Remembrance Sunday is due this weekend and today is the 11th November. I don't need to remind you of the basics; the horrors, failures and successes of the First World War, so here are two links which will give you a number of interesting moments to contemplate on this important day and over the weekend.
At this time of the year (and season) in 1914, there was an "it will be over by Christmas" mentality in northern Europe. By the time that Everton won the 1914-5 League Championship, the game was deemed to be "unpatriotic" and a distraction from the "War effort". Newspapers castigated the sport and compared its status with cricket and rugby, both of which had been suspended. Crowds at football dropped and there was an "ill feeling" towards football.
The Football League was suspended in season 1914-15, as was the FA Cup, with regional tournaments arranged to keep morale high.
Football proved a useful recruiting tool encouraging young men to join groups of soldiers from their own areas, usually including men, often regarded as PALS, who played for the local teams.
In Scotland, their league was continued to maintain morale but the Cup was suspended.
In Switzerland, football fields were ploughed up and sown with potatoes.
Of course on December 25th 1914, a localised truce was called and teams from each army played football against each other. Soldiers assumed the war would not last much longer. Of course it went on as the links above shows the number of footballers taken by the war.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/bene-n-hot-carabao-and-benedictine.html
The Football League was suspended in season 1914-15, as was the FA Cup, with regional tournaments arranged to keep morale high.
Football proved a useful recruiting tool encouraging young men to join groups of soldiers from their own areas, usually including men, often regarded as PALS, who played for the local teams.
In Scotland, their league was continued to maintain morale but the Cup was suspended.
In Switzerland, football fields were ploughed up and sown with potatoes.
Of course on December 25th 1914, a localised truce was called and teams from each army played football against each other. Soldiers assumed the war would not last much longer. Of course it went on as the links above shows the number of footballers taken by the war.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/bene-n-hot-carabao-and-benedictine.html
On 21st October 2010 the Football Battalions' memorial was unveiled at Longueval France.
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