The History of Football (Soccer)

The history of football has a long history. FIFA said that the Chinese competitive game of cuju (meaning kick ball) was the earliest form of football in recorded history. Cuju players could use any part of their body apart from hands. The intent of the game was for people to kick a ball through an opening into a net. It was similar to modern football with similarities to rugby. During the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 200 A.D.), cuju games were standardized and rules were formed. Phaininda and episkyros were ancient Greek ball games. There is a low relief on a vase of an episkyros player. This vase is found at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. It appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup. Athenaeus wrote in 228 A.D. about the Roman ball game of harpastum. Phaininda, episkyros, and harpastrum were played involving bands and violence. They all appear to have resembled rugby football, wrestling, and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football.These games dealt with handling the ball instead of kicking. These three games are similar to mob football and the antecedent of all modern football codes. Association football didn't have a classical history. FIFA has recognized no historical connection with any game played in antiquity outside of Europe. The modern rules of association football came from the mid-19th century. It was then when people wanted to standardize the different forms of football played in the public schools of England. The history of football in England came from at least the eighth century A.D. The Cambridge Rules was created at Cambridge University in 1848. They were influential in forming later codes including association football. Trinity College at Cambridge was where the Cambridge Rules were written. Many attended a meeting where the system was established. The meeting was attended by representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, and Shrewsbury schools. They weren't universally adopted. By the 1850's, many club unconnected to schools or universities were created in the English speaking world to play many forms of football. Some created their own rules like the Sheffield Football Club, formed by the former public school pupils in 1857. This led into the forming of Sheffield FA in 1867. By 1862, John Charles Thring of Uppingham School also devised an influential set of rules.

Efforts to modified soccer led to the creation of the Football Association (the FA) in 1853. They first met on the morning of October 23, 1863 at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, London. The only school to be  represented on this occasion was Charterhouse. The Freemason's Tavern was the setting for five more meetings between October and December. This led to the first comprehensive set of rules being formed. At the final meeting, the first FA treasurer, the representative from Blackheath, withdrew his club from the FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting. This was the first rule allowed for running with the ball in hand. The second rule was for obstructing such a run by hacking (kicking an opponent in the shines), tripping, and holding. Other English rugby clubs, followed this lead and did not join the FA and instead in 1871, it formed the Rugby Football Union. The eleven remaining clubs, under the charge of Ebezener Cobb Morley, went on to ratify the original thirteen laws of the game. These rules included handling of the ball by "marks" and the lack of a crossbar, rules which made it remarkably similar to Victorian rules football being developed at the time in Australia. The Sheffield FA played by its own rules until the 1870's with the FA absorbing some of its rules until there was little difference between the games. The FA Cup had the world's oldest football competition.

It was created by C.W. Alcock. It was contested by English teams since 1872. The first official international football match took place in 1872 between Scotland and England in Glasgow. This was again promoted by C. W. Alcock. England was home to the world's first football league. That was founded in Birmingham in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor. The original format had 12 clubs from the Midlands and Northern England. The International Football Association Board (IFAB) determined the laws of the game.  The board was created in 1886. This came after a meeting in Manchester of the Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales, and the Irish Football Association. The International football body of FIFA was formed in Paris in 1904 and declared that they would adhere to the Laws of the Game of the Football Association. Soccer grew in international popularity. FIFA representatives  were at the International Football Association Board in 1913. Now, football is played at the professional level worldwide. Millions celebrate the sport at stadiums too. Billions watch soccer on television or on the Internet. Amateur football is popular too. According to a survey conducted by FIFA published in 2001, over 240 million people from more than 200 countries regularly play football. Football has the highest global television audience in any sport. Football can led to peace or passion on many sides.


Women have played football for a very long time in human history. Women played the game of tsu chu during the Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.). There are women figures depicted in the Han Dynasty frescoes playing Tsu Chu. There are many people dispute the dates as early as 5,000 B.C. Association football or the modern game had women in it. There was the annual competition in Mid-Lothian, Scotland during the 1790's. By 1863, football governing bodies introduced standardized rules to prohibit violence on the pitch, and they allowed women to play.  The first match was recorded by the Scottish Football Association which took place in 1892 in Glasgow. In England, the first recorded game of football between women took place in 1895. The most well-documented early European team was founded by activist Nettie Honeyball in England in 1894. It was named the British Ladies' Football Club. Nettie Honeyball is quoted, "I founded the association late last year [1894], with the fixed resolve of proving to the world that women are not the 'ornamental and useless' creatures men have pictured. I must confess, my convictions on all matters where the sexes are so widely divided are all on the side of emancipation, and I look forward to the time when ladies may sit in Parliament and have a voice in the direction of affairs, especially those which concern them most." Honeyball and those like her paved the way for women's football. However, the women's game was frowned upon by the British football associations, and continued without their support. It has been suggested that this was motivated by some believing in the sexist view that women playing soccer threaten masculinity (which is a lie). Women's football became popular on a large scale at the time of the First World War, when employment in heavy industry spurred the growth of the game, much as it had done for men fifty years earlier. The most successful team of the era was Dick, Kerr's Ladies of Preston, England. The team played in the first women's international matches in 1920, against a team from Paris, France, in April, and also made up most of the England team against a Scottish Ladies XI in 1920, and winning 22–0. Despite being more popular than some men's football events (one match saw a 53,000 strong crowd), women's football in England suffered a blow in 1921 when The Football Association outlawed the playing of the game on Association members' pitches, on the grounds that they believed in the sexist lie that women playing soccer was "distasteful." We know that such views are false.

Some speculated that this may have also been due to envy of the large crowds that women's matches attracted. This led to the formation of the English Ladies Football Association and play moved to rugby grounds. Association football has been played by women since at least the time of the first recorded women's games in the late 19th century. It has traditionally been associated with charity games and physical exercise, particularly in the United Kingdom. In the late 1960s and early 1970s women's association football was organised in the United Kingdom, eventually becoming the most prominent team sport for British women. During the 20th and 21st centuries, women's football has grown considerately. National and intentional level competitions are common place. There are struggles too. There was time when the FA banned women from playing football until the late 1960's and early 1970's. The FIFA Women's World Cup was inaugurated in 1991 and has been held every four years since. Women's football has been an Olympic event since 1996. We now about the historic USA women's national soccer team (or the USWNT) wining the FIFA Women's World Cup recently in 2019. The team uniformly desired equality, equal pay, and didn't want to visit Trump at the White House because of the obvious reason (i.e. Trump is a sexist, racist, and xenophobic extremist). The United States women's national soccer team is the most successful women's national team in the history of the Women's World Cup, having won four titles, earning second-place once and third-place finishes three times. The United States is one of the countries besides Germany, Japan, and Norway to win a FIFA Women's World Cup (China 1991, United States 1999, Canada 2015, France 2019). The United States are also the only team that has played the maximum number of matches possible in every tournament. The names of the players are: Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Robin Heath, Ashlyn Harris, Carli Lloyd, Christen Press, Ali Krieger, Rose Lavelle, Julie Ertz, Mallory Pugh, Kelley O'Hara, Alexandra Long, Crystal Dunn, Abby Dahlkemper, Alyssa Naeher, Lindsey Horan, Sam Mewis, Becky Sauerbrunn, Morgan Brian, Tierna Davidson, Adrianna Franch, Jessica McDonald,
and Emily Sonnett. They are a real team with energy and a strong spirit.





By Timothy