Soccer The War Game!

">towns and villages where the objective was to move
Believe it or not, but the modern day soccer owes itsthe ball to a predetermined spot. Hundreds of people
origin to the barbarous war mongering nature ofwould take part in these games and a single game
human beings.could last a whole day. Punching, kicking, biting ,
There is no proper documentation that can state theeverything was allowed.
date and place of origination of the most popularThe savage nature of this form of football was not
modern day sport—Soccer. However, depending onmuch appreciated by the rulers and the Royalty took
the socio-historical facts and data we can assumeall possible steps to stop these games. King Edward III
that some type of a ball game was playedof England, passed laws in 1331 to stop the game, he
somewhere in this planet for at least over 3000yearswas followed by King James I of Scotland in 1424.
now.The Queens were not far behind, rather, had a more
The earliest evidence of soccer was found in Kyoto,strict approach. Queen Elizabeth I of England, enacted
Japan where a field marked to play a ball-kickinglaws that could sentence a football player to jail for a
game was found.week followed by penancing in a church.
There is also proper documentation that supports theHowever, in spite of all their best efforts and intentions
fact that the Chinese military forces around 2nd andthey could not stop the game. It was too popular
3rd century BC (Han Dynasty) played a game thatamong the masses and they loved the game.
involved kicking a ball into a small net. This was then anThe first approach to regularize and give a civilized
essential skill building exercise for the armed forces.form to this game was taken by the famous Eton
Historical evidence also shows that some form ofCollege of England in 1815 when they established a set
Soccer was played also by the Greeks and theof rules for the games. These rules were accepted by
Romans, however, the primitive form involved a largerthe other schools, colleges and universities. Later, in
team on each side. At times the team strength would1848, these rules were further standardized and a new
go up even to around 27 people on each side. Theversion was adopted by all the schools, college and
Greeks were playing four different forms of the balluniversities. This new set of rules was known as the
game, namely "Episkyros", "Ourania", "Pheninda" andCambridge Rules.
"Keritizein". Episkyros was the closest to football. In thisAt this stage, there were actually two set of rules that
2 equally numbered teams, would try to throw the ballwere being followed in this game. Some organizations
over the heads of the other team. There was a whitepreferred to follow the rules of the Rugby School, that
line between the teams and another white line behindallowed tripping, kicking and carrying the ball, whereas
each team. Teams would change the ball often untilthe Cambridge rules prohibited all this methods.
one of the team is forced behind the line at their end.In October, 1863, The Football Association was formed,
Now, how many of you would believe that the modernwhen eleven London schools and clubs came together
day soccer actually originated as a war game?to establish a single set of rules to administer any
Unbelievable, but true! The first Football (as Soccer isfootball match that were to be played among them.
called in Britain) game was played by the locals ofOn 8 December 1863, Association Football and Rugby
east of England, where they started a game, kickingFootball finally split onto two different organizations.
around the severed head of a Danish prince whomIn 1869, these rules were further amended to exclude
they have defeated in a war. That marked theany handling of the ball beyond the scope of
origination of Football as a war game.acceptability and that created the foundation for the
After this, for a long time, football was played by rivalmodern day sports mania—SOCCER !