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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 20 2004 : 12:05:20 PM
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One of the earliest examples of a game similar to football existed in ancient China. Documents reveal that around 200 BC a game called Tsu Chu (literally ’kick ball’) was played with two 30ft-high bamboo poles acting as goals.
The Greeks, for whom ball games were an essential party of life, played a form of football as early as 4 BC. The game was known as pheninda and involved kicking the ball, running with it and handling it.
The Romans followed the Greeks’ example and called their game hapastum. This was played on a rectangular field, between two teams who defended the lines which marked the ends of the field. The object of the game was to throw the ball from player to player, moving forward all the time, and eventually to throw it beyond the opponents’ ’goal-line’. The defending side was allowed to tackle and kick.
There are other examples of early versions of the game evolving elsewhere around the world. In Japan, records show that around the fifth century AD a game called Kemari, which involved eight players ceremonially kicking the ball back to one another across a ground 14 metres square.
In Italy a similar game was developed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries called Calcio (calciare means to kick in Italian) which involved two sides playing in Florence’s town square on the feast day of St John the Baptist, the city’s patron saint.
The evolution of the game in England appears to have its roots in holy days. Written evidence confirms that in the twelfth century a game with a ball was played on Shrove Tuesday in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. On such occasions the whole town would get involved and the game could last for days. The purpose of the game was to gain possession of the ball and deliver it back to the town or parish. In many other places, Shrovetide football lasted until the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Throughout the centuries English monarchs tried to ban this version of the game but Edward II, III, Richard II, Henry V and Elizabeth I were all unsuccessful in preventing the continued interest. In the eighteenth century, the game was taken up by the public schools who, realising the importance of team sport, invented their own versions of the game. By 1848 the first serious attempts were being made by Cambridge University to set up a common set of laws. Fifteen years later, The Football Association was founded and Association Football, the game that is played around the world today, was born.
Birth of The F.A.
Historical orthodoxy suggests football has been played in England since the thirteenth century. In those days, football was little more than an excuse for a riot, a parochial, lawless affair with village pitted against village with unlimited numbers of people chasing through streets, across fields and through bogs in pursuit of the ball.
The real starting point of modern football came with the expansion of the public schools in the middle of the nineteenth century. At schools like Harrow, Eton, Charterhouse, Winchester, Westminster and Shrewsbury, organised games became a vital part of the curriculum, with their emphasis on order, discipline and team spirit.
The football played by these schools, while similar in form, was different in a number of technical ways: each framed its own set of laws but some played in the school cloisters, some on pitches and some even allowed the ball to be handled. The boys who played football at these schools at this time were to be the founders and leaders of The Football Association in the years to come.
Formation of The F.A.
Undergraduates at Cambridge University, where many of these boys went after school, first made an attempt at unifying the rules, in 1846 and two years later. These were then spread to the outside world, with graduates playing a vital part in convincing clubs to move away from their provincial outlook and adopt a common code. Thanks to the missionary work carried out by these individuals clubs started to crop up around the country.
In 1863, following the publication of Thring’s (a housemaster at Uppingham) ’Simplest Rules’ and the formation of a number of clubs, the need for concerted action became imperative.
On 26 October 1863 captains and representatives of several London teams and suburban clubs met at the Freemason’s Tavern in Lincoln’s Inn Fields to codify the rules "for the regulation of the game of football". The teams represented were: No Names of Kilburn, Barnes, the War Office, Crusaders, Forest (Leytonstone), Percival House (Blackheath), Crystal Palace, Blackheath, Kensington School, Surbiton, Blackheath Proprietary School and Charterhouse.
Ebenezer Cobb Morley proposed the formation of The Football Association, which was carried by 11 votes to one. The Football Association was born, with Morley as its first Secretary.
Development
The drawing up and publication of the rules was the initial priority of The F.A. and, after the withdrawal of Blackheath over the issue of ’hacking’, these were published in November 1863.
The F.A.’s early influence on the game at large was not dramatic or even widespread and was mainly confined to organising inter-county friendlies. This all changed on 20 July 1871 when Charles Alcock (Secretary of The F.A. between 1870-95) proposed that "a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association, for which all clubs belonging to the Association should be invited to compete". The F.A. Cup, football’s first national tournament, was born. Fifteen clubs competed in the first F.A. Cup in 1871-72 and the notion of competition in football spread rapidly. Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1-0 at the Oval in front of 2,000 spectators. Then, on November 30 1872, again thanks to C.W Alcock, the first formal international between England and Scotland took place in Glasgow.
In July 1885, professional football was legalised by The F.A. in response to the increasing number of working class players in the game and the revenue gained from rising attendances. The number of teams being created illustrated the need for further organisation and in September 1888, with The F.A.’s backing, the Football League was formed. A second division was added in 1892. Modern football was well and truly born.
The International Story
The modern game began in England but interest soon spread around Europe and other continents. FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football) was created in France in 1904 as a recognition of this growth on an international level and is the football world’s governing body. Seven national associations - Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland - were the founders. FIFA launched the Olympic Football title in 1924 and the World Cup in 1930. The first ever FIFA World Cup for women was held in China in 1991.
There are six continental confederations (Asian Football Confederation - AFC, Confederation Africaine de Football - CAF, Confederacion Norte-Centroamericany del Caribe de Futbol - CONCACAF, Union des Associations Europeenes de Football - UEFA, Confederacion Sudamericana de Futbol - CONMEBOL, Oceania Football Confederation - OFC) which organise club and national team competitions for their respective continents. The English Football Association is affiliated to UEFA. UEFA (Union des Associations Europeennes de Football) was founded on 15 June 1954. In 1989, the first UEFA Championship for national women’s teams was held.
Over 100 years after the formation of The Football Association, football is the most popular sport in the world, played by nearly 250 million people, including 40 million women. The numbers of spectators in the stadiums and of television viewers amounts to billions.
Suggested Reading
The Official History of The Football Association - Butler B. (MacDonald Queen Anne, 1991)
The Official Illustrated History of the F.A. Cup - Butler B. (Headline, 1996)
The People’s Game, A History of Football - Walvin J. (Revisited Mainstream Publishing, 1994)
Football Through the Ages - Young P. (Methuen & Co Ltd, 1957)
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Karl |
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The History of Football 
