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Sport
Sport (or, primarily in North America, sports) is all forms of competitive physical activity which,[1] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and provide entertainment to participants.[2]Hundreds of sports exist, from those requiring only two participants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals.
Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,[3] and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports.[2] However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports,[4][5] although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.[1]
Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.
In organised sport, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. In addition, sport is a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sports drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through sports broadcasting.
Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,[3] and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports.[2] However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports,[4][5] although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.[1]
Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.
In organised sport, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. In addition, sport is a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sports drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through sports broadcasting.
Etymology
"Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure", with the oldest definition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or entertaining".[6]
The Chinese term for sport, tiyu (体育; 體育) connotes physical training. The modern Greek term for sport is Αθλητισμός (athlitismos), directly cognate with the English terms "athlete" and "athleticism".
Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.[7] Roget's defines the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation.[8]
The Chinese term for sport, tiyu (体育; 體育) connotes physical training. The modern Greek term for sport is Αθλητισμός (athlitismos), directly cognate with the English terms "athlete" and "athleticism".
Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.[7] Roget's defines the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation.[8]
Nomenclature
The singular term 'sport' is used in most English dialects to describe the overall concept (e.g. "children taking part in sport"), with 'sports' used to describe multiple activities (e.g. "football and rugby are the most popular sports in England"). American English uses 'sports' for both terms.
Definition
The precise definition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources, with no universally agreed definition. The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by SportAccord, which is the association for all the largest international sports federations (including association football, athletics, cycling, tennis, equestrian sports and more), and is therefore the de factorepresentative of international sport.
SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:[1]
There has been an increase in the application of the term 'sport' to a wider set of non-physical challenges such as electronic sports, especially due to the large scale of participation and organised competition, but these are not widely recognised by mainstream sports organisations.
SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:[1]
- have an element of competition
- be in no way harmful to any living creature
- not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)
- not rely on any 'luck' element specifically designed in to the sport
There has been an increase in the application of the term 'sport' to a wider set of non-physical challenges such as electronic sports, especially due to the large scale of participation and organised competition, but these are not widely recognised by mainstream sports organisations.
History
There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 2000 BC.[11] Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport in China's ancient past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt.[12] Other Egyptian sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as the traditional Iranian martial art of Zourkhaneh had a close connection to the warfare skills.[13] Among other sports that originate in ancient Persia are polo and jousting.
Motorized sports have appeared since the advent of the modern age
A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia.[14]
Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought increased leisure time to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes through radio, television, and the internet — all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated
Motorized sports have appeared since the advent of the modern age
A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia.[14]
Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought increased leisure time to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes through radio, television, and the internet — all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated
Sportsmanship
Main article: Sportsmanship
See also: Gamesmanship and Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing
Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.[15][16][17]
Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice, that it's “not that you won or lost but how you played the game", and the modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing... is not winning but taking part" are typical expressions of this sentiment.
See also: Gamesmanship and Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing
Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.[15][16][17]
Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice, that it's “not that you won or lost but how you played the game", and the modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing... is not winning but taking part" are typical expressions of this sentiment.
Cheating
See also: Match fixing and cheating
Key tenets of sport include that the result should not be predetermined, and that both sides should have equal opportunity to win. Rules are in place to ensure that fair play to occur, but participants can break these rules in order to gain advantage.
Participants may choose to cheat in order to satisfy their desire to win, or in order to achieve an ulterior motive. The widespread existence of gambling on the results of sports fixtures creates the motivation for match fixing, where a participant or participants deliberately work to ensure a given outcome.
Key tenets of sport include that the result should not be predetermined, and that both sides should have equal opportunity to win. Rules are in place to ensure that fair play to occur, but participants can break these rules in order to gain advantage.
Participants may choose to cheat in order to satisfy their desire to win, or in order to achieve an ulterior motive. The widespread existence of gambling on the results of sports fixtures creates the motivation for match fixing, where a participant or participants deliberately work to ensure a given outcome.
Doping and drugs
Main article: Use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport
The competitive nature of sport encourages some participants to attempt to enhance their performance through the use of medicines, or through other means such as increasing the volume of blood in their bodies through artificial means.
All sports recognised by the IOC or SportAccord are required to implement a testing programme, looking for a list of banned drugs, with suspensions or bans being placed on participants who test positive for banned substances.
The competitive nature of sport encourages some participants to attempt to enhance their performance through the use of medicines, or through other means such as increasing the volume of blood in their bodies through artificial means.
All sports recognised by the IOC or SportAccord are required to implement a testing programme, looking for a list of banned drugs, with suspensions or bans being placed on participants who test positive for banned substances.
Violence
Violence in sports involves crossing the line between fair competition and intentional aggressive violence. Athletes, coaches, fans, and parents sometimes unleash violent behaviour on people or property, in misguided shows of loyalty, dominance, anger, or celebration. Rioting or hooliganism are common and ongoing problems at national and international sporting contests.
Gender participation
Youth sports present children with opportunities for fun, socialization, forming peer relationships, physical fitness, and athletic scholarships. Activists for education and the war on drugs encourage youth sports as a means to increase educational participation and to fight the illegal drug trade. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the biggest risk for youth sports is death or serious injury including concussion, with the highest risk coming from running, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics.[18]
Youth participation
Youth sports present children with opportunities for fun, socialization, forming peer relationships, physical fitness, and athletic scholarships. Activists for education and the war on drugs encourage youth sports as a means to increase educational participation and to fight the illegal drug trade. According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the biggest risk for youth sports is death or serious injury including concussion, with the highest risk coming from running, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics.[18]
Spectator involvement
Main article: Spectator sport
The competition element of sport, along with the aesthetic appeal of some sports, result in the popularity of people attending to watch sport being played. This has led to the specific phenomenon of spectator sport.
Both amateur and professional sports attract spectators, both in person at the sport venue, and through broadcast mediums includingradio, television and internet broadcast. Both attendance in person and viewing remotely can incur a sometimes substantial charge, such as an entrance ticket, or pay-per-view television broadcast.
It is common for popular sports to attract large broadcast audiences, leading to rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the rights to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2007 Cricket World Cup attracted about 2.3 Billion worldwide viewers.[citation needed]
In the United States, the championship game of the NFL, the Super Bowl, has become one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year.[citation needed] Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America; the viewership being so great that in 2007 advertising space was reported as being sold at $2.6m for a 30 second slot.[
The competition element of sport, along with the aesthetic appeal of some sports, result in the popularity of people attending to watch sport being played. This has led to the specific phenomenon of spectator sport.
Both amateur and professional sports attract spectators, both in person at the sport venue, and through broadcast mediums includingradio, television and internet broadcast. Both attendance in person and viewing remotely can incur a sometimes substantial charge, such as an entrance ticket, or pay-per-view television broadcast.
It is common for popular sports to attract large broadcast audiences, leading to rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the rights to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million and the 2007 Cricket World Cup attracted about 2.3 Billion worldwide viewers.[citation needed]
In the United States, the championship game of the NFL, the Super Bowl, has become one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year.[citation needed] Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America; the viewership being so great that in 2007 advertising space was reported as being sold at $2.6m for a 30 second slot.[
Amateur and professional
See also: professional sport and amateur sport
Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether particpants are incentivised for participation (usually through payment of a wage or salary).
The popularity of spectator sport as a recreation for non-participants has led to sport becoming a major business in its own right, and this has incentivised a high paying professional sport culture, where high performing participants are rewarded with pay far in excess of average wages, which can run in to millions of dollars.[19]
Some sports, or individual competitions within a sport, retain a policy of allowing only amateur sport. The Olympic Games started with a principle of amateur competition with those who practiced a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practiced it merely as a hobby.[20] Following the 1988 games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible for the Olympics, with only boxing and wrestling still competed on an "amateur" basis, although this revolves around rules, and not payment.
Grassroots sport is a popular phrase which covers the amateur participation in sport at lower levels, normally without pretension towards higher achievement, and is in line with the "sport for all" mentality, where enjoyment is the primary reason for participation.[2][21]
Sport can be undertaken on an amateur, professional or semi-professional basis, depending on whether particpants are incentivised for participation (usually through payment of a wage or salary).
The popularity of spectator sport as a recreation for non-participants has led to sport becoming a major business in its own right, and this has incentivised a high paying professional sport culture, where high performing participants are rewarded with pay far in excess of average wages, which can run in to millions of dollars.[19]
Some sports, or individual competitions within a sport, retain a policy of allowing only amateur sport. The Olympic Games started with a principle of amateur competition with those who practiced a sport professionally considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practiced it merely as a hobby.[20] Following the 1988 games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible for the Olympics, with only boxing and wrestling still competed on an "amateur" basis, although this revolves around rules, and not payment.
Grassroots sport is a popular phrase which covers the amateur participation in sport at lower levels, normally without pretension towards higher achievement, and is in line with the "sport for all" mentality, where enjoyment is the primary reason for participation.[2][21]
Technology
Technology plays an important part in modern sport, with it being a necessary part of some sports (such as motorsport), and used in others to improve performance.
Sports science is a widespread academic discipline, and can be applied to areas including athlete performance, such as the use of video analysis to fine tune technique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear.
In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies frequently have specific rules designed to control the impact of technical advantage between participants.
Sports science is a widespread academic discipline, and can be applied to areas including athlete performance, such as the use of video analysis to fine tune technique, or to equipment, such as improved running shoes or competitive swimwear.
In order to control the impact of technology on fair play, governing bodies frequently have specific rules designed to control the impact of technical advantage between participants.
Politics
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)Main article: Politics and sports
Sports and politics can influence each other greatly.
When apartheid was the official policy in South Africa, many sports people, particularly in rugby union, adopted the conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contribution to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects.[22]
The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin was an illustration, perhaps best recognised in retrospect, where an ideology was developing which used the event to strengthen its spread through propaganda.
In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalism. Until the mid 20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football, hurling, or other sports administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) if she/he played or supported football, or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of football and rugby union at Gaelic venues. This ban is still enforced, but was modified to allow football and rugby to be played in Croke Park whileLansdowne Road was redeveloped into Aviva Stadium. Until recently, under Rule 21, the GAA also banned members of the British security forces and members of the RUC from playing Gaelic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventual removal of the ban.
Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sports, or in its reporting: people compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. On occasion, such tensions can lead to violent confrontation among players or spectators within and beyond the sporting venue, as in the Football War. These trends are seen by many as contrary to the fundamental ethos of sports being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants.
A very famous case when sports and politics colided was the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Masked men entered the hotel of the Israeli olympic team and killed many of their men. This was known as the Munich massacre.
See also
- Outline of sports
- List of sportspeople
- List of sports attendance figures
- List of professional sports leagues
- International sports calendar
- Athletic sports
- Combat sport
- Disabled sports
- Electronic sports
- Handedness#Advantage in sports
- Mind sport
- Most popular sport by country
- Motor sports
- Multi-sport events
- National sport
- Nationalism and sports
- Olympic Games
- Paralympic Games
- Sponsorship
- Sport in film
- Sport governing bodies
- Sport Psychology
- Sports club
- Sports coaching
- Sports commentator
- Sports equipment
- Sports fan
- Sports injuries
- Sports league attendances
- Sports marketing
- Sports terms named after people
- Sports trainer
- Sportsperson
- Women's sports
- Water sports
References
- ^ a b c d e "Definition of sport". SportAccord.
- ^ a b c Council of Europe. "The Europien sport charter". Retrieved 2012-03-05.
- ^ "List of Summer and Winter Olympic Sports and Events". The Olympic Movement.
- ^ "World Mind Games". SportAccord.
- ^ "Members". SportAccord.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "sport (n.)". Online Etymological Dictionary. Retrieved 20 April 2008.
- ^ Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. Springfield, MA: G&C Merriam Company. 1967. p. 2206.
- ^ Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1995. ISBN 0-618-25414-5.
- ^ front, Rebecca (2011-07-17). "A little competition". The Guardian.
- ^ Scrimgeour, Heidi (2011-06-17). "Why parents hate school sports day". ParentDish.
- ^ "Sports History in China".
- ^ "Mr Ahmed D. Touny (EGY), IOC Member".
- ^ "Persian warriors".
- ^ "Ancient Olympic Games".
- ^ "Sportsmanship". Merriam-Webster.
- ^ Fish, Joel; Magee, Susan (2003). 101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent. Fireside. p. 168.
- ^ Lacey, David (2007-11-10). "It takes a bad loser to become a good winner". The Guardian.
- ^ "Gym class injuries up 150% between 1997 and 2007", Time, 4 August 2009
- ^ Freedman, Jonah. "Fortunate 50 2011". Sports Illustrated.
- ^ Eassom, Simon (1994). Critical Reflections on Olympic Ideology. Ontario: The Centre for Olympic Studies. pp. 120–123. ISBN 0-7714-1697-0.
- ^ European Commission. "The White Paper on Sport". Retrieved 11.7.2007.
- ^ "Sport and apartheid".
- European Commission (2007), The White Paper on Sport.
- Council of Europe (2001), The Europien sport charter.
Further reading
- The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandel (PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-252-1).
- Journal of the Philosophy of Sport
Football
Football refers to a number of sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". Unqualified, the word football applies to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears, including association football, as well as American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union[1] and other related games. These variations of football are known as football codes.
