Origins of football

One of the oldest known soccer ball, found in the rafters of a bedroom in Stirling Castle and dating from around the time Mary Queen

Incoming World Cup in Russia will (like all previous) be a world-wide event with billions of people watching final match. Clearly, football is a global phenomenon and is likely only to get bigger and bigger as the internet and social media make it easier for people on different sides of the world to watch matches.

So who invented football? The common view is that football was invented in England, coming to the fore in the 19th Century.

However, there are claims that it was the Scottish who invented football as we know it, as well as the Chinese also believing they played an integral role in the birth of the game. Some have claimed that football dates back to as far as 2500 B.C. with the Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and the Romans all having played a game involving a ball and feet. Of these ancient games, the most relevant to football in its modern incarnation is a Chinese game called Tsu-Chu which means "kicking the ball", with records dating back to the Han Dynasty, 206 B.C. - 220 A.D. The game involved kicking a small leather ball into a net strung between two bamboo poles. Using your hand was permitted but the foot and other parts of the body were allowed. There was one crucial difference: in Tsu-Chu the goal hung about 30 feet from the goal. The Japanese, Native Americans and Indigenous Australians all played games that centred on the feet, too.

Left: An episkyros player on an ancient stone carving at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens

What is not in doubt is England's huge influence on the spread of football, and indeed, many other popular sports such as tennis and cricket. Around the 9th Century is when people in England began to kick around a pig's bladder in villages. Authorities saw it as a nuisance and in 1314 there was a decree issued, banning the game due to its "great noise in the city". In fact, Henry VIII ordered the construction of his own pair of football boots and was perhaps England's first football lad with his heavy drinking and womanising. At this point in time football was violent and disorganised and a long way from the balletic game we watch today. olk football began in England in the 18th and 19th Century and even spread to other countries such as France. It was played by huge numbers of people and the goals were as much as three miles apart. The object of the game was to drive a ball, usually a pig's bladder, to a goal, and could be kicked, thrown or carried. Unsurprisingly, the game was extremely violent and kicking an opposing player in the shins was a legitimate tactic - no matter how far from the ball they were. However, as Britain became increasingly industrialized and capitalist folk football became less popular, as people moved into urban areas.

It was in the public schools of England that football began to modernise. Hands were still allowed but goalkeepers and tactics were introduced and high tackles were outlawed. Space restraints were devised, too. Football clubs emerged in the 19th Century but the some incarnations of the game still resembled rugby more than modern football. Schools began to play against each other but violent "shinning" was only frowned upon when the player was being held. The Football Association (FA) was formed on 26 October 1863. They wanted to bring together the different codes and systems used across the country and handling the ball, shin-kicking and tripping were all outlawed. More clubs joined the FA until the number reached 128 by 1887. in 1872 the first FA Cup game was played and by the 1870s players were getting paid by their clubs. The English Football League was formed in 1888 by then Villa director William McGregor.

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) was formed in Paris in 1904 with seven members. In 1930 the first ever FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay. The rest, as they say, was history.

Read More

30-year-old Roman man who was crushed by a stone block during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, in Pompeii

 After the discovery of the first complete remains of a horse, the Regio V excavation in Pompeii has unearthed the skeletal remains of a man captured at a dramatic moment of death. He was attempting to flee the eruption of Vesuvius when he was struck by a massive stone that crushed his thorax and pinned him to the ground for 2,000 years.

Preliminary examination of the remains and context indicate that the victim, an adult male about 30 years of age, survived the first phase of the eruption in Pompeii, the heavy fall of pumice which caused the death of many of the town’s residents in roof collapses. He took refuge in an alley after the pumice fall had created a whole new ground level. His body was found at at the corner of the newly-unearthed Alley of the Balconies and the Alley of the Silver Wedding, but not at street level. By the time he got to that alley, the thick layer of volcanic stones had raised it to the height of the first floor, about seven feet above street level.

His choice of shelter could not shield him from the second phase of the eruption. He was hit by the pyroclastic flow of volcanic gasses knocking him off his feet and throwing him backwards. The gas cloud made a projectile out of a 300-kilo (660-pound) stone, possible a door jam, and shot it at his upper body. The top of his thorax was crushed and his head hasn’t been found yet. Archaeologists believe the remains of the skull, whatever tiny fragments may still exist, are probably under the stone block.

Osteological examination on his legs found lesions indicating a serious bone infection. This would have made walking extremely painful and physically challenging. Given his disability, he would not have been able to escape readily on foot in the lead-up to the eruption.

This is the first human victim of the calamity discovered in the Regio V excavation. It comes as a surprise to archaeologists because the area has been excavated twice before, once in the 19th century and again in the early 20th, but they missed this man and the stone block that may have crushed and decapitated him before the thermal shock of the pyroclastic flow sealed his fate.

Read More