Saints early 1900s South American tours

[stpedro]

I'm doing an MA module on Political and Social issues around football in South America and found a reference to a Southampton match in 1904 in Buenos Aires (apparently the Argentine president and Minister of War(!) were watching the game). I know there are some books on the club's history and was wondering if in these books there was much on these tours? Anyone happen to know and could recommend a book? Or alternatively, are their club archives or something that might have records of any South American tours that we did? As a port city and Argentina being one of Britain's main trading partners, I imagine we went out there more than once?

Sorry for this being a rather unusual post, breaking away from slagging off players / transfer rumours /tactical discussions etc

[Fitzhugh Fella]

I'm doing an MA module on Political and Social issues around football in South America and found a reference to a Southampton match in 1904 in Buenos Aires (apparently the Argentine president and Minister of War(!) were watching the game). I know there are some books on the club's history and was wondering if in these books there was much on these tours? Anyone happen to know and could recommend a book? Or alternatively, are their club archives or something that might have records of any South American tours that we did? As a port city and Argentina being one of Britain's main trading partners, I imagine we went out there more than once?

Sorry for this being a rather unusual post, breaking away from slagging off players / transfer rumours /tactical discussions etc

 

send me your e mail address, I can probably help a bit. Duncan@duncanholley.co.uk

[aussiesaint20]

Hi stpedro,

 

Certainly a big topic to cover! Hopefully I can help in some way. I run both our Argentinian and Brazilian supporter groups in partnership with some of the local fans. Francisco Fourcade, who runs the SFC Argentina Facebook page would be an excellent guy to speak to. His English is very good and he's extremely knowledgeable about everything Southampton, including the game you mention. You can also find him on Twitter under @sirvoodoo and @SaintsArg.

In regards to other links in South America - Charles Miller is probably the obvious one. Here's a link to a PDF doc on the club's historical links with Brazil: SFC v Exeter programme. You might find the link to the SFCBrasil page useful as well.

An excellent book for you to read would be "God is Brazilian" by Josh Lacey. He uses the Charles Miller/Southampton story to talk about the early stages of football in Brasil. Plenty of discussion in there about political and social issues and how they related to the early days of football in the country.

Charles Miller patron Saint of Brazil

AND Charles Miller introduced football to Brazil are a few articles you might find interesting.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions, buena suerte!

Trevor

[stpedro]

Hi stpedro,

 

Certainly a big topic to cover! Hopefully I can help in some way. I run both our Argentinian and Brazilian supporter groups in partnership with some of the local fans. Francisco Fourcade, who runs the SFC Argentina Facebook page would be an excellent guy to speak to. His English is very good and he's extremely knowledgeable about everything Southampton, including the game you mention. You can also find him on Twitter under @sirvoodoo and @SaintsArg.

In regards to other links in South America - Charles Miller is probably the obvious one. Here's a link to a PDF doc on the club's historical links with Brazil: SFC v Exeter programme. You might find the link to the SFCBrasil page useful as well.

An excellent book for you to read would be "God is Brazilian" by Josh Lacey. He uses the Charles Miller/Southampton story to talk about the early stages of football in Brasil. Plenty of discussion in there about political and social issues and how they related to the early days of football in the country.

Charles Miller patron Saint of Brazil

AND Charles Miller introduced football to Brazil are a few articles you might find interesting.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions, buena suerte!

Trevor

 

thanks very much for this Trevor, I'll start looking up the details. This is likely to be a side project as I reckon I will end up studying links between organised crime and football as I used to live in Colombia (!) and this topic tallies with other modules I've done and am doing. Luckily I speak Spanish as a consequence so it will make researching this things rather easier!

I'll see if I can find the 'God is Brazilian' book as well, got 4 others at the moment to start with, but always great to have recommended books to progress things. I've got the Alex Bellos book as well which might be useful. Cheers for your suggestions mate

[stpedro]

I love this quote, taken from 'Passion of the People' by Tony Mason after the Saints tour to Argentina in 1904: 'Southampton were still talked about 20 years later, especially their magnificent work with head and feet, their skilful blending of brains and boots' They aroused he 'admiration of local followers of the great winter game as no other team has succeeded in doing'

Seems like nothing has changed then...!

[Hatch]

if you ever need anything on Brazilian and Argie Saints related football, then Aussiesaint is the first person you should think of, I mean it's obvious.

[Minty]

Trust you to fit Saints into your MA...

[Leo_ARG]

Hi Stpedro.

 

Not sure if you found this article or not. But when Southampton won against Man U a month ago, this was published in a football specialized internet magazine from Argentina.

The article states it was very important to ramp up the interest in the sport in this country, even though they have no troubles beating every amateur team they put in their way. It cought people's attention. They went to Uruguay too. And yes, it's true, the Argentina's president of that time (1904) was in attendance.

 

Here's the link to the article. It is called "When Southampton was here". And leave pics, for those who are curious: