The Origins of Football

Football’s Beginnings
• The origin of Football can be found in every corner of
geography and history.
• The Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Ancient Greek, Persian,
Viking, and many more played a ball game long before our
era.
• The Chinese played "football" games date as far back as
3000 years ago.
• The Ancient Greeks and the Roman used football games
to sharpen warriors for battle. In South and Central
America a game called "Thlatchi" once flourished.
 Mesoamerican Football

The Mesoamerican ballgame or Tlatchtli in

Náhuatl was a sport with ritual associations
played since 1,400 B.C. by the pre-Columbian
peoples of Ancient Mexico and Central
America. The sport had different versions in
different places during the millennia, and a
modern version of the game, ulama, is still
played in a few places by the local indigenous
population.
• The rules of the ballgame are not known, but judging from its
descendant, ulama, they were probably similar to racquetball.
where the aim is to keep the ball in play. The stone ballcourt goals
(see photo to right) are a late addition to the game. This later
addition of the game changed the game entirely though, since an
immediate win could be attained from them by tossing the balls in
the ring, or points could be scored by simply tossing the ball so
that it touched the ring.In the most widespread version of the
game, the players struck the ball with their hips, although some
versions allowed the use of forearms, rackets, bats, or handstones.
The ball was made of solid rubber and weighed as much as 4 kg
(9 lbs), and sizes differed greatly over time or according to the
version played.The game had important ritual aspects, and major
formal ballgames were held as ritual events, often featuring human
sacrifice. The sport was also played casually for recreation by
children and perhaps even women.
 ROMAN FOOTBALL
• HARPASTUM, also known as Harpustum, was a form of ball game
played in the Roman Empire. The Romans also referred to it as the
small ball game. The ball used was small (not as large as a follis,
paganica, or soccer-sized ball) and hard, probably about the size and
solidity of a softball.
• The word harpastum is the latinisation of the Greek ἁρπαστόν
(harpaston), the neuter of ἁρπαστός (harpastos), "carried away”,
from the verb ἁρπάζω (harpazo), "to seize, to snatch”.
• This game was apparently a romanized version of a Greek game
called phainind (Greek: φαινίνδα), or of another Greek game called
ἐπίσκυρος (episkuros). It involved considerable speed, agility, and
physical exertion.
• Little is known about the exact rules of the game, but sources indicate
the game was a violent one with players often ending up on the
ground. In Greece, a spectator (of the Greek form of the game) once
had his leg broken when he got caught in the middle of play.
 Football in Europe
• As we go forward on the history of Football timeline,
we notice that the game has gradually entered
European territory, Europe being the place where
modern day Football will start in several centuries.
• Middle age Football is covered in a combination of
myth and historical facts.
• One popular form of the game (Mob Football)
involved entire villages or towns and was rather
chaotic.
 Football in Europe (cont.)
• The teams could have unlimited players, as long as they
were from the same village or town. Both teams had to
kick the ball towards specific landmarks, and defend their
own.
• To add more chaos, the ball was made out of inflated pigs'
bladders, or leather skins stuffed with all sorts of materials.
• Picture two masses of people running towards a poor pig
bladder ball, kicking, stomping, punching and pushing
each other in the attempt to kick the object to some area.
 Football in Europe (cont.)
• In medieval France, a game called "La Choule"
was usually played in town gatherings, such as just
after Sunday church, or on special occasions or
holidays.
• The game itself looked like a combination of
Football, handball, hockey, baseball and
kickboxing, since the players of each team had to
strike the ball into the opponent's goal, using
whatever means necessary and whatever
accessories necessary.
• For example, one record shows that players were
allowed to use sticks or clubs to hit the ball
around, although it wasn't always the ball that got
hit.
 History Continued
• The game was violent in nature
and I assume there were plenty
occasions where the after-church
Choule match ended up with
another trip to the church to
confess some violent sins.
• In England, the game was
surrounded by an aura of
violence and was considered a
dangerous and sinful game. As
such, it was banned in 1314 by
Nicholas de Farndone, the
Mayor of London.
 Calcio Fiorentino
• Calcio Fiorentino was an early form of football that originated in
16th century Italy. The Piazza Santa Croce of Florence is the cradle
of this sport, that became known as giuoco del calcio fiorentino
("Florentine kick game") or simply calcio ("kick").The official rules
of calcio were published for the first time in 1580 by Giovanni de'
Bardi,a Florentine count.
• Just like Roman harpastum, it was played in teams of 27, using both
feet and hands. Goals could be scored by throwing the ball over a
designated spot on the perimeter of the field. The playing field is a
giant sand pit with a goal running the width of each end. There is a
main referee, six linesmen and a field master. Each game is played
out for 50 minutes with the winner being the team with the most
points or 'cacce'.Originally, calcio was reserved for rich
aristocrats,who played every night between Epiphany and Lent. In
the Vatican, even Popes, such as Clement VII, Leo XI and Urban
VIII were known to play.
 Football Grows Popular
• Despite this ban, Football became to grow in
medieval England and it was not long that it was
introduced in English public schools in order to
keep young boys fit.
• Since Football was growing strong in English
public schools, the idea of having an organized
tournament sparked in the 19th century.
 Cobb Morley and the Origins
of British Football
• In 1862, a solicitor by the name of Cobb Morley, formed a
semi-professional Football club in Barnes, called the
Barnes Club.
• Cobb Morley is rightfully considered the father of
Football, but that's not just because he was the one to spark
the idea of the Football Association.
• He also drew up the Laws of the Game, probably the most
important document in the history of Football, since it held
all the official rules around which the game would be
played.
 Football Becomes Official
• Cobb Morley's rules were accepted by the Football
Association on the 8th of December, 1863 and have
since stood as the game's constitution, although they
were slightly modified throughout time to meet the
needs of modern Football.
• It only took around 3 decades after the first official
rules of Football were laid down by Cobb Morley and
the English Football Association and the game was
already wide spread throughout Europe, Australia and
the Americas.
 Football – the Public Schools
Football was
played in the
Public Schools.
Each school had
their own rules.
This is ‘prince’
Harry playing !!!!!!!!!
Eton football.
 Modern Football
Football was taken to the masses by ex-
public school boys, as they went off to own
and manage factories and mines. These
‘gentlemen’ wanted the game kept amateur
– but this meant working men could not play
as they couldn’t afford to miss work.
 The World’s First Football Club
The oldest club in the world is Sheffield FC.
This was followed by Notts. County FC.

