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FOOTBALL
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FOOTBALL
, a See also:game between two opposing sides played with a large inflated See also:ball, which is propelled either by the feet alone or by both feet and hands
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Pastimes of the See also:kind were known to many nations of antiquity, and their existence among See also:savage tribes, such as the Maoris, Faroe Islanders, Philippine Islanders, Polynesians and Eskimos, points to' their See also:primitive nature
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In See also:Greece the Eaivxupot seems to have See also:borne a resemblance to the See also:modern game
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Of this we read in See also:
It was forbidden by See also:Edward II
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(1314) in consequence of " the great See also:noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls (rageries de grosses pelotes)." A clear reference is made " ad pilam
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. . pedinam " in the Rotuli Clausarum, 39 Edward III
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(1365), memb
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23, as one of the pastimes to be prohibited on See also:account of the decadence of See also:archery, and the same thing occurs in 12 See also:Richard II. c
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6 (1388)
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Both See also:
So rough did the game become that See also: To begin with, men who had played the game as schoolboys formed clubs to enable them to continue playing their favourite school game, and others were induced to join them; while in other cases, clubs were formed by men who had not had the experience of playing the game at school, but who had the See also:energy and the will to follow the example of those who had had this experience . In this way football was established as a regular game, no longer confined to schoolboys . When football was thus first started, the game was little developed or organized . Rules were very few, and often there was great doubt as to what the rules were . But, almost from the first, clubs were formed to play football according to Rugby rules—that is, according to the rules of the game as played at Rugby school . But even the Rugby rules of that date were few and vague, and indeed almost unintelligible to those who had not been at Rugby school . Still, the fact that play was according to Rugby rules produced a certain uniformity; but it was not till the See also:establishment of the English Union, and the commencement of See also:international matches, that a really definite code of rules was See also:drawn up . It is an interesting question to ask why it was that the game of Rugby school became so popular in preference to the games of other schools, such as See also:Eton, See also:Winchester or See also:Harrow . It was probably very largely due to the reputation and success of Rugby school under Dr See also:Arnold, and this also led most probably to its See also:adoption by other schools; for in r86o many schools besides Rugby played football according to Rugby rules . The rapidity with which the game spread after the middle of the 19th century was remarkable . The See also:Blackheath See also:club, the See also:senior club of the London See also:district, was established in 186o, and See also:Richmond, its great See also:rival, shortly afterwards . Before 187o, football clubs had been started in See also:Lancashire and See also:Yorkshire; indeed the See also:Sheffield foot-ball club See also:dates back to 1855 . Likewise, in the See also:universities of See also:Oxford and Cambridge, Rugby football clubs had been formed before 1870, and by that date the game had been implanted both in Ireland and See also:South See also:Wales; while in See also:Scotland, before 186o, football had taken a hold . Thus by 187o the game had been established throughout the See also:United See also:Kingdom, and in many districts had been regularly played for a number of years . Rapid as, in some ways, had been the spread of the game between the years 185o and 187o, it was as nothing to what happened in the following twenty years; for by 1890 Rugby football, together with Association football, had become the great See also:winter amusement of the See also:people, and roused universal See also:interest; while to-day on any See also:fine Saturday afternoon in winter there are tens of See also:thou-sands of people playing football, while those who See also:watch the game can be counted by the See also:hundred thousand .. The causes that led to this great increase in the game and interest taken in it