‘To Cross the Skager Rack’. Discourses, images, and tourism in early ‘European’ football: Scotland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Scandinavia, 1898-1914

This article examines the footballing relationship between the UK and Scandinavia during the period 1898-1914, specifically that between first-tier Scottish football clubs and the Danish Football Association (Dansk Boldspil Union, DBU) and the middle-class Copenhagen clubs which dominated it. The strictly amateur DBU and its city clubs invited British football clubs to Denmark on summer tours of the country to learn how to play the game; and, in turn, British clubs typically received a payment to come over. This article examines the common themes in both the Scottish and Danish press accounts of these tours, in particularly the use of sketches, cartoons, and other imagery. Then, the political context of British and Scandinavian football during the period is examined, including Scotland’s anomalous relationship with FIFA, the new governing body of world football. Finally, this article looks at the touristic accounts of Scots whilst in Denmark, ones which typically sought out the familiar.