Football is the number 1 sport in England!
The
first reference to football is found in a decree of 1314 issued by the Mayor of
London, Nicholas de Farndone, on behalf of King Edward II. Originally written
in Norman French, a translation of the decree includes: "as long as there
is a great noise in the city caused by the jostling on large footballs in the
fields of the public, from which could occur many evils that God does not like:
we command and prohibit in the name of the King, under penalty of imprisonment,
that such a game can be used in the city in the future." The
first known reference to football that was written in English is a proclamation
of 1409 issued by King Henry IV. He imposed a ban on the levying of money for
"football". It was specific to London, but it's unclear whether
payments had been claimed from players or spectators or both. The following
year, Henry IV imposed fines of 20 shillings on certain mayors and judicial
officers who had authorized football and other "offenses" to occur in
their cities. This is the first documentary evidence of football playing in all
of England.
There is
mention of football played at the University of Cambridge in 1710. A letter
from a certain Dr. Bentley to the Bishop of Ely regarding the university
statutes includes a complaint about students being "perfectly within
Liberty of being absent from Grace", in order to play football (called
"Foot-Ball") or cricket, and not to be punished for their conduct as
prescribed in the statutes.
Nature of folk football
More is
known about folk football in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was
essentially a game for many played over great distances with goals three miles
apart, as at Ashbourne. In Whitehaven, the targets were a harbour wall and a
wall outside the city. Matches in Derby involved around a thousand players. In
any case, the purpose of the exercise was to lead a ball of varying size and
shape, often a pig's bladder, towards a goal. As a rule, the ball could be
kicked, thrown, or carried, but it is believed that there were places where
only kicks were allowed. Whatever the rules agreed beforehand, there is no
doubt that folk football was extremely violent, even relatively well organized.
A common form of kick was "brilliant," the term for kicking another
player's legs, and it was legal even if the ball was hundreds of meters away.
Folk
football was mostly rural, and matches tended to coincide with country fairs.
The change was brought about by industrialization and the growth of cities as
people moved away from the countryside. The very idea of a multi-hour game over
vast expanses went against "the discipline, order and organization
necessary for urban capitalism." In 1801, an inquiry into
British sports by Joseph Strutt described football as "once very
fashionable among ordinary people in England". Although Strutt
claimed that folk football was in disrepute and that it was "but little
practiced", there is no doubt that many games continued until the
nineteenth century before codification came into effect.
Codification (1801 to
1891)
Public
school football
Main
article: English public school football matches
A
football match between Thames and Townsend clubs, played at Kingston upon
Thames, London, 1846
At the
beginning of the nineteenth century, football became increasingly important in
public schools because it corresponded well to the ideals of the cult of
"muscular Christianity". It was, like cricket, perceived as a sport
of "character building". The pioneer was the
rugby school where boys began playing the game around 1800, almost certainly
inspired by the annual New Year's Eve game played by the inhabitants of Rugby,
Warwickshire, in the eighteenth century. Public schools sought to harden
their students so that they would be able to rule the British Empire. The
policy was in response to the widespread belief that past empires had fallen
because the ruling class had become soft. In Rugby, students are
encouraged to adopt shinning to harden themselves and they rename the practice
"hacking". It became a kind of obsession, with cold showers and
punitive cross-country races (cricket supposedly taught them to be
gentlemen). Hacking was an important issue when the
"manipulation game" separated from the "dribbling game"
later in the century.
Ardingly
College boys posing for their football house photo, 1916
In the
1820s, other public schools began to design their own versions of football, the
rules of which were verbally agreed and passed on for many years. Each school
(e.g., Eton, Harrow, and Winchester) had its own variations. Albert Pell, a
rugby alumnus who went to Cambridge University in 1839, began organizing
football matches there but, due to the different academic variations, a set of compromise
rules had to be found. In 1843, it is believed that a set of rules existed
in Eton that allowed the ball to be manipulated to control it, but not to run
with it in the hand and not to pass it by hand. The first known 11-a-side games
were held in Eton where the "dribbling game" was popular. The written
version of the football rules of the rugby school in 1845 allowed the ball to
be carried and passed by hand. The rules of rugby are the oldest that are
certainly known to have been written and were a major step in the evolution of
rugby league and rugby union.
Eton
introduced the referees and linesmen, who were at the time called arbitrators.
