Ahh, football. Or, as the Americans and Canadians call it in their mangled version of England's great language that they borrow, "soccer". The "Beautiful Game" as the British call it, for obvious reasons. Played in Britain for centuries - a medieval game was recorded in Britain as far back as 1245. Though the rules of the modern version of the game were drawn up in Britain in the 1860s. Here, The Sun newspaper takes us on a history of the world's greatest game, complete with beautifully illustrated spoof front pages of The Sun as it might have appeared in days of yore. And did the English invent football when they kicked the severed heads of beaten Danes around the streets?!?!
But it's not just football. The British also invented rugby and cricket......
Published: 08 Dec 2007
The Sun
Invention of the beautiful game
ENGLAND’S football team is in the gutter. But there was a time when we were the best – because we had just invented the sport.
The rot set in when we exported it to the rest of the world. And it’s not only football – golf and cricket were invented here too.
Tragic ... The front page of The Sun during the Munich Olympics
Our glory days and many others from history are told as front pages from the country’s favourite newspaper in the fantastic, fun-packed new Sun book, On Me ’Eadline.
It has many of the greatest events in sport over 30,000 years – including the spoof match report from a medieval football game in 1245 and includes all the facts and figures to back up the stories.
It also covers the sporting legends of the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s too – from Botham to Beckham, Maradona to McEnroe.
Here are some samples from the book.
ENGLAND’S claim to being the birthplace of organised football is unquestioned.
The King ... Muhammad Ali
What is less clear is which nation actually invented the game.
There are numerous theories. In 2004 Fifa President Sepp Blatter acknowledged China as football’s birthplace.
“Tsu chu” (to kick the ball) was a game played by soldiers during the Han Dynasty between 206BC and AD220.
The recently revived Japanese game “kemari” was played around AD600. Kemari is an ancient “keepy uppy” with players standing in a circle.
The world's greatest game: Today (9th December) Middlesbrough (in the red) surprisingly beat leaders Arsenal 2-1 in the English Premier League
The Roman Harpastum can be seen as a crude forerunner of both football and rugby. It was a team game played within a defined area with a small ball being kicked or thrown in an effort to get it past the other team’s line.
After the Romans left Britain, tales abound of triumphant Anglo-Saxons (the ancestors of the English) kicking the heads of conquered Danes around the streets. But it was only in the Middle Ages that primitive modes of the game emerge in written records.
In those days our “beautiful game” was downright ugly.
Howzat! ... cricket yobs in 1600s Britain (also, The Sun backs Cromwell)
Using a straw-filled, inflated bladder cut from a slaughtered pig, football was a violent, anarchic game between large mobs of young men chasing around the streets of a village or town!!
War
Often, neighbouring villages played each other, with the goals being markers at the boundaries of each village.
From about the 12th Century, the day before Lent was seen as an ideal day for working men to indulge in a liberal dose of bad behaviour.
In 1314 King Edward II imposed the first of many banning orders on football.
And in 1349 his son and heir, Edward III, outlawed a range of sports. He ordered healthy young men to practise archery ready for war, rather than indulge in frivolities such as football.
Nice swing ... Britain's Queen Mary plays golf
The bans proved impossible to enforce. The first records of organised football emerge in the 16th Century from Richard Mulcaster, the headmaster of Merchant Taylor’s School in North London.
Mulcaster took the game off the streets and promoted it to build schoolchildren’s health and strength.
He was the first to write about the need to establish teams, positions and refs. Football spread rapidly throughout England’s public schools. Some would play a kicking game, others used hands too.
These different codes would finally separate, into rugby and football, when the Football Association was formed in 1863. The FA outlined 13 rules under which all games would be played. Soon the world followed suit.
thesun.co.uk
But it's not just football. The British also invented rugby and cricket......
Published: 08 Dec 2007
The Sun
Invention of the beautiful game
ENGLAND’S football team is in the gutter. But there was a time when we were the best – because we had just invented the sport.
The rot set in when we exported it to the rest of the world. And it’s not only football – golf and cricket were invented here too.
Tragic ... The front page of The Sun during the Munich Olympics
Our glory days and many others from history are told as front pages from the country’s favourite newspaper in the fantastic, fun-packed new Sun book, On Me ’Eadline.
It has many of the greatest events in sport over 30,000 years – including the spoof match report from a medieval football game in 1245 and includes all the facts and figures to back up the stories.
It also covers the sporting legends of the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s too – from Botham to Beckham, Maradona to McEnroe.
Here are some samples from the book.
ENGLAND’S claim to being the birthplace of organised football is unquestioned.
The King ... Muhammad Ali
What is less clear is which nation actually invented the game.
There are numerous theories. In 2004 Fifa President Sepp Blatter acknowledged China as football’s birthplace.
“Tsu chu” (to kick the ball) was a game played by soldiers during the Han Dynasty between 206BC and AD220.
The recently revived Japanese game “kemari” was played around AD600. Kemari is an ancient “keepy uppy” with players standing in a circle.
The world's greatest game: Today (9th December) Middlesbrough (in the red) surprisingly beat leaders Arsenal 2-1 in the English Premier League
The Roman Harpastum can be seen as a crude forerunner of both football and rugby. It was a team game played within a defined area with a small ball being kicked or thrown in an effort to get it past the other team’s line.
After the Romans left Britain, tales abound of triumphant Anglo-Saxons (the ancestors of the English) kicking the heads of conquered Danes around the streets. But it was only in the Middle Ages that primitive modes of the game emerge in written records.
In those days our “beautiful game” was downright ugly.
Howzat! ... cricket yobs in 1600s Britain (also, The Sun backs Cromwell)
Using a straw-filled, inflated bladder cut from a slaughtered pig, football was a violent, anarchic game between large mobs of young men chasing around the streets of a village or town!!
War
Often, neighbouring villages played each other, with the goals being markers at the boundaries of each village.
From about the 12th Century, the day before Lent was seen as an ideal day for working men to indulge in a liberal dose of bad behaviour.
In 1314 King Edward II imposed the first of many banning orders on football.
And in 1349 his son and heir, Edward III, outlawed a range of sports. He ordered healthy young men to practise archery ready for war, rather than indulge in frivolities such as football.
Nice swing ... Britain's Queen Mary plays golf
The bans proved impossible to enforce. The first records of organised football emerge in the 16th Century from Richard Mulcaster, the headmaster of Merchant Taylor’s School in North London.
Mulcaster took the game off the streets and promoted it to build schoolchildren’s health and strength.
He was the first to write about the need to establish teams, positions and refs. Football spread rapidly throughout England’s public schools. Some would play a kicking game, others used hands too.
These different codes would finally separate, into rugby and football, when the Football Association was formed in 1863. The FA outlined 13 rules under which all games would be played. Soon the world followed suit.
thesun.co.uk
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