Football: The Most Universal Language on the Planet
“Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football.”
Did it all start by kicking a severed head?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recounts an incident several centuries ago near the River Dee in Chester. On a Shrove Tuesday, a Dane was captured, and killed, and his head was used in a peculiar game. Various participants kicked, carried, and even kicked it again. This is considered the genesis of football for the English. Incidentally, the Royal Shrovetide Football Match is a “medieval football” game played annually on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in the town of Ashbourne in Derbyshire.
What’s so special about skulls?
Legends suggest that football was the primal game for ALL ancient societies such as Africans, Mesoamericans, Asians, and others, involving the celebratory use of enemy heads or skulls: a notion more myth than fact perhaps!
I guess human skulls have held significant fascination throughout human history anyway. They’ve been emblematic of various cultural practices and symbolic meanings across different societies and eras. Like, in Europe, the Barons used to display human skulls at castle gates. And lovers even exchanged adorned skulls as gifts!
From ancient rituals to artistic expressions, skulls have played a profound role in shaping human narratives, perhaps including football!
How old is the sport really?
Records trace the origins of the sport more than 2,000 years ago to ancient China. The game appeared in the Shang dynasty (1600–1100 BC), and its equipment was a stone ball promoted by the army to build a strong physique among soldiers. Following the fall of the Shang dynasty and the rise of the Zhou dynasty in Great China around 1100 BC, there are accounts of football games being played even among the royal women. Later, during the Han and possibly Qin dynasties, the Chinese adapted the game into the competitive “Cuju,” resembling modern association football. Over time, the game spread across the Pacific islands, from Kamchatka to Malaya.
Nonetheless, another legend persists that it’s the Persians, who originally started playing football along the banks of the River Oxus. Pinpointing its exact origin is elusive. The Greeks observed this activity much later, around 480 BC, during diplomatic negotiations with the Persians before the Battle of Thermopylae. The Persians engaged in a peculiar game involving a ball — running, kicking, and even engaging in spirited contests resulting in injuries. Despite the Greeks’ valiant effort, they lost the battle, but the memory of the game endured. The Greeks adapted the game with slight modifications, marking the start of its journey in Europe.
In India, football likely found its way from Persian influences. The Mahabharata recounts young princes playing football in Hastinapur with an iron ball that fell into a deep well. The esteemed Drona rescued it, earning the position of the royal preceptor. The renowned grammarian Pāṇini’s treatise mentions the fierce goddess Chamunda engaging in a football-like activity with enemy heads!
Intriguingly, a stone goalpost from 2500 BC still stands in the plains near Lhasa.
Did Shakespeare play the sport?
It’s worth noting that the literary giant Shakespeare made multiple references to football in his works!
For example, in The Comedy of Errors when the servant Dromio complains of his treatment by his masters he puts it like this:
‘Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither.
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.’(Act 2, Scene 1)
The next reference appears in King Lear, when the character Kent taunts Goneril’s servant, Oswald, by calling him a ‘base football player’ (Act 1, Scene 4).
In Shakespeare’s day, football wasn’t so much the ‘beautiful’ but more the ‘deadly’ game.
Modern football is a different beast altogether.
Certainly, modern football, also known as soccer, has its origins in 19th-century Britain. While variations of “folk football” had been played for generations with differing rules, the sport began to standardize when it was adopted as a winter activity in English public schools.
The first football association was formed in England in 1863. Rules were established — but continued to change — and the size and weight of the match ball were standardized. Crucially, carrying the ball with the hands was outlawed: association football (soccer) and rugby became two separate entities.
Presently, FIFA, the global governing body for football, boasts 211 national associations as members. The world is divided into six confederations: Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF), Asian Football Confederation (AFC), UEFA, CONCACAF, Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL). Remarkably, the game is enjoyed by over 240 million people across the globe today!
Even in contemporary times, football remains the world’s most beloved sport, transcending beyond just a competitive game to become the most fervent human passion.