were, undoubtedly, the establishment of the various See also:national Unions and the international matches; and, of course, the See also:local rivalry of various clubs, together with See also:cup or other competitions prevalent in certain districts, was a leading See also:factor . The establishment of the English Union led to a codification of the rules without which development was impossible . In the year 1871 the English Rugby Union was founded in London . This Union was an association of some clubs and schools which joined together and appointed a See also:committee and officials to draw up a code of rules of the game . From this beginning the English Rugby Union has become the governing See also:body of Rugby football in England, and has been joined by practically all the Rugby clubs in England, and deals with all matters connected with Rugby football, notably the choosing of the international teams . In 1873 the Scottish Football Union was founded in See also:Edinburgh on the same lines, and with the same See also:objects, while in 188o the Welsh Football Union, and in 1881 the Irish Rugby Football Union, were established as the national Unions of Wales and Ireland, though in both countries there had been previously Unions not thoroughly representative of the See also:country . All these Unions became the See also:chief governing body within their own country, and one of their functions was to make the rules and laws of the game; but as this had been done to start with by the English Union, the others adopted the English rules, with amendments to them from time to time . This See also:state of affairs had one See also:element of weakness—viz. that since all the Unions made their own rules, if ever a dispute should arise between any of them, a dead-See also:lock was almost certain to ensue . Such a dispute did occur in 1884 between the English and Scottish Unions . This dispute eventually turned on the question of the right of the English Union to make and interpret the rules of the game, and to be the See also:paramount authority in the game, and See also:superior to the other Unions . Scotland, Ireland and Wales resisted this claim, and finally, in 1889, See also:Lord Kingsburgh and See also:Major Marindin were appointed as a See also:commission to See also:settle the dispute . The result was the establishment of the International See also:Board, which consists of representatives from each Union—six from England, two from each of the others—whose duties were to settle any question that might arise between the different Unions, and to settle the rules under which international matches were to be played, these rules being invariably adopted by the various Unions as the rules of the game . With the establishment of the International Board the organization of the game was See also:complete . Still See also:harmony did not prevail, and in 1895 occurred a definite disruption . A number of leading clubs in Yorkshire and Lancashire See also:broke off from the English Union and formed the Northern Union, which since that date has had many accessions, and has become the leading body in the See also:north of England . The question in dispute was the See also:payment of players . Football was originally played by men for the sheer love of the game, and by men who were comparatively well-to-do, and who could give the time to play it; but with the increasing popularity of the game it became the pastime of all classes of the people, and clubs began to grow See also:rich by " See also:drawing big See also:gates,"—that is, large See also:numbers of spectators, frequently many thousands in number, paid for the See also:privilege of witnessing the match . In these circumstances the temptation arose to reimburse the player for any out-of-See also:pocket expenses he might be put to for playing the game, and thus it became universally recognized as legitimate to pay a player's expenses to and from a match . But in the See also:case of working men it often meant that they lost part of their weekly wage when they had to go a distance to play a match, or to go on tour with their club—that is, go off for a few days and play one or two matches in different parts of the country—and consequently the claim was made on their behalf to recoup them for their loss of wage; while at the same time rich clubs began to be willing to offer inducements to See also:good players to join their club, and these inducements were generally most acceptable in the form of money . In Association football (see below) professionalism—i.e. the See also:hiring and paying of a player for his services—had been openly recognized . A large See also:section of the English Union—the See also:amateur party—would not tolerate anything that savoured of professionalism, and regarded payments made to a player for broken time as illegitimate .
