The history of football games
The game of football is generally considered an invention of the British but prior to this there is evidence of a more primitive version of the game which came to be in the Chinese Shang Dynasty in the 5th century BC. This ancient game comprised of kicking a leather ball through a hole in material straddled between two thirty foot poles, not exactly our modern game but a similar fore runner! The Greeks and Romans also had types of football games, the Roman version being played on a rectangular pitch.
Football is one of the most popular games of sport in the world today where two teams of 11players battle it out with a ball on a rectangle grass pitch, the object being to score as many goals as possible against the opposing team by kicking the ball past a keeper. The keeper stands in a goal comprising of two vertical posts with a horizontal post on top and a net attached to catch the ball.
The goal keepers' aim is to stop the ball getting into the net and is the only person on the pitch that is allowed to handle the ball. Players can use their heads or chests to move the ball as well as feet to kick it into position but must not handle the ball in play. The match is played in two 45 minute sections with a fifteen minute break in between while the team to score the most goals at the end of 90 minutes is declared the winner of the match.
Britain's medieval times saw the actual emergence of the football game of today in the third century and was known as Shrove tide football or medieval football. By the ninth century engravings of medieval football could be seen, these are now on display at the British museum. Medieval football games were a tradition of the yearly local festival being played between rival villages with no limit on the number of participants, which meant as far as rules were concerned there just weren't any! This resulted in the banning of the sport by the Lord Mayor of London himself in 1314. Football became an established pastime by the end of the 14th century while it was even given a mention in the famous Canterbury Tales.
Football soon became a very popular sport with Henry VIII even possessing a pair of football shoes so giving the game the royal seal bringing it into favour with the upper classes and lowly orders alike. Ireland soon took up the sport in around 1527 closely followed by Scotland in around 1540 while Europe soon followed and the game was soon to become truly international.
The establishment of the modern football game as we know it came about in October 1863 when all the teams in existence met in London's Freemasons Tavern so creating the Football Association. Over the following months rules and codes of play were established these excluding "hacking "while also agreeing "soccer" was a suitable abbreviation for the word football a term that still exists today. The creation of football teams who would belong to the association followed with Nottingham Forest FC in 1865 and many others.
The creation of the FA Cup was in 1871 while in 1888 William McGregor of Aston Villa put forward the concept of a league where teams would play in competition with one another, there were 11 clubs in all. The mergence with the Football Alliance in 1892 saw the creation of the First Division whose teams were as follows:
- Accrington
- Aston Villa
- Blackburn Rovers
- Bolton Wanderers
- Burnley
- Derby County
- Everton
- Notts County
- Preston North End
- Stoke City
- West Bromwich Albion
- Wolves
- Ardwick which was to become Manchester City at a later date
- Burton Swifts
- Lincoln City
International football games soon came to the fore, the first match being between England and Scotland played at Partick in November 1872 although it wasn't a very memorable game as the score ended 0-0. Scotland however became quite a force in the football stakes with many English teams taking on Scottish football players and so in 1885 amateur football became the professional game we still see today. Many of the clubs were based in the north of the country so when a wage limit was imposed this pleased the northern clubs not so the southern more "gentlemanly" teams. The turn to professional football saw the last amateur team to win the FA Cup in 1882, these were the southern Old Etonians. It took many years to pass before the wage cap was brought to an end in 1959 so making the professional game well established.
In Europe football was established in the 19th century in the form of Lausanne football club in Switzerland in 1860. In 1898 The Italian Football Federation was created with the league following some 21 years later in 1929 while the Spanish La Liga was formed in 1928 with the Spanish Copa Del Rey prior to that in 1902. English football was still the dominant force however influencing the creation of football clubs not only in Europe but throughout the world. In Argentina in 1867 it was English workers who played the first game there while many clubs worldwide would never have been created without the input of the English.
A major amateur club called The Corinthians travelled the world in 1910 influencing greatly football to be taken up and were instrumental in the creation of the Brazilian side in Sao Paulo who went on to call themselves Sports Club Corinthians Paulista and are a major team of South America to this day. Many English men were instrumental in the creation of foreign football teams for example Arthur Edwards who created the Milan Football and Cricket club in 1899 plus Alexander Watson Hutton a Scotsman who in 1893 founded the Argentinean Football Association.
Britain as a nation can be proud of its creation of the football game and its influence and creation of the game abroad. Britain is responsible for the original rules and regulations that influence the game of modern times as well as being credited with the major competitions that are still played today.
It is a modern misconception that women playing football games is a relatively new phenomenon as women playing football can be seen as far back as the late 19th century and in some instances women were involved in football back in medieval times. Historically women's football was quite popular more so than today especially around the time of World War One where teams even played international matches. Unfortunately women's football was banned in 1921 by the Football Association as it was considered a man's sport and not a sport for the fairer sex which was somewhat patronising to say the least.
Women did eventually fight back and formed their own association in 1969 while the ban was lifted in 1971 enabling women once again to participate in the beautiful game of football. By 1992 women's football was taking off internationally Japan creating their own semi-professional women's league. Women today now have their own World Cup competition as well as European Championships, while by 2005 the number of women registered to play football is in excess of 100,000 showing how far the game has progressed in its appeal to both sexes.
Football has indeed come a long way since its crude beginnings centuries ago to the game we all know and love today. The amount of money involved in football is immense seeing hundreds of millions of pounds a year change hands for players and team coaches alike a far cry from the primitive game created many years before. SambaFoot is dedicated to football games worldwide, both on the pitch and free football games on the computer.
Alternative games you may be interested in
There are many free games that can you can play online these days, not just football orientated ones. So we also recommend try out titles like down game which is a world designed for boys who love adventure and fighting rpg style games. Here you can fight all sorts of npc monsters and obtain magical items to level up your character.
Other games heavily played by boys who love fighting are defending tower games where you aim to defend your castles against an insurgence of enemies from monsters to balloons. Tower games are a very popular collection of flash games that were born through the creation of games such as Defend Your Castle.
More football games @ EA Sports
If you want to check up on the latest soccer games being made for consoles and pc's then your best checking out The Official EA Sports Soccer Games Site which has an entire range of football games beyond the classic fifa series. Games include ultimate team, game face and fifa superstars. They also now allow you to download the latest demo of the fifa games series.
With regards to online football games a worthy collection to check out are Mousebreaker's football games which feature a range of funny flash games as well as some decent management games to play online for free, for example - Ultimate football manager.