Football. Soccer. Whatever you want to call it, it is the single most popular team sport in the world. The reasons are varied but maybe it is because it is so easy for anyone to play is perhaps the biggest. You don’t need a “real” pitch, goals can be made from almost anything, you don’t need a bat or a hoop, all you really need is a ball.

Most people who know anything about the beautiful game know that it was officially invented by the English. In actual fact, the roots of soccer go far further back than you might imagine and the game that is played today is influenced by games played for thousands of years all over the world.

Soccer in Ancient China

If you think that some people take soccer a little too seriously these days then you haven’t heard of “tsu chu” (which literally means kicking the ball) an early form of soccer played in Ancient China. The game was an integral part of military training and every year on the Emperor's birthday an elaborate tsu chu game was staged for him by the best players. Teams played with a feather filled ball and the goalposts were made from bamboo. The game was a very serious one though - the victors were treated to banquets and other honors but the losers were often beheaded!

Soccer in Ancient Japan

A game called kemari played in seventh-century Japan also had some similarities with the game of soccer. The object of the game was for players on a team to pass a ball between them back and forth without letting it touch the floor - a sort of combination of soccer and hacky sack!

Soccer in England

England had its own form of soccer - the game we call football - long before the Football Association was officially formed in 1863 and Association Football (soccer's official name) was born. There is some historical evidence that a form of soccer - using an enemy's head as the ball - was played by English soldiers during battles with the Danes. But the real roots of the modern game came from “street mob football” games played up and down the country that involved two teams (of any size) struggling to control an inflated pigs bladder by kicking it. The games got very nasty though. According to an early handbook, any means short of murder or manslaughter could be used to get the ball across the goal.

The rules did not actually help too much though and serious injury and death were not uncommon, leading to the game officially being banned by royal decree in the fourteenth century.

That really did not stop anyone and the game continued to be played - but in a less public manner.

The Birth of “Real” Soccer

By the 1820s the staff at public schools across England began to realize there was, in fact, some merit in the football game if it were to be “civilized”. To this end, each school set up its own set of rules and introduced the game into regular curriculums.

Having become fond of the game graduates of these schools began forming their own clubs and so that they could compete against one another properly a defined set of rules was called for.

After a number of meetings and disagreements, the representatives of eleven clubs met at the Freemason’s Tavern on October 26th, 1863 to determine a set of rules for the game once and for all. One club, Blackheath, decided to withdraw though when the other teams refused to ratify an agreement that running while holding the ball and tackling an opponent would be allowed.

The remaining 10 teams did manage to agree on a set of rules though and the original 14 Laws of the Game were published by the newly formed Football Association in December of 1863.

The first rules did not mention fouls, penalties or referees though. Although the game had some very violent roots by then Association Football was considered a gentleman’s sport and what gentleman would think of taking an unfair advantage? In the absence of a referee, there were two umpires - one representing each team. A referee was introduced in the 1880s though and by 1891 both the referee and the umpires - now known as linesmen - moved onto the pitch and into the heart of the game.

Today there are 17 Laws of the Game and should modifications ever need to be made that would be decided by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

The Beautiful Game Grows

How fast the Football Association in England grew was astonishing. Within three years there were 50 professional clubs and the first competition between them - the FA Cup - was played in 1872 and by 1888 the first league championship was awarded. The first League winners were Preston North End, with Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers named runners-up. The first FA Cup went to the London based Wanderers but the club disbanded in 1887.

Scotland, Ireland and Wales all followed the English into forming official Football Associations - Scotland in 1873, Wales in 1875 and Ireland in 1880. The first sanctioned international matches were played between England and Scotland.

The Rise of International Association Football

By 1904 there were 21 different Football Associations worldwide. Some of them - initially just France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain (represented by Madrid FC), Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland - formed FIFA in May of 1904 to encourage international competition. By 1912, 21 national football associations were affiliated with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). By 1925, the number had increased to 36, while in 1930 - the year of the first World Cup - it was 41.

The last “piece in the puzzle” that formed the basis of the modern game of soccer was when future FIFA president Stanley Roux took the 1886 English Laws of the Game, added to them and created the modern day Laws of the Game, which remained unchanged until they were modified slightly by FIFA in 1997.