In 1847, another set of public-school rules was created in Harrow which, like
Eton, played the "dribbling game". Winchester had yet another version
of the game. The original rules of the University of
Cambridge were written in 1848 by students who were still confused by the
different rules in force in the different schools. This was the first attempt
to codify the rules of association football (i.e., the game of
"dribbling") as opposed to rugby football. Unfortunately, no copy of
the original Cambridge rules has survived. The essential difference between the
two codes has always been that association football did not allow a player to
run with the ball in his hands or pass it by hand to a colleague, although
players are allowed to touch and control the ball by hand.
Sheffield, Cambridge,
and FA Rules
The
Sheffield Rules was adopted as the association's official football rules.
During
the winter of 1855-1856, Sheffield Cricket Club players organized informal
football matches to help them stay fit. On October 24,
1857, they officially established Sheffield Football Club which is now
recognized as the oldest association football club in the world. On 21
October 1858, at the club's first annual general meeting, the club drafted the
Sheffield Rules for use in its matches. Piracy was prohibited but "fair
catch" was allowed, provided that the player did not cling to the
ball. Just over a year later, in January 1860, the rules
were upgraded to prohibit manipulation. On 26 December 1860, the world's
first club match took place when Sheffield defeated the newly formed Hallam FC
at Sandygate Road, Hallam's home ground. In 1862, an
impromptu team formed in Nottingham would have been the original County of
Notts, which was officially incorporated in December 1864 and is the oldest
professional association football club in the world.
In
October 1863, a revision of the Cambridge Rules was published. This was shortly
before a meeting on Monday 26 October of twelve clubs and schools at the
Freemasons' Tavern on Great Queen Street in London. Eleven of them agreed to
form the Football Association (FA). Running with the
ball in hand was also prohibited, but players could still make the "right
catch" to win a free kick.
Impact of rule changes
(1863 to 1891)
Royal
Engineers AFC in 1872: first representatives of the "combination
game"
In 1874,
Charles W. Alcock coined the term "combination game" to refer to a
style of play based on teamwork and cooperation, obtained largely by passing
the ball instead of dribbling it. The first representatives of the style were
the Royal Engineers AFC (founded in 1863) and Queen's Park FC, based in Glasgow
(founded in 1867).
Competitive, international,
and professional football (1871 to 1890)
On 20
July 1871, in the offices of The Sportsman newspaper, FA secretary Charles
Alcock proposed to his committee that "it is desirable that a Challenge
Cup be created in connection with the Association for which all clubs belonging
to the Association are invited to compete".
International
football began in 1872 when the England national team travelled to Glasgow to face
the Scotland national team in the
very first official international match. It was played on 30 November 1872 at
Hamilton Crescent, the home ground of the West of Scotland Cricket Club in the
Partick district of Glasgow. It ended in a 0-0 draw and was watched by 4,000
spectators.
Although
English clubs employ professionals, the Scottish Football Association has
continued to ban the practice. As a result, many Scottish players migrated
south. Initially, the FA put in place residential restrictions to prevent this,
but these were abandoned in 1889. [25] Preston North End, the
first English team to win the championship and the "doubles" cup, did
so with a majority of their team being made up of Scottish players. In the
first season, they remained unbeaten in both the league and the FA Cup, earning
them nicknames "the invincible".
Wealthy
miner Samuel Tyzack, who alongside shipbuilder Robert Turnbull funded the
now-professional "all-talent team," has often claimed to be a priest
while looking for players in Scotland, as Sunderland's recruitment policy in
Scotland has infuriated many Scottish fans. In fact, Sunderland's entire squad
at the 1895 World Championship was made up of all-Scottish players.
Football is the number 1 sport in Portugal!
Football began to gain popularity in Portugal in the late nineteenth century, brought by Portuguese students returning from England.
The first match organized in the country took place in
1875 in Camacha, Madeira, organized by Harry Hinton, a student in England born
in Madeira, who brought a soccer ball. The sport quickly became popular across
the island. Harry was then appointed Honorary President of CS Marítimo
The first national match, between Lisbon and Porto, took
place in 1894, in the presence of King Carlos.
Clube Internacional de Futebol (founded in 1902) was the
first Portuguese club to play abroad, beating Madrid Fútbol Clube in 1907 in
Madrid.
On March 31, 1914, the three regional associations that
existed in Portugal (Lisbon, Portalegre and Porto) merged to create a national
association called União Portuguesa de Futebol, the predecessor of the current
national association, the Portuguese Football Federation, which was created on
May 28, 1926.