The result was the formation of the Northern Union, which allowed such payments, and has practically recognized professionalism
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This body has also somewhat altered the laws of the game, and reduced the number of players constituting a team from fifteen to thirteen
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In Scotland and Ireland Rugby footballers are strongly amateur; but wherever Rugby football is the popular game of the See also:artisan the professional element is strong
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Besides legislation, one of the functions of the Unions is to select international teams
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On the 27th of See also: But when to this rivalry there is added the inducement to play for a cup, or See also:prize, the excitement is much more intense . Among Rugby players cup competitions have never been so popular as among Association, but the competition for the Yorkshire Cup was very keen in the days beforethe establishment of the Northern Union, and this undoubtedly was the main cause of the popularity of the game in that See also:county . Similarly the competition for the South Wales Cup from 1878 to 1887 did a great See also:deal to establish the game in that country . The method of carrying on these competitions is, that all the clubs entered are drawn by See also:lot, in pairs, to play together in the first See also:round; the winners of these ties are then similarly drawn in pairs for the next round, until for the final round there is only one pair left, the winner of which takes the cup . An elaboration of this competition is the " See also:League See also:system " of the Association game . This, likewise, has not been popular with Rugby players . Still it exists in some districts, especially where clubs are anxious to draw big gates . In the League system a certain number of clubs form a league to play one another twice each See also:season; two points are counted for a win and one for a draw . The club which at the end of the season comes out with most points wins the competition . The See also:advantage of this system over a cup competition is, that interest is kept up during the whole season, and one defeat does not debar a club from eventually coming out first . It is said that wherever Britons go they take their games with them, and this has certainly been the case with Rugby football; especially in New See also:Zealand, South See also:Africa and See also:Australia . An interchange of football visits between these colonies and the motherland is now an important feature in the game . These See also:tours date from 1888, when an English team visited Australia and New Zealand . In the following season, 1889, a team of New . Zealanders, some of whom were native Maories, came over to England, and by their play even then indicated how well the See also:grammar of the game had been studied in that See also:colony . Subsequently several See also:British teams visited at intervals New Zealand and Australia, and in 1905 New Zealand sent See also:home a team which eclipsed anything previously accomplished . They played altogether thirty-three matches; including See also:fixtures with England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and only sustained one defeat, viz. by a try in their match with Wales, a See also:record which speaks for itself . In 1908 a combined team of English and Welsh players toured in New Zealand and Australia, and also visited See also:Canada on their way home . The team was not so strong as could have been wished, and though they did fairly well in Australia, they lost all three " test matches " against New Zealand . In South Africa the game is followed with equal See also:enthusiasm, and the play is hardly inferior, if at all, to that of the New Zealanders . The first British team to visit the Cape went in 1891 through the generosity of See also:Cecil See also:Rhodes, who guaranteed the undertaking against loss . Teams were also sent out in 1896 and 1903; the result of matches played in each visit showing the steady improvement of the colonists . In 1906 the South Africans paid their first visit to England, and the result of their tour proved them to be equally formidable with the New Zealanders . England managed to draw with them, but Scotland was the only one of the home Unions to gain a victory . The success of these colonial visits, more especially financially, created a development very See also:foreign to the intentions of their organizers . The Northern Union as a professional body had drifted into a somewhat parlous state, through suffering on the one See also:hand from a lack of inter-national matches, and on the other from the competition of Association professional teams . The great See also:financial success resulting from the New Zealand tour of 1905 roused the See also:attention of the Northern Union authorities, and they quickly entered into negotiations with New Zealand players to collect a team who would come over and play the Northern Union clubs, the visiting players themselves taking a See also:share of the See also:gate-money . For this purpose a team of New Zealanders toured the north of England in 1907, and their See also:action caused the introduction of professional or Northern Union football in both New Zealand and Australia . The spread of the game has not, however, been confined to English-speaking races . In