Football is the number one sport in the world. Fans all over the world love to watch this spectacular, dynamic, beautiful game. Therefore, each new world championship breaks the previous record for the number of spectators. People not only love to watch matches, but also love to play football themselves.
Football, as we know and love it today, has many names. This includes association football or soccer. But most people call it football. Although it has many types and forms, it is the most popular game today. The popularity of football is associated with its simplicity and accessibility. Anyone can take a ball, go outside, to a park, to a garden or to a sports ground to play this game. Football can be played indoors, in a closed sports hall. There is also table football. Computer football games are not inferior in popularity, especially FIFA – a series of computer games in the genre of football simulator. Among the most famous forms of the game are: American football, Australian football, Gaelic football, rugby and football, which is also called Association football.
Football as a sport even has its own culture, which is manifested in the behavior of fans, special paraphernalia, voice and other support during matches, etc. And in many countries this game is part of the national culture and an object of national pride.
The most popular sports game in the world has come a long way from ancient times to the present day. But in fact, modern football as it is known today is a relatively young sport. Of course, people all over the world used to play ball games that were very similar to football, but these games did not have common rules and there were many differences. Sometimes there are disputes about who is the creator of football and which country invented this game. We will try to understand the origins of football, find out where the first football clubs appeared and who made football the most popular sport in the world. Today’s football appeared only in the 19th century. It is generally believed that modern game was invented in England. However, it is interesting to trace the history of football and compare its past and present forms.
Early forms of football and history the game
Every country with an ancient history wants to take credit for the creation of this game. Archaeologists found images of people playing with a ball-like object in ancient rock paintings. Every nation had ball games, but the difference was only in the filler, which was made from improvised materials. The rules and composition of the teams also differed.
- In the 3rd century BC, the game Cuju, one of the oldest ball games, originated in eastern China. Two teams competed for a ball filled with feathers, which must be sent into the net without the use of hands. This game was also played in Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Cuju was considered an important part of military training. It was claimed that Cuju strengthens the “fighting power of the soldiers”. According to FIFA in 2004, the Chinese game is considered the most ancient of the predecessors of modern-day football.
- Around the same time, episkiros (or fayinida), another sport similar to football, appeared in Greece. Two teams of 12-14 people compete in it, and the goal of the game is to bring the ball over the line of the competing team with your hands and feet.
- In Ancient Rome it was Harpastum. The game served for exercise and military training. Two teams of 5-12 players played on a rectangular field. It was necessary to throw the ball over the field.
- The Eskimos used moss, grass, and wool for the ball.
- The Australians made balls from the skin of marsupial rats and the bladders of large animals.
- Linen or woven balls were found in Egyptian burials, which were tied with ox sinew for cushioning.
- The Indians of North America had strict rules: the losing team faced the death penalty. This game was called “pasuckuakohowog”, which means “they gathered to play the ball with their feet.” Usually the games took place on the beaches, they tried to kick the ball into a goal about half a mile wide, but the field itself was twice as long. The number of participants in the game reached 1000 people.
- In Japan, a similar game was called Kemari. The first game was played in the imperial court in Kyoto around 600 AD. Several people stand in a circle and throw the ball to each other, trying not to throw it on the ground. The game died out in the mid-19th century, but was revived in 1903. Kemari is still played today at Shinto shrines during festivals.
- Around the 14th century, the Italians invented the game “Calcio”. It was they who brought this game to the British Isles.
- In England, at least since the time of the Norman Conquest, there was a game called Mob football (or folk football) and was played between teams from different villages on days of celebrations and holidays. According to some evidence, this game appeared around the 3rd century during celebrations of the victory over the Romans. Other legends say that the origin of the game is associated with kicking the severed head of a defeated Danish prince. This game often ended in severe injuries to players and fans, often fatal. On April 13, 1314, the residents of London were read a decree from King Edward II, which, under threat of death, prohibited the playing of football within the city.
Who and when invented modern football?
In the 19th century, football in England gained popularity comparable to cricket. It was played primarily in colleges. However, later the game spread far beyond schools and colleges. In the 1830s–1850s, there were more than 70 football teams. They could represent individual men’s clubs, pubs, entire villages, and sometimes united young people of the same profession. And very often a monetary reward was paid for winning the game.
In England there were many variations of the game of football. Almost every school and every football club had its own set of rules. Often these rules were very contradictory, which created confusion and chaos between teams.