Various forms of football can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.[2][3] The influence and power of theBritish Empire allowed these rules of football to spread, including to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire,[4]though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic Football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage.[5] In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, the various codes of football became amongst the most popular team sports in the world.[6]
Contents [hide]
Various forms of football can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.[2][3] The influence and power of theBritish Empire allowed these rules of football to spread, including to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire,[4]though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic Football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage.[5] In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, the various codes of football became amongst the most popular team sports in the world.[6]
Contents [hide]
- 1 Common elements
- 2 Etymology
- 3 Early history
- 4 Establishment of modern codes
- 4.1 English public schools
- 4.2 Firsts
- 4.3 Cambridge rules
- 4.4 Sheffield rules
- 4.5 Australian rules
- 4.6 Football Association
- 4.7 Rugby football
- 4.8 North American football codes
- 4.9 Gaelic football
- 4.10 Split in Rugby football
- 4.11 Globalisation of association football
- 4.12 Further divergence of the two rugby codes
- 5 Use of the word "football"
- 6 Football codes board
- 7 Present day codes and families
- 8 See also
- 9 Notes
- 10 References
Common elements
The various codes of football share the following common elements[citation needed]:
Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins inEngland.[7]
- Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players; some variations that have fewer players (five or more per team) are also popular.
- A clearly defined area in which to play the game.
- Scoring goals or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line.
- Goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts.
- The goal or line being defended by the opposing team.
- Players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying, or hand-passing the ball.
- Players using only their body to move the ball.
Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins inEngland.[7]
Etymology
There are confilicting explanations of the origin of the word "football". It is widely assumed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") references the action of the foot kicking a ball. There is an alternative explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot. There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation.
Ancient games
The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games, some of which involved the use of the feet. The Roman gameharpastum is believed to have been adapted from a Greek team game known as "ἐπίσκυρος" (Episkyros)[8][9] or "φαινίνδα" (phaininda),[10] which is mentioned by a Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388–311 BC) and later referred to by the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215 AD). These games appear to have resembled rugby football.[11][12][13][14][15] The Roman politician Cicero (106–43 BC) describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barber's shop. Roman ball games already knew the air-filled ball, thefollis.[16][17]
A Song Dynasty painting by Su Hanchen, depicting Chinese children playing cuju.
Documented evidence of an activity resembling football can be found in the Chinese military manualZhan Guo Ce compiled between the 3rd century and 1st century BC.[18] It describes a practice known as cuju (蹴鞠, literally "kick ball"), which originally involved kicking a leather ball through a small hole in a piece of silk cloth which was fixed on bamboo canes and hung about 9 m above ground. During theHan Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), cuju games were standardized and rules were established.[citation needed] Variations of this game later spread to Japan and Korea, known as kemariand chuk-guk respectively. Later, another type of goal posts emerged, consisting of just one goal post in the middle of the field.[citation needed]
Paint of a Mesoamerican ballgame player of the Tepantitla murals in Teotihuacan.
A revived version of kemari being played at the Tanzan Shrine, Japan.
The Japanese version of cuju is kemari (蹴鞠), and was developed during the Asuka period.[citation needed]This is known to have been played within the Japanese imperial court in Kyotofrom about 600 AD. In kemari several people stand in a circle and kick a ball to each other, trying not to let the ball drop to the ground (much like keepie uppie). The game appears to have died out sometime before the mid-19th century. It was revived in 1903 and is now played at a number of festivals.[citation needed]
There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games, played byindigenous peoples in many different parts of the world. For example, in 1586, men from a ship commanded by an English explorer named John Davis, went ashore to play a form of football with Inuit(Eskimo) people in Greenland.[19] There are later accounts of an Inuit game played on ice, calledAqsaqtuk. Each match began with two teams facing each other in parallel lines, before attempting to kick the ball through each other team's line and then at a goal. In 1610, William Strachey, a colonist atJamestown, Virginia recorded a game played by Native Americans, called Pahsaheman.[citation needed] On the Australian continentseveral tribes of indigenous people played kicking and catching games with stuffed balls which have been generalised by historians asMarn Grook (Djab Wurrung for "game ball"). The earliest historical account is an anecdote from the 1878 book by Robert Brough-Smyth,The Aborigines of Victoria, in which a man called Richard Thomas is quoted as saying, in about 1841 in Victoria, Australia, that he had witnessed Aboriginal people playing the game: "Mr Thomas describes how the foremost player will drop kick a ball made from the skin of a possum and how other players leap into the air in order to catch it." Some historians have theorised that Marn Grook was one of theorigins of Australian rules football.
An illustration from the 1850s ofAustralian Aboriginal hunter gatherers. Children in the background are playing a football game, possibly Woggabaliri.[20]
The Māori in New Zealand played a game called Ki-o-rahi consisting of teams of seven players play on a circular field divided into zones, and score points by touching the 'pou' (boundary markers) and hitting a central 'tupu' or target.[citation needed]
Games played in Mesoamerica with rubber balls by indigenous peoples are also well-documented as existing since before this time, but these had more similarities to basketballor volleyball, and since their influence on modern football games is minimal, most do not class them as football.[citation needed]Northeastern American Indians, especially the Iroquois Confederation, played a game which made use of net racquets to throw and catch a small ball; however, although a ball-goal foot game, lacrosse (as its modern descendant is called) is likewise not usually classed as a form of "football."[citation needed]
These games and others may well go far back into antiquity. However, the main sources of modern football codes appear to lie in western Europe, especially England.
A Song Dynasty painting by Su Hanchen, depicting Chinese children playing cuju.
Documented evidence of an activity resembling football can be found in the Chinese military manualZhan Guo Ce compiled between the 3rd century and 1st century BC.[18] It describes a practice known as cuju (蹴鞠, literally "kick ball"), which originally involved kicking a leather ball through a small hole in a piece of silk cloth which was fixed on bamboo canes and hung about 9 m above ground. During theHan Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), cuju games were standardized and rules were established.[citation needed] Variations of this game later spread to Japan and Korea, known as kemariand chuk-guk respectively. Later, another type of goal posts emerged, consisting of just one goal post in the middle of the field.[citation needed]
Paint of a Mesoamerican ballgame player of the Tepantitla murals in Teotihuacan.
A revived version of kemari being played at the Tanzan Shrine, Japan.
The Japanese version of cuju is kemari (蹴鞠), and was developed during the Asuka period.[citation needed]This is known to have been played within the Japanese imperial court in Kyotofrom about 600 AD. In kemari several people stand in a circle and kick a ball to each other, trying not to let the ball drop to the ground (much like keepie uppie). The game appears to have died out sometime before the mid-19th century. It was revived in 1903 and is now played at a number of festivals.[citation needed]
There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games, played byindigenous peoples in many different parts of the world. For example, in 1586, men from a ship commanded by an English explorer named John Davis, went ashore to play a form of football with Inuit(Eskimo) people in Greenland.[19] There are later accounts of an Inuit game played on ice, calledAqsaqtuk. Each match began with two teams facing each other in parallel lines, before attempting to kick the ball through each other team's line and then at a goal. In 1610, William Strachey, a colonist atJamestown, Virginia recorded a game played by Native Americans, called Pahsaheman.[citation needed] On the Australian continentseveral tribes of indigenous people played kicking and catching games with stuffed balls which have been generalised by historians asMarn Grook (Djab Wurrung for "game ball"). The earliest historical account is an anecdote from the 1878 book by Robert Brough-Smyth,The Aborigines of Victoria, in which a man called Richard Thomas is quoted as saying, in about 1841 in Victoria, Australia, that he had witnessed Aboriginal people playing the game: "Mr Thomas describes how the foremost player will drop kick a ball made from the skin of a possum and how other players leap into the air in order to catch it." Some historians have theorised that Marn Grook was one of theorigins of Australian rules football.
An illustration from the 1850s ofAustralian Aboriginal hunter gatherers. Children in the background are playing a football game, possibly Woggabaliri.[20]
The Māori in New Zealand played a game called Ki-o-rahi consisting of teams of seven players play on a circular field divided into zones, and score points by touching the 'pou' (boundary markers) and hitting a central 'tupu' or target.[citation needed]
Games played in Mesoamerica with rubber balls by indigenous peoples are also well-documented as existing since before this time, but these had more similarities to basketballor volleyball, and since their influence on modern football games is minimal, most do not class them as football.[citation needed]Northeastern American Indians, especially the Iroquois Confederation, played a game which made use of net racquets to throw and catch a small ball; however, although a ball-goal foot game, lacrosse (as its modern descendant is called) is likewise not usually classed as a form of "football."[citation needed]
These games and others may well go far back into antiquity. However, the main sources of modern football codes appear to lie in western Europe, especially England.
Medieval and early modern Europe
The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football matches throughout Europe, particularly in England. An early reference to a ball game played in Britain comes from the 9th century Historia Brittonum, which describes "a party of boys ... playing at ball".[21] References to a ball game played in northern France known as La Soule orChoule, in which the ball was propelled by hands, feet, and sticks,[22] date from the 12th century.[23]
An illustration of so-called "mob football"
The early forms of football played in England, sometimes referred to as "mob football", would be played between neighbouring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams who would clash en masse,[24] struggling to move an item, such as inflated animal's bladder[25] to particular geographical points, such as their opponents' church, with play taking place in the open space between neighbouring parishes.[26] The game was played primarily during significant religious festivals, such as Shrovetide, Christmas, orEaster,[25] and Shrovetide games have survived into the modern era in a number of English towns (see below).
The first detailed description of what was almost certainly football in England was given by William FitzStephen in about 1174–1183. He described the activities of London youths during the annual festival of Shrove Tuesday:
After lunch all the youth of the city go out into the fields to take part in a ball game. The students of each school have their own ball; the workers from each city craft are also carrying their balls. Older citizens, fathers, and wealthy citizens come on horseback to watch their juniors competing, and to relive their own youth vicariously: you can see their inner passions aroused as they watch the action and get caught up in the fun being had by the carefree adolescents.[27]Most of the very early references to the game speak simply of "ball play" or "playing at ball". This reinforces the idea that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve a ball being kicked.
An early reference to a ball game that was probably football comes from 1280 at Ulgham, Northumberland, England: "Henry... while playing at ball.. ran against David".[28] Football was played in Ireland in 1308, with a documented reference to John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football game" at Newcastle, County Down being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard.[29] Another reference to a football game comes in 1321 at Shouldham, Norfolk, England: "[d]uring the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend of his... ran against him and wounded himself".[28]
In 1314, Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor of the City of London issued a decree banning football in the French used by the English upper classes at the time. A translation reads: "[f]orasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large foot balls [rageries de grosses pelotes de pee][30] in the fields of the public from which many evils might arise which God forbid: we command and forbid on behalf of the king, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future." This is the earliest reference to football.
In 1363, King Edward III of England issued a proclamation banning "...handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games",[31] showing that "football" — whatever its exact form in this case — was being differentiated from games involving other parts of the body, such as handball.
A game known as "football" was played in Scotland as early as the 15th century: it was prohibited by the Football Act 1424 and although the law fell into disuse it was not repealed until 1906. There is evidence for schoolboys playing a "football" ball game in Aberdeen in 1633 (some references cite 1636) which is notable as an early allusion to what some have considered to be passing the ball. The word "pass" in the most recent translation is derived from "huc percute" (strike it here) and later "repercute pilam" (strike the ball again) in the original Latin. It is not certain that the ball was being struck between members of the same team. The original word translated as "goal" is "metum", literally meaning the "pillar at each end of the circus course" in a Roman chariot race. There is a reference to "get hold of the ball before [another player] does" (Praeripe illi pilam si possis agere) suggesting that handling of the ball was allowed. One sentence states in the original 1930 translation "Throw yourself against him" (Age, objice te illi).
France circa 1750
King Henry IV of England also presented one of the earliest documented uses of the English word "football", in 1409, when he issued a proclamation forbidding the levying of money for "foteball".[28][32]
There is also an account in Latin from the end of the 15th century of football being played at Cawston, Nottinghamshire. This is the first description of a "kicking game" and the first description of dribbling: "[t]he game at which they had met for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball game. It is one in which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air but by striking it and rolling it along the ground, and that not with their hands but with their feet... kicking in opposite directions" The chronicler gives the earliest reference to a football pitch, stating that: "[t]he boundaries have been marked and the game had started.[28]
Other firsts in the mediæval and early modern eras:
An illustration of so-called "mob football"
The early forms of football played in England, sometimes referred to as "mob football", would be played between neighbouring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams who would clash en masse,[24] struggling to move an item, such as inflated animal's bladder[25] to particular geographical points, such as their opponents' church, with play taking place in the open space between neighbouring parishes.[26] The game was played primarily during significant religious festivals, such as Shrovetide, Christmas, orEaster,[25] and Shrovetide games have survived into the modern era in a number of English towns (see below).
The first detailed description of what was almost certainly football in England was given by William FitzStephen in about 1174–1183. He described the activities of London youths during the annual festival of Shrove Tuesday:
After lunch all the youth of the city go out into the fields to take part in a ball game. The students of each school have their own ball; the workers from each city craft are also carrying their balls. Older citizens, fathers, and wealthy citizens come on horseback to watch their juniors competing, and to relive their own youth vicariously: you can see their inner passions aroused as they watch the action and get caught up in the fun being had by the carefree adolescents.[27]Most of the very early references to the game speak simply of "ball play" or "playing at ball". This reinforces the idea that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve a ball being kicked.
An early reference to a ball game that was probably football comes from 1280 at Ulgham, Northumberland, England: "Henry... while playing at ball.. ran against David".[28] Football was played in Ireland in 1308, with a documented reference to John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football game" at Newcastle, County Down being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard.[29] Another reference to a football game comes in 1321 at Shouldham, Norfolk, England: "[d]uring the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend of his... ran against him and wounded himself".[28]
In 1314, Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor of the City of London issued a decree banning football in the French used by the English upper classes at the time. A translation reads: "[f]orasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large foot balls [rageries de grosses pelotes de pee][30] in the fields of the public from which many evils might arise which God forbid: we command and forbid on behalf of the king, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future." This is the earliest reference to football.
In 1363, King Edward III of England issued a proclamation banning "...handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games",[31] showing that "football" — whatever its exact form in this case — was being differentiated from games involving other parts of the body, such as handball.
