For critical studies I will be looking at the history of Football and to see how this game has changed today. I will also be looking at how this game came in to being, what influenced it and how it has affected the modern world of Football today.
Football
Football is a team based game dating back at least 850 years. The game we know as today has grown and is now possibly one of the biggest world wide sports event next to the Olympics. Football as the name states is played with your feet, any picking the ball up with your hands or arms will most like result in a foul or penalty. The goalie is the only player allowed to pick up the ball. The game is played with 11 players on each team, the aim of Football is to score as many goals as possible in the 90 minutes of player time given.
The Beginning of Football in Britain
Football was first mentioned in England by a gentleman named William Fitzstephen around about 1170. He had found records of the game while visiting London, from what he saw youths would go out to a field after dinner for a game of ball. Fitzstephen would then mention that he also found that the elders, father and men of wealth on horseback would come watch the contests of their juniors. The ball used in football was made from an inflated animal bladder. Two teams, made up of large numbers of young men, attempted to get the ball into the opposition goal. In towns the game was mainly played by craft apprentices.
A 17th print showing the inflation of an animal bladder.
Centuries later however a monk strongly disapproved of the game deeming it "undignified and worthless" and that it also resulted in loss of life, accidents or even self damage. An incident like this happened in 1280, states: "Henry, son of William de Ellington, while playing at ball at Ulkham on Trinity Sunday with David le Ken and many others, ran against David and received an accidental wound from David's knife of which he died on the following Friday." Another incident was in 1321, William de Spalding, was in trouble with the law over a game of football: "During the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend of his, also called William, ran against him and wounded himself on a sheath knife carried by the canon, so severely that he died within six days." There has been many other incidents recorded of footballers dying after falling on their daggers.
Beginning of many banning
As expected from the number of casualties, The game was banned. First by Edward II then again by Edward III in 1331 for the preparation for an invasion of Scotland. Henry IV was next to reintroduce the ban in 1388. In 1414 Henry V order young men to practise archery than playing football. Edward IV also passed a law banning football in 1477, Henry VII outlawed football in 1496 and his son Henry VIII created a series of laws about the game being played in public areas.
As for the churches of the time the opinion of football were split, one side absolutely against it, the other thought it was good exercise however both side agreed they disliked the game being played on Sunday. During the mid 1500s the ban had been lifted some what but was still enforced on a Sunday, as in one incident 'In 1589, Hugh Case and William Shurlock were fined 2s for playing football in St. Werburgh's cemetery during the vicar's sermon. Ten years later a group of men in a village in Essex were fined for playing football on a Sunday. Other prosecutions took place in Richmond, Bedford, Thirsk and Guisborough.'
Overview of What I Think
From what I can tell Football around this period of time was a very dangerous sport although it does make me wonder if anyone thought to take their weapons off while playing as it can be plainly seen that carrying a knife around that someone is obviously going to get hurt.
As a result of all these injuries I'm not surprised the game was banned, but i think banning people from wearing weapons while playing would have possibly been an easier solution, than banning this fast becoming popular game. Also i suppose the other thing is these bans didn't seem to work very well as they were constantly being renewed and even then were still ignored.
In 1618 the banning of football was failing spectacularly , it became such a major problem in Manchester that the local council had to appointed special "football officers" to police these laws. However when Oliver Cromwell became the new ruler of Britain in 1649 he instructed his Major-Generals to enforce laws against the game football. Cromwell was more successful than the previous rulers in stopping young men from playing football. Unfortunately after his death in 1660 the game gradually re-emerged in Britain.
Rugby?
In Wales however the game was played slightly differently according to George Owen in around 1550, A ball was prepared it was made of wood and boiled in tallow to make it slippery and hard to hold. The welsh people called this ball a knappan, and one person of the group hurls it into the air, the idea is to hurl the ball towards the goal. The knappan is tossed backwards and forwards It was probably very odd to see a thousand or more men chasing after this ball. it should also be noted that this was a very violent game that by the end of the match there would huge numbers amounts of injuries like broken heads, black faces, bruised bodies and lame legs Yet it is mentioned that these Welshmen would only laugh and joke and tell stories about how they broke their heads without grudge or hatred. The distance between the two goals in these football games could be several miles. This became the game we now know as Rugby
Breaking The Ban of Football
By the 18th century football was played by most of Britain's leading Public Schools. There is documentary evidence that football was played at Eton from as early as 1747. Westminster, Harrow, Shrewsbury, Winchester and Charterhouse had all taken up football by the 1750s.
In 1828, Thomas Arnold became headmaster of a school called Rugby. This is where he emphasized the importance of sport in young men's education. Like most headteachers in public schools, Arnold believed that sport was a good method for "encouraging senior boys to exercise responsible authority on behalf of the staff". He also argued that games like football provided a "formidable vehicle for character building".