In 1846, the first serious attempt was made to unify the set of football rules. G. de Winton and John Charles Thring of the University of Cambridge met with representatives of private schools to formulate and adopt a set of uniform rules. As a result of a long discussion, the Cambridge Rules emerged, which later formed the basis of the rules of the Football League of England.
In 1857, in Sheffield, middle-class young men who had previously formed a local cricket club founded the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield Football Club. In 1862 the Sheffield Club published its rules in pamphlet form. Its members played eleven-on-eleven matches, while in other local competitions there could be 14 or more players on each side on the field.
Thus, by the 60s of the 19th century, there were two unified codes of rules – Cambridge and Sheffield. But the growing popularity of football pushed English players to develop a single set of rules for the game. In 1862, Cambridge University footballer John Thring published the first rules of football, which he called “The Simplest Game.”
In the fall of 1863, the founder of Barnes Football Club Ebenezer Cobb Morley proposed that club representatives meet to develop a unified set of football rules. On October 26, 1863, representatives of 11 London clubs and schools met at the Freemason’s Tavern on Great Queen Street in London to formulate uniform rules. Representatives wanted teams to be able to play matches without re-negotiating the rules each time and then arguing about the fairness of the outcome of the game. As a result of this meeting, uniform rules of the game were established, mandatory for all teams and players. The Football Association was formed, which supervised the games and had a monopoly on interpretation in controversial cases. During the meeting, all aspects and parameters of the playing field were discussed and agreed upon, as well as the definition of offside, sweeps, trips and running with the ball in hand. At the next meeting on December 1, 1863, the majority of those present determined the version of the game in which the ball must be dribbled with the feet, and decided to prohibit the techniques characteristic of rugby: tackling, tripping and running with the ball in the hands. Thus, Ebenezer Cobb Morley became the Football Association’s first secretary and he is considered the father of football and organizer of the FA, who invented football as we know it today.
But despite the unification of the rules, in the next few years in England only 18 teams joined the FA. Many teams continued to play by their old rules. In 1867, a local football league was founded in Sheffield, which published its own set of rules in 1870. At least eight rules were subsequently adopted by the Football Association. However, the Sheffield Association finally joined the FA only in 1877, fully accepting its rules.
Football as an international sport
Since the 1870s, football began to expand beyond England. The first international football match took place in 1872 between England and Scotland. The match ended with the score 0-0. Although the first football match was played in 1870, it and subsequent ones were not counted as official by FIFA, as the Scotland team in these matches was represented by players who were Scots but lived in London. By 1882 there were four football associations: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. In the same year, these organizations created the International Football Association Board, designed to monitor changes in the laws of the game. From the 1883/1884 season onwards, the British Championship became part of the British football calendar, in which these four national teams competed.
In addition, thanks to industrialization and the emergence of new modes of transport, English football began to gain adherents abroad. When steamship traffic between England and the European continent intensified, and European transatlantic travel became very popular, football became an international sport.
The International Football Federation or FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was founded in Paris on May 21, 1904. FIFA was founded by representatives of seven continental European countries – France, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden. UK associations did not take part as they were skeptical of the idea. The first president of FIFA was the Frenchman Robert Guerin. It is currently the premier football organization and is the largest international governing body for football, futsal and beach soccer. FIFA’s headquarters are located in the Swiss city of Zurich. All football tournaments on a global scale are held under the auspices of FIFA, including the FIFA World Cup, women’s, youth, youth tournaments and the Club World Cup. Today, FIFA unites 211 football associations.
The first FIFA World Cup was held in 1930. It took place in Uruguay and was won by the hosts of the tournament. Despite the fact that the leading European teams did not participate in the first World Cup due to the economic crisis and the need for long travel, the tournament was considered a success. So it was decided to hold world championships on a regular basis.
Since 1930 (except for a break due to World War II), the FIFA World Cup has been held every four years. The last tournament took place in Qatar in 2022, where the Argentina team became the winner. The 2026 World Cup will take place in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
After much controversy, professional football was legalized in England in 1885, and in most European countries only in the early 30s of the 20th century. This event was greatly facilitated by the holding of the first FIFA World Cup in Uruguay. According to FIFA data for 2019, there are 3,425 football teams and 100,765 professional football players in the world. The largest number of athletes was in England (5935 people), where football was invented. And the largest number of football clubs was in Turkey (126).
