# Chapter 1: History & Origins

Football · Chapter 1: History & Origins · Insporta Book (https://book.insporta.app/football/interesting-facts/chapter-1-history-origins/)

How football became one game: medieval bans and folk football, the Cambridge and Sheffield codes, the FA and its first cups, the home nations, the spread abroad, the early Olympics and football in wartime.

## 1.11 Origins & Codification

How the Football Association was formed, who wrote its first Laws of the Game, the earliest recorded matches and competitions under those laws, and FIFA's own founding four decades later.

### Test 1: Founding the FA and its first Laws

- The FA was formed on a Monday evening, 26 October 1863, at the Freemasons' Tavern on Great Queen Street, London. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- The FA's own history records that representatives of a dozen London and suburban clubs attended the founding meeting. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who had formed Barnes FC in 1862, drafted the FA's original rules. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- The FA's laws were finally approved at the sixth meeting of the founding clubs, held on 8 December 1863. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- The approved laws were published by John Lillywhite of Seymour Street in a booklet priced at one shilling and sixpence. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- On 19 December 1863 Barnes played Richmond at Limes Field in Barnes, and the match finished goalless. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- FA secretary Charles Alcock proposed the knockout tournament that became the FA Cup on 20 July 1871. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- Wanderers won the first FA Cup final 1-0 against Royal Engineers before roughly 2,000 spectators at Kennington Oval. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- Scotland and England drew 0-0 at the West of Scotland Cricket Ground in Partick, Glasgow, on 30 November 1872, recognised as the first official international. (Source: FIFA Museum, fifamuseum.com/en/explore/fifamuseumplus/blog/Scotland-v-England-1)
- FIFA was founded on 21 May 1904 at 229 rue Saint-Honore in Paris by seven associations, with Robert Guerin as its first president. (Source: FIFA official history, inside.fifa.com/media-releases/fifa-celebrates-120th-anniversary-of-foundation-in-paris)

## 1.12 Growth of the Game & the First World Cup

How the sport professionalised and organised itself between the 1880s and 1930s: legal professionalism, the Football League, the IFAB as guardian of the Laws, the theft and replacement of the FA Cup, and the first FIFA World Cup and its trophy.

### Test 1: Professionalism, the Football League, IFAB and the first World Cup

- The FA legalised professionalism in 1885, restricted to players born or resident within a set distance of their club. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- William McGregor organised the Football League, formed in 1888 with twelve founding clubs after just two meetings. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- The FA's own history records that the International FA Board has looked after the Laws since 1886, the year the board came into being. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- The FA's own history notes that the first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930, but the FA did not enter a team. (Source: The FA official history, thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/history)
- Uruguay both hosted and won the first FIFA World Cup, played in 1930. (Source: Library of Congress World Cup research guide, guides.loc.gov/world-cup/uruguay-1930)
- Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in the first World Cup final, played on 30 July 1930 at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. (Source: Library of Congress World Cup research guide, guides.loc.gov/world-cup/uruguay-1930)
- Thirteen nations competed at the first World Cup, held in Uruguay in 1930. (Source: Library of Congress World Cup research guide, guides.loc.gov/world-cup/uruguay-1930)
- The original FA Cup was stolen from a shop window in Birmingham in 1895, while on display courtesy of holders Aston Villa, and was never recovered. (Source: ITV News Central / FourFourTwo FA Cup theft coverage)
- The replacement cup was made by Howard Vaughton, a former Aston Villa and England international who had become a silversmith. (Source: ITV News Central / FourFourTwo FA Cup theft coverage)
- Originally called 'Victory,' the trophy was renamed in 1946 to mark 25 years of Jules Rimet's FIFA presidency; it was awarded permanently to Brazil in 1970 after their third title, then stolen in 1983 and never recovered. (Source: Olympics.com / Britannica, olympics.com/en/news/fifa-world-cup-trophy-jules-rimet-history)

## 1.13 Early Law Changes, Equipment Firsts & the First Women's Match

Closing the chapter: how the penalty kick and goal nets entered the Laws, the invention of the shin pad, the first numbered shirts, the 1925 offside amendment, and the first recorded women's match.