A game known as "football" was played in Scotland as early as the 15th century: it was prohibited by the Football Act 1424 and although the law fell into disuse it was not repealed until 1906. There is evidence for schoolboys playing a "football" ball game in Aberdeen in 1633 (some references cite 1636) which is notable as an early allusion to what some have considered to be passing the ball. The word "pass" in the most recent translation is derived from "huc percute" (strike it here) and later "repercute pilam" (strike the ball again) in the original Latin. It is not certain that the ball was being struck between members of the same team. The original word translated as "goal" is "metum", literally meaning the "pillar at each end of the circus course" in a Roman chariot race. There is a reference to "get hold of the ball before [another player] does" (Praeripe illi pilam si possis agere) suggesting that handling of the ball was allowed. One sentence states in the original 1930 translation "Throw yourself against him" (Age, objice te illi).
France circa 1750
King Henry IV of England also presented one of the earliest documented uses of the English word "football", in 1409, when he issued a proclamation forbidding the levying of money for "foteball".[28][32]
There is also an account in Latin from the end of the 15th century of football being played at Cawston, Nottinghamshire. This is the first description of a "kicking game" and the first description of dribbling: "[t]he game at which they had met for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball game. It is one in which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air but by striking it and rolling it along the ground, and that not with their hands but with their feet... kicking in opposite directions" The chronicler gives the earliest reference to a football pitch, stating that: "[t]he boundaries have been marked and the game had started.[28]
Other firsts in the mediæval and early modern eras:
- "a football", in the sense of a ball rather than a game, was first mentioned in 1486.[32] This reference is in Dame Juliana Berners'Book of St Albans. It states: "a certain rounde instrument to play with ...it is an instrument for the foote and then it is calde in Latyn 'pila pedalis', a fotebal."[28]
- a pair of football boots was ordered by King Henry VIII of England in 1526.[33]
- women playing a form of football was in 1580, when Sir Philip Sidney described it in one of his poems: "[a] tyme there is for all, my mother often sayes, When she, with skirts tuckt very hy, with girles at football playes."[34]
- the first references to goals are in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In 1584 and 1602 respectively, John Norden and Richard Carew referred to "goals" in Cornish hurling. Carew described how goals were made: "they pitch two bushes in the ground, some eight or ten foote asunder; and directly against them, ten or twelue [twelve] score off, other twayne in like distance, which they terme their Goales".[35] He is also the first to describe goalkeepers and passing of the ball between players.
- the first direct reference to scoring a goal is in John Day's play The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (performed circa 1600; published 1659): "I'll play a gole at camp-ball" (an extremely violent variety of football, which was popular in East Anglia). Similarly in a poem in 1613, Michael Drayton refers to "when the Ball to throw, And drive it to the Gole, in squadrons forth they goe".
Calcio Fiorentino
In the 16th century, the city of Florence celebrated the period between Epiphany and Lent by playing a game which today is known as "calcio storico" ("historic kickball") in the Piazza Santa Croce. The young aristocrats of the city would dress up in fine silk costumes and embroil themselves in a violent form of football. For example, calcio players could punch, shoulder charge, and kick opponents. Blows below the belt were allowed. The game is said to have originated as a military training exercise. In 1580, Count Giovanni de' Bardi di Vernio wrote Discorso sopra 'l giuoco del Calcio Fiorentino. This is sometimes said to be the earliest code of rules for any football game. The game was not played after January 1739 (until it was revived in May 1930).
Official disapproval and attempts to ban football
Numerous attempts have been made to ban football games, particularly the most rowdy and disruptive forms. This was especially the case in England and in other parts of Europe, during the Middle Ages and early modern period. Between 1324 and 1667, football was banned in England alone by more than 30 royal and local laws. The need to repeatedly proclaim such laws demonstrated the difficulty in enforcing bans on popular games. KingEdward II was so troubled by the unruliness of football in London that on April 13, 1314 he issued a proclamation banning it: "Forasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls from which many evils may arise which God forbid; we command and forbid, on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future."
The reasons for the ban by Edward III, on June 12, 1349, were explicit: football and other recreations distracted the populace from practicing archery, which was necessary for war. In 1424, the Parliament of Scotland passed a Football Act that stated it is statut and the king forbiddis that na man play at the fut ball under the payne of iiij d – in other words, playing football was made illegal, and punishable by a fine of four pence.
By 1608, the local authorities in Manchester were complaining that: "With the ffotebale...[there] hath beene greate disorder in our towne of Manchester we are told, and glasse windowes broken yearlye and spoyled by a companie of lewd and disordered persons ..."[36] That same year, the word "football" was used disapprovingly by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's play King Lear contains the line: "Nor tripped neither, you base football player" (Act I, Scene 4). Shakespeare also mentions the game in A Comedy of Errors (Act II, Scene 1):
Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.
"Spurn" literally means to kick away, thus implying that the game involved kicking a ball between players.
King James I of England's Book of Sports (1618) however, instructs Christians to play at football every Sunday afternoon after worship.[37] The book's aim appears to be an attempt to offset the strictness of the Puritans regarding the keeping of the Sabbath.[38]
The reasons for the ban by Edward III, on June 12, 1349, were explicit: football and other recreations distracted the populace from practicing archery, which was necessary for war. In 1424, the Parliament of Scotland passed a Football Act that stated it is statut and the king forbiddis that na man play at the fut ball under the payne of iiij d – in other words, playing football was made illegal, and punishable by a fine of four pence.
By 1608, the local authorities in Manchester were complaining that: "With the ffotebale...[there] hath beene greate disorder in our towne of Manchester we are told, and glasse windowes broken yearlye and spoyled by a companie of lewd and disordered persons ..."[36] That same year, the word "football" was used disapprovingly by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's play King Lear contains the line: "Nor tripped neither, you base football player" (Act I, Scene 4). Shakespeare also mentions the game in A Comedy of Errors (Act II, Scene 1):
Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.
"Spurn" literally means to kick away, thus implying that the game involved kicking a ball between players.
King James I of England's Book of Sports (1618) however, instructs Christians to play at football every Sunday afternoon after worship.[37] The book's aim appears to be an attempt to offset the strictness of the Puritans regarding the keeping of the Sabbath.[38]
English public schools
While football continued to be played in various forms throughout Britain, its "public" schools (known as private schools in other countries) are widely credited with four key achievements in the creation of modern football codes. First of all, the evidence suggests that they were important in taking football away from its "mob" form and turning it into an organised team sport. Second, many early descriptions of football and references to it were recorded by people who had studied at these schools. Third, it was teachers, students and former students from these schools who first codified football games, to enable matches to be played between schools. Finally, it was at English public schools that the division between "kicking" and "running" (or "carrying") games first became clear.
The earliest evidence that games resembling football were being played at English public schools — mainly attended by boys from the upper, upper-middle and professional classes — comes from the Vulgaria by William Herman in 1519. Herman had been headmaster at Eton and Winchester colleges and his Latin textbook includes a translation exercise with the phrase "We wyll playe with a ball full of wynde".[39]
Richard Mulcaster, a student at Eton College in the early 16th century and later headmaster at other English schools, has been described as "the greatest sixteenth Century advocate of football".[40] Among his contributions are the earliest evidence of organised team football. Mulcaster's writings refer to teams ("sides" and "parties"), positions ("standings"), a referee ("judge over the parties") and a coach "(trayning maister)". Mulcaster's "footeball" had evolved from the disordered and violent forms of traditional football:
[s]ome smaller number with such overlooking, sorted into sides and standings, not meeting with their bodies so boisterously to trie their strength: nor shouldring or shuffing one an other so barbarously ... may use footeball for as much good to the body, by the chiefe use of the legges.[41]
In 1633, David Wedderburn, a teacher from Aberdeen, mentioned elements of modern football games in a short Latin textbook called Vocabula. Wedderburn refers to what has been translated into modern English as "keeping goal" and makes an allusion to passing the ball ("strike it here"). There is a reference to "get hold of the ball", suggesting that some handling was allowed. It is clear that the tackles allowed included the charging and holding of opposing players ("drive that man back").[citation needed]
A more detailed description of football is given in Francis Willughby's Book of Games, written in about 1660.[42] Willughby, who had studied at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School,Sutton Coldfield, is the first to describe goals and a distinct playing field: "a close that has a gate at either end. The gates are called Goals." His book includes a diagram illustrating a football field. He also mentions tactics ("leaving some of their best players to guard the goal"); scoring ("they that can strike the ball through their opponents' goal first win") and the way teams were selected ("the players being equally divided according to their strength and nimbleness"). He is the first to describe a "law" of football: "they must not strike [an opponent's leg] higher than the ball".[citation needed]
English public schools were the first to codify football games. In particular, they devised the first offside rules, during the late 18th century.[43] In the earliest manifestations of these rules, players were "off their side" if they simply stood between the ball and the goal which was their objective. Players were not allowed to pass the ball forward, either by foot or by hand. They could only dribble with their feet, or advance the ball in a scrum or similar formation. However, offside laws began to diverge and develop differently at each school, as is shown by the rules of football from Winchester, Rugby, Harrow and Cheltenham, during between 1810 and 1850.[43] The first known codes — in the sense of a set of rules — were those of Eton in 1815 [44] and Aldenham in 1825.[44])
During the early 19th century, most working class people in Britain had to work six days a week, often for over twelve hours a day. They had neither the time nor the inclination to engage in sport for recreation and, at the time, many children were part of the labour force. Feast day football played on the streets was in decline. Public school boys, who enjoyed some freedom from work, became the inventors of organised football games with formal codes of rules.
Football was adopted by a number of public schools as a way of encouraging competitiveness and keeping youths fit. Each school drafted its own rules, which varied widely between different schools and were changed over time with each new intake of pupils. Two schools of thought developed regarding rules. Some schools favoured a game in which the ball could be carried (as at Rugby, Marlborough and Cheltenham), while others preferred a game where kicking and dribbling the ball was promoted (as at Eton, Harrow,Westminster and Charterhouse). The division into these two camps was partly the result of circumstances in which the games were played. For example, Charterhouse and Westminster at the time had restricted playing areas; the boys were confined to playing their ball game within the school cloisters, making it difficult for them to adopt rough and tumble running games.[citation needed]
Rugby School
William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, is said to have "with a fine disregard for the rules of football, as played in his time[emphasis added], first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus creating the distinctive feature of the rugby game." in 1823. This act is usually said to be the beginning of Rugby football, but there is little evidence that it occurred, and most sports historians believe the story to be apocryphal. The act of 'taking the ball in his arms' is often misinterpreted as 'picking the ball up' as it is widely believed that Webb Ellis' 'crime' was handling the ball, as in modern soccer, however handling the ball at the time was often permitted and in some cases compulsory,[45] the rule for which Webb Ellis showed disregard was running forward with it as the rules of his time only allowed a player to retreat backwards or kick forwards.
The boom in rail transport in Britain during the 1840s meant that people were able to travel further and with less inconvenience than they ever had before. Inter-school sporting competitions became possible. However, it was difficult for schools to play each other at football, as each school played by its own rules. The solution to this problem was usually that the match be divided into two halves, one half played by the rules of the host "home" school, and the other half by the visiting "away" school.
The modern rules of many football codes were formulated during the mid- or late- 19th century. This also applies to other sports such as lawn bowls, lawn tennis, etc. The major impetus for this was the patenting of the world's first lawnmower in 1830. This allowed for the preparation of modern ovals, playing fields, pitches, grass courts, etc.[46]
Apart from Rugby football, the public school codes have barely been played beyond the confines of each school's playing fields. However, many of them are still played at the schools which created them (see Surviving UK school games below).
Public schools' dominance of sports in the UK began to wane after the Factory Act of 1850, which significantly increased the recreation time available to working class children. Before 1850, many British children had to work six days a week, for more than twelve hours a day. From 1850, they could not work before 6 a.m. (7 a.m. in winter) or after 6 p.m. on weekdays (7 p.m. in winter); on Saturdays they had to cease work at 2 p.m. These changes mean that working class children had more time for games, including various forms of football.
The earliest evidence that games resembling football were being played at English public schools — mainly attended by boys from the upper, upper-middle and professional classes — comes from the Vulgaria by William Herman in 1519. Herman had been headmaster at Eton and Winchester colleges and his Latin textbook includes a translation exercise with the phrase "We wyll playe with a ball full of wynde".[39]
Richard Mulcaster, a student at Eton College in the early 16th century and later headmaster at other English schools, has been described as "the greatest sixteenth Century advocate of football".[40] Among his contributions are the earliest evidence of organised team football. Mulcaster's writings refer to teams ("sides" and "parties"), positions ("standings"), a referee ("judge over the parties") and a coach "(trayning maister)". Mulcaster's "footeball" had evolved from the disordered and violent forms of traditional football:
[s]ome smaller number with such overlooking, sorted into sides and standings, not meeting with their bodies so boisterously to trie their strength: nor shouldring or shuffing one an other so barbarously ... may use footeball for as much good to the body, by the chiefe use of the legges.[41]
In 1633, David Wedderburn, a teacher from Aberdeen, mentioned elements of modern football games in a short Latin textbook called Vocabula. Wedderburn refers to what has been translated into modern English as "keeping goal" and makes an allusion to passing the ball ("strike it here"). There is a reference to "get hold of the ball", suggesting that some handling was allowed. It is clear that the tackles allowed included the charging and holding of opposing players ("drive that man back").[citation needed]
A more detailed description of football is given in Francis Willughby's Book of Games, written in about 1660.[42] Willughby, who had studied at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School,Sutton Coldfield, is the first to describe goals and a distinct playing field: "a close that has a gate at either end. The gates are called Goals." His book includes a diagram illustrating a football field. He also mentions tactics ("leaving some of their best players to guard the goal"); scoring ("they that can strike the ball through their opponents' goal first win") and the way teams were selected ("the players being equally divided according to their strength and nimbleness"). He is the first to describe a "law" of football: "they must not strike [an opponent's leg] higher than the ball".[citation needed]
English public schools were the first to codify football games. In particular, they devised the first offside rules, during the late 18th century.[43] In the earliest manifestations of these rules, players were "off their side" if they simply stood between the ball and the goal which was their objective. Players were not allowed to pass the ball forward, either by foot or by hand. They could only dribble with their feet, or advance the ball in a scrum or similar formation. However, offside laws began to diverge and develop differently at each school, as is shown by the rules of football from Winchester, Rugby, Harrow and Cheltenham, during between 1810 and 1850.[43] The first known codes — in the sense of a set of rules — were those of Eton in 1815 [44] and Aldenham in 1825.[44])
During the early 19th century, most working class people in Britain had to work six days a week, often for over twelve hours a day. They had neither the time nor the inclination to engage in sport for recreation and, at the time, many children were part of the labour force. Feast day football played on the streets was in decline. Public school boys, who enjoyed some freedom from work, became the inventors of organised football games with formal codes of rules.