Initially, football was played between neighboring clubs,
but soon regional and regional tournaments began to be held throughout the
country. Shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century, in order to
determine the best club in Portugal, a Portuguese championship with a single
knockout stage (the Campeonato de Portugal) was created. The clubs of
Lisbon and Porto are mainly on the list of winners of this event which will
become the Portuguese Football Cup.
Portugal's first national league, the Primeira Liga was
founded in 1934. The first champion of Portugal was FC Porto.
Portuguese enthusiasm for football also spread well in
its colonies. Players like Fernando Peyroteo, Matateu, Hilário, Costa Pereira,
Mário Coluna, Eusébio have been great players in the National Championship and
the selection. Used by Salazarist propaganda from the 1960s, football then
appeared as a national unity and gave legitimacy to the government's action.
The successes of the great Benfica Lisbon team of the
1960s, double winners of the Champion Club Cup, with only national players from
all over the empire; sporting Portugal winner of the 1964 Cup and the third
national team at the 1966 World Cup have definitively secured football its
place as Portugal's leading sport. Used by the propaganda of the Estado Novo
regime, football is part of the trinity of the three F's (Fátima, Fado and
Football) and partly allows the Salazarist government to establish its
popularity.
After a great improvement (fc porto's final in the 1984
Cup Cup and semi-final in Euro 1984), Portuguese football was marked by other
more harmful turning points. In 1986, for its first World Cup after the epic of
the time of Eusébio), the national team refused to train and went on strike,
the Saltillo affair named after the Mexican city of the Portuguese base for
training marked the spirits.
The following year in 1987, FC Porto won the 1987
Champions Clubs' Cup against Bayern Munich. The gesture made by Rabah Madjer
during the final, which consists in deceiving the opposing goalkeeper with a
heel, then goes down in history.
After a revival with other two European finals played by
Benfica Lisbon in 1988 and 1990, Portuguese football is deeply marked by the
Bosman judgment. For financial reasons, clubs are encouraged to let go of their
best talents and the Portuguese championship is relegated to the background
against countries better financially endowed.
It was in the late 1990s and early 2000s that the
Portuguese team successfully returned to the final stages of international
competitions. His golden generation led by players like Luis Figo Ballon d'Or
2000 and Rui Costa was first quarter finalist of Euro 1996 and then
semi-finalist of Euro 2000.
The year 2004 is important in the history of Portuguese
football. In January 2004, Benfica player Miklós Fehér died of a heart attack
during a league match against Vitória Guimarães. In another tone, a corruption
scandal broke out at the end of the championship: the golden whistle affair
involved many clubs including FC Porto accused of having paid referees. Even
involved, Jose Mourinho's FC Porto won the 2003-2004 Champions League.
In the spotlight, Portugal organizes for the first time
an international football event with Euro 2004. Many stadiums are still the
result of the major construction phase to host the competition. After a disappointing
run in the 2002 World Cup, the national team showed great performance by
eliminating reputable teams, but failed in the final against a surprising Greek
team. They confirmed at the 2006 World Cup by reaching the semi-finals that
they had become a feared selection at world level. Cristiano Ronaldo
future multiple ballon d'or and central character in the history of the
selection, imposes himself at the highest level from his departure to
Manchester United in 2003 and is consecrated ballon d'or in 2008.
Marked by the Bosman judgment, Portuguese club football
must reinvent itself. Third-party ownership mechanisms coupled with significant
scouting work, particularly in South America, make it possible to build highly
competitive teams. Financed by buy-sell, Portuguese clubs quickly became
suppliers to major European clubs. Ever-increasing transfer fees benefit
players' agents like Jorge Mendes. In 2011, during the Europa League, three
Portuguese teams (FC Porto, Benfica Lisbon and Sporting Braga) reached the
semi-finals. The first all-Portuguese final in the history of European
competitions saw FC Porto defeat Sporting Braga 1-0. In the same competition in
2013 and 2014, Benfica Lisbon reached the final twice consecutively without
succeeding in winning.
In 2015, the practice of third-party ownership was banned
by UEFA and encouraged Portuguese clubs to adapt. If Sporting Portugal was
considered since the early 2000s as the main Portuguese training club, both FC
Porto and Benfica Lisbon have very reputable training centers. Their results in
the UEFA Youth League (one win for Porto, two finals for Benfica) illustrate
the new strategies adopted by the clubs.