### Test 1: Early Law changes, equipment firsts and the first women's match

- Irish goalkeeper William McCrum's idea, put to the Board by Irish FA secretary Jack Reid, was approved as a new Law at the IFAB meeting in Glasgow on 2 June 1891. (Source: Football-history accounts of the IFAB meeting of 2 June 1891, cross-checked against reports of the IFAB minutes)
- Until 1902 the penalty kick could be taken from any point along a line 12 yards from the goal line, not from today's fixed spot. (Source: Cross-checked histories of the penalty kick law)
- Liverpool engineer John Alexander Brodie's net, patented in 1890, had its first high-profile outing in a North v South representative match at Nottingham on 10 January 1891; the Football League made nets compulsory during the 1891-92 season. (Source: Cross-checked histories of Brodie's goal net patent)
- Nottingham Forest's Sam Widdowson invented shin pads in 1874 by cutting down a pair of cricket pads and strapping them outside his stockings. (Source: Cross-checked histories of Widdowson and Nottingham Forest)
- Arsenal, away to Sheffield Wednesday, and Chelsea, at home to Swansea Town, both wore numbered shirts on 25 August 1928, though the experiment lasted only two matches. (Source: Cross-checked histories of English league shirt numbering)
- The 1928 numbering experiment lasted only two matches; shirt numbers did not become compulsory in the English league until 1939. (Source: Cross-checked histories of English league shirt numbering)
- The British Ladies' Football Club played North versus South at Crouch End in London on 23 March 1895; women's games had been recorded since 1881, but FIFA counts this as the first official fixture. (Source: Cross-checked histories of the British Ladies' Football Club (National Football Museum, Hornsey Historical Society))
- The North beat the South 7-1 in front of an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 spectators at Crouch End. (Source: Cross-checked histories of the British Ladies' Football Club)
- Nettie Honeyball placed newspaper advertisements in 1894 that drew about thirty women to form the British Ladies' Football Club, with Lady Florence Dixie as its patron. (Source: Cross-checked histories of the British Ladies' Football Club)
- The 1925 amendment reduced the offside requirement from three opposing players to two, close to the law still used today, and was followed by a sharp rise in goal-scoring. (Source: Cross-checked histories of the offside law's evolution)

## 1.14 Before the Rules

Medieval bans, a 16th-century headmaster's advice, Royal Shrovetide and the school codes that came before 1863.

### Test 1: Folk football, bans and early codes

- The proclamation, issued in the name of Edward II, threatened anyone who played with prison. (Source: Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London, Letter-Book D (1314), via British History Online (british-history.ac.uk))
- Mayor Nicholas de Farndone forbade the game 'on pain of imprisonment'. (Source: Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London, Letter-Book D (1314), via British History Online (british-history.ac.uk))
- The act, passed under James I, was one of several that tried to push men towards archery practice. (Source: Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 (rps.ac.uk), acts of 1424 and 1457)
- The act ordered that 'the fut bawe and the golf be utterly cryit doune', again to favour archery. (Source: Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 (rps.ac.uk), acts of 1424 and 1457)
- Mulcaster, head of Merchant Taylors' School, praised the game's health benefits in his book 'Positions'. (Source: Richard Mulcaster, 'Positions' (1581), chapter 27, on football)
- The future Edward VIII 'turned up' the ball in 1928; the then Prince Charles did the same in 2003. (Source: Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football Committee, history of the game; Derbyshire County Council heritage pages)
- Students from different public schools drew up the Cambridge Rules so they could play one another. (Source: The FA, 'History of the FA' (thefa.com); Shrewsbury School archives on the 1856 Cambridge Rules)
- 1314, 1363, 1424 and 1457. (Source: Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 (rps.ac.uk), acts of 1424 and 1457)
- 1848, 1858, 1862 and 1863. (Source: The FA, 'History of the FA' (thefa.com); Shrewsbury School archives on the 1856 Cambridge Rules)
- The goals stand three miles apart, at the sites of two old mills. (Source: Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football Committee, history of the game; Derbyshire County Council heritage pages)

## 1.15 Sheffield's Own Game

Sheffield FC, Hallam, the Youdan Cup and the Sheffield Rules that ran beside the FA's for twenty years.

### Test 1: Sheffield football

- Both were young members of a local cricket club; their rules followed in 1858. (Source: Sheffield FC, 'Club history' (sheffieldfc.com))
- The Sheffield code banned hacking five years before the London clubs argued about it. (Source: Sheffield FC, 'Club history' (sheffieldfc.com))
- The two clubs first met on 26 December 1860, and the 'Rules Derby' is still played. (Source: Hallam FC, 'History' (hallamfc.co.uk); Guinness World Records, 'Oldest football ground')
- He put up the silver cup for a knockout among twelve local clubs. (Source: Hallam FC, 'History' (hallamfc.co.uk); Guinness World Records, 'Oldest football ground')
- Hallam beat Norfolk in the final at Bramall Lane; the trophy turned up again in 1997 and went back to the club. (Source: Hallam FC, 'History' (hallamfc.co.uk); Guinness World Records, 'Oldest football ground')
- Played at Battersea Park under FA rules, it was the first match between two associations. (Source: The FA, 'History of the FA' (thefa.com))
- The two codes had already traded ideas; the corner kick and the crossbar came from Sheffield. (Source: The FA, 'History of the FA' (thefa.com))
- 1857, 1858, 1860 and 1867. (Source: Sheffield FC, 'Club history' (sheffieldfc.com))
- 1857, 1860, 1862 and 1867; The Wednesday grew out of a cricket club. (Source: Sheffield Wednesday, 'Club history' (swfc.co.uk))
- Guinness World Records lists Sandygate as the world's oldest football ground still in use. (Source: Hallam FC, 'History' (hallamfc.co.uk); Guinness World Records, 'Oldest football ground')