From the early part of the 19th century Footballs were leather-covered bladders. There were experiments with balls made of natural rubber but they bounced too high to be used in football matches. In 1830 a man named Charles Macintosh discovered a way of producing thin rubber sheets. This enabled the production of inflatable rubber bladders for leather footballs.
An early game of football.
This is a major change for the Football Society, as it was no longer banned and was now starting to be considered as a sport where teams would form within there town or city to be played against each other like an event. Many hundreds of people would come and watch the game be played, bets would be taken on guessing who would win.
FAs Birth
In 1863 The Football Association was founded and by 1871, the FA Cup was introduced by the secretary of the FA Charles W. Alcock. It was the first knockout competition of its type in the world. Only 12 clubs took part in the competition: Wanderers, Royal Engineers, Hitchin, Crystal Palace, Queens Park, Civil Service, Barnes, Hampstead Heathens, Great Marlow, Upton Park, Maidenhead and Clapham Rovers
Many clubs did not enter for financial reasons. It difficult to find the money to travel to the capital London. Each club also had to contribute one guinea towards the cost of the £20 silver trophy. The Wanderers won the first FA Cup final in 1872.
Modern picture of FA Cup
In 1870 eleven-a-side games were introduced with the addition of a goalkeeper. In 1872 the FA published an updated set of laws. This made it clear that "a goal shall be won when the ball passes between the goal posts under the tape, not being thrown, knocked on, or carried." The new rules clearly distinguished between goalkeepers and other players: "A player shall not throw the ball nor pass it to another except in the case of the goalkeeper, who shall be allowed to use his hands for the protection of his goal... No player shall carry or knock on the ball; nor shall any player handle the ball under any pretence whatever."
England against Scotland in 1877. Note the lack of crossbars and nets.
The FA Cup helped to popularize the game of football. Up until this competition only fifty clubs were members of the Football Association and played by their rules. In 1877 the clubs in Sheffield decided to join the FA and by 1881 its membership had risen to 128. The FA continued to adapt the rules of the game. In 1881 the Football Association introduced a law that stated that if a player was "guilty of ungentlemanly behaviour the Referee could rule offending players out of play and order them off the ground." If a player was sent off they were usually suspended for a month without pay. By 1882 the goals during any game of football had to provide crossbars, a decade later all goals had to have a net. This reduced the number times someone had to travel a short or long distance to collect the ball after a player had scored a goal.
In the 1880s football was introduced into most state schools. It could be played on any hard surface and that was especially attractive to those schools that did not have access to playing fields. As a high percentage of the children were physically underdeveloped and undernourished, soccer was considered to be more suitable than rugby.
The game was encouraged by the ruling class. In 1881 Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, MP for Denbighshire, argued: "Much has been said of the British spending their time on drinking... These kinds of sports... keep young men from wasting their time... after playing a good game of football... young men are more glad to go to bed then visiting the public house."
In 1923 the FA Cup was moved to Wembley. The ground had been built for the British Empire Exhibition and had excellent railway links. Over 270,000 people travelled in 145 special services to the final that featured West Ham United and Bolton.
The railways had a considerable impact on the attendances of international matches. Only 1,000 people from Scotland travelled to watch the game against England at Crystal Palace in 1897. However, for the match at Wembley in 1936, 22,000 Scots came to London in 41 trains provided by the London Midland and Scottish Railway.
The World Wars
During world war 1 & 2 football games were put on hold, but in WWI on Christmas Day 1915, after some shouting between both trenches, the British got out of their icy trench and greeted the Germans. A football was produced from somewhere. It said that it was not a game as such more of a kick around and a free for all. There could have been 50 on each side, with the match only lasting half an hour or so. WWII however was football suspended through out the war with many of the players fighting and dieing here.
Conclusion
Football Today
Football at the present moment of 2010, is played world wide with the world cup every 4 years. The game is not only for world wide events, but can also be played with every town/city within a country playing against each other, even so that is not the end of it football is still played within schools against each other and many football clubs have been formed with the FA being possibly the largest.
Digital Impact
Football like most other games these days has gone digital, it can now be played in your sitting room or bedroom, on your X-Box 360, PlayStation 2&3 and any other consoles, either on your own or with a few of your mates. FIFA 10 is the biggest football game available today, There are 31 leagues and over 500 teams in the game, as well as 41 national teams. However do the people who played the game digitally want to play it in real life? I have ask my friends about it and these are there answers:
Friend 1: I would play football in real life if I was fit again, but I don't really have much interest in playing the game digitally, although I'll admit the graphics are very impressive!
Friend 2: I'm not a huge football fan, but if I do play a game I'll play it on my X-Box, because you can control your entire team.
Friend 3: I like both, on sunny warm days I prefer to play outside and on cold wet days particularly during winter I'll play the game on my X-Box.
