Football on Film | BFI National Archive

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Explore 70 years of the beautiful game with our brand new BFI Player collection Football on Film player.bfi.org....
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Football and film: two giants of 20th century spectacle. Born just a few years apart, film and the professional game have grown up together, as this fascinating collection shows.
We kick off with some of the earliest games committed to celluloid - including a fledgling Man Utd - tackling the evolution of the game through the 20th century in newsreels, instructional films, adverts and feature films, and revealing filmmakers' struggle to capture the game's thrill and energy.
The films explore not only professional football but the women’s game, miners' teams and schoolboy leagues, while giants on display include Geoff Hurst, Tom Finney, Brian Clough, Emlyn Hughes, Stanley Matthews, Denis Compton and the Charlton Brothers.
Balls were heavier and shorts longer in the early days, while goalkeepers could expect little protection from marauding forwards from the ref (in his fetching tweed plus-fours). But it's striking, too, how little has changed. Fans then were every bit as passionate as today's. The wider issues are familiar too: big money signings caused concern, while women footballers challenged the male establishment. Times change and players - even teams - come and go, but the beautiful game is much the same as it ever was.
Watch more on the BFI Player: player.bfi.org.uk/
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[@royston8044]

not sure the music goes with this

[@AlonRozenblit]

Why would you make such content UK only?! Isn't it in your best interest to share to the world Britain's achievements? The whole collection is not viewable outside the UK, this is ridiculous.