## 1.16 Scotland, Wales and Ireland Organise

Queen's Park, the Scottish, Welsh and Irish associations, the Home Championship and Hampden's record crowd.

### Test 1: The home nations

- After 152 years as amateurs, the club ended its 'Ludere Causa Ludendi' tradition in November 2019. (Source: Queen's Park FC, 'History' (queensparkfc.co.uk); BBC Sport, 'Queen's Park turn professional' (2019))
- Their first goal against came in January 1875. (Source: Queen's Park FC, 'History' (queensparkfc.co.uk); BBC Sport, 'Queen's Park turn professional' (2019))
- The finals of 1884 and 1885 were the only ones a Scottish club has played. (Source: Queen's Park FC, 'History' (queensparkfc.co.uk); BBC Sport, 'Queen's Park turn professional' (2019))
- The two finished level on points and drew a play-off 2-2, so the title was shared. (Source: SPFL, 'History of the Scottish League' (spfl.co.uk))
- Scotland won 4-0 in Glasgow, weeks after the Welsh FA was formed in Wrexham. (Source: Football Association of Wales, 'History' (faw.cymru))
- The Irish FA had been founded in Belfast the year before. (Source: Irish Football Association, 'History' (irishfa.com))
- The competition had run since 1883-84, when Scotland won the first edition. (Source: Irish Football Association, 'History' (irishfa.com))
- 1863, 1873, 1876 and 1880. (Source: Scottish FA, 'History' (scottishfa.co.uk))
- 1867, 1875, 1884 and 2019. (Source: Queen's Park FC, 'History' (queensparkfc.co.uk); BBC Sport, 'Queen's Park turn professional' (2019))
- The official figure of 149,415 is a European record for an international match. (Source: Hampden Park, 'Stadium history' (hampdenpark.co.uk); Scottish FA records)

## 1.17 The Game Goes Abroad

Teachers, miners and railwaymen who took football to South America, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Germany.

### Test 1: Football's spread

- The Scot founded the English High School in Buenos Aires and led the first Argentine league in 1893. (Source: Asociación del Fútbol Argentino, 'Historia' (afa.com.ar))
- Genoa beat Internazionale Torino in the final, just weeks after the Italian federation was founded. (Source: Genoa CFC, 'La storia' (genoacfc.it); FIGC, 'Albo d'oro' (figc.it))
- British staff of the mining company founded the club in 1889. (Source: Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, 'Historia' (recreativohuelva.es))
- KB began as a cricket and football club in Copenhagen. (Source: Kjøbenhavns Boldklub, 'Historie' (kb.dk); Dansk Boldspil-Union, 'DBU's historie' (dbu.dk))
- The Dutch FA followed in December the same year. (Source: Kjøbenhavns Boldklub, 'Historie' (kb.dk); Dansk Boldspil-Union, 'DBU's historie' (dbu.dk))
- He also wrote the first German rules of the game in 1875. (Source: Martino-Katharineum Braunschweig, 'Konrad Koch'; DFB, 'Geschichte des Fußballs in Deutschland' (dfb.de))
- The club took its later name from the Peñarol district where the railway works stood. (Source: Club Atlético Peñarol, 'Historia' (penarol.org))
- 1867, 1876, 1889 and 1893. (Source: Asociación del Fútbol Argentino, 'Historia' (afa.com.ar))
- 1889, 1893, 1898 and 1900. (Source: FIGC (figc.it), DFB (dfb.de) and AFA (afa.com.ar) official histories)
- Miller had learned the game at school in Southampton; he organised São Paulo's first match the next year. (Source: Museu do Futebol, São Paulo, 'Charles Miller' (museudofutebol.org.br))

## 1.18 Football at the Early Olympics

From Upton Park in 1900 to Uruguay in 1924: walk-offs, record scorers and the first lap of honour.

