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Early History and The Precursors of Football

The history of football began over 3,000 years ago with ball games played by ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Early versions of football also existed in China and ancient Greece. The modern game developed in England during the 12th century and involved kicking and carrying the ball. In the 19th century, rules were established separating football from rugby. The first football clubs formed in the mid-1800s and the sport expanded globally from Britain. Professional football emerged in the late 1800s as clubs began paying players, leading to the formation of the Football League in 1888.

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1K views

Early History and The Precursors of Football

The history of football began over 3,000 years ago with ball games played by ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Early versions of football also existed in China and ancient Greece. The modern game developed in England during the 12th century and involved kicking and carrying the ball. In the 19th century, rules were established separating football from rugby. The first football clubs formed in the mid-1800s and the sport expanded globally from Britain. Professional football emerged in the late 1800s as clubs began paying players, leading to the formation of the Football League in 1888.

Uploaded by

Mixsz LlhAdy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The history of football (soccer)

Football (or soccer as the game is called in some parts of the world) has a long history.
Football in its current form arose in England in the middle of the 19th century. But
alternative versions of the game existed much earlier and are a part of the football history.

Early history and the precursors of football

The first known examples of a team game involving a ball, which was made out of a rock,
occurred in old Mesoamerican cultures for over 3,000 years ago. According to the sources,
the ball would symbolize the sun and the captain of the losing team would be sacrificed to
the gods.

The first known ball game which also involved kicking took place In China in the 3rd and
2nd century BC under the name Cuju. Cuju was played with a round ball on an area of a
square. It later spread to Japan and was practiced under ceremonial forms.

Other earlier variety of ball games had been known from Ancient Greece. The ball was
made by shreds of leather filled with hair (the first documents of balls filled with air are from
the 7th century). In the Ancient Rome, games with balls were not included in the
entertainment on the big arenas, but could occur in exercises in the military. It was the
Roman culture that would bring football to the British island (Britannica). It is, however,
uncertain in which degree the British people were influenced by this variety and in which
degree they had developed their own variants.

The game of football takes its form

The most admitted story tells that the game was developed in England in the 12th century.
In this century, games that resembled football were played on meadows and roads in
England. Besides from kicks, the game involved also punches of the ball with the fist. This
early form of football was also much more rough and violent than the modern way of
playing. An important feature of the forerunners to football was that the games involved
plenty of people and took place over large areas in towns (an equivalent was played in
Florence from the 16th century where it was called Calcio). The rampage of these games
would cause damage on the town and sometimes death. These would be among the
reasons for the proclamations against the game that finally was forbidden for several
centuries. But the football-like games would return to the streets of London in the 17th
century. It would be forbidden again in 1835, but at this stage the game had been
established in the public schools.

It took, however, long time until the features of today’s football had been taken into practice.
For a long time there was no clear distinction between football and rugby. There were also
many variations concerning the size of the ball, the number of players and the length of a
match.

The game was often played in schools and two of the predominant schools were Rugby and
Eton. At Rugby the rules included the possibility to take up the ball with the hands and the
game we today know as rugby has its origin from here. At Eton on the other hand the ball
was played exclusively with the feet and this game can be seen as a close predecessor to
the modern football. The game in Rugby was called “the running game” while the game in
Eton was called “the dribbling game”.

An attempt to create proper rules for the game was done at a meeting in Cambridge in
1848, but a final solution to all questions of rules was not achieved. Another important event
in the history of football came about in 1863 in London when the first Football association
was formed in England. It was decided that carrying the ball with the hands wasn't allowed.
The meeting also resulted in a standardization of the size and weight of the ball. A
consequence of the London meeting was that the game was divided into two codes:
association football and rugby.

The game would, however, continue to develop for a long time and there was still much
flexibility concerning the rules. For one thing, the number of players on the pitch could vary.
Neither were uniforms used to distinguish the appearance of the teams. It was also
common with players wearing caps – the header was yet to be a part of the game yet.
Further reading: The development of football rules.

Another important difference at this stage could be noticed between English and Scottish
teams. Whereas the English teams preferred to run forward with the ball in a more rugby
fashion, the Scottish chose to pass the ball between their players. It would be the Scottish
approach that soon became predominant.

The sport was at first an entertainment for the British working class. Unprecedented
amounts of spectators, up to 30,000, would see the big matches in the late 19th century.
The game would soon expand by British peoples that traveled to other parts of the world.
Especially in South America and India would the interest in football become big.

The first football clubs


Football clubs have existed since the 15th century, but unorganized and without official
status. It is therefore hard to decide which the first football club was. Some historians
suggest that it was the Foot-Ball Club formed 1824 in Edinburgh. Early clubs were often
formed by former school students and the first of this kind was formed in Sheffield in 1855.
The oldest among professional football clubs is the English club Notts County that was
formed in 1862 and still exists today.

An important step for the emergence of teams was the industrialization that led to larger
groups of people meeting at places such as factories, pubs and churches. Football teams
were established in the larger cities and the new railroads could bring them to other cities.

In the beginning, football was dominated by public school teams, but later, teams consisting
by workers would make up the majority. Another change was successively taking place
when some clubs became willing to pay the best players to join their team. This would be
the start of a long period of transition, not without friction, in which the game would develop
to a professional level.
The motivation behind paying players was not only to win more matches. In the 1880s the
interest in the game has moved ahead to a level that tickets were sold to the matches. And
finally, in 1885 professional football was legalized and three years later the Football League
was established. During the first season, 12 clubs joined the league, but soon more clubs
became interested and the competition would consequently expand into more divisions.

For a long time, the British teams would be dominant. After some decades, clubs from
Prague, Budapest and Sienna would be the primarily contenders to the British dominance.

As with many things in history, women were for a long time excluded from participating in
games. It was not before the late 19th century that women started to play football.

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