‘It’s a far cry from small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Isn’t it?’ the changing space of informal youth football in the UK

Abstract

It is often remarked that all that is required for children to play football are ‘jumpers for goalposts’. Space is also required, however, and so is permission to play, and to see the game through. Some of the spaces associated with British youth football through history include private school playing fields, villages, back streets, leisure centres, artificial pitches, and concrete sports courts or ‘cages’. This article explores some of these green and grey spaces, and shifts between them, in informal youth football in the UK. We also pay attention to the symbolic greyness–the ambiguous and often contradictory attitudes–surrounding informal youth football at various times, and interactions between forms of football and ideas around ‘restricted’ and ‘polluted’ leisure. We trace the origins of the modern game back to the 1800s, before discussing significant developments over the past fifty years. We then examine the factors which have influenced where football can be played and the history of its association with some of the green and grey spaces mentioned above. The paper concludes by highlighting the increasing importance of grey leisure spaces to young people, and the greyness and nuances associated with such spaces within contemporary Britain.