Was Football/Soccer born when a group of soldiers kicked an enemy’s cut-off head between them?
First of all, we’re talking about football/soccer… A game you play with your feet. And of course, the name indicates just that… Foot and Ball. But if you follow me back into the fog of the early football history, you will see that the distinction between Football, American football, and Rugby isn’t all that easy to grasp. Because they are all neatly tied together back there in the distant past.
The History of Football
In ancient China, as well as Japan and other eastern countries, they played football. Cuju (蹴鞠) is recognized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) as the oldest documented football-style game. It was played as far back as 200 BC in China, and it included many different styles. Often it was played as an exhibitionistic game with only one team. The idea was to pass the ball within the team and a single winner was declared at the end.
The ancient Greeks also played football, as well as the Romans… And probably every other group of people in the whole wide world. From Greenland to Australia, from America to Africa. We do not know exactly in what way these games were played, how the winner was determined, how the “ball” was made, and if they were allowed to use their hands or only kick the ball with their feet.
The reason for Cuju being declared the oldest documented football game in the world is obviously because it was documented. In China, writing was common knowledge and the Emperor kept logs of the various events. And so we have an idea about the game and the rules.
From many other parts of the world, documentation started when people started writing about it. But we can not know for sure when football was born. There are findings older than those from China, for example in South America, but the problem is the same… The documentation. Without properly written descriptions, it’s hard to determine if a game is this or that, football or something else.
The Medieval game
It’s evident though, that different games involving a ball-ish thingy and a lot of youngsters running around have been around for a long time. But to distinguish true football from other ball games we need to determine a few attributes.
- It has to include a ball.
- It has to be a reasonably big “ball”. One that is played with parts of your body, not with a racket or a stick.
- It has to be competitive. And there should be lots of people in the field, teams, possibly more than one.
- You should play it with your feet, kicking the ball… Wait, What?
And here’s where football shows its common origins with Rugby and American Football.
Because the history of football shows that the vast majority of the different styles used hands and feet to move the ball… And many were exaggeratingly violent. If you want to have an idea of how it could have looked like back in the day, there actually is a medieval football game still played today… A game that has undergone few changes during the ages.
The Florentine Football – Calcio Fiorentino
Every year in June you have the possibility to see four teams of young hooligans play a tournament of two semifinals and one final. And what you witness is more of a group-MMA than actual football. It’s extremely brutal. Although modern rules are modified to avoid serious damage to the players, it’s still very different from a normal football match.
This Italian football game was the first with rules written on paper, dating from 1580. Rules that involve 27 players in each team. A Strange feature is that the defenders are allowed to use any means to stop an attacker from reaching the home net and scoring. That includes tackling, throwing, hitting, but also fist-fighting.
The game is very interesting not only because it’s an interesting game in itself, but also because it gives you an idea of what football could have been like in Europe in the middle ages. Because these games were widespread all over the continent… That is, in times when they were not prohibited.
Because the violent nature of football made it a target for legislation. After a match, there could be players and spectators injured and also damage to property. Football suffered a ban or an intended ban in England in 1314, 1349, 1363, 1389, 1401, 1477, and 1540… And that’s just England.
Another interesting fact is that women’s football was not allowed in the English Football Association’s (FA) pits until 1971. The reason was that “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged”.
The Ball
We don’t have good descriptions of the ball back in the earliest days of the history of football. There’s a note from China when they started using an animal bladder as the inner air-filled chamber. It replaced a feather-filled ball.
We can assume that the early balls were very different and that they took what they had close at hand to create it.
In the middle ages, the normal way to play was with a pig’s bladder… Or some other big animal’s.
The task of inflating the ball was not for the squeamish. The pig’s bladder would be blown up while still in its very smelly state, solely by lung power down the snapped stem of a clay pipe inserted into the opening of the bladder.
With time the bladder was covered with pieces of leather stitched together to make the ball more uniform and less gross. Then came the development towards round balls. Something that was trickier to achieve.
A non-spherical animal bladder can’t be managed very well with the feet, you can’t dribble, and you can’t control it. And just like in so many other fields, it could have been the technical progress that finally bridged over to banning holding the ball with the hands. It wasn’t until 1872, when the spherical ball became mandatory, that 100% foot-based football became at all possible.