In 1862 a group of Nottingham business men and

cricketers met in the Lion Hotel, Nottingham, to form
the Notts. County Football Club.. All the players were
amateurs, reasonably well-off, and usually added up to
11 or 12 players with nine forwards and two backs, or
behinds. Hacking of shins, tripping and elbowing were
allowed and the goalkeeper could be charged out of
the way of a shot even if he was nowhere near the ball.
 The Football Association - 1863
The F.A. was founded to draft a common set
of rules for ‘Association Football’
(‘Football’)
Eleven players on each side became football law in 1870 and a
year later the F.A. Cup was introduced.
In 1875 crossbars were introduced instead of tape
1878 saw the first floodlit match at Sheffield and a referee's
whistle sounded for the first time in a match between Nottingham
Forest and Sheffield.
 Football’s rise in popularity
“The attendances at
the association
games showed that
the English working
class had at last
found a cheap and
amusing way of
spending a Saturday
afternoon” – L.Woodward
‘Age of Reform’
 Reasons for football’s growth
• the growth of the railways from the
1840s allowed people to travel around
England
• football was cheap – it required very
little equipment, could be played almost
anywhere and in almost any weather
 As football spread…
Inter-county and inter-city competitions
became popular. The FA Cup was first
played for in 1871, and the Football
League founded in 1888.

The Original FA Cup.

This was stolen and
never found in 1895!
 The Original Twelve League Clubs

• Accrington Stanley • Everton

• Aston Villa • Notts. County
• Blackburn Rovers • Preston North End
• Bolton Wanderers • Stoke City
• Burnley • West Bromwich
• Derby County Albion
• Wolverhampton
Wanderers
 An Industrial Game
The original twelve
league clubs.
 A different world….
When Blackburn supporters visited London
for the FA Cup Final in 1883, the Pall Mall
Gazette reported
“a northern horde of uncouth garb and
strange oaths – like a tribe of Sudanese
Arabs let loose.”
Uncouth – scruffy
Garb - clothes
 For an Industrial People
As acts were passed limiting the length of the
working week, the factories and mines shut at
mid-day on Saturdays. This allowed workers
to go and play, and watch the 3pm matches.
Not for them the luxury of the middle classes
to play and watch cricket and golf – which
last a lot longer than 90 minutes!
3pm Saturday
 The Growth of Professionalism
As crowds grew, special stadiums needed to
be built. The owners charged admission
fees, and tried to attract the best players.
“Broken-time” payments were made to
players to compensate their loss of wages.
Many ‘gentlemen’ were horrified at this
erosion of the ‘amateur spirit’.
 Amateur vs. Professional
One ‘gentlemen’s’ club, The Corinthians
completely refused to play for money, refused to
play in cup competitions and even refused to take
penalty kicks when awarded them – because they
didn’t believe that any person would commit a
foul!
Football was already mainly a working class sport
and payments were common. This prevented the
split which divided Rugby Union and League in
1895.
 Growing participation
In the 1930s municipal (council) playing fields
and parks increased. A new generation of
footballers was being given ground to bloom.
The Thirties was the boom decade for sport in
England. Crowds of 60,000 were the norm for
many clubs. The electric telegraph and radio
allowed results to be spread quickly. Sports
papers were sold on Saturday evenings with the
same day’s results in them.
 Football takes on the World
English sailors took football with them to the
ports of Italy, Spain, Brazil and Argentina.
Friendly games with the locals were played, and
football fever spread. Juventus, Bologna,
Fiorentina and many other clubs were set up by
English exiles.
The World Cup was first played in 1930, but it
wasn’t until cheap flights that world competitions
took off, in the 1950s and 1960s.