Football

This article deals with the history and development of the different sports around the world known as "football". For links to articles on each of these codes of football, please see the list in the Football today section of this article.

History

Throughout the history of mankind the urge to kick at stones and other such objects must have inevitably led to many early activities involving kicking and/or running with a ball.

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Football-like games undoubtedly predate recorded history in all parts of the world and the earliest forms of football can only be guessed at.

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Ancient games

Documented evidence of what is possibly the oldest organised activity resembling football can be found in a Chinese military manual written during the Han Dynasty in about 2nd century BC.

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It describes a practice known as tsu chu (?? or ?? Pinyin: cù jú) which involved kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece of silk cloth strung between two 30 foot poles.

Related Topics:
Tsu chu - Pinyin

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It was not a game as such but more of a spectacle for the amusement of the Emperor and it may have been performed as long as 3000 years ago.

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Another Asian ball-kicking game, which may have been influenced by tsu chu, is kemari. This is known to have been played within the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto from about 600AD.

Related Topics:
Asia - Kemari - Kyoto - 600

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In kemari several individuals stand in a circle and kick a ball to each other, trying not to let the ball drop to the ground (much like keepie uppie).

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The game survived through many years but appears to have died out sometime before the mid 19th century.

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In 1903 in a bid to restore ancient traditions the game was revived and it can now be seen played for the benefit of tourists at a number of festivals.

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The Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games some of which involved the use of the feet.

Related Topics:
Greek - Romans

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The Roman writer Cicero describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barbers shop.

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The Roman game of Harpastu is believed to have been adapted from a team game known as "?????????" (episkyros) or pheninda that is mentioned by Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388-311BC) and later referred to by Clement of Alexandria. The game appears to have vaguely resembled rugby.

Related Topics:
Antiphanes - Clement of Alexandria - Rugby

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There are a number of less well-documented references to prehistoric, ancient or traditional ball games, played by indigenous peoples all around the world. For example, William Strachey of the Jamestown settlement is the first to record a game played by the Native Americans called Pahsaheman, in 1610. In Victoria, Australia, Australian Aborigines played a game called Marn Grook. An 1878 book by Robert Brough-Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, quotes a man called Richard Thomas as saying, in about 1841, that he had witnessed Aborigines playing the game: "Mr Thomas describes how the foremost player will drop kick a ball made from the skin of a possum and how other players leap into the air in order to catch it." It is widely believed that Marn Grook had an influence on the development of Australian Rules Football (see below). In northern Canada and/or Alaska, the Inuit (Eskimos) played a game on ice called Aqsaqtuk. Each match began with two teams facing each other in parallel lines, before attempting to kick the ball through each other team's line and then at a goal. The ancient Aztec game of ollamalitzli also involved kicking a ball, but it generally had more similarities to basketball.

Related Topics:
Prehistoric - Ancient - Tradition - Indigenous - William Strachey - Jamestown settlement - Native American - Pahsaheman - 1610 - Victoria, Australia - Australian Aborigines - Marn Grook - Robert Brough-Smyth - 1841 - Possum - Australian Rules Football - Canada - Alaska - Inuit - Aqsaqtuk - Aztec - Ollamalitzli - Basketball

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These games and others may well stretch far back into antiquity and have influenced football over the centuries. However, the route towards the development of modern football games appears to lie in Western Europe and particularly England.

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Mediæval football

The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football matches throughout Europe, particularly in England. The game played in England at this time may have arrived with the Roman occupation, but there is little evidence to indicate this. Reports of a game played in Brittany, Normandy and Picardy, known as Choule or Soule, suggest that some of these football games could have arrived in England as a result of the Norman Conquest.

Related Topics:
Middle Ages - Shrovetide - Roman occupation - Brittany - Normandy - Picardy - Norman Conquest

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These chaotic forms of football would be played between neighbouring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig's bladder by any means possible to markers at each end of a town. A legend that these games in England evolved from a more ancient and bloody ritual of kicking the "Dane's head" is unlikely to be true. Shrovetide games survive in a number of English towns (see below).

Related Topics:
Pig - Dane

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The first description of football in England was given by William FitzStephen (c. 1174-1183). He described the activities of London youths during the annual festival of Shrove Tuesday.

Related Topics:
London - Shrove Tuesday

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:After lunch all the youth of the city go out into the fields to take part in a ball game. The students of each school have their own ball; the workers from each city craft are also carrying their balls. Older citizens, fathers, and wealthy citizens come on horseback to watch their juniors competing, and to relive their own youth vicariously: you can see their inner passions aroused as they watch the action and get caught up in the fun being had by the carefree adolescents.http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/introduction/intro01.html#p25

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Most of the early references to the game speak simply of "ball play" or "playing at ball" and not "football" leading to speculation that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve the ball being kicked.

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However, in 1424, James I of Scotland issued an edict to ban the playing of "fute-ball".

