Football today is no stranger to multi-million dollar contracts and deals. Deals that are worth enough money to buy you your own little island. But it wasn’t always like that. At least not till the 1880s, long before the English Game became the global phenomenon it is today. A time when players switching clubs was practically unheard of. And being paid to play was against the rules of the FA. Aspects that made football a sport for those who can afford it. Or in other words, a sport for the elite.
The English Game tells the story of how this changed. The birth of the professional sport that unites the world today. But it also tells its viewers so much more. About how football was always more than just a sport. A fact no football lover would refute. The English Game takes us to Darwen, a small town of mill workers, who after putting in 9 hours of physical labour every day just to make ends meet, had one escape. Football. Not just for the men who were mill workers through the week and footballers on the weekends. But for the whole town of Darwen. A town like many others where watching their team play the FA Cup was the one of their biggest joys.
Enter Fergus Suter. An up and coming footballer, and his friend Jimmy Love, who move to Darwen to represent the local football club, Darwen FC. And here, they come up against a young Arthur Kinnaird and his team, Old Etonians in an FA Cup clash that may have been described as the football equivalent of David vs. Goliath. Darwen FC, who despite their two new football stars are a team of mill workers who have barely trained. And Old Etonians, who are not only the serial winners of the FA Cup, but also have the luxuries the working class of Darwen cannot afford. Including the resources to train for matches.
While this looked like a seemingly simple match relevant only to a football tournament, very few would have at the time predicted the significance it would go on to play for the sport itself. How one match, and a few men would make football, a sport that was largely the privilege of the few, the sport of the common man.
True events mixed with a bit of fiction
The English Game is a series based on true events, dramatized and sprinkled with a little bit of writers’ imagination, garnering mixed reviews. But it is a series that can bring a smile on your face. It gives sports drama a new dimension. Bringing together a rare blend of the sport, the lives of those who engage in it, and all the politics around it in 19th century England. It is the story of how the English game became the beautiful game that we know today. The story of what football did for the working man. Giving him something to look forward to beyond his labour. A chance to dream, and fight for glory.
