How the war influenced football The 65th season of football took place in 1939-1940 England. Quickly when World War II was announced most competitions were disbanded as England’s attentions needed to turn to the war that was taking place. Because of most competitions were cancelled, a few regional leagues were set up. Most teams were not able to compete at their fixtures, so they resigned from the league, this is because of the lack of players, went to help England’s war effort against Germany.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a length of time that made Britain see a large flux, the first world war, which was followed by the depression, then the second world war. During the time between the wars, there were many citizens that were very keen to enjoy themselves, amongst all the chaos. During this time, there were big events throughout the sporting world, such as: the FA cup final, the oxford & Cambridge boat race, Wimbledon, these different events helped the sporting world develop, as a leisure activity. Because of most of the men leaving their homes and off to fight in the war, women had to take over most of the jobs that men previously held, this mean that the employment rates of women went up massively. While women would be working hard, during their breaks they would go outside and enjoy some sports, one of their sports would be football, because of this it is a major reason why football had developed so much during the war, this is because the sport was appealing to not just men but also women, which would mean more spectators during the football matches, once the war was over.
During the breaks of their working day because it was so popular, women’s football had a leader that goes by the name Gracie Sibbert. Alfred Franklin was the team’s coach, he really enjoyed the idea of having women also involved in the sport he loved, he organised a game, that would be competed between two factories in 1919. Once World War II had finished, many women lost their jobs, but it did not stop them from playing the sport that they loved, this eventually led to women being paid to play. During 1920 the women’s football had their first international match, which was an England teams against a French team. Women’s football took a large hit in 1921 because the FA had outlawed the women’s matches using the associations pitches, which is where they usually played, this led to the English lady’s football association being created, then they made the matches to take place on rugby grounds. In the 20th century sports started to turn more into a business, with commercial approaches that are still in sports in the 21st century, as time went on in England, stadiums started to be more apparent because more and more were being built, so that they could be played on by sports.
Better working conditions When world war II had finally ended, the amount of time the average person would have worked, had been reduced which in turn, gave the lover class and middle class time to enjoy themselves by doing sports or leisure activities. Even though time of working hours were reduced, wages had been increased, which saw lower class people have money left over once paying all their bills, also they had more free time on their hands to go and watch sport, which saw an increase on spectators at football matches.