The contemporary history of the world's favorite game spans more than 100 years. It all began in 1863 in England, when rugby football and association football branched off on their different courses and the Football Association in England was formed.
A search down the centuries reveals at least half a dozen different games, varying to different degrees, and to which the historical development of football has been traced back.
Apart from the need to employ the legs and feet in tough tussles for the ball, often without any laws for protection, it was recognized right at the outset that the art of controlling the ball with the feet was not easy and, as such, required no small measure of skill. The very earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence was an exercise from a military manual dating back to the second and third centuries BC in China.
This Han Dynasty forebear of football was called Tsu' Chu and it consisted of kicking a leather ball through an opening, measuring only 30-40cm in width, into a small net fixed onto long bamboo canes.
Another form of the game, also originating from the Far East, was the Japanese Kemari, which began some 500-600 years later and is still played today. This is a sport lacking the competitive element of Tsu' Chu with no struggle for possession involved. Standing in a circle, the players had to pass the ball to each other, in a relatively small space, trying not to let it
touch the ground.
The Greek 'Episkyros' - of which few concrete details survive - was much livelier, as was the Roman 'Harpastum'. The latter was played out with a smaller ball by two teams on a rectangular field marked by boundary lines and a center line. The objective was to get the ball over the opposition's boundary lines and as players passed it between themselves, trickery was the order of the day. The game remained popular for 700-800 years, and the Romans ended up taking it to Britain with them.
Football's roots in England has been found in Medieval football, which was played annually on Shrovetide. It is suggested that this game was derived from those played in Brittany and Normandy, and could have been brought to England in the Norman Conquest. These games were violent and largely ruleless. As a result, they were often banned. England is the origin of nearly all first accounts of features of football: In 1280 comes the first account of a kicking ball game. This happened at Ulgham, near Ashington in Northumberland, in which a player was killed as a result of running against an opposing player's dagger. This confirms that by the 13th century kicking ball games were being played in England. England can boast the earliest ever documented use of the English word "football" (1409) and the earliest reference to the sport in French (1314).
England is home to the oldest football clubs in the world (dating from at least 1857), the world's oldest competition (the FA Cup founded in 1871) and the first ever football league (1888). For these reasons England is considered the home of football.
“Too small to be a real war and too cruel to be a game.”
Soccer as we know it has undergone several modifications since its earliest stages. Back in 1529, a soccer-esque sport called ‘Calcio Fiorentino’ was being played between two teams with 27 players each in the Piazza Santa Croce, a famous plaza in front of a basilica in Florence, Italy. The players used this game to solve their political differences in a match full of violence and intensity. These differences were normal back in 16th century Italy, when competition was more a matter of showing superiority and dominance over a rival group—as in matches between aristocratic families and gangs that dominated different parts of the city-states—than playing for fun. The game lacked strategy, coordination, rotation, and positioning—even goalkeepers. Henry III of France once attended a game of Calcio and said it was “Too small to be a real war and too cruel to be a game.”
Tactics on the pitch started to gain importance when the first goalkeeper appeared in 1871. The matches looked more organized with only 11 players on the field, although the oldest video recording of a soccer match, between Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion, shows that, although some players should were meant to stick in midfield, they still focused a lot on scoring regardless of their tactics. Today’s World Cups were the main catalyst for tactical evolution in club football. By 1925, defense had become a priority through the formation commonly known as ‘WM’, with three defensemen, three attackers, and four midfielders; all forming a W and M on the field. Midfield control and ball possession were essential in Brazil’s 1970 team. And the Netherlands’s renowned ‘Clockwork Orange’ (a nickname for the national soccer team) in 1974 used a defensive strategy in which more than one player would quickly swarm an opponent to steal the ball. It looked like the Netherlands was always about to run over a player. A bizarre tactic to watch but one that turned out effective.
The first world cup soccer match started on July 13th, 1930. France defeated Mexico in a game of 4 to 1, paving way for a glorious world cup beginning. After the war, the FIFA World Cup gained worldwide recognition as the sole sporting event of the new world. The World cup has been held since 1958 in Europe and the Americas. The World Cup Executive Committee's decision in May 1996 made a major decision of selecting Korea and Japan as co-hosts for the 2002 edition.
A largely male-dominated sport, women soccer has also seen some changes. The first women’s World Cup was held in China in 1991. The US won the championship the first time ever in the history
of womens soccer.
Ever since 1930, the world has witnessed only seven different winners in the 16 tournaments held so far. The FIFA World cup has seen wonderful victories and some dramatic twists such as England’s defeat in 1950, North Korea’s loss in Italy in 1966 and Cameroon’s opening match defeat of Argentina in 1990.
FIFA World cup today draws people from all over the globe. After so many years, the world cup has seen the best and the worst in the sphere of soccer. The soccer world stands taller in recognition and popularity with the FIFA world cup. Soccer is the most loved and admired game with a history of
over 3000 years.