Related Topics:
1424 - James I of Scotland

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The first reference to football in Ireland occurs in the Statute of Galway of 1527, which allowed the playing of football and archery but banned "hokie' — the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves" as well as other sports. (The earliest recorded football match in Ireland was one between Louth and Meath, at Slane, in 1712.)

Related Topics:
Ireland - Statute of Galway - 1527 - Archery - Hurling - Louth - Meath - Slane - 1712

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Calcio Fiorentino

In the 16th century, the city of Florence celebrated the period between Epiphany and Lent by playing a game known as "o Calcio storico" ("kickball in costume") in the Piazza della Novere or the Piazza Santa Croce. The young aristocrats of the city would dress up in fine silk costumes and embroil themselves in a violent form of football. For example, calcio players could punch, shoulder charge, and kick opponents. Blows below the belt were allowed. The game is said to have originated as a military training exercise.

Related Topics:
16th century - Florence - Epiphany - Lent - Piazza della Novere - Piazza Santa Croce

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The most famous match took place on February 17, 1530. While the troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor were besieging Florence, a game of calcio was organised as a show of defiance. In 1580, Count Giovanni de' Bardi di Vernio wrote Discorso sopra 'l giuoco del Calcio Fiorentino. This is sometimes credited as the earliest known published rules of any football game. The game was not played between January 1739 and May 1930, when it was revived to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the match mentioned above. Calcio is still played, mostly as a tourist attraction.

Related Topics:
February 17 - 1530 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor - 1580 - 1739 - 1930

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Official disapproval and attempts to ban football

Numerous attempts have been made throughout history to ban football games, particularly the most rowdy and disruptive forms. Between 1324 and 1667, football was banned in England alone by more than 30 royal and local laws. King Edward II was so troubled by the unruliness of football in London that on April 13, 1314 he issued a proclamation banning it:

Related Topics:
Edward II - London - April 13 - 1314

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:Forasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls from which many evils may arise which God forbid; we command and forbid, on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future.

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The reasons for the ban by Edward III, on June 12, 1349, were explicit: football and other recreations distracted the populace from practising archery, which was necessary for war, and after the great loss of life that had occurred during the Black Death, England needed as many archers as possible.

Related Topics:
Edward III - June 12 - 1349 - Archery - Black Death

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Football featured in similar attempts by monarchs to ban recreational sport across Europe. In France it was banned by Phillippe V in 1319, and again by Charles V in 1369. In England, the outlawing of sport was attempted by Richard II in 1389 and Henry IV in 1401. In Scotland, football was banned by James I in 1424 and by James II in 1457. Despite evidence that Henry VIII of England played the game — in 1526, he ordered the first known pair of football boots — in 1540 Henry also attempted a ban. All of these attempts failed to curb the people's desire to play the game.

Related Topics:
Monarch - Phillippe V - 1319 - Charles V - 1369 - Richard II - 1389 - Henry IV - 1401 - Scotland - James I - 1424 - James II - 1457 - Henry VIII of England - Football boots - 1540

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By 1608, the local authorities in Manchester were complaining that:

Related Topics:
1608 - Manchester

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:With the ffotebale... hath beene greate disorder in our towne of Manchester we are told, and glasse windowes broken yearlye and spoyled by a companie of lewd and disordered persons using that unlawful exercise of playing with the ffotebale in ye streets of the said towne, breaking many men's windows and glasse at their pleasure and other great inormyties.http://www.sport.gov.gr/2/24/243/2431/24314/243144/paper20.html

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That same year, the modern spelling of the word "football" is first recorded, when it was used disapprovingly by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's play King Lear (which was first published in 1608) contains the line: "Nor tripped neither, you base football player" (Act I Scene 4).

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Shakespeare also mentions the game in A Comedy of Errors (Act II Scene 1):

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:Am I so round with you as you with me,

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:That like a football you do spurn me thus?

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:You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:

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:If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.

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("Spurn" literally means to kick away, thus implying that the game involved kicking a ball between players.)

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In the period following the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell had some success in suppressing football games, although they became even more popular following the Restoration, in 1660. Charles II of England gave the game royal approval in 1681 when he attended a fixture between the Royal Household and the Duke of Albemarle's servants.

Related Topics:
English Civil War - Oliver Cromwell - Restoration - 1660 - Charles II of England - 1681 - The Duke of Albemarle

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Even in the early modern era, efforts were made to ban football at a local level, and force it off the streets. In 1827, the annual Alnwick Shrove Tuesday game proceeded only after the Duke of Northumberland provided a field for the game to be played on. (The Duke also presented the ball before the match — a ritual that continues to this day.) In 1835, the British Highways Act banned the playing of football on public highways, with a maximum penalty of forty shillings.

Related Topics:
1827 - Alnwick - The Duke of Northumberland - 1835 - Highways Act

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