See also:France it has found fruitful See also:soil, and numerous clubs exist in that country . Since 1906 inter-national matches have been played between France and England, and the energy of See also:French players, coupled with their national elan, makes them formidable opponents . The Rugby code. has also obtained a See also:firm footing in Canada, See also:India, See also:Ceylon and the See also:Argentine . The game itself is essentially a winter pastime, as two requisite conditions for its enjoyment are a cool See also:atmosphere and a soft though firm See also:turf . The field of play is an oblong, not more than See also:Ito yds. long nor more than 75 yds.' broad, and it usually approximates to these dimensions . The boundaries are marked by lines; called See also:touch-lines, down the sides, and goal-lines along the ends . The touch-lines are continued beyond the goal-lines for a distance of not more than 25 yds.; and parallel to the goal-See also:line and behind it, at a distance of not more than 25 yds., is drawn a line called the dead-ball line, joining the ends of the touch-lines produced . On each goal-line, at anequal:distance fromthe touch-lines, are erected two posts; termed goal-posts, exceeding rr ft. in height, and generally much more—averaging perhaps from 20 to 3o ft. from the ground, and placed i8 ft . 6 in. apart . At a height of to ft. from the ground they are joined by a See also:cross-See also:bar; and the object of the game is to kick the ball over the cross-bar between the upright posts, and so obtain a goal . The ball is See also:egg-shaped (strictly an oblate See also:spheroid), and the See also:official dimensions are-length, 11 to r i 4 in.; length circumference, 30 to 31 in.; width circumference, 252 to 26 in.; See also:weight, 13 to 141 oz . It is made of indiarubber inflated, and covered with a See also:leather case . Halfway between the two goal-lines there is generally drawn the See also:half-way line, but sometimes it is marked by flags on the touch-line; and 25 yds. from each goal-line there is similarly marked the 25-yds. line . In the original game the side that had gained the See also:majority of goals won the match, and if no goal had been scored, or an equal number, the game was said to be left drawn; but a modification was adopted before long . A goal can be kicked from the field in the See also:ordinary course of play; but from the very first a try goal could be obtained by that side one of whose players either carried the ball across his opponents' goal-line and then touched it down (i.e. on the ground), or touched it down after it had been kicked across the goal-line, before any of his opponents . The " try "' is then proceeded with as follows: the ball is taker' out by a member of the side obtaining the try in a straight line from the spot where it was " touched down," and is deposited itt a selected position on the ground in the field of play, the defending side being all confined behind their own goal-line until the moment the ball is so placed on the ground, when' another member of the attacking side endeavours to kick it from the ground (a " place kick ") over the bar and between the goal-posts:' Eretluently a goal is kicked; very often not . The modification first allowed was to See also:count that side the winner which had gained the majority of tries, provided no goal' or an equal number of goals had been scored; but a majority of one goal took See also:precedence of any number of tries . But this, too, was afterwards abolished, and a system of points instituted by which the side with the majority of points wins . The numerical value, however, of goals and tries has undergone several changes, the system in 1908 being as follows:—A try See also:counts 3 points . A goal from a try (in which case the try shall not count) 5 points . A dropped goal (except from a See also:mark or a See also:penalty kick) 4 points; a dropped goal being a goal obtained by a player who drops the ball from his hands and kicks it the moment it rises off the ground, as in the" half-volley" at See also:cricket or See also:tennis . A goal from a mark or penalty kick 3 points . Under the Northern Union code any sort of goal counts points, a try 3 points; but if a try be converted into a goal,' both try and goal count, i.e . 5 points are scored . In the game itself not only may the ball be kicked in the direction of the opponents' goal, but it may also be carried; but it must not be thrown forward or knocked on—that is, in the' direction of the opponents' goal--though it may be thrown back . Thus the game is really a See also:combination of football and handball . The main principle is that any one who is not "offside " is in play . A player is offside if he gets in front of the ball—that is, on the opponents' side of the ball, nearer than a colleague in See also:possession of the ball to the opponents' goal-line; when in this position he must not interfere with an opponent or touch theball under penalty . The leading feature of the game is the ".scrummage." In old days at Rugby school there was practically no limit to the numbers of players on each side, and not infrequently there would be a hundred or more players on one side, This was never prevalent in club football; twenty a-side was the usual number to start with, reduced in.1877 to fifteen a-side, the number still maintained . In the old Rugby big sides the ball got settled amidst a See also:mass of players, and each side