Football is the most popular team sport of our time. However, did you know which country is the birthplace of football? Many people find it difficult to answer this question, and historians also cannot finally agree on the opinion - the fact is that there are some aspects that lead to disagreements on this issue. However, most people will tell you that England is the same country, the birthplace of football. But why are there those who claim that football originated in China, not the British Isles? This is what you will learn from this article.
Football millennia ago
So, it's time to answer the question of which country is the birthplace of football. As mentioned above, most fans and experts agree that England was the birthplace of football, but this is not entirely true. The fact is that this sport appeared much earlier, a couple of millennia ago. Naturally, it was a sport very vaguely reminiscent of modern football, but still the principle was the same - the two teams competed with each other using the ball that they kicked. Many ancient peoples had such entertainment, from the Egyptians to the Japanese. But the most ancient annals indicate that for the first time in such a sport they played in China. About two thousand years ago, the Chinese had fun in a similar way, which was immortalized in their annals, and these data have come down to our times, which suggests that China is the very country. The homeland of football, however, is still England. Why? Now you will know about it.
The origin of football in England
Even if the original source of such a ball game was Ancient China, then it was definitely brought to its modern form not in China. The history of football reports that from China (or from any other country whose chronicles about the original football were not preserved), this type of entertainment spread throughout the world, gradually reaching Europe, namely the UK. It was there that this entertainment began to take on the form that this sport now has. Naturally, all the same, ancient English football was not close to modern, because there it was not a sport, but a way of spending time for the poor. A field was considered any open space, a ball - everything that could be kicked, from a bull’s bubble to a pig’s head. Well, the gates were designated purely symbolically: the maximum that could distinguish them was a line drawn on the ground. As for the teams, everyone was simply divided into two groups without any restriction on the number of participants. Of course, such a hell could not be called football in the modern sense of the word, but it was this type of entertainment that gave impetus to the development of a modern sport. Naturally, the story of football did not end there - it was just beginning.
Ban
Now you know the answer to the question of where football was invented. Do you know that he could not live to the present? The fact is that the entertainment described above could not be safe in any way - it entailed a huge number of injuries and even fatal cases. Naturally, the higher ranks did not like this, which began to ban football at the state level. The first official ban followed in 1314 - King Edward II became its author, and after him far more than one ruler of England tried to ban people from playing football on the streets. However, as you can already understand, the reason for the constant new prohibitions of football was that the law was far from always respected, and people continued to have fun in this way, despite the prohibitions.
The first rules appear
England’s football gradually evolved - of course, then it was loved just because it excited the blood, raised the level of adrenaline in the blood and allowed to throw out all the emotions to people whose life was far from ideal. However, over time, certain unwritten rules began to appear. For example, people began to play more closely to each other, without putting down steps and striking below the waist, in particular on the legs. Naturally, these were only the first attempts to somehow control what was happening on the “playing field”. However, already in 1801, Joseph Stratt published a book in which the first rules of football were first described in writing. It was then that he began to turn from ordinary entertainment into a full-fledged sport.
The advent of football in its modern form
When did football become exactly what can now be seen on TV? Naturally, every year something changes in football - from small rules to the form of players, but in general the essence and principle of the game remains the same. And it began in 1863, when the football association of England was created - the first of its kind. It was she who adopted the first official rules in the history of this sport. One can even safely say that it was then that football became a specific sport.