In conjunction with the exciting and brand new geography website www.geouniverse.co.uk, we take an in-depth look at the origin of football and ask where is its home?
It is the most widely played team game on the planet and the most popular spectator sport, followed avidly by hundreds of millions of fans worldwide, but where did “The Beautiful Game” originate?
Many historians and football experts are undecided on which nation invented the sport. Their hesitation comes about mainly due to the difficulty of having to discern the difference between the beginning of the modern game and merely kicking a sphere shaped object. Whilst no historian can give a definite answer when asked which culture initiated the world’s favourite sport, the hundreds of millions of partisan supporters may have their own opinion.
Although it may be the English who claim to have founded the modern game and the South American’s who taught the world how to play with such flair, finesse and flamboyance, a form of football is said to have first been played in China.
The game titled ‘t'su chu’, played during the third century BC in China, does present evidence of a regimented game of football and is acknowledged by FIFA. It is reported that by the time of the Han dynasty ‘t'su chu’ was a game played by two teams utilizing six goals and a ball made of animal skin stuffed with hair. It has been assumed that each team had to defend three goals with the shape of the pitch likely to have been different than the modern rectangle. The game was used as a form of rigorous fitness training and mental strategy for military warriors. Instead of victory, it was fair play that was stressed as key.
It is thought that the game would have usually been played by the aristocracy with even the Emperor occasionally taking part, leading it to be labelled the ‘sport of kings’. However whilst it was the upper strata who played in China, it became the sport of peasants in England during the fourteenth century A.D.
Using an inflated pig’s bladder, the game which is sometimes referred to as ‘mob football’ due to its tough physical nature, would have been played between neighbouring towns and villages with an unlimited number of players on either side. The mass of people would aim to get the pig’s bladder to designated geographical landmarks. However it is likely that the players involved were allowed to use their hands, and much like many other sports of the time, it is hard to specify these games as the origin of the game we know today. Likewise numerous forms of the game were played across Medieval Europe though with varying rules.
It is the Cambridge Rules, first drawn up at Cambridge University in 1848, that have formed the development of subsequent codes, including modern day football. However at a similar time, other clubs formed their own rules including Sheffield Football Club, created by former public school pupils in 1857, which led to the formation of a Sheffield FA in 1867. The ongoing need for recognised, regulated and respected rules contributed to the formation of The Football Association (The FA) in 1863. With the laws of the game being drawn up, The Sheffield FA continued to play by their own rules until the 1870s when both Football Associations united to liken the two forms of the game.
The game thus rapidly evolved with the International Football Association Board (IFAB) established in 1886, the world's oldest football competition the FA Cup inaugurated in 1872 and the first official international football match taking place in 1872 between Scotland and England.
It was in 1888 when the major development to the sport was overseen; England witnessed the start of the first football league consisting of 12 teams. With this vital modification of the game and The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) forming in Paris in 1904, football soon started to spread throughout Europe with the Laws of the Game of the Football Association newly adhered to.
Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and other European nations took up the newly regulated sport early in the 20th century, established clubs, and began to field teams that competed in international fixtures. English emigrants taught the game to South Americans, Middle Eastern and Asian nations fielded strong teams post World War II and the Football World Cup began in 1930.
Since then the global tournament has been competed between nations every four years, except in 1942 and 1946, and has showcased the greatest players to a global audience with South American sides often dominating.
Whilst the arrival of Pele, Best and Cruyff in America during the 1970’s increased the worldwide popularity of the sport, it was the 1994 World Cup, hosted by the United States that brought about a new audience. With the total stadium attendance accumulating to a staggering 3.6 million, football, the game commonly known as soccer in the States, had a new international audience. Along with the inclusion of football in the Olympics, the World Cup has given all corners of the globe the chance to get involved with the sport.
With the first women's Football World Cup match being played in 1991 in China, the women’s game such as the men’s has continued to grow. Today FIFA estimates that there are currently forty million girls and women playing football around the world.
It is clear that football, or soccer, or even t'su chu has evolved into the world’s favourite game, with people playing in streets, parks and pitches across the globe. Whether playing with a pig’s bladder, a leather or plastic ball, using goalposts or jumpers, the game has become more than that today. It is now an integrated part of culture.
However it was formed and wherever it was started, something we may never be certain of, there is no other sport that excites, compels and attracts so many people. No other game that extends worldwide. And certainly no other game which divides and unites. Geography encompasses the world and football unites the same. The natural progression and growth of human geography has been mirrored through the simultaneous spread of football. The fact that football expanded via means of fundamental geography i.e. immigration and innate cultural expansion, is inescapable and they will be forever linked...
During World War One, a truce between the two opposition armies occurred at Christmas time 1914 so they could fit in a game of…guess what? Football, of course!
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