26/02/2014
After the ball had begun to roll in China in the 3rd century BC then known as ts'uh kúh, it continued moving across to Japan because of the invention of kemari (600 AC). It arrived in Europe during the Greek empire by a shot; the ball stayed still on the Trinity College pitch (Cambridge, England). In 1848, the first modern football rules were set in a code written by members of different English colleges.
"I went up to Trinity College, Cambridge. In the following years an attempt was made to get up some football in preference to the hockey that was then in vogue. But the result was dire confusion, as every man played the rules he had been accustomed to at his public school. So it was agreed that two men should be chosen to represent each of the public schools, and two who were not public school men, for the 'Varsity. G. Salt and myself were chosen for the 'Varsity. I wish I could remember the others. We were 14 in all. Harrow and Eton Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury were represented. We met in my rooms after Hall, which in those days was at 4 pm.; anticipating a long meeting, I cleared the tables and provided pens, ink and paper. Every man brought a copy of his school rules, or knew them by heart, and our progress in framing new rules was slow. On several occasions Salt and I, being unprejudiced, carried or struck out a rule when the voting was equal. We broke up five minutes before midnight. The new rules were printed as the "Cambridge Rules?, copies were distributed and pasted up on Parker's Piece, and very satisfactorily they worked, for it is right to add that they were loyally kept, and I never heard of any public school man who gave up playing from not liking the rules. [...] Well Sir, years afterwards someone took these rules, still in force at Cambridge, and with a very few alterations they became the Association Rules" H.C. Malden wrote in a letter dated 8 October 1897.
Hands forbidden -an obvious rugby influence- and offside were some of the rules established. Although this code wasn?t defined as the first official by FIFA nor The Football Association. The "Sheffield Rules? were the first ones, written ten years later and 215 kilometer away from Cambridge by two cricket players, founders of the Sheffield FC.
Prest and Creswick, football pioneers?
Desperate because they were not able to play cricket during the cold winter, a wine producer -William Prest- and a local silver-plate company chairman -Nathaniel Creswick- realized that football was their perfect panacea. They founded their own football club, officially formed on 24 October 1857, recognized by FIFA and The Football Association as the oldest football club in the world.
But if we look back at the past, specifically at XIX century, we can find that in the famous tea and fish & chips country there already were football matches at the colleges. Durham School Football Club or Dublin University Football had formed in an academic environment. So what is the difference between these
clubs and Sheffield FC? In particular, two subjects.
Meanwhile college teams were inherently linked to universities, Sheffield was founded far away from English college canons in which there weren?t common rules -except "Cambridge rules?, not used by everybody-; a disorder that impeded the normal development of the game. The second difference lies in it: the code.
Promptly, football gained relevance in the English society where new clubs proliferated to defend their shirts against rivals. This immeasurable energy caused the celebration of the first Boxing Day in 1860: Sheffield FC v Hallam FC. Three years later, the highest English football institution was founded. Mass Sports had just begun.
Pics:
Daily Mail
Ceret Sports
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