Comments on: Laws of the Game: Before There Were Rules

By: krolpolski

krolpolski — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:52:15 +0000

I find it interesting that the same terms are used by American “grid iron” football: place kick, fair catch, and, of course, football. I’ve always wondered how the American game appropriated the English name when the two sports are so dis-similar today, though reading those Sheffield rules, one can see many similiarties.

By: Damon

Damon — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:18:29 +0000

By the way Vocabula is in the National Library of Scotland here in Edinburgh. The article got me thinking and I had a look at it today.

As such it is all in latin and certainly it is not really the rules of football, but it tells of a passing game of sorts and is clear documented evidence of the game via a rules set being organised. Not too sure what primary historical evidence or documentation there is pertaining to these games in China or Japan?

The NLS is a home of football books some from late 19th Century. Its also got an original manuscript of Byron’s ‘Child Harold Pilgrimage’ so vocabula is in good company.

By: Tom Dunmore

Tom Dunmore — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:12:17 +0000

It’s certainly not a mob football game, Damon, you’re quite right. The images are just rather randomly inserted and illustrative.

By: Damon

Damon — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:11:20 +0000

I am pretty sure the first photo is of a Scotland v England match in the 1870′s, rather than a mob football game.

By: Tom Dunmore

Tom Dunmore — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:41:42 +0000

That’s an interesting comment, Dave. What do you mean by that last part? Where do you see the codes going?

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:43:05 +0000

Damon, I’m pretty sure we can take organized football back a little further than Scotland 1633. The first rules of Calcio Fiorentino were written in 1580, and it was played well before that. Plus, Cuju was first codified in China during the Han Dynasty, around 220 B.C. None of these games bore any resemblance to the Association game we play today, and I suspect your Aberdeen game in 1633 didn’t, either.

I love how everyone wants to claim that FOOTBALL STARTED HERE. Trust me, it didn’t, and we should all probably spend less time trying to define football’s past and more time looking out for football’s future. Because we’ll be lucky if any of these codes look the same in two or three centuries as they do now.

By: Damon

Damon — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:31:37 +0000

Excellant read. However, can I take your research back a little further.

The beautiful game of football was invented and first played in Aberdeen, Scotland.

A pocket sized book called ‘Vocabula’ which was written in Latin in 1633 and has been found to be the earliest recording of a game of football. It was written by Aberdeen Grammar School teacher and school-master David Wedderburn. The book was translated in the 1950s.

This original football game was not quite the civilised game that is played today – it was more a free for all with no set rules and that got unruly at times. However the Vocabula book shows that the game had the structure of the first laws of football. For example one passage of the book read:

“Let us pick sides. Those who are on the outside come over here. Kick off, so that we can begin the match…Pass it here.”

Other passages describe ball passing and goal scoring.

The book was written over 200 years before the English Football Association (FA) claim to have invented the game and set the rules in 1863.

During the World Cup in Germany in 2006 the artefact was on display for the football fans at the Museum Fur Volkerkunde in Hamburg at the Fascination Exhibition.

Another interesting football artefact is the oldest surviving football, a 500 year old leather ball. It was found in the roof beams of the Queen’s chamber in Stirling Castle during the 1970s. It is thought that the football belonged to Mary of Guise who was the mother of Mary Queen of Scots.

Aberdeen, Scotland the home of football.

By: Tom Dunmore

Tom Dunmore — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:12:13 +0000

For some reason I couldn’t get that sentence right and I gave up in anguish at some point by adding the ‘to’. Anyway, thanks, hope you enjoy the rest of the series — I just realised what a long one it’s going to be.

By: Elliott

Elliott — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:06:26 +0000

Under elite football, you ended the last sentence of the first paragraph with a preposition of direction.

Aside from that, another BRILLIANT post Tom. I’ve always been fascinated by why our society elects individuals, be it referees or judges, to officiate disputes. Why don’t we favor a collaborative effort with three or more decision-makers?

Great stuff.