The hand-held ball games didn’t rely on bouncing and dribbling, and in 1892, Rugby got similar standards for their ball… But instead of a round ball, Rugby and American football use an oval one.
Mob Football in Britain
From England, there are numerous articles and writings about football and football-type games played on fields or even in the streets in the middle ages. Often the teams were made up of schools or workers’ guilds, and just like the Fiorentine game, these mob football games were violent exhibitions.
One of the earliest documentation from Ireland is from a protocol that tells of how Mr. John McCrocan was accused and charged of having Accidently stabbed Mr. William Bernard at a football game in 1308 in the city of Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland.
I would like to see exactly how you do when you accidentally stab somebody…
The history of Modern Football.
The history of modern football is intimately connected to Britain. We’ve already established that the game was played more or less everywhere, but it wasn’t until the 19th century in England that we started to have common rules. And common rules are needed if you would like to start playing matches, tournaments, and league football.
In 1800, football was closely tied to schools and universities. Students all over Britain played football between themselves and together with their teachers. As the school system, back then, was mostly for upper-class children, they tried to limit the negative physical effects it had. Parents weren’t happy when their kid came home for Christmas leave with a broken jaw.
Another important factor was the prospect to play with other teams from other schools.
The first football rules and the path to the modern game.
In 1845 the Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, came up with a set of rules. It was the first attempt to unify and organize football as a standard game. Not surprisingly these rules included throwing and holding the ball.
In 1848 another set of rules was concluded in Cambridge. These were decided among representatives from the different schools, including Rugby, and were more similar to modern football/soccer. The Cambridge rules weren’t accepted everywhere and there was quite a bit of confusion when different clubs met. Even to a point that sometimes the rules had to be drawn up for that particular match and agreed upon by the two teams.
The biggest issues were not so much the duration of the match, the number of players, and how to score. But the disagreements were mainly two:
- Limit or not, the amount of violence allowed between players. Some promoters were determined to make football a non-violent game.
- Running while holding the ball. Rugby- and Harrow-players promoted this, while the others did not.
The history of the English Football Association
FA (the Football Association) was founded in 1863, and they needed a set of rules that could be agreed upon by everybody. In autumn of that year, professors from the various schools met in a series of sessions to, once and for all, resolve the issues with the rules of the game. It didn’t work out perfectly, but at the end of the year, there was a new Association for the game and a set of rules to which at least most of the clubs could agree.
Distinctive new laws were:
- Hacking – kicking the shins of the opponents – was banned.
- Running with the ball was disallowed.
They also decided how the goal should be, with two lateral poles and a string between them.
In 1871 the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was formed promoting what is today referred to as Rugby. Interestingly, the Rugby School football club didn’t join the RFU until 1890, as they refused to abandon the Hacking-tactic.
The history of American Football
On November 6, 1869, the first-ever American Football match was played. The game was played according to the English rules, which were somewhat confusing at the time. Obviously, the American style developed more into the Rugby-game than into the foot-based Cambridge game. And in 1880 the American football player Walter Camp invented a set of new rules and ideas, that started a line of evolution distinctly different from both Rugby and European football or Association football, as it’s also called.
So by the end of 1800, we have the three different branches, Football/Soccer, Rugby, and American Football. Of these the Football/Soccer branch is by far the biggest. In fact, it’s the most popular sport in the world, with the most players and the biggest audience.
But what about the kicking of the head?
Well, this is a legend firmly rooted in the beliefs of more than one football fan in every corner of the world. But it is a legend, and as such, we can’t really tell how much accuracy there is to it.
The tale goes something like this:
During the times of the Viking invasions in the 11th century, some English peasants found (…or cut off) a head of a Danish soldier. They then kicked it between them, probably as a sign of defiance against the Danish oppressors. A group of kids saw them and as it looked like a funny thing to do, they copied them and the game of Football was invented.
Just the fact that the event has been dated from 300 AD. up until the French revolution, as well as in almost every corner of the British islands, should encourage reasonable doubt.
I can’t say what happened a thousand years ago in Britain, but I can say that it wouldn’t have been the first time angry peasants cut off the heads of the invaders. I don’t think it was the origin of football though.
Conclusion
No, Football wasn’t first invented in Britain and its origins are not from a Danish head. What the British did, was to put up a standard of rules, from which modern Football evolved. And those same rules became the backbone for both Rugby and American Football
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