### Test 1: The early Olympic tournaments

- They beat a French side 4-0; the medals were assigned later by the IOC. (Source: Olympics.com, official results and stories of the Olympic football tournaments)
- Great Britain beat Denmark 2-0 in the final at White City. (Source: FIFA, 'Olympic Football Tournaments' history (inside.fifa.com); Olympics.com)
- Denmark won the semi-final 17-1. (Source: Olympics.com, official results and stories of the Olympic football tournaments)
- Both records still stand at the Olympic tournament. (Source: Olympics.com, official results and stories of the Olympic football tournaments)
- Belgium took the gold; Czechoslovakia were disqualified and Spain won a play-off series for silver. (Source: Olympics.com, official results and stories of the Olympic football tournaments)
- Austria complained about fans on the pitch during extra time; Peru went home rather than play again. (Source: Olympics.com, official results and stories of the Olympic football tournaments)
- Since 1996 each squad may also add three older players. (Source: FIFA, 'Olympic Football Tournaments' history (inside.fifa.com); Olympics.com)
- 1908, 1920, 1924 and 1952. (Source: Olympics.com, official results and stories of the Olympic football tournaments)
- 1900, 1908, 1912 and 1920. (Source: Olympics.com, official results and stories of the Olympic football tournaments)
- The lap of honour is said to have begun with the Uruguayans' Olympic win in Colombes. (Source: Olympics.com, official results and stories of the Olympic football tournaments)

## 1.19 The FA Cup's First Decades

Wanderers, the Boat Race kick-off, Blackburn Olympic, Preston's Invincibles and the White Horse Final.

### Test 1: The FA Cup 1872-1923

- They won in 1872, 1873 and 1876-78. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- The 'challenge round' was used only that once. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- Wanderers beat Oxford University 2-0 at Lillie Bridge. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- Their team of weavers and metalworkers beat Old Etonians 2-1 after extra time. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- He won five of them, with Wanderers and Old Etonians. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- They also went through the first Football League season unbeaten. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- No other club from outside the Football League has won it since the League began. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- 1872, 1875, 1883 and 1889. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- 1872, 1895, 1920 and 1923. (Source: The FA, 'FA Cup history' and 'Past finals' (thefa.com))
- PC George Scorey and his horse Billie edged a huge crowd back so Bolton and West Ham could play. (Source: Wembley Stadium, 'History' (wembleystadium.com); National Football Museum)

## 1.20 Football in Wartime

The Khaki Cup Final, a fixed match, a footballer's Victoria Cross, footballs on the Somme and Dynamo Moscow's tour.

### Test 1: Football in the two World Wars

- Sheffield United beat Chelsea 3-0 at Old Trafford; the competition then stopped until 1920. (Source: The FA, '1915: the Khaki Cup Final' (thefa.com); Sheffield United heritage (sufc.co.uk))
- It was the last full league season until 1919-20. (Source: EFL, 'History of the Football League' and wartime seasons (efl.com))
- United won the Good Friday match 2-0; most of the bans were lifted after the war. (Source: EFL, 'History of the Football League' and wartime seasons (efl.com))
- He was killed on the Somme in July 1916, days after the action that won the award. (Source: Imperial War Museums, 'Donald Bell VC' (iwm.org.uk); Victoria Cross register, The National Archives)
- War was declared on 3 September 1939 and the results were wiped from the records. (Source: EFL, 'History of the Football League' and wartime seasons (efl.com))
- Stars such as Stanley Matthews played for several clubs while in uniform. (Source: EFL, 'History of the Football League' and wartime seasons (efl.com))
- Many in the crowd at White Hart Lane could barely see the pitch. (Source: Chelsea FC (chelseafc.com) and Arsenal FC (arsenal.com) heritage pages on the 1945 Dynamo tour)
- 1915, 1916, 1939 and 1945. (Source: Imperial War Museums, 'Football at the Somme' (iwm.org.uk); Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment Museum)
- A 3-3 draw, a 10-1 win, a 4-3 win and a 2-2 draw, all in November 1945. (Source: Chelsea FC (chelseafc.com) and Arsenal FC (arsenal.com) heritage pages on the 1945 Dynamo tour)
- Nevill of the East Surrey Regiment offered a prize to the platoon that reached the German trench first; he was killed that morning. (Source: Imperial War Museums, 'Football at the Somme' (iwm.org.uk); Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment Museum)

Sources: Primary/official sources only, no Wikipedia citations: The FA official history (thefa.com), FIFA Museum (fifamuseum.com) and FIFA's own media releases (inside.fifa.com). Paraphrased in original wording; original questions authored.

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