Origins of the Football Game

The very earliest football games would of course only demonstrate a passing resemblance to the game that we know and love today. Thousands of years ago you could expect the early adopters of the game to use their hands and body more than their feet and head to keep the ball aloft. Far more so than today's professional league players. In this early period in Chinese history it was known that professional ball jugglers already existed in China - more than two thousand years ago in fact. The art and literature that dates from the Han period (206 BC - 220 AD), however, show that people also played a game involving kicking a ball which bears the most striking resemblance to today's football game.

The football-like game with teams, rules, competitions and even stadiums gained huge popularity among the rulers and the majority of the people. Even thousands of years ago in China football had a huge following and was very much a sport of the people much like it is today in England and in other countries around the world. The recent football World Cup which is organised by Fifa serves to show just how popular the modern game has become.

Early football related literature refers to the game using the word 'cuju' - the English translation of which means literally, 'to kick the ball.' The homonym of this word, a binomial is written ever so slightly differently in Chinese writing and whose two characters signify the meaning of 'foot'.

Other traditional expressions for the old Chinese version of football include the words 'taju', 'cuqiu' and 'cuyuan' which translated can be interpreted as 'kicking the sphere or the round object'. The second part of the modern term zuqiu - ' The Foot-Ball' - demonstrates that the balls originally used were highly prized objects. Towards the end of the Chinese 'Tang Dynasty' (618-906), people started to use footballs containing an air filled bladder, whose bounce and flexibility brought an entirely new vision and perspective to the football game. The balls would be more versatile and would travel much further in the air than ever before.

 

There had been many rules in the past. Too many were often confusing and conflicting. This was the main problem with the game and the most serious issue facing the emerging modern game which we know today. Football also had English origins in mob football, whereby football was played roughly in town squares and rough grounds up and down the country. Early English football was often a rough, violent game, played on bank holidays and holy days in English towns and villages with very little emphasis on fair play. Rules, if they were followed were rarely enforced and encouraged an anything-goes philosophy, which was adopted to get the ball to designated ends of the pitch, differences early on mainly revolved around on the amount of in game handling and tackling involved.

However in the early 19th Century the game of football started to become more popular amongst the English elite and the higher classes becoming popular in public schools and universities. These new style of games became a permanent fixture in the expensive schools. However the way the game was played from school to school was often inconsistent. For example Eton’s way of playing would differ to Harrow’s, theirs to Winchester’s, to Charterhouse’s and so on. Without a definitive rule book the game lacked consistency in how rules were being enforced.

In the 1840's At London’s Freemason’s Tavern, over a hot meal and plenty of ale, representatives from 12 clubs and schools from the London area met to finally agree on a code of conduct and basic rules for the game.

The popularity of football game seems to have reached its climax during the eighth and ninth centuries AD. At that time, Chinese football simply appears to have branched off into two entirely different directions: One direction saw football played as a proper established competitive team sport with precise rules rules in stadiums and playing fields with official goals, corner flags and various other on pitch markings. The other version led to an unregulated alternative version of the sport. In England the adaptation of mutually agreed rules of play led to newly emerging competitions and fixtures, no doubt the early versions of the huge competitions that we see today such as the FA cup and the football premiership.

We love football and there are some great football resources on the net, offering football news, premiership action and all the fixtures and results from the football season. A fresh season brings fresh optimism - who will your team sign? Can anyone stop Chelsea marching to a third straight premiership title? How will the new members of the premiership perform?

Whether you are looking for football odds or just want the latest game scores or team photos we can help you find it. If you are looking for football news or World Cup or premiership excitement then we recommend Eat Football.net, a footie site that offers football news with style and a sense of humour. Another great site that we recommend is Football365, which is well worth a click.

If you know of a good football site that you would like to see listed on these pages please contact us and we will take a look at the site.