A game for Christmas: Football on the Western Front, December 1914?

Any mention of football and the First World War will evoke the
Christmas Truce of 1914 and the football match played in No Man's
Land. At the time many denied that a truce had occurred, let
alone a football match between the combatants. This talk uses
British Army War Diaries, individual soldier's diaries, letters
and newspapers to examine how citizen diplomacy apparently
subverted the wishes of higher command, at least temporarily, to
possibly have allowed some soldiers to enjoy a game for
Christmas.


Iain Adams is the Principal Lecturer at the International
Football Institute, a research partnership between The University
of Central Lancashire and The National Football Museum. He
lectures in sports history and culture and has published papers
on the Christmas Truce and the football charges of the Great War.