Growth of Soccer

I decided it was silly to write my own version of soccer history. Why rewrite something that has already been done well before?

Here are excerpts from various websites describing the history of soccer in ancient and medieval times.

From Tetrabrazil.com

"The earliest evidence of soccer dates from about 200 in China, where a form of the game was played that emphasized the ability of players to dribble a leather ball. The Greeks and Romans also participated in a variation of soccer that permitted ball carrying.

The modern-day outgrowth of soccer is known to have started in England, and the first ball reportedly was the head of a dead Danish brigand. Although King Edward III prohibited soccer in 1365 because of its excessive violence and for military reasons playing took time away from archery practice the game had become too popular to be curtailed."

From http://worldsoccer.about.com/cs/historyandstats/a/sochist.htm

"There is documentary evidence that a game or skill building exercise, involving kicking a ball into a small net, was used by the Chinese military during the Han Dynasty - around the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC.

Earlier evidence - of a field marked out to play a ball-kicking game has been found at Kyoto, in Japan.

Both the Greeks and ancient Romans played a soccer-type game which resembled modern soccer - although in this early version, teams could consist of up to 27 players!

It is impossible to say accurately where and when soccer started - but it is reasonable to assume that some type of ball game - from which the organised sport we know today developed - has been played somewhere on the planet for over 3000 years.

In medieval times, towns and villages played against rival towns and villages - and kicking, punching, biting and gouging were allowed.

The object of the game was to move the ball to an agreed spot which had been marked out before play commenced.

Hundreds of people took part and games could last all day. So violent did these matches become that many attempts were made by the authorities to ban soccer.

In England, King Edward III passed laws in 1331 to try and suppress football. In Scotland, King James 1, in 1424, proclaimed in Parliament, "That na man play at the Fute-ball" (No man shall play football/soccer).

Good Queen Bess, Queen Elizabeth 1 of England, had a law passed which provided for soccer players to be " jailed for a week, and obliged to do penance in church."

But no law could stop the game in Britain.

It was too popular."

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History of Soccer - Modern Roots

From http://worldsoccer.about.com/cs/historyandstats/a/sochist.htm

"In 1815, the famous English School, Eton College, established a set of rules which other schools, colleges and Universities began to use. Later, these were standardised and a version, known as the Cambridge Rules, was adopted by most of England's Universities and Colleges in 1848.

But now, football was divided into two separate camps. Some colleges and schools preferred to follow rules drawn up by Rugby School - rules which permitted tripping, shin-kicking and carrying the ball - all forbidden by the Cambridge rules.

On 26 October 1863, eleven London clubs and schools sent their representatives to a meeting in the Freemason's Tavern to establish a single set of fundamental rules to govern the matches played amongst them.

This meeting created The Football Association.

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