One line of inquiry into the causes of different economic attitudes within the sports industry is to examine who owned and controlled the constituent firms. Much of the background of those involved remains to be traced at the local level, but, as the sports industry was not immune from the general incorporation movement in British industry, some aggregated information can be provided here on shareholders and directors in sports enterprises, particularly English and Scottish soccer clubs. The data presented concentrates on occupations, though, of course, these can be utilised as a guide to social class.

For the purposes of analysis eleven broad categories of occupation were distinguished: aristocracy and gentry; upper professional; lower professional; proprietors and employers associated with the drink trade; other proprietors and employers; managerial and higher administration; clerical; supervisors, foremen and inspectors; skilled manual workers; semi-skilled manual workers; and unskilled manual workers. The allocation of shareholders and directors to these categories met with some problems, though none severe enough to vitiate the analysis. No occupations were given for the very few female shareholders, so where possible - with apologies to feminist readers - they were allotted to the category of the male resident at the same address. The most serious problem was the blurring of the demarcation lines between groups. The professional groups were reasonably unambiguous, but lower management and higher supervisory occasionally overlapped and there was some difficulty in distinguishing skilled manual workers from the semi-skilled, particularly where localised specialist trades were concerned.