Football was adopted by a number of public schools as a way of encouraging competitiveness and keeping youths fit. Each school drafted its own rules, which varied widely between different schools and were changed over time with each new intake of pupils. Two schools of thought developed regarding rules. Some schools favoured a game in which the ball could be carried (as at Rugby, Marlborough and Cheltenham), while others preferred a game where kicking and dribbling the ball was promoted (as at Eton, Harrow,Westminster and Charterhouse). The division into these two camps was partly the result of circumstances in which the games were played. For example, Charterhouse and Westminster at the time had restricted playing areas; the boys were confined to playing their ball game within the school cloisters, making it difficult for them to adopt rough and tumble running games.[citation needed]
Rugby School
William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, is said to have "with a fine disregard for the rules of football, as played in his time[emphasis added], first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus creating the distinctive feature of the rugby game." in 1823. This act is usually said to be the beginning of Rugby football, but there is little evidence that it occurred, and most sports historians believe the story to be apocryphal. The act of 'taking the ball in his arms' is often misinterpreted as 'picking the ball up' as it is widely believed that Webb Ellis' 'crime' was handling the ball, as in modern soccer, however handling the ball at the time was often permitted and in some cases compulsory,[45] the rule for which Webb Ellis showed disregard was running forward with it as the rules of his time only allowed a player to retreat backwards or kick forwards.
The boom in rail transport in Britain during the 1840s meant that people were able to travel further and with less inconvenience than they ever had before. Inter-school sporting competitions became possible. However, it was difficult for schools to play each other at football, as each school played by its own rules. The solution to this problem was usually that the match be divided into two halves, one half played by the rules of the host "home" school, and the other half by the visiting "away" school.
The modern rules of many football codes were formulated during the mid- or late- 19th century. This also applies to other sports such as lawn bowls, lawn tennis, etc. The major impetus for this was the patenting of the world's first lawnmower in 1830. This allowed for the preparation of modern ovals, playing fields, pitches, grass courts, etc.[46]
Apart from Rugby football, the public school codes have barely been played beyond the confines of each school's playing fields. However, many of them are still played at the schools which created them (see Surviving UK school games below).
Public schools' dominance of sports in the UK began to wane after the Factory Act of 1850, which significantly increased the recreation time available to working class children. Before 1850, many British children had to work six days a week, for more than twelve hours a day. From 1850, they could not work before 6 a.m. (7 a.m. in winter) or after 6 p.m. on weekdays (7 p.m. in winter); on Saturdays they had to cease work at 2 p.m. These changes mean that working class children had more time for games, including various forms of football.
Clubs
Sports clubs dedicated to playing football began in the 18th century, for example London's Gymnastic Society which was founded in the mid-18th century and ceased playing matches in 1796.[47][48]
The first documented club to bear in the title a reference to being a 'football club' were called "The Foot-Ball Club" who were located in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the period 1824–41.[49][50] The club forbade tripping but allowed pushing and holding and the picking up of the ball.[50]
Two clubs which claim to be the world's oldest existing football club, in the sense of a club which is not part of a school or university, are strongholds of rugby football: the Barnes Club, said to have been founded in 1839, and Guy's Hospital Football Club, in 1843. Neither date nor the variety of football played is well documented, but such claims nevertheless allude to the popularity of rugby before other modern codes emerged.
In 1845, three boys at Rugby school were tasked with codifying the rules then being used at the school. These were the first set of written rules (or code) for any form of football.[51]This further assisted the spread of the Rugby game. For instance, Dublin University Football Club—founded at Trinity College, Dublin in 1854 and later famous as a bastion of the Rugby School game—is the world's oldest documented football club in any code.
The first documented club to bear in the title a reference to being a 'football club' were called "The Foot-Ball Club" who were located in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the period 1824–41.[49][50] The club forbade tripping but allowed pushing and holding and the picking up of the ball.[50]
Two clubs which claim to be the world's oldest existing football club, in the sense of a club which is not part of a school or university, are strongholds of rugby football: the Barnes Club, said to have been founded in 1839, and Guy's Hospital Football Club, in 1843. Neither date nor the variety of football played is well documented, but such claims nevertheless allude to the popularity of rugby before other modern codes emerged.
In 1845, three boys at Rugby school were tasked with codifying the rules then being used at the school. These were the first set of written rules (or code) for any form of football.[51]This further assisted the spread of the Rugby game. For instance, Dublin University Football Club—founded at Trinity College, Dublin in 1854 and later famous as a bastion of the Rugby School game—is the world's oldest documented football club in any code.
Competitions
One of the longest running football fixture is the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, contested between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College, Melbourne every year since 1858. It is believed by many to also be the first match of Australian rules football, although it was played under experimental rules in its first year. The first football trophy tournament was the Caledonian Challenge Cup, donated by the Royal Caledonian Society of Melbourne, played in 1861 under the Melbourne Rules.[52] The oldest football league is a rugby football competition, the United Hospitals Challenge Cup (1874), while the oldest rugby trophy is the Yorkshire Cup, contested since 1878. The South Australian Football Association (30 April 1877) is the oldest surviving Australian rules football competition. The oldest surviving soccer trophy is the Youdan Cup (1867) and the oldest national soccer competition is the English FA Cup (1871). The Football League (1888) is recognised as the longest running Association Football league. The first ever international football match took place between sides representing England and Scotland on March 5, 1870 at the Oval under the authority of the FA. The first Rugby international took place in 1871.
Modern balls
In Europe, early footballs were made out of animal bladders, more specifically pig's bladders, which were inflated. Later leather coverings were introduced to allow the balls to keep their shape.[53] However, in 1851, Richard Lindon and William Gilbert, both shoemakers from the town ofRugby (near the school), exhibited both round and oval-shaped balls at the Great Exhibition in London. Richard Lindon's wife is said to have died of lung disease caused by blowing up pig's bladders.[54] Lindon also won medals for the invention of the "Rubber inflatable Bladder" and the "Brass Hand Pump".
In 1855, the U.S. inventor Charles Goodyear — who had patented vulcanized rubber — exhibited a spherical football, with an exterior of vulcanized rubber panels, at the Paris Exhibition Universelle. The ball was to prove popular in early forms of football in the U.S.A.[55]
In 1855, the U.S. inventor Charles Goodyear — who had patented vulcanized rubber — exhibited a spherical football, with an exterior of vulcanized rubber panels, at the Paris Exhibition Universelle. The ball was to prove popular in early forms of football in the U.S.A.[55]
Modern ball passing tactics
The earliest reference to a game of football involving players passing the ball and attempting to score past a goalkeeper was written in 1633 by David Wedderburn, a poet and teacher in Aberdeen, Scotland.[56]. Nevertheless, the original text does not state whether the allusion to passing as 'kick the ball back' ('Repercute pilam') was in a forward or backward direction or between members of the same opposing teams (as was usual at this time)[57]
"Scientific" football is first recorded in 1839 from Lancashire[58] and in the modern game in Rugby football from 1862[59] and from Sheffield FC as early as 1865.[60][61] The first side to play a passing combination game was the Royal Engineers AFC in 1869/70[62][63] By 1869 they were "work[ing] well together", "backing up" and benefiting from "cooperation".[64] By 1870 the Engineers were passing the ball: "Lieut. Creswell, who having brought the ball up the side then kicked it into the middle to another of his side, who kicked it through the posts the minute before time was called"[65] Passing was a regular feature of their style[66] By early 1872 the Engineers were the first football team renowned for "play[ing] beautifully together"[67] A double pass is first reported from Derby school against Nottingham Forest in March 1872, the first of which is irrefutably a short pass: "Mr Absey dribbling the ball half the length of the field delivered it to Wallis, who kicking it cleverly in front of the goal, sent it to the captain who drove it at once between the Nottingham posts"[68] The first side to have perfected the modern formation was Cambridge University AFC[69][70][71] and introduced the 2–3–5 "pyramid" formation.[72][73]
"Scientific" football is first recorded in 1839 from Lancashire[58] and in the modern game in Rugby football from 1862[59] and from Sheffield FC as early as 1865.[60][61] The first side to play a passing combination game was the Royal Engineers AFC in 1869/70[62][63] By 1869 they were "work[ing] well together", "backing up" and benefiting from "cooperation".[64] By 1870 the Engineers were passing the ball: "Lieut. Creswell, who having brought the ball up the side then kicked it into the middle to another of his side, who kicked it through the posts the minute before time was called"[65] Passing was a regular feature of their style[66] By early 1872 the Engineers were the first football team renowned for "play[ing] beautifully together"[67] A double pass is first reported from Derby school against Nottingham Forest in March 1872, the first of which is irrefutably a short pass: "Mr Absey dribbling the ball half the length of the field delivered it to Wallis, who kicking it cleverly in front of the goal, sent it to the captain who drove it at once between the Nottingham posts"[68] The first side to have perfected the modern formation was Cambridge University AFC[69][70][71] and introduced the 2–3–5 "pyramid" formation.[72][73]
Cambridge rules
In 1848, at Cambridge University, Mr. H. de Winton and Mr. J.C. Thring, who were both formerly at Shrewsbury School, called a meeting at Trinity College, Cambridge with 12 other representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury. An eight-hour meeting produced what amounted to the first set of modern rules, known as the Cambridge rules. No copy of these rules now exists, but a revised version from circa 1856 is held in the library of Shrewsbury School.[74] The rules clearly favour the kicking game. Handling was only allowed when a player catches the ball directly from the foot entitling them to a free kick and there was a primitive offside rule, disallowing players from "loitering" around the opponents' goal. The Cambridge rules were not widely adopted outside English public schools and universities (but it was arguably the most significant influence on the Football Association committee members responsible for formulating the rules of Association football).
Sheffield rules
By the late 1850s, many football clubs had been formed throughout the English-speaking world, to play various codes of football. Sheffield Football Club, founded in 1857 in the English city of Sheffield by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, was later recognised as the world's oldest club playing association football.[75] However, the club initially played its own code of football: the Sheffield rules. The code was largely independent of the public school rules, the most significant difference being the lack of an offside rule.
The code was responsible for many innovations that later spread to association football. These included free kicks, corner kicks, handball, throw-ins and the crossbar.[76] By the 1870s they became the dominant code in the north and midlands of England. At this time a series of rule changes by both the London and Sheffield FAs gradually eroded the differences between the two games until the adoption of a common code in 1877.
The code was responsible for many innovations that later spread to association football. These included free kicks, corner kicks, handball, throw-ins and the crossbar.[76] By the 1870s they became the dominant code in the north and midlands of England. At this time a series of rule changes by both the London and Sheffield FAs gradually eroded the differences between the two games until the adoption of a common code in 1877.
Australian rules
Various forms of football were played in Australia during the Victorian gold rush, from which emerged a distinct and locally popular sport. While these origins are still the subject of much debate the popularisation of the code that is known today as Australian Rules Football is currently attributed to Tom Wills.
Wills wrote a letter to Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle, on July 10, 1858, calling for a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit during winter.[77] This is considered by historians to be a defining moment in the creation of the new sport. Through publicity and personal contacts Wills was able to co-ordinate football matches in Melbourne that experimented with various rules,[78] the first recorded of which occurred on July 31, 1858. On 7 August 1858, Wills umpired a relatively well documented schoolboys match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College. Following these matches, organised football matches rapidly increased in popularity.
Wills and others involved in these early matches formed the Melbourne Football Club (the oldest surviving Australian football club) on May 14, 1859. The first members included Wills, William Hammersley, J.B. Thompson and Thomas H. Smith. They met with the intention of forming a set of rules that would be widely adopted by other clubs.
The backgrounds of the original rule makers makes for interesting speculation as to the influences on the rules. Wills, an Australian of convict heritage was educated in England. He was a rugby footballer, a cricketer and had strong links to indigenous Australians. At first he desired to introduce rugby school rules. Hammersley was a cricketer and journalist who emigrated from England. Thomas Smith was a school teacher who emigrated from Ireland. The committee members debated several rules including those of English public school games. Despite including aspects similar to other forms of football there is no conclusive evidence to point to any single influence. Instead the committee decided on a game that was more suited to Australian conditions and Wills is documented to have made the declaration "No, we shall have a game of our own".[79] The code was distinctive in the prevalence of the mark, free kick, tackling, lack of an offside rule and that players were specifically penalised for throwing the ball.
The Melbourne football rules were widely distributed and gradually adopted by the other Victorian clubs. They were redrafting several times during the 1860s to accommodate the rules of other influential Victorian football clubs. A significant re-write in 1866 by H C A Harrison's committee to accommodate rules from the Geelong Football Club made the game, which had become known as "Victorian Rules", increasingly distinct from other codes. It used cricket fields, a rugby ball, specialised goal and behind posts, bouncing with the ball while running and later spectacular high marking. The form of football spread quickly to other other Australian colonies. Outside of its heartland in southern Australia the code experienced a significant period of decline following World War I but has since grown other parts of the world at an amateur level and the Australian Football League emerged as the dominant professional competition.
