History of Soccer

The history of soccer, or, football, as the sport is more popularly known, is fascinating. It is the biggest, most played, and, most watched team game in the world today. Its origins are not categorically clear, but there is some evidence that a very crude form of the game -- at least population kicking a ball of sorts around -- was played over 2,000 years ago in Japan and China. And it is known that the Romans played a twenty-seven aside game in their Olympic games.

It has always been "the people's" game of course: A form of very violent street football was played in both England and Scotland during the Middle Ages, and, was the cause of so much uproar and violence, (and kept young Englishmen from practicing with their long bows) that it was banned by law right up until the end of the 17th Century. However, even during this period, it increased in popularity, so that by the 18th and well into the 19th century, a very rough form of "mob football" was played in the streets of many towns and villages throughout Britain.

Sport Soccer

There is still some deliberate upon about one aspect of the history of soccer and that surrounds the thorny issue of when and where the first rules or codes were written. Eton and Harrow public schools in England drew-up sets of rules to try to bring some order, and consistency, to the game. And it has generally been standard that the rules of the contemporary game were devised in England by the Football connection which was formed in 1863.

However, there is a book in existence -- written in Latin in 1663 by an Aberdeen (Scotland) schoolmaster called David Wedderburn -- in which he talks about goalkeepers, passing the ball, and scoring goals. Interestingly, in comparison, the Fa's first rule book did not mention goalkeepers, and was based around a more rugby-style of game. So, there are some who argue that this book is the earliest evidence of the rules of the game, as we know it today; and not the English Fa's version.

If this is true, then it is a famous 'first', among several other 'firsts', for the proud city of Aberdeen in the North East of Scotland. The city's team Aberdeen Fc, aka the "Dons", is credited with being the first team in the world to introduce the trainer's "dugout" at the side of the pitch, and, it was the first club in the United Kingdom to have an all-seater stadium. So Aberdeen has well and truly cemented its place in the history of soccer.