What are the roots of soccer (football)?

_Deep_F_ied · June 30, 2006, 4:21pm

While enjoying the game between Argentina and Germany today I got to wondering…when and where, exactly, was soccer “invented”?

I imagine it is one of those “older than dirt” kind of things, but has there ever been any research done on the roots of why we love to kick a little ball around?

Wallenstein · June 30, 2006, 4:47pm

There are loads of sites on t’interweb that’ll tell you about the history of the game… basically it started as a village vs village brawl with a nominal interest in having a ball involved at some stage.

However, I regularly play footie at the “real” home of the modern game.

In 1848, a group of representatives and students from Cambridge had the bright idea to draw up a definitive set of rules. Copies of the rules were pinned to the trees surrounding **Parker’s Piece ** (the big open park in the centre of Cambridge), which had become the favourite place for matches and kick-abouts.

The ‘Cambridge Rules’ were soon adopted by many of the teams in the area and further afield… When the country’s leading clubs and schools got together to form the Football Association in 1863, they used the Cambridge Rules as the basis for a new set of FA rules.

“The Cambridge Rules appear to be the most desirable for the Association to adopt.”
J.F Alcock, FA Committee Member 1863

The first game to be played to these rules was in 1863 on Parker’s Piece. Association football allowed no hacking, tripping or handling the ball. As the committee said, it would be the triumph of ‘skill over force’.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/content/articles/2006/06/09/cambridge_football_rules_parkers_piece_feature.shtml

Northern_Piper · June 30, 2006, 4:59pm

Check out post 33 and onwards in this thread: Is America calling soccer “soccer” arrogant?"

_Deep_F_ied · June 30, 2006, 8:25pm

Cool! Thanks guys.