Wills wrote a letter to Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle, on July 10, 1858, calling for a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit during winter.[77] This is considered by historians to be a defining moment in the creation of the new sport. Through publicity and personal contacts Wills was able to co-ordinate football matches in Melbourne that experimented with various rules,[78] the first recorded of which occurred on July 31, 1858. On 7 August 1858, Wills umpired a relatively well documented schoolboys match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College. Following these matches, organised football matches rapidly increased in popularity.
Wills and others involved in these early matches formed the Melbourne Football Club (the oldest surviving Australian football club) on May 14, 1859. The first members included Wills, William Hammersley, J.B. Thompson and Thomas H. Smith. They met with the intention of forming a set of rules that would be widely adopted by other clubs.
The backgrounds of the original rule makers makes for interesting speculation as to the influences on the rules. Wills, an Australian of convict heritage was educated in England. He was a rugby footballer, a cricketer and had strong links to indigenous Australians. At first he desired to introduce rugby school rules. Hammersley was a cricketer and journalist who emigrated from England. Thomas Smith was a school teacher who emigrated from Ireland. The committee members debated several rules including those of English public school games. Despite including aspects similar to other forms of football there is no conclusive evidence to point to any single influence. Instead the committee decided on a game that was more suited to Australian conditions and Wills is documented to have made the declaration "No, we shall have a game of our own".[79] The code was distinctive in the prevalence of the mark, free kick, tackling, lack of an offside rule and that players were specifically penalised for throwing the ball.
The Melbourne football rules were widely distributed and gradually adopted by the other Victorian clubs. They were redrafting several times during the 1860s to accommodate the rules of other influential Victorian football clubs. A significant re-write in 1866 by H C A Harrison's committee to accommodate rules from the Geelong Football Club made the game, which had become known as "Victorian Rules", increasingly distinct from other codes. It used cricket fields, a rugby ball, specialised goal and behind posts, bouncing with the ball while running and later spectacular high marking. The form of football spread quickly to other other Australian colonies. Outside of its heartland in southern Australia the code experienced a significant period of decline following World War I but has since grown other parts of the world at an amateur level and the Australian Football League emerged as the dominant professional competition.
Football Association
During the early 1860s, there were increasing attempts in England to unify and reconcile the various public school games. In 1862, J. C. Thring, who had been one of the driving forces behind the original Cambridge Rules, was a master at Uppingham School and he issued his own rules of what he called "The Simplest Game" (these are also known as the Uppingham Rules). In early October 1863 another new revised version of the Cambridge Rules was drawn up by a seven member committee representing former pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster.
At the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, London on the evening of October 26, 1863, representatives of several football clubs in the London Metropolitan area met for the inaugural meeting of The Football Association (FA). The aim of the Association was to establish a single unifying code and regulate the playing of the game among its members. Following the first meeting, the public schools were invited to join the association. All of them declined, except Charterhouse and Uppingham. In total, six meetings of the FA were held between October and December 1863. After the third meeting, a draft set of rules were published. However, at the beginning of the fourth meeting, attention was drawn to the recently published Cambridge Rules of 1863. The Cambridge rules differed from the draft FA rules in two significant areas; namely running with (carrying) the ball and hacking (kicking opposing players in the shins). The two contentious FA rules were as follows:
IX. A player shall be entitled to run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal if he makes a fair catch, or catches the ball on the first bound; but in case of a fair catch, if he makes his mark he shall not run.X. If any player shall run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal, any player on the opposite side shall be at liberty to charge, hold, trip or hack him, or to wrest the ball from him, but no player shall be held and hacked at the same time.
--[80]
At the fifth meeting it was proposed that these two rules be removed. Most of the delegates supported this, but F. M. Campbell, the representative from Blackheath and the first FA treasurer, objected. He said: "hacking is the true football". However, the motion to ban running with the ball in hand and hacking was carried and Blackheath withdrew from the FA. After the final meeting on 8 December, the FA published the "Laws of Football", the first comprehensive set of rules for the game later known as Association Football. The term "soccer", in use since the late 19th century, derives from an abbreviation of "Association".[81]
The first FA rules still contained elements that are no longer part of association football, but which are still recognisable in other games (such as Australian football and rugby football): for instance, a player could make a fair catch and claim a mark, which entitled him to a free kick; and if a player touched the ball behind the opponents' goal line, his side was entitled to a free kick at goal, from 15 yards (13.5 metres) in front of the goal line.
At the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, London on the evening of October 26, 1863, representatives of several football clubs in the London Metropolitan area met for the inaugural meeting of The Football Association (FA). The aim of the Association was to establish a single unifying code and regulate the playing of the game among its members. Following the first meeting, the public schools were invited to join the association. All of them declined, except Charterhouse and Uppingham. In total, six meetings of the FA were held between October and December 1863. After the third meeting, a draft set of rules were published. However, at the beginning of the fourth meeting, attention was drawn to the recently published Cambridge Rules of 1863. The Cambridge rules differed from the draft FA rules in two significant areas; namely running with (carrying) the ball and hacking (kicking opposing players in the shins). The two contentious FA rules were as follows:
IX. A player shall be entitled to run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal if he makes a fair catch, or catches the ball on the first bound; but in case of a fair catch, if he makes his mark he shall not run.X. If any player shall run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal, any player on the opposite side shall be at liberty to charge, hold, trip or hack him, or to wrest the ball from him, but no player shall be held and hacked at the same time.
--[80]
At the fifth meeting it was proposed that these two rules be removed. Most of the delegates supported this, but F. M. Campbell, the representative from Blackheath and the first FA treasurer, objected. He said: "hacking is the true football". However, the motion to ban running with the ball in hand and hacking was carried and Blackheath withdrew from the FA. After the final meeting on 8 December, the FA published the "Laws of Football", the first comprehensive set of rules for the game later known as Association Football. The term "soccer", in use since the late 19th century, derives from an abbreviation of "Association".[81]
The first FA rules still contained elements that are no longer part of association football, but which are still recognisable in other games (such as Australian football and rugby football): for instance, a player could make a fair catch and claim a mark, which entitled him to a free kick; and if a player touched the ball behind the opponents' goal line, his side was entitled to a free kick at goal, from 15 yards (13.5 metres) in front of the goal line.
Rugby football
In Britain, by 1870, there were about 75 clubs playing variations of the Rugby school game. There were also "rugby" clubs in Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. However, there was no generally accepted set of rules for rugby until 1871, when 21 clubs from London came together to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU). The first official RFU rules were adopted in June 1871. These rules allowed passing the ball. They also included the try, where touching the ball over the line allowed an attempt at goal, though drop-goals from marks and general play, and penalty conversions were still the main form of contest.
North American football codes
As was the case in Britain, by the early 19th century, North American schools and universities played their own local games, between sides made up of students. Students atDartmouth College in New Hampshire played a game called Old division football, a variant of the association football codes, as early as the 1820s.
The "Tigers" of Hamilton, Ontario, circa 1906. Founded 1869 as the Hamilton Foot Ball Club, they eventually merged with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team still active in the Canadian Football League.[82]
The first game of rugby in Canada is generally said to have taken place in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, the first recorded football club in Canada.
In 1869, the first game played in the United States under rules based on the FA code occurred, between Princeton and Rutgers. This is also often considered to be the first U.S. game of college football, in the sense of a game between colleges (although the eventual form of American football would come from rugby, not association football).
Modern American football grew out of a match between McGill University of Montreal, and Harvard University in 1874.[83] At the time, Harvard students are reported to have played the Boston Game — a running code — rather than the FA-based kicking games favoured by U.S. universities. This made it easy for Harvard to adapt to the rugby-based game played by McGill and the two teams alternated between their respective sets of rules. Within a few years, however, Harvard had both adopted McGill's rugby rules and had persuaded other U.S. university teams to do the same. In 1876, at the Massasoit Convention, it was agreed by these universities to adopt most of the Rugby Football Union rules, with some variations. Princeton, Rutgers and others continued to compete using soccer-based rules for a few years before switching to the rugby-based rules of Harvard and its competitors. U.S. colleges did not generally return to soccer until the early 20th century.
Rutgers College Football Team, 1882
In 1880, Yale coach Walter Camp, devised a number of major changes to the American game. Camp's two most important rule innovations in establishing American football as distinct from the rugby football games on which it is based are scrimmage and down-and-distance rules.
Scrimmage refers to the practice of starting action by delivering the ball from the ground to another player's hand. Camp's original rule allowed this delivery to be done only with the feet; the rule was soon changed to allow the ball to be passed by hand. The rule also established a distinct line of scrimmage which separates the two teams from each other. When a player is tackled, he is ruled down and play stops, while the teams reset on either side of the line of scrimmage. Play then resumes with the delivery of the ball. Teams are given a limited number of downs to achieve a certain distance (always measured in yards). In American football, teams are given four downs to advance the ball ten yards, after which possession of the ball changes. In Canadian football, teams are allowed three downs to advance ten yards. These rules created a fundamental distinction between the North American codes and rugby codes. Rugby is still fundamentally a continuous-action game, while North American codes are organized around running discrete "plays", as defined as starting with the delivery from "scrimmage" and ending with the "down".
American football, in its early years, was an excessively violent game, plagued with several deaths and life-changing injuries every year. The violence became so drastic thatPresident Theodore Roosevelt threatened to shut down the game in 1905, should rules not be changed to minimize this violence. Several rule changes were put into place that year, but the most enduring has been the introduction of the legal forward pass, which, like Camp's rule changes of the 1880s, fundamentally changed the nature of the sport. When it became legal to throw the ball forward, an entire new method of advancing the ball emerged. As a result, players became more specialized in their roles, as the different positions on the team required different skill sets. Thus, some players are primarily involved in running with the ball (the running back) while others specialize in throwing (the quarterback), catching (the wide receiver), or blocking (the offensive line). With the advent of free substitution rules in the 1940s and 1950s, teams could deploy separate offensive and defensive "platoons" which led to even greater specialization.
Over the years, Canadian football absorbed some developments in American football, but also retained many unique characteristics. One of these was that Canadian football, for many years, did not officially distinguish itself from rugby. For example, the Canadian Rugby Football Union, founded in 1884 was the forerunner of the Canadian Football League, rather than a rugby union body. (The Canadian Rugby Union, today known as Rugby Canada, was not formed until 1965.) American football was also frequently described as "rugby" in the 1880s.
The "Tigers" of Hamilton, Ontario, circa 1906. Founded 1869 as the Hamilton Foot Ball Club, they eventually merged with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team still active in the Canadian Football League.[82]
The first game of rugby in Canada is generally said to have taken place in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, the first recorded football club in Canada.
In 1869, the first game played in the United States under rules based on the FA code occurred, between Princeton and Rutgers. This is also often considered to be the first U.S. game of college football, in the sense of a game between colleges (although the eventual form of American football would come from rugby, not association football).
Modern American football grew out of a match between McGill University of Montreal, and Harvard University in 1874.[83] At the time, Harvard students are reported to have played the Boston Game — a running code — rather than the FA-based kicking games favoured by U.S. universities. This made it easy for Harvard to adapt to the rugby-based game played by McGill and the two teams alternated between their respective sets of rules. Within a few years, however, Harvard had both adopted McGill's rugby rules and had persuaded other U.S. university teams to do the same. In 1876, at the Massasoit Convention, it was agreed by these universities to adopt most of the Rugby Football Union rules, with some variations. Princeton, Rutgers and others continued to compete using soccer-based rules for a few years before switching to the rugby-based rules of Harvard and its competitors. U.S. colleges did not generally return to soccer until the early 20th century.
Rutgers College Football Team, 1882
In 1880, Yale coach Walter Camp, devised a number of major changes to the American game. Camp's two most important rule innovations in establishing American football as distinct from the rugby football games on which it is based are scrimmage and down-and-distance rules.
Scrimmage refers to the practice of starting action by delivering the ball from the ground to another player's hand. Camp's original rule allowed this delivery to be done only with the feet; the rule was soon changed to allow the ball to be passed by hand. The rule also established a distinct line of scrimmage which separates the two teams from each other. When a player is tackled, he is ruled down and play stops, while the teams reset on either side of the line of scrimmage. Play then resumes with the delivery of the ball. Teams are given a limited number of downs to achieve a certain distance (always measured in yards). In American football, teams are given four downs to advance the ball ten yards, after which possession of the ball changes. In Canadian football, teams are allowed three downs to advance ten yards. These rules created a fundamental distinction between the North American codes and rugby codes. Rugby is still fundamentally a continuous-action game, while North American codes are organized around running discrete "plays", as defined as starting with the delivery from "scrimmage" and ending with the "down".
American football, in its early years, was an excessively violent game, plagued with several deaths and life-changing injuries every year. The violence became so drastic thatPresident Theodore Roosevelt threatened to shut down the game in 1905, should rules not be changed to minimize this violence. Several rule changes were put into place that year, but the most enduring has been the introduction of the legal forward pass, which, like Camp's rule changes of the 1880s, fundamentally changed the nature of the sport. When it became legal to throw the ball forward, an entire new method of advancing the ball emerged. As a result, players became more specialized in their roles, as the different positions on the team required different skill sets. Thus, some players are primarily involved in running with the ball (the running back) while others specialize in throwing (the quarterback), catching (the wide receiver), or blocking (the offensive line). With the advent of free substitution rules in the 1940s and 1950s, teams could deploy separate offensive and defensive "platoons" which led to even greater specialization.
Over the years, Canadian football absorbed some developments in American football, but also retained many unique characteristics. One of these was that Canadian football, for many years, did not officially distinguish itself from rugby. For example, the Canadian Rugby Football Union, founded in 1884 was the forerunner of the Canadian Football League, rather than a rugby union body. (The Canadian Rugby Union, today known as Rugby Canada, was not formed until 1965.) American football was also frequently described as "rugby" in the 1880s.
