With the origin of football as one of the world’s most loved sports being a complex one, we’ve analyse of the the key facts about the history of football and how it has been developed.
The origin of Football can be split into two: the modern day Football and the Classical or Ancient day Football.
ANCIENT ORIGIN OF FOOTBALL
History book has the origin of Football traced back as early as third century BC to the Ancient China, where there are mentions of a game resembling football in military manuals.
The Han Dynasty played a game called Tsu’ Chu, which involved kicking a ball through a 30-40cm opening and into what we’d now see as a goal post today.
The goal post was made of canes with a net attached to it. The ball used during these games was made from leather and filled with hair and feathers.
It dictate that people had been having a brilliant time kicking a ball around for thousands of years, but not all those would be recognisable as what we consider football today.
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The different periods and type of sports involved in kicking a ball in more accurate terms, all has an impact in the modern development of the game.
Without the experienced over the years of kicking football, we may have never had football by modern standards.
The Greek’s also invented a game named ‘Harpastum’, a game which used a smaller ball compared to one used in football today but that had similar rules to the modern football.
The game was also played on a rectangular field marked by boundaries and a centre line and the aim was for one team to get the ball over their competitor’s boundary line.
Based on the origin of football, we could decide that different cultures has a great impact in the game we played today.
HOW FOOTBALL EVOLVE IN GREAT BRITAIN
Records show that, in 1314, Lord Mayor of London banned football in the city due to it causing ‘chaos’ as anybody caught playing the game could be imprisoned.
This was detailed during the 100 years of England and France at war, when Kings Edward II, Richard II, Hentry IV and Henry V made the game illegal throughout the UK.
These was due to it ‘taking away focus from practising military disciplines’, which were deemed more useful.
Despite the opposition for the game, football thrived in Britain from the eight to 19th centuries, however, a standardised version of the game was still a myth as regional versions often gained favour.
These different versions of the game were neatened up to eventually become association football, rugby football and Gaelic football, all of which contributed and impact l the modern equivalent of the game we play today.
MODERN HISTORY OF FOOTBALL: WHERE AND WHEN IT WAS INVENTED?
The modern origin of football began in England more than 100 years ago, in 1863.
Rugby football and association football, once the same thing, went their separate ways and the Football Association, that was when the rules of the game began to be formalised.
Though there are reports of games of football being played as early as 1581 in schools in England. The first documented use of the word ‘football’ actually happened as long ago as 1409!
DEVELOPMENT OF OFFICIAL RULES
Despite the formation of the Football Association in 1863, different areas of the country still continue to use different sets of rules to play the game.
It became clear that something needed to be done when the Football Association Challenge Cup began to be played in 1871.
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The Cambridge Rules of 1848 were the first known set of official rules laid down surrounding the game.
The rules was also the closest of all the first sets of rules to the ones later adopted officially by the Football Association.
The rules allowed forward passes as well as throw-ins, goal kicks and they also go against running whilst holding onto the ball.
While a set of people in Sheffield were playing by their own rules. They were officially formed in 1857 and were played by the newly created Sheffield Football Club. These rules were a lot closer to what we know of today as rugby.
Hence why there was so much confusion between the different ways that people played the game.
It was in April of 1877 that a cohesive set of rules for football were finally drawn up and agreed upon.
Although the vast majority of the rules came from the London Football Association’s version of the game there were numerous laws taken from the Sheffield Rules.
Together they became known as The Laws Of The Game and have been in place in a similar format ever since.
FOUNDING MEMBERS OF FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris in 1904.
Its founding members included Belgium, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Stanley Rous, who went on to become FIFA President, wrote the laws of football and put rational to them in 1886. They were re-drafted in 1997.
By the 1950s, after the Second World War, there were more than 73 FIFA members.
