英语国家概况 论文

The Sports Culture of the United Kingdom ---An Introduction to the UK

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2013 年 12 月20 日

When it comes to the United Kingdom, People will always think of the British gentlemen with traditional hat and cane. In fact, sports are as traditional as gentlemen in Britain. The United Kingdom, a traditional and strong country not only in the area of industry and comprehensive national strength, but also in the area of sports, has a long history for playing sports. A lot of major sports originated in the UK, including association football, golf, tennis, boxing, rugby league, rugby union, cricket, field hockey, snooker, billiards, squash, curling and badminton, all of which are popular in Britain. Even the table tennis and baseball, the Chinese and American national sports, originated from Britain. Now British sports not only affect the social context at home, but also have a great impact outside home. We even can regard the sports as a reflection of British culture. Let’s know about Britain from its sports culture.

1. Various important sports originating in the UK

1.1 Association football.

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a very important sport originated in his traditional home—England in the 19th century. The laws of the game were originally codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 and have evolved since then. The UK has the oldest football league in the world. The English Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world and its biggest clubs include Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. Now football has been the most famous sport internationally through hundreds of years’ developing. Now Assoc iation football is governed internationally by FIFA (Federation International Football Association), which organizes the FIFA World Cup every four years.

Actually, football can reflect the British culture completely. Beckham, the famous former football s tar of Britain, has said: “Football has been associated with our country’s culture and existed in our DNA. Since we were born to the world, football has been accompanying with us and never separated with us.” From these worlds, we can read the close relationship between football and culture in the UK. The most typical culture reflected in football is the gentility culture. In some sport reports in the 19th century, British football players are called “Mr.” all the time. Another aspect of culture reflected i n the consciousness of nation. As we know, Britain takes four positions in the FIFA—they can take out four teams to take part in the World Cup. This reflects the leading position of the Great Britain in the 20th century while it reflects that the UK consists of four parts—England, Scotland, Wales, and North Ireland. As a result, until today, Football in Britain is renowned for the intense rivalries between clubs and the passion of the supporters. When we watch a football game of a team from Britain, it will be more attractive if we have known about the football culture of the UK.

1.2 Many other sports originated in the UK.

Compared with football, another similar famous sport called rugby also originated in the Britain. In 1845, rugby union was created when the first rules were written by pupils at Rugby School, Warwickshire. The first international