attempted to drive it through this mass by shoving, kicking, and otherwise forcing their way through with the ball in front of them . This, was the origin of the scrummage . The game is played usually for one See also:hour, or one hour and ten minutes, sometimes for one hour and a half . Each side defends each goal in turn for half the time of play . Of the fifteen players who compose a side, the usual arrangement is that eight are called " forwards,'? and form the scrummage; two " half-backs " are posted outside the scrummage; and four " three-See also:quarter-backs, a little behind the halves, stretch in a line across the field, their duties being mainly to run and kick and pass the ball to other members of their own side, and to prevent their opponents from doing the same . In See also:recent years, owing to the development of " passing," the field position of the half-backs has undergone a See also:change .. One stands fairly See also:close to the scrummage and is known as the " scrum-half," the other takes a position between the latter and the three-quarters, and is termed the"stand-off half." Behind the three-quarters comes the "full-back" or " back," a single individual to maintain the last line of See also:defence; his duties are entirely defensive, either to tackle " an opponent who has managed to get through, or, more usually, to catch and return long kicks . Play is started by one side kicking the ball off from the centre of the field in the direction of the opponents' goal . The ball is then caught by one of the other side, who either kicks it or runs with it . In See also:running he goes on until he is " tackled," or caught, by one of his opponents, unless he should choose to " pass or throw it to another of his own side, who, provided he be not offside, may either kick, or run, or pass as he chooses . The ball in this way is kept moving until it crosses the touch-line, or goal-line, or is tackled . If the See also:bail crosses the touch-line both sides line up at right angles to the point where it crossed the line, and the ball is thrown in straight either by one of the same side whose player carried the ball across the touch-line, or, if the ball was kicked or thrown out, by. one of the opposite side . If the ball crosses the goal-line either a try is gained, as explained above, or if the defending side touch it down first, the other side retire to the line 25 yds. from the goal-line, and the defending side kick it up the field . If the ball is tackled the player carrying the ball gets up from the ground as soon as possible, and the forwasds at once form the scrummage by putting down their heads and getting ready to shove against one another . 
They shove as soon as the balll is put down between the two front rows . In the scrummage the object is, by shoving the opponents back or otherwise breaking away with the ball in front, to carry the ball in the direction of the opponents' goal-line by a See also:series of See also:short kicks in which the players run after the ball as fast as possible, while their opponents See also:lie in wait to get the ball, and either by a kick or other See also:device stop the See also:rush . Instead, however, of the forwards breaking` away with the ball, sometimes they let the ball come out of the scrummage to their half-backs, who either kick or run with it, or pass it to the three-quarter-backs, and so the game proceeds until the ball is once more " dead "—that is, brought' to a standstill . The scrummage appears to be. an uninterestinc manoeuvre, and a See also:strange relic of bygone times; but it is not merely a manoeuvre in which weight and strength alone tell--it also needs a lot of dexterity in moving the ball with the feet,, applying the weight to best advantage, and also in outflanking the opposing side, as it were—usually termed See also:wheeling—directing all the force to one side of the scrummage and thus breaking away . As a See also:rule the game is a lively one, for the players are rarely at See also:rest; if there is =eh scrummaging it is called a slow game; but, if much running and passing, a fast or an open game . The spectator, unless he be an See also:expert, prefers the open game; but in any case the game is always a hard and cackling struggle, frequently with the See also:balance of See also:fortune swaying very rapidly from one side to the other, so that it is a See also:matter of no surprise to find the British public so ardently attached to it . (C . J . N . F.; C . J . B .
M.)
2
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Association.—It is generally supposed that the English game of Association football is the outcome of the game of foot-ball as played at Cambridge University about the middle of the 19th century
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In See also:October 1863 a committee, consisting of representatives of the schools of Eton, Harrow, Rugby, See also:Marl-See also:borough, See also:Shrewsbury and See also:Westminster, See also:drew up a code of laws' which settled the fundamental principle of the " Association " game, as distinguished from other forms of the game which permitted of handling and carrying the ball
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In Association football the use of the hands or arms, either for the purpose of playing the ball or impeding or holding an opponent, is absolutely prohibited; " dribbling " or kicking the ball with the feet, and propelling it by the See also: |