Gaelic football
In the mid-19th century, various traditional football games, referred to collectively as caid, remained popular in Ireland, especially in County Kerry. One observer, Father W. Ferris, described two main forms of caid during this period: the "field game" in which the object was to put the ball through arch-like goals, formed from the boughs of two trees; and the epic "cross-country game" which took up most of the daylight hours of a Sunday on which it was played, and was won by one team taking the ball across a parish boundary. "Wrestling", "holding" opposing players, and carrying the ball were all allowed.
By the 1870s, Rugby and Association football had started to become popular in Ireland. Trinity College, Dublin was an early stronghold of Rugby (see the Developments in the 1850s section, above). The rules of the English FA were being distributed widely. Traditional forms of caid had begun to give way to a "rough-and-tumble game" which allowed tripping.
There was no serious attempt to unify and codify Irish varieties of football, until the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1884. The GAA sought to promote traditional Irish sports, such as hurling and to reject imported games like Rugby and Association football. The first Gaelic football rules were drawn up by Maurice Davin and published in the United Ireland magazine on February 7, 1887. Davin's rules showed the influence of games such as hurling and a desire to formalise a distinctly Irish code of football. The prime example of this differentiation was the lack of an offside rule (an attribute which, for many years, was shared only by other Irish games like hurling, and by Australian rules football).
By the 1870s, Rugby and Association football had started to become popular in Ireland. Trinity College, Dublin was an early stronghold of Rugby (see the Developments in the 1850s section, above). The rules of the English FA were being distributed widely. Traditional forms of caid had begun to give way to a "rough-and-tumble game" which allowed tripping.
There was no serious attempt to unify and codify Irish varieties of football, until the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1884. The GAA sought to promote traditional Irish sports, such as hurling and to reject imported games like Rugby and Association football. The first Gaelic football rules were drawn up by Maurice Davin and published in the United Ireland magazine on February 7, 1887. Davin's rules showed the influence of games such as hurling and a desire to formalise a distinctly Irish code of football. The prime example of this differentiation was the lack of an offside rule (an attribute which, for many years, was shared only by other Irish games like hurling, and by Australian rules football).
Split in Rugby football
The International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded in 1886, but rifts were beginning to emerge in the code. Professionalism was beginning to creep into the various codes of football.
In England, by the 1890s, a long-standing Rugby Football Union ban on professional players was causing regional tensions within rugby football, as many players in northern England were working class and could not afford to take time off to train, travel, play and recover from injuries. This was not very different from what had occurred ten years earlier in soccer in Northern England but the authorities reacted very differently in the RFU, attempting to alienate the working class support in Northern England. In 1895, following a dispute about a player being paid broken time payments, which replaced wages lost as a result of playing rugby, representatives of the northern clubs met in Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). The new body initially permitted only various types of player wage replacements. However, within two years, NRFU players could be paid, but they were required to have a job outside sport.
The demands of a professional league dictated that rugby had to become a better "spectator" sport. Within a few years the NRFU rules had started to diverge from the RFU, most notably with the abolition of the line-out. This was followed by the replacement of the ruck with the "play-the-ball ruck", which allowed a two-player ruck contest between the tackler at marker and the player tackled. Mauls were stopped once the ball carrier was held, being replaced by a play-the ball-ruck. The separate Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions of the NRFU merged in 1901, forming the Northern Rugby League, the first time the name rugby league was used officially in England.
Over time, the RFU form of rugby, played by clubs which remained members of national federations affiliated to the IRFB, became known as rugby union.
In England, by the 1890s, a long-standing Rugby Football Union ban on professional players was causing regional tensions within rugby football, as many players in northern England were working class and could not afford to take time off to train, travel, play and recover from injuries. This was not very different from what had occurred ten years earlier in soccer in Northern England but the authorities reacted very differently in the RFU, attempting to alienate the working class support in Northern England. In 1895, following a dispute about a player being paid broken time payments, which replaced wages lost as a result of playing rugby, representatives of the northern clubs met in Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). The new body initially permitted only various types of player wage replacements. However, within two years, NRFU players could be paid, but they were required to have a job outside sport.
The demands of a professional league dictated that rugby had to become a better "spectator" sport. Within a few years the NRFU rules had started to diverge from the RFU, most notably with the abolition of the line-out. This was followed by the replacement of the ruck with the "play-the-ball ruck", which allowed a two-player ruck contest between the tackler at marker and the player tackled. Mauls were stopped once the ball carrier was held, being replaced by a play-the ball-ruck. The separate Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions of the NRFU merged in 1901, forming the Northern Rugby League, the first time the name rugby league was used officially in England.
Over time, the RFU form of rugby, played by clubs which remained members of national federations affiliated to the IRFB, became known as rugby union.
Globalisation of association football
The need for a single body to oversee association football had become apparent by the beginning of the 20th century, with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The English Football Association had chaired many discussions on setting up an international body, but was perceived as making no progress. It fell to associations from seven other European countries: France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, to form an international association. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association(FIFA) was founded in Paris on May 21, 1904. Its first president was Robert Guérin. The French name and acronym has remained, even outside French-speaking countries.
Further divergence of the two rugby codes
Rugby league rules diverged significantly from rugby union in 1906, with the reduction of the team from 15 to 13 players. In 1907, a New Zealand professional rugby team toured Australia and Britain, receiving an enthusiastic response, and professional rugby leagues were launched in Australia the following year. However, the rules of professional games varied from one country to another, and negotiations between various national bodies were required to fix the exact rules for each international match. This situation endured until 1948, when at the instigation of the French league, the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) was formed at a meeting in Bordeaux.
During the second half of 20th century, the rules changed further. In 1966, rugby league officials borrowed the American football concept of downs: a team could retain possession of the ball for no more than four tackles. The maximum number of tackles was later increased to six (in 1971), and in rugby league this became known as the six tackle rule.
With the advent of full-time professionals in the early 1990s, and the consequent speeding up of the game, the five metre off-side distance between the two teams became 10 metres, and the replacement rule was superseded by various interchange rules, among other changes.
The laws of rugby union also changed significantly during the 20th century. In particular, goals from marks were abolished, kicks directly into touch from outside the 22 metre line were penalised, new laws were put in place to determine who had possession following an inconclusive ruck or maul, and the lifting of players in line-outs was legalised.
In 1995, rugby union became an "open" game, that is one which allowed professional players. Although the original dispute between the two codes has now disappeared — and despite the fact that officials from both forms of rugby football have sometimes mentioned the possibility of re-unification — the rules of both codes and their culture have diverged to such an extent that such an event is unlikely in the foreseeable future.
During the second half of 20th century, the rules changed further. In 1966, rugby league officials borrowed the American football concept of downs: a team could retain possession of the ball for no more than four tackles. The maximum number of tackles was later increased to six (in 1971), and in rugby league this became known as the six tackle rule.
With the advent of full-time professionals in the early 1990s, and the consequent speeding up of the game, the five metre off-side distance between the two teams became 10 metres, and the replacement rule was superseded by various interchange rules, among other changes.
The laws of rugby union also changed significantly during the 20th century. In particular, goals from marks were abolished, kicks directly into touch from outside the 22 metre line were penalised, new laws were put in place to determine who had possession following an inconclusive ruck or maul, and the lifting of players in line-outs was legalised.
In 1995, rugby union became an "open" game, that is one which allowed professional players. Although the original dispute between the two codes has now disappeared — and despite the fact that officials from both forms of rugby football have sometimes mentioned the possibility of re-unification — the rules of both codes and their culture have diverged to such an extent that such an event is unlikely in the foreseeable future.
Use of the word "football"
The word "football", when used in reference to a specific game can mean any one of those described above. Because of this, much friendly controversy has occurred over the term football, primarily because it is used in different ways in different parts of the English-speaking world. Most often, the word "football" is used to refer to the code of football that is considered dominant within a particular region. So, effectively, what the word "football" means usually depends on where one says it.
Players assemble at the line of scrimmage in an American football game.
Association football is known generally as soccer where other codes of football are dominant, including: the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. American football is always football in the United States. In francophone Quebec, where Canadian football is more popular, the Canadian code is known as football and association football is known as le soccer.[84] Of the 45 national FIFAaffiliates in which English is an official or primary language, most currently use Football in their organizations' official names. The FIFA affiliates in Canada and the United States use Soccer in their names.
A few FIFA affiliates have recently "normalized" to using "Football", including:
Players assemble at the line of scrimmage in an American football game.
Association football is known generally as soccer where other codes of football are dominant, including: the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. American football is always football in the United States. In francophone Quebec, where Canadian football is more popular, the Canadian code is known as football and association football is known as le soccer.[84] Of the 45 national FIFAaffiliates in which English is an official or primary language, most currently use Football in their organizations' official names. The FIFA affiliates in Canada and the United States use Soccer in their names.
A few FIFA affiliates have recently "normalized" to using "Football", including:
- Australia's association football governing body changed its name in 2007 from using "soccer" to "football"[85]
- New Zealand also changed in 2007, saying "the international game is called football."[86]
- Samoa changed from "Samoa Football (Soccer) Federation" to "Football Federation Samoa" in 2009.[87][88]
Association football and descendants
Main article: Variants of association football
An indoor soccer game at an open air venue in Mexico. The referee has just awarded the red team a free kick.
An indoor soccer game at an open air venue in Mexico. The referee has just awarded the red team a free kick.
- Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and footie
- Indoor/basketball court varieties of Football:
- Five-a-side football — played throughout the world under various rules including:
- Futsal — the FIFA-approved five-a-side indoor game
- Minivoetbal — the five-a-side indoor game played in East and West Flanders where it is hugely popular
- Papi fut — the five-a-side game played in outdoor basketball courts (built with goals) in Central America.
- Indoor soccer — the six-a-side indoor game, known in Latin America, where it is often played in open air venues, as fútbol rápido("fast football")
- Masters Football — six-a-side played in Europe by mature professionals (35 years and older)
- Five-a-side football — played throughout the world under various rules including:
- Paralympic football — modified Football for athletes with a disability.[89] Includes:
- Football 5-a-side — for visually impaired athletes
- Football 7-a-side — for athletes with cerebral palsy
- Amputee football — for athletes with amputations
- Deaf football — for athletes with hearing impairments
- Electric wheelchair soccer
- Beach soccer — football played on sand, also known as beach football and sand soccer
- Street football — encompasses a number of informal varieties of football
- Rush goalie — is a variation of football in which the role of the goalkeeper is more flexible than normal
- Headers and Volleys — where the aim is to score goals against a goalkeeper using only headers and volleys
- Crab football — players stand on their hands and feet and move around on their backs whilst playing football as normal
- Swamp soccer — the game is played on a swamp or bog field
Rugby school football and descendants
- Rugby football
- Rugby league — often referred to simply as "league", and usually known simply as "football" or "footy" in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.
- Rugby league nines (or sevens)
- Touch football (rugby league) — a non-contact version of rugby league. Often called simply "touch", in South Africa it is known as "six down"
- Rugby union
- Mini rugby a variety for children.
- Rugby sevens
- Rugby league — often referred to simply as "league", and usually known simply as "football" or "footy" in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.
Rugby sevens; Fiji v Cook Islands at the2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
- Beach rugby — rugby played on sand
- Touch rugby — generic name for forms of rugby football which do not feature tackles
- Gridiron football
- American football — called "football" in the United States and Canada, and "gridiron" in Australia and New Zealand. Sometimes called "tackle football" to distinguish it from the touch versions
- Indoor football, arena football — an indoor version of American football
- Nine-man football, eight-man football, six-man football — versions of tackle football, played primarily by smaller high schools that lack enough players to field full 11-man teams
- Touch football (American) — non-tackle American football
- Flag football — non-tackle American football, like touch football, in which a flag that is held by velcro on a belt tied around the waist is pulled by defenders to indicate a tackle
- Street football (American) — American football played in backyards without equipment and with simplified rules
- Canadian football — called simply "football" in Canada; "football" in Canada can mean either Canadian or American football depending on context
- Canadian flag football — non-tackle Canadian football
- Nine-man football — similar to nine-man American football, but using Canadian rules; played by smaller schools in Saskatchewan that lack enough players to field full 12-man teams
Irish and Australian varieties
These codes have in common the absence of an offside rule, the requirement to bounce or solo (toe-kick) the ball while running, handpassing by punching or tapping the ball rather than throwing it, and other traditions.
Surviving medieval ball gamesInside the UK
- Australian rules football — officially known as "Australian football", and informally as "football", "footy" or "Aussie rules". In some areas (erroneously) referred to as "AFL", which is the name of the main organising body and competition
- Auskick — a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL for young children
- Metro footy (or Metro rules footy) — a modified version invented by the USAFL, for use on gridiron fields in North American cities (which often lack grounds large enough for conventional Australian rules matches)
- Kick-to-kick – informal versions of the game
- 9-a-side footy — a more open, running variety of Australian rules, requiring 18 players in total and a proportionally smaller playing area (includes contact and non-contact varieties)
- Rec footy — "Recreational Football", a modified non-contact touch variation of Australian rules, created by the AFL, which replaces tackles with tags
- Touch Aussie Rules — a non-contact variation of Australian Rules played only in the United Kingdom
- Samoa rules — localised version adapted to Samoan conditions, such as the use of rugby football fields
- Masters Australian football (a.k.a. Superules) — reduced contact version introduced for competitions limited to players over 30 years of age
- Women's Australian rules football — played with a smaller ball and (sometimes) reduced contact version introduced for women's competition
- Gaelic football — Played predominantly in Ireland. Commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic"
- International rules football — a compromise code used for games between Gaelic and Australian Rules players
Surviving medieval ball gamesInside the UK
- The Haxey Hood, played on Epiphany in Haxey, Lincolnshire
- Shrove Tuesday games
- Scoring the Hales in Alnwick, Northumberland
- Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne, Derbyshire
- The Shrovetide Ball Game in Atherstone, Warwickshire
- The Shrove Tuesday Football Ceremony of the Purbeck Marblers in Corfe Castle, Dorset
- Hurling the Silver Ball at St Columb Major in Cornwall
- The Ball Game in Sedgefield, County Durham
- In Scotland the Ba game ("Ball Game") is still popular around Christmas and Hogmanay at:
- Duns, Berwickshire
- Scone, Perthshire
- Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands
- Calcio Fiorentino — a modern revival of Renaissance football from 16th century Florence.
