In its oldest versions, any part of the body could be used to control the ball or tackle opponents. The name it acquired refers not to the fact that only the feet could be used to propel the ball, but that the game was played on foot. This marked it out as a game played by ordinary people, as distinct from the team games of the nobility which were played on horseback. Before this it was generally known simply as “ball” or “gameball” (game then meaning any kind of fight).

This early knockabout version of football probably derived from a game called “harpastum”, which was played by Roman soldiers. This would have looked a little like our modern-day rugby and was used as a training exercise. It involved plenty of body-tackling and general commotion. The locals then perhaps created their own rough-and-ready version.

According to the website of FIFA, the international controlling body of the modern sport, “it is certain that in many cases, pagan customs, especially fertility rites, played a major role. The ball symbolised the sun, which had to be conquered in order to secure a bountiful harvest. The ball had to be propelled around, or across, a field so that the crops would flourish and the attacks of the opponents had to be warded off.”

Early days

Virtually nothing about the early game would look familiar to us today. It was a rural affair, played in villages and across open country, with the “goals” sometimes fixed a couple of miles apart. There was no set number of people in each team  – 500 a side was not unusual – and there were hardly any rules. You were more or less entitled to do anything to get the ball, including grappling with, kicking and punching the opposition.

Not surprisingly, the riotous nature of the game led to extensive damage, both to property and players. There is one report of a fatal stabbing during the course of a match, although it is unclear whether it was intentional or not.

Despite the dangers, the game was wildly popular: so much so that many attempts were made over the course of the centuries to ban it. Hardly any of these had any effect.

What was probably the first– an edict of Edward II in 1314 – was spurred on by the knowledge that young men were wasting valuable time and energy playing ball when they really should have been practising their skills with the bow and arrow. With the prospect of war with France constantly threatening, this was an alarming thought to the King. Would England soon have a shortage of skilled archers?

It is clear then that the game always involved physical aggression. There is also some evidence that, in the 13th century, it was used as a means of settling disputes among villagers, or between neighbouring villages.

Opposing factions would line up opposite each other, before one very brave soul dropped the ball in the space between them. The two “teams” would then fight a pitched battle to see which would be the first to kick it against the church door.

A woman's game too

When football was played purely for enjoyment, it became a tradition for matches to be held on Shrove Tuesday – the last day in the Christian calendar before the start of the fasting season of Lent, which was always the occasion for a final burst of festivity.In those days, the ball was an inflated pig’s bladder, filled with dried peas and sewn up. It was roughly round but as the game was played on uneven ground it didn’t have to roll smoothly.

Some historians believe that in the dim distant past, the “ball” would have been the severed head or skull of an enemy. This practice most likely originated when a group of peasants celebrated a rare victory over occupying Roman legionaries by knocking a few heads around.

What might come as a surprise is that football wasn’t originally just a man’s game. When a whole community took part, women would often participate too. Some villages staged women-only matches, with the married ladies forming a team against the unmarried.

When he acceded to the throne in 1603, James I became the latest monarch to express his disapproval of the rough-and-tumble of football. Within a few years, though, he had changed his mind, and was positively encouraging it as a healthy, character-forming pursuit.

Taking the King’s lead, in 1633 the Church of England also officially endorsed football as a blameless activity. You could now consider yourself to be both a loyal subject of the King and a good Christian as you kicked and fought your way through another free-for-all.

Comedy of Errors

Football’s popularity is acknowledged by that great popular entertainer, William Shakespeare.

And it is the violent, knockabout nature of the game that draws his attention. In Act II, scene 1 of The Comedy Of Errors, one of the characters complains to another, “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.”

The last comment refers to the leather casing that the standard football had now acquired.

In King Lear, Act I, scene 4, the Duke of Kent can think of no more scornful insult to pour on the hapless servant Oswald than to call him a “base football player”. In so doing, he trips Oswald up for having been impudent to the King, neatly performing a classic football tackle on him.

Launch of the FA

It was the adoption of football as a sporting activity in public schools that led to the gradual attempt to both regulate and refine it. The first clubs were formed in the 1820s. An initial (failed) attempt to codify the rules was made at Cambridge University in 1848.

The second attempt,  summarised in Ten Rules, was drawn up by one JC Thring, also at Cambridge. A meeting at the Freemason’s Tavern in London in October 1863 set up the Football Association, and established once and for all the unified system of rules we recognise today.

A match between London and Sheffield in 1866 is recognised as the first where the two teams agreed on the weight and size of the ball, and that the game should last 90 minutes.

An international flavour

The world’s first-ever international fixture took place in 1872 – between England and Scotland.

All the omens looked good for the Scots. The match was played in Glasgow on St Andrew’s Day. A spell of rain that had lasted for several days cleared up just in time for the kick-off, and a home crowd of 4,000 turned out. Sadly, the match ended in a goalless draw.

When the fixture was repeated at the Oval ground in Kennington, south London, the following March, it was a different story. England cruised to a 4-2 victory.

Perhaps the scent of London in 1966 was already in the air…