This is a familiar scene played out each weekend at stadiums all around the world. Many of these fans will play football in muddy fields a million miles from football’s elite. In this course, we will explore football and its place in society. The Premier League is now watched by millions worldwide, and it’s become dominated by a small group of super wealthy clubs. So it’s particularly surprising, when in 2016 a relatively small and unsuccessful club managed to win the Premier League, defying odds of 5,000 to one, and in the process turning the football world on its head. We’ll be using this club, Leicester City, as a case study to explore the history of the game and the social role of football today.

And we’ll be asking you, as fans, why football is important to you. This ball is a very famous ball in Leicester City’s folklore. It comes from the 1928-1929– We’ll finish the course by exploring the scenes that took place here in 2016 and finding out how they affected, not just the 30,000 fans inside the stadium, but the quarter of a million at the victory parade, and many millions worldwide. But has anything really changed? The big clubs are dominating again, transfer fees are growing ever more incredible. Has the game lost touch with ordinary fans? Help us to explore how football still matters by joining us on this free course.