The establishment of football at Swiss schools: from the mid-nineteenth century to the inter-war period

This article traces the development of football in Swiss schools from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the inter-war period. As early as the 1850s and 1860s, various elitist boarding schools in Switzerland were already playing pre-codified forms of football and actually became bridgeheads in the transfer of the game from the British Isles to Continental Europe. From the 1880s, on the initiative of individual teachers and pupils, the game was also introduced into physical education lessons at state schools. However, there was resistance to this from gymnastics circles, the medical profession and conservative teachers. The massive increase in the popularity of football in the inter-war period tended to intensify the opposition to school football. Although football was widespread in Swiss schools towards the end of the 1930s, it was still not generally recognized as an indispensable part of physical education.