The Global Journey of Football: From the origins of the beautiful game to its recent use as a social catalyst

Chapter 2.4 Professionalization of Football: Some people tell me that we professional players are football slaves. Well, if this is slavery, give me a life sentence .
Bobby Charlton
English player and 1966 World Cup winner
In football, players technical skills as well as the team s tactical dispositions on the pitch are both fundamental components for success. Accomplished teams throughout the history of the game have enriched football by developing new tactical schemes directed towards making a more efficient use of the possession of the ball while creating the most possible opportunities to score. After all, games are won by scoring more goals than the adversary. But these developments in football did not happen overnight. They were a consequence of a transformation in the game which favored the collective way of playing over the individualistic possession of the ball. The Scots were the first to practice a more collective football similar to the type we are all familiar with today. Their contributions to creating a more cooperative way of playing football translated into richer and more complex tactical and technical schemes. This in turn, can be argued, also was a factor in propelling the advent of the professionalization of the football.
The Scottish s approach to playing football was a simple, yet a very accurate one: the ball travels faster and more efficiently than a man. This principle allowed for a redistribution of players on the field to keep more players on defense, include two wingers in attack, reinforce the middle and learn a more accurate way to pass the ball. The passing of the ball development instead of the old Kick and Rush a tactic often associated with the English footballers, also contributed to a more precise short passing of the ball while keeping it on the ground so that the game looked more elegantly played and more dynamic in essence. This, in turn, led the players to develop new technical skills to control and pass the ball

Alexander Cárdenas completed an MA in Global Studies at the Universities of Vienna, Austria and Leipzig, Germany. He has played football at a competitive level in Colombia and the US, and has an extensive collection of football items. He is currently involved in the design and implementation of sport for peace projects in Latin America, Asia and Europe, and undertakes doctoral research in the areas of peace, conflict resolution and development.