ranks second in the hierarchy of English football since the split of England's top clubs in 1992 to form the FA Premier League. The Football League has 72 member clubs evenly divided among three divisions, currently named the Championship, League One and League Two. Despite the organisational split, promotion and relegation of clubs still takes place between the Premier League and the Football League.

The first level of the Russian league system is the 16-club Premier League. Below it are the First Division and Second Division, administered by the Professional Football League. The First Division consists of 22 clubs, and the Second Division is split geographically into five zones (West, Centre, South, Ural-Povolzhye, and East) with varying number of clubs. The total number of clubs in the Second Division is 73. After each season, top two clubs of the First Division replace bottom two clubs of the Premier League, and champions of each Second Division zone replace five bottom clubs of the First Division. A championship between youth teams of Premier League clubs also exists.

The Second Division is the lowest level of professional football in Russia. The next level of football is the Amateur Football League, which is split into ten zones: Northwest, Golden Ring, Moscow, Podmoskovye (Moscow region), Chernozemye (Black Earth region), South, Privolzhye (Volga region), Ural and West Siberia, Siberia, and Far East. After each season, the bottom finishers of each Second Division zone are relegated to the Amateur Football League, and the winners of each Amateur Football League are eligible for promotion to the Second Division, subject to meeting Professional Football League requirements.

Seven of the Amateur Football League zones are using one-tier system. The rest (Moscow, Podmoskovye, and Siberia) consist of two divisions with promotion and relegation. This means that a newly created team can enter the Russian league system at the fourth level and reach the Premier League in three years.

There are also championships of federal subjects. These competitions that are not part of the league system; clubs can enter the Amateur Football League without participation in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.3 Cup competitions in both the countries

 

The main cup competition in Russia is the Russian Cup. Only professional clubs take part in it.

There is also an Amateur Football League Cup, a competition for the Amateur Football League clubs. The winners of this cup are eligible for promotion to the Second Division.

Cups of federal subjects are also played.

The cup system in Great Britain is much richer. There are several cup competitions for clubs at different levels of the football pyramid. The two major cup competitions are the FA Cup and the Football League Cup, with the winners of those competitions qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.

- The FA Cup, first held in 1872, is the oldest and most respected national cup competition in the world. It is open to around 600 clubs in levels 1–11 of the football pyramid.

- The FA Community Shield is a single match played each August between the FA Cup winners and the Premier League champions.

- The Football League Cup (currently known as the Carling Cup) is England's second major cup competition, and is contested by the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs.

- The Football League Trophy is a competition for clubs in Football League One and Football League Two.

- The FA Trophy is for clubs playing in levels 5–8 of the football pyramid (steps 1–4 of the National League System), i.e. the twelve divisions of the Football Conference, the Southern Football League, the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League.^[13]

- The FA Vase is for clubs in levels 9–10 of the football pyramid (steps 5–6 of the National League System)^[13]

- The Conference League Cup is for clubs in level 5–6 i.e. the three divisions of the Football Conference. It was formed in 1979.

- The FA Inter-League Cup (NLS Cup) was formed in the 2003–04 to provide an English representative in the UEFA Regions' Cup. It is contested by representative sides from leagues at level 11 of the English football pyramid (level 7 of the National League System), which is roughly the county level, together with a few other leagues permitted by the FA. The first winner of the NLS Cup was the Mid Cheshire League, who beat the Cambridgeshire County League 2–0 in May 2004.

- A number of lower leagues organise their own cup competitions, such as the North West Counties Football League who run a League Cup and a Division One Trophy.

- Many County Football Associations organise their own cup competitions involving Premier League and Football League clubs as well as non-league clubs in some counties. Most league clubs tend to use reserve or youth teams whereas non-league clubs will use their first team. County cups include the Sheffield and Hallamshire Senior Cup, which is the third oldest surviving cup competition in the world, the Lancashire Senior Cup which is competed for by Premier League and Football League clubs from the historic county of Lancashire, including Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Wigan Athletic along with Blackpool, Burnley, Preston North End, Bury and Morecambe. The Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy is for senior non-league clubs in the same county. Everton, Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers enter the Liverpool Senior Cup using their reserve or youth teams, along with local Merseyside non-league clubs, such as Burscough and Marine. Other competitions include the London Senior Cup and the Middlesex Senior Cup.

- The FA Sunday Cup began in 1964 and is a national knockout competition for all Sunday league teams. The 2008 final was played at Anfield.^[14]

- The AFA Senior Cup is an amateur football competition organised by the Amateur Football Alliance and contested by the first teams of clubs affiliated to the Alliance.

- Although not an FA-affiliated contest, the Masters Football contest is a contest between former players and is refereed by former Premier League Referees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

As we see the native land for football is Great Britain. That’s why this country has very strong team, strong football schools. The history of football playing from the ancient time is very reach. Great Britain was the champion of the World in the year 1966.  And two times it won bronze in the championship of Europe (in 1968 and in 1996). Russia has never been the champion of the World in football.  The best result was in the year 1966. The USSR took the 4^th place in the championship of the World and the 1^st place in the championship of Europe in the year 1960. In the championship of Europe it won bronze in the year 2008.

What about the history look it should be said that in the USSR football was one of the favorite games. And some players were strong and the country has some good results in the world. But with the creation of the other country, the Russian Federation, they have to build up a new team, new schools and to burst open. Today, football is the number one sport in Russia. A very high proportion of men are interested in it to a certain extent (and many children play it regularly) and women also join men when it comes to the national team.

The Russian league is rapidly regaining its former strength because of huge sponsorship deals, an influx of finances and a fairly high degree of competitiveness with roughly 10 teams capable of winning the title. Many notable talented foreign players have been and are playing in the Russian league as well as local talented players worthy of a spot in the starting eleven of the best clubs. The relegation battles are also competitive and considered very exciting.

I think that football in Russia develops not bad. Thus now the Russian Premier League are among the best in Eastern Europe, as evidenced by recent victories in the UEFA Cup (CSKA Moscow defeated Sporting CP in the 2005 final and Zenit St. Petersburg earned a victory over Rangers F.C. in the 2008 UEFA Cup in Manchester) and also claimed the UEFA Super Cup in a 2-1 win over Manchester United. On December 2nd, 2010, Russia was awarded the FIFA World Cup 2018. Russia will host the tournament for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

1. Bale J. The adoption of football in Europe: a historical-geographical perspective, Canadian journal of History of Sport and Physical Education.

2. Bale J. Sport history and innovation diffusion, Canadian journal of History of Sport

3. Bradley J. The patriot game: football's famous "Tartan army", International review for the Sociology of Sport.

4. Duke V. Going to the market: football in the societies of Eastern Europe

5. Goldblatt D. The ball is round: a global history of football.

6. Holt R. Sport and the British.

7. Mandell R. Sport a cultural history.

8. www.sports.ru

9. www.2uk.ru

10. www.wikipedia.org

11. www.afl.com

12. www.guhatis.com/whatisfootball//

13. www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/game/historygame1.html

14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football