Surviving UK school games
Recent inventions and hybrid games
- Keepie uppie (keep up)is the art of juggling with a football using feet, knees, chest, shoulders, and head.
- Footbagis a small bean bag or sand bag used as a ball in a number of keepie uppie variations, including hacky sack (which is a trade mark).
- Freestyle football
- Force ’em backs a.k.a. forcing back, forcemanback
- Austusa compromise between Australian rules and American football, invented in Melbourne during World War II.
- Bossaballmixes Association football and volleyball and gymnastics; played on inflatables and trampolines.
- Footvolleymixes Association football and beach volleyball; played on sand
- Football tennismixes Association football and tennis
- Kickballa hybrid of Association football and baseball, invented in the United States in about 1942.
- Speedball (American)a combination of American football, soccer, and basketball, devised in the United States in 1912.
- Universal footballa hybrid of Australian rules and rugby league, trialled in Sydney in 1933.[90]
- Volataa game resembling Association football and European handball, devised by Italian fascist leader, Augusto Turati, in the 1920s.
- Wheelchair rugbyalso known as Murderball, invented in Canada in 1977. Based on ice hockey and basketball rather than rugby.
Tabletop games and other recreationsBased on Football (soccer)
- Subbuteo
- Blow football
- Table football — also known as foosball, table soccer, babyfoot, bar football or gettone)
- Fantasy football (soccer)
- Button football — also known as Futebol de Mesa, Jogo de Botões
- Penny football
- FIFA Video Games Series
- Pro Evolution Soccer
- Mario Strikers
- Sidhe's Rugby League series
- Australian Rugby League
- Football field (unit of length)
- List of players who have converted from one football code to another
- Names for association football
- 1601 to 1725 in sports: Football
- ^ Reilly, Thomas; Gilbourne, D. (2003). "Science and football: a review of applied research in the football code". Journal of Sports Science 21: 693–705.
- ^ "History of Rugby in Australia". Rugby Football History. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Bailey, Steven (1995). "Living Sports History: Football at Winchester, Eton and Harrow". The Sports Historian 15 (1): 34–53.
- ^ Perkin, Harold (1989). "Teaching the nations how to play: sport and society in the British empire and commonwealth". The International Journal of the History of Sport 6(2): 145–155.
- ^ Reilly, Thomas; Doran, D. (2001). "Science and Gaelic football: A revie". Journal of Sports Sciences 19 (3): 181–193.
- ^ Bale, J. (2002). Sports Geography. Taylor & Francis. p. 43. ISBN 0-419-25230-4.
- ^ Marples, M (1954). A History of Football. Secker and Warburg, London
- ^ ἐπίσκυρος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
- ^ The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007 Edition: "In ancient Greece a game with elements of football, episkuros, or harpaston, was played, and it had migrated to Rome as harpastum by the 2nd century BC".
- ^ φαινίνδα, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
- ^ Nigel Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge, 2005, p. 310
- ^ Nigel M. Kennell, The Gymnasium of Virtue: Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome), The University of North Carolina Press, 1995, on Google Books
- ^ Steve Craig, Sports and Games of the Ancients: (Sports and Games Through History), Greenwood, 2002, on Google Books
- ^ Don Nardo, Greek and Roman Sport, Greenhaven Press, 1999, p. 83
- ^ Sally E. D. Wilkins, Sports and games of medieval cultures, Greenwood, 2002, onGoogle books
- ^ E. Norman Gardiner: "Athletics in the Ancient World", Courier Dover Publications, 2002, ISBN 0-486-42486-3, p.229
- ^ William Smith: "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities", 1857, p.777
- ^ He, Jin (2001). An Analysis of Zhan Guo Ce. Beijing: Peking University Press. ISBN 7-301-05101-8, p. 59-82
- ^ Richard Hakluyt, Voyages in Search of The North-West Passage, University of Adelaide, December 29, 2003
- ^ From William Blandowski's Australien in 142 Photographischen Abbildungen, 1857, (Haddon Library, Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge)
- ^ Historia Brittonum at the Medieval Sourcebook.
- ^ Ruff, Julius (2001). Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800. Cambridge University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-521-59894-1.
- ^ Jusserand, Jean-Jules. (1901). Le sport et les jeux d'exercice dans l'ancienne France. Retrieved January 11, 2008, fromhttp://agora.qc.ca/reftext.nsf/Documents/Football--Le_sport_et_les_jeux_dexercice_dans_lancienne_France__La_soule_par_Jean-Jules_Jusserand (French)
- ^ Dunning, Eric (1999). Sport Matters: Sociological Studies of Sport, Violence and Civilisation. Routledge. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-415-09378-1.
- ^ a b Dunning, Eric (1999). Sport Matters: Sociological Studies of Sport, Violence and Civilisation. Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-415-09378-1.
- ^ Baker, William (1988). Sports in the Western World. University of Illinois Press. p. 48.ISBN 978-0-252-06042-7.
- ^ Stephen Alsford, FitzStephen's Description of London, Florilegium Urbanum, April 5, 2006
- ^ a b c d e Francis Peabody Magoun, 1929, "Football in Medieval England and Middle-English literature" (The American Historical Review, v. 35, No. 1).
- ^ "Irish inventions: fact and fiction". Carlow-nationalist.ie. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ^ Derek Birley (Sport and The Making of Britain). 1993. Manchester University Press. p. 32. 978-0719037597
- ^ Derek Baker (England in the Later Middle Ages). 1995. Boydell & Brewer. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-85115-648-4
- ^ a b "Online Etymology Dictionary (no date), "football"". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ Vivek Chaudhary, “Who's the fat bloke in the number eight shirt?” (The Guardian, February 18, 2004.)
- ^ Anniina Jokinen, Sir Philip Sidney. "A Dialogue Between Two Shepherds"(Luminarium.org, July 2006)
- ^ Richard Carew. "EBook of The Survey of Cornwall". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
- ^ International Olympic Academy (I.O.A.) (no date), “Minutes 7th International Post Graduate Seminar on Olympic Studies”
- ^ John Lord Campbell, ''The Lives of the Lords Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England'', vol. 2, 1851, p. 412. Books.google.co.uk. 1851. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ "William Maxwell Hetherington, 1856, ''History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, Ch.1 (Third Ed.)". Reformed.org. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ^ A history of Winchester College. by Arthur F Leach. Duckworth, 1899 ISBN 1-4446-5884-0
- ^ "2003, "Richard Mulcaster"". Footballnetwork.org. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ Francis Peabody Magoun. (1938) History of football from the beginnings to 1871. p.27. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
- ^ Francis Willughby, 1660–72, ''Book of Games''. Books.google.co.uk. 2003.ISBN 978-1-85928-460-5. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ a b Julian Carosi, 2006, "The History of Offside"[dead link]
- ^ a b Richard William Cox; Dave Russell and Wray Vamplew (2002). Encyclopedia of British Football. Routledge. p. 243. ISBN 978-0-7146-5249-8.
- ^ example of ball handling in early football from English writer William Hone, writing in 1825 or 1826, quotes the social commentator Sir Frederick Morton Eden, regarding "Foot-Ball", as played at Scone, Scotland:The game was this: he who at any time got the ball into his hands, run [sic] with it till overtaken by one of the opposite part; and then, if he could shake himself loose from those on the opposite side who seized him, he run on; if not, he threw the ball from him, unless it was wrested from him by the other party, but no person was allowed to kick it. (William Hone, 1825–26, The Every-Day Book, "February 15."Access date: March 15, 2007.)
- ^ ABC Radio National Ockham's Razor, first broadcast 6 June 2010.
- ^ THE SURREY CLUB Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle (London, England), Sunday, October 07, 1849; pg. 6.New Readerships
- ^ Football: The First Hundred Years. The Untold Story. Adrian Harvey. 2005. Routledge, London
- ^ John Hope, Accounts and papers of the football club kept by John Hope, WS, and some Hope Correspondence 1787–1886 (National Archives of Scotland, GD253/183)
- ^ a b "The Foot-Ball Club in Edinburgh, 1824–1841 – The National Archives of Scotland". Nas.gov.uk. 2007-11-13. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ "Rugby chronology". Museum of Rugby. Retrieved April 24, 2006.
- ^ "History of the Royal Caledonian Society of Melbourne". Electricscotland.com. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ Soccer Ball World – Early History . Retrieved June 9, 2006. Archived June 16, 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The exact name of Mr Lindon is in dispute, as well as the exact timing of the creation of the inflatable bladder. It is known that he created this for both association and rugby footballs. However, sites devoted to football indicate he was known as HJ Lindon, who was actually Richards Lindon's son, and created the ball in 1862 (ref: Soccer Ball World), whereas rugby sites refer to him as Richard Lindon creating the ball in 1870 (ref: Guardian article). Both agree that his wife died when inflating pig's bladders. This information originated from web sites which may be unreliable, and the answer may only be found in researching books in central libraries.
- ^ soccerballworld.com, (no date) "Charles Goodyear's Soccer Ball" Downloaded 30/11/06.
- ^ Scots invented beautiful game The Scotsman, 14 June 2006
- ^ Magoun, Francis Peabody (1938). History of football from the beginnings to 1871. Published by H. Pöppinghaus
- ^ Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle (London, England), Sunday, January 13, 1839.New Readerships
- ^ Blackwood's Magazine, Published by W. Blackwood, 1862, page 563
- ^ Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle (London, England), Saturday, January 07, 1865; Issue 2,229: "The Sheffield party, however, eventually took a lead, and through some scientific movements of Mr J Wild, scored a goal amid great cheering"
- ^ Bell's life in london, November 26th 1865, issue 2275: "We cannot help recording the really scientific play with which the Sheffield men backed each other up
- ^ Wall, Sir Frederick (2005). 50 Years of Football, 1884–1934. Soccer Books Limited.ISBN 1-86223-116-8.
- ^ [Cox, Richard (2002) The encyclopaedia of British Football, Routledge, United Kingdom]
- ^ Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 18 December 1869
- ^ Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 5 November 1870,issue 2
- ^ Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 18 November 1871,issue 2, 681
- ^ Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 17 February 1872,issue 2694
- ^ The Derby Mercury (Derby, England), Wednesday, March 20, 1872; Issue 8226
- ^ Murphy, Brendan (2007). From Sheffield with Love. Sports Book Limited. p. 59.ISBN 978-1-899807-56-7.
- ^ Association Football, chapter by CW Alcock, The English Illustrated Magazine 1891, page 287
- ^ Harvey, Adrian (2005). Football, the First Hundred Years. Routledge. pp. 273, ref 34–119. ISBN 0-415-35019-0.
- ^ Csanadi Arpad, Hungerian coaching manual "Soccer", Corvina, Budapest 1965
- ^ Wilson Jonathon, Inverting the pyramid: a History of Football Tactics , Orion, 2008
- ^ "Football Association tribute to the Cambridge Rules". Retrieved 2011-04-28.[dead link]
- ^ Harvey, Adrian (2005). Football, the First Hundred Years. Routledge. pp. 95–99.ISBN 0-415-35019-0.
- ^ Murphy, Brendan (2007). From Sheffield with Love. Sports Book Limited. pp. 41–43.ISBN 978-1-899807-56-7.
- ^ "Letter from Tom Wills". MCG website. Archived from the original on June 25, 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-14.
- ^ "The Origins of Australian Rules Football". MCG website. Archived from the original on June 11, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
- ^ Sport: Touchstone of Australian Life from the Australian Broadcasting Commission. First broadcast on Thursday 17/05/01
- ^ Peter Shortell. Hacking – a history, Cornwall Referees Society, 2 October 2006
- ^ "soccer, n". Oxford English Dictionary. June 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
- ^ "Canadian Football Timelines (1860– present)". Football Canada. Archived fromthe original on February 28, 2007. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
- ^ "No Christian End! The Beginnings of Football in America". The Professional Football Researchers Association.
- ^ "The governing body is the "Fédération de soccer du Québec"". Federation-soccer.qc.ca. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ^ Stories Soccer to become football in Australia (SMH.com.au. December 17, 2004) "ASA chairman Frank Lowy said the symbolic move would bring Australia into line with the vast majority of other countries which call the sport football."
- ^ NZ Football – The Local Name Of The Global Game[dead link] (NZFootball.co.nz. April 27, 2006) "The international game is called football and were part of the international game so the game in New Zealand should be called football"
- ^ David As... (2009-11-28). "new name & logo for Samoan football". Sportingpulse.com. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ^ "Football progress in Samoa". Samoaobserver.ws. Retrieved 2012-04-16.[dead link]
- ^ Summers, Mark. "The Disability Football Directory".
- ^ Sean Fagan, Breaking The Codes, RL1908.com, 2006[dead link]
History of all
There are artifacts and structures that suggest that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 2000 BC.[11] Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport in China's ancient past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, including swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt.[12] Other Egyptian sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as the traditional Iranian martial art of Zourkhaneh had a close connection to the warfare skills.[13] Among other sports that originate in ancient Persia are polo and jousting.
Motorized sports have appeared since the advent of the modern age
A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia.[14]
Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought increased leisure time to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes through radio, television, and the internet — all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated
Motorized sports have appeared since the advent of the modern age
A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably. Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which in ancient times were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia.[14]
Sports have been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the ancient Olympics up to the present century. Industrialisation has brought increased leisure time to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes through radio, television, and the internet — all while enjoying the exercise and competition associated
Early years
Juventus were founded as Sport Club Juventus in late 1897 by pupils from the Massimo D'Azeglio Lyceum school in Turin,[31] but were renamed as Foot-Ball Club Juventus two years later.[3] The club joined the Italian Football Championship during 1900. During this period the team wore a pink and black kit. Juventus first won the league championship in 1905 while playing at their Velodromo Umberto I ground. By this time the club colours had changed to black and white stripes, inspired by English side Notts County.[32]
There was a split at the club in 1906, after some of the staff considered moving Juve out of Turin.[3] President Alfredo Dick was unhappy with this and left with some prominent players to found FBC Torino which in turn spawned the Derby della Mole.[33]Juventus spent much of this period steadily rebuilding after the split, surviving the First World War.[32]
There was a split at the club in 1906, after some of the staff considered moving Juve out of Turin.[3] President Alfredo Dick was unhappy with this and left with some prominent players to found FBC Torino which in turn spawned the Derby della Mole.[33]Juventus spent much of this period steadily rebuilding after the split, surviving the First World War.[32]
League dominance
Fiat owner Edoardo Agnelli gained control of the club in 1923, and built a new stadium.[3] This helped the club to its secondscudetto (league championship) in the 1925–26 season beating Alba Roma with an aggregate score of 12–1, Antonio Vojak's goals were essential that season.[32] The club established itself as a major force in Italian football since the 1930s, becoming the country's first professional club and the first with a decentralised fan base,[9][34] which led it to win a record of five consecutive Italian championships the first four under the management of Carlo Carcano and form the core of the of the Italy national team during the Vittorio Pozzo's era, including the 1934 world champion squad.[35] with star players such as Raimundo Orsi, Luigi Bertolini, Giovanni Ferrari and Luis Monti amongst others.
Sivori, Charles andBoniperti
Juventus moved to the Stadio Comunale, but for the rest of the 1930s and the majority of the 1940s they were unable to recapture championship dominance. After the Second World War, Gianni Agnelli was appointed honorary president.[3] The club added two more league championships to its name in the 1949–50 and 1951–52 seasons, the latter of which was under the management of Englishman Jesse Carver. Two new strikers were signed during 1957–58; Welshman John Charles and Italo-Argentine Omar Sivori, playing alongside longtime member Giampiero Boniperti. That season saw Juventus awarded with the Golden Star for Sport Excellence to wear on their shirts after becoming the first Italian side to win ten league titles. In the same season, Omar Sivori became the first ever player at the club to win the European Footballer of the Year.[36] The following season they beat Fiorentina to complete their first league and cup double, winning Serie A and Coppa Italia. Boniperti retired in 1961 as the all-time top scorer at the club, with 182 goals in all competitions, a club record which stood for 45 years.[37]
During the rest of the decade the club won the league just once more in 1966–67,[32] However, the 1970s saw Juventus further solidify their strong position in Italian football. Under former player Čestmír Vycpálek they won the scudetto in 1971–72 and 1972–73,[32] with players such as Roberto Bettega, Franco Causio and José Altafini breaking through. During the rest of the decade they won the league twice more, with defender Gaetano Scirea contributing significantly. The later win was under Giovanni Trapattoni, who helped the club's domination continue on into the early part of the 1980s[38] and to form the backbone of the Italian national team during Enzo Bearzot's era, including the 1978 FIFA World Cup and 1982 world champion squads.[39][40]
Sivori, Charles andBoniperti
Juventus moved to the Stadio Comunale, but for the rest of the 1930s and the majority of the 1940s they were unable to recapture championship dominance. After the Second World War, Gianni Agnelli was appointed honorary president.[3] The club added two more league championships to its name in the 1949–50 and 1951–52 seasons, the latter of which was under the management of Englishman Jesse Carver. Two new strikers were signed during 1957–58; Welshman John Charles and Italo-Argentine Omar Sivori, playing alongside longtime member Giampiero Boniperti. That season saw Juventus awarded with the Golden Star for Sport Excellence to wear on their shirts after becoming the first Italian side to win ten league titles. In the same season, Omar Sivori became the first ever player at the club to win the European Footballer of the Year.[36] The following season they beat Fiorentina to complete their first league and cup double, winning Serie A and Coppa Italia. Boniperti retired in 1961 as the all-time top scorer at the club, with 182 goals in all competitions, a club record which stood for 45 years.[37]
During the rest of the decade the club won the league just once more in 1966–67,[32] However, the 1970s saw Juventus further solidify their strong position in Italian football. Under former player Čestmír Vycpálek they won the scudetto in 1971–72 and 1972–73,[32] with players such as Roberto Bettega, Franco Causio and José Altafini breaking through. During the rest of the decade they won the league twice more, with defender Gaetano Scirea contributing significantly. The later win was under Giovanni Trapattoni, who helped the club's domination continue on into the early part of the 1980s[38] and to form the backbone of the Italian national team during Enzo Bearzot's era, including the 1978 FIFA World Cup and 1982 world champion squads.[39][40]
European stage
The Trapattoni-era was highly successful in the 1980s; the club started the decade off well, winning the league title three more times by 1984.[32] This meant Juventus had won 20 Italian league titles and were allowed to add a second golden star to their shirt, thus becoming the only Italian club to achieve this.[38] Around this time the club's players were attracting considerable attention; Paolo Rossi was named European Footballer of the Year following his contribution to Italy's victory in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, where he was named player of the tournament.[41]
Frenchman Michel Platini was also awarded the European Footballer of the Year title for three years in a row; 1983, 1984 and 1985, which is a record.[36] Juventus are the only club to have players from their club winning the award in four consecutive years.[36] Indeed it was Platini who scored the winning goal in the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool, however this was marred by a tragedy which changed European football.[42] That year, Juventus became the first club in the history of European football to have won all three majorUEFA competitions[25][26] and, after their triumph in the Intercontinental Cup, the club also became the first in association football history—and remain the world's only one at present—to have won all possible confederation competitions and the club world title.[43]
With the exception of winning the closely contested Italian Championship of 1985–86, the rest of the 1980s were not very successful for the club. As well as having to contend with Diego Maradona's Napoli, both of the Milanese clubs, Milan and Internazionale, won Italian championships.[32] In 1990, Juventus moved into their new home, the Stadio delle Alpi, which was built for the 1990 World Cup.[44]
Frenchman Michel Platini was also awarded the European Footballer of the Year title for three years in a row; 1983, 1984 and 1985, which is a record.[36] Juventus are the only club to have players from their club winning the award in four consecutive years.[36] Indeed it was Platini who scored the winning goal in the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool, however this was marred by a tragedy which changed European football.[42] That year, Juventus became the first club in the history of European football to have won all three majorUEFA competitions[25][26] and, after their triumph in the Intercontinental Cup, the club also became the first in association football history—and remain the world's only one at present—to have won all possible confederation competitions and the club world title.[43]
With the exception of winning the closely contested Italian Championship of 1985–86, the rest of the 1980s were not very successful for the club. As well as having to contend with Diego Maradona's Napoli, both of the Milanese clubs, Milan and Internazionale, won Italian championships.[32] In 1990, Juventus moved into their new home, the Stadio delle Alpi, which was built for the 1990 World Cup.[44]
Lippi era of success
Marcello Lippi took over as Juventus manager at the start of the 1994–95 campaign.[3] His first season at the helm of the club was a successful one, as Juventus recorded their first Serie A championship title since the mid-1980s.[32] The crop of players during this period featured Ciro Ferrara, Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli and a young Alessandro Del Piero. Lippi lead Juventus to the Champions Leaguethe following season, beating Ajax on penalties after a 1–1 draw in which Fabrizio Ravanelli scored for Juve.[45]
The club did not rest long after winning the European Cup, more highly regarded players were brought into the fold in the form of Zinedine Zidane, Filippo Inzaghi and Edgar Davids. At home Juventus won Serie A in 1996–97 and 1997–98, as well as the 1996 UEFA Super Cup[46] and the 1996 Intercontinental Cup.[47] Juventus reached the 1997 and 1998 Champions League finals during this period, but lost out to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid respectively.[48][49]
After a season's absence Lippi returned, signing big name players such as Gianluigi Buffon, David Trezeguet, Pavel Nedvěd and Lilian Thuram, helping the team to two more scudetto titles in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons.[32] Juventus were also part of an all Italian Champions League final in 2003 but lost out to Milan on penalties after the game ended in a 0–0 draw. The following year, Lippi was appointed as Italy's head coach, bringing an end to one of the most fruitful managerial spells in Juventus' history.[38]
The club did not rest long after winning the European Cup, more highly regarded players were brought into the fold in the form of Zinedine Zidane, Filippo Inzaghi and Edgar Davids. At home Juventus won Serie A in 1996–97 and 1997–98, as well as the 1996 UEFA Super Cup[46] and the 1996 Intercontinental Cup.[47] Juventus reached the 1997 and 1998 Champions League finals during this period, but lost out to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid respectively.[48][49]
After a season's absence Lippi returned, signing big name players such as Gianluigi Buffon, David Trezeguet, Pavel Nedvěd and Lilian Thuram, helping the team to two more scudetto titles in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons.[32] Juventus were also part of an all Italian Champions League final in 2003 but lost out to Milan on penalties after the game ended in a 0–0 draw. The following year, Lippi was appointed as Italy's head coach, bringing an end to one of the most fruitful managerial spells in Juventus' history.[38]
The "Calciopoli" scandal
Fabio Capello became its coach in 2004, and led Juventus to two more Serie A titles. However, in May 2006, Juventus became one of the five clubs linked to a Serie A match fixing scandal, the result of which saw the club relegated to Serie B for the first time in its history. The club was also stripped of the two titles won under Capello in 2005 and 2006.[50]
Many key players left following the demotion to Serie B, including Thuram, star striker Zlatan Ibrahimović and defensive stalwart Fabio Cannavaro. However, other big name players such as Buffon, Del Piero and Nedvěd remained to help the club return to Serie A while youngsters from the Primavera such as Sebastian Giovinco and Claudio Marchisio were integrated into the first team. The bianconeriwere promoted straight back up as league winners after the 2006–07 season while captain Del Piero claimed the top scorer award with 21 goals.
Many key players left following the demotion to Serie B, including Thuram, star striker Zlatan Ibrahimović and defensive stalwart Fabio Cannavaro. However, other big name players such as Buffon, Del Piero and Nedvěd remained to help the club return to Serie A while youngsters from the Primavera such as Sebastian Giovinco and Claudio Marchisio were integrated into the first team. The bianconeriwere promoted straight back up as league winners after the 2006–07 season while captain Del Piero claimed the top scorer award with 21 goals.
Return to Serie A
Since their return to Serie A in the 2007–08 season, former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri managed Juventus for two seasons.[51] They finished in third place in their first return season, and qualified for the 2008–09 Champions League third qualifying round in the preliminary stages. Juventus reached the group stages, where they beat Real Madrid in both home and away legs, before losing in the knockout round to Chelsea. Ranieri was sacked following a string of unsuccessful results, and Ciro Ferrara was appointed as manager on a temporary basis for the last two games of the season,[52] before being subsequently appointed as the manager for the 2009–10 season.[53]
However, Ferrara's stint as Juventus manager proved to be unsuccessful, with Juventus knocked out of Champions League and Coppa Italia, and just lying on the sixth place in the league table at the end of January 2010, leading to the dismissal of Ciro Ferrara and naming Alberto Zaccheroni as caretaker manager. Zaccheroni could not help the side improve, as Juventus finished the season in seventh place in Serie A. For the 2010–11 season, Jean-Claude Blanc was replaced by Andrea Agnelli as the club's president. Agnelli's first action was to replace Zaccheroni and Director of Sport Alessio Secco with Sampdoria manager Luigi Delneri and Director of Sport Giuseppe Marotta.[54] However, Delneri failed to improve their fortunes and was dismissed. Former player and fan favourite Antonio Conte, fresh after winning promotion with Siena, was named as Delneri's replacement.
With Conte as manager, Juventus went unbeaten for the entire season. Towards the second half of the season, the team was mostly competing with northern rivals Milan for first place in a tight contest. Juventus won the title on the 37th matchday, after beating Cagliari 2–0, and Milan losing to Internazionale 4–2. After a 3–1 win in the final matchday againstAtalanta, Juventus became the first team to go the season unbeaten in the current 38-game format. Other noteworthy achievements include the biggest away win (5–0 atFiorentina), best defensive record (20 goals conceded) in Serie A and second best in the top six European leagues.[55]
However, Ferrara's stint as Juventus manager proved to be unsuccessful, with Juventus knocked out of Champions League and Coppa Italia, and just lying on the sixth place in the league table at the end of January 2010, leading to the dismissal of Ciro Ferrara and naming Alberto Zaccheroni as caretaker manager. Zaccheroni could not help the side improve, as Juventus finished the season in seventh place in Serie A. For the 2010–11 season, Jean-Claude Blanc was replaced by Andrea Agnelli as the club's president. Agnelli's first action was to replace Zaccheroni and Director of Sport Alessio Secco with Sampdoria manager Luigi Delneri and Director of Sport Giuseppe Marotta.[54] However, Delneri failed to improve their fortunes and was dismissed. Former player and fan favourite Antonio Conte, fresh after winning promotion with Siena, was named as Delneri's replacement.
With Conte as manager, Juventus went unbeaten for the entire season. Towards the second half of the season, the team was mostly competing with northern rivals Milan for first place in a tight contest. Juventus won the title on the 37th matchday, after beating Cagliari 2–0, and Milan losing to Internazionale 4–2. After a 3–1 win in the final matchday againstAtalanta, Juventus became the first team to go the season unbeaten in the current 38-game format. Other noteworthy achievements include the biggest away win (5–0 atFiorentina), best defensive record (20 goals conceded) in Serie A and second best in the top six European leagues.[55]