The game of soccer brings together people from all over the world. It is a universal language, with a ball being the only word you need. Whether it is just a pick-up game in a park, playing competitively or watching a game with some friends, soccer is so much more than just a sport.
Today, soccer is all about the skill and speed. We are fortunate, to say the least, to live in an era where Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are playing at the same time and treating us all to a masterclass of the sport every time they take to the pitch.
But, we are here to talk about more than Ronaldo and Messi. We are here to tell you the history of soccer, but not like your high school history teacher would. Because at The18, we are reminiscent of the cool teacher that everyone in school liked because their classes were fun and interesting.
History of Soccer
Before the sport was called soccer/football/futbol depending on what you call it, it was known as cuju. Cuju was the name of the sport in China, where it is said the earliest form of the sport originated. You could use any part of the body except for your hands in cuju, and the objective of the game was to kick the ball into a net. There isn’t a specific date for the game of cuju, but we do know it existed during the Han dynasty, which lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD.
Ready for some more history? Alright, let’s keep moving along the soccer history timeline and jump ahead in time. So far ahead that we’ve ended up in 1848 in Cambridge, England. What are we doing here? Well, this was when the first rules of soccer were drawn up. They weren’t all of the rules that we have today, but judging from the list, they are definitely the origin of today’s rules.
The Cambridge Rules were created because when English universities would compete against each other, they all had different rules and interpretations of the games and it would often end in confusion. A bunch of smart people did the wise thing and created one set of rules they would all sign off on, and thus the 1848 Cambridge Rules came to be.
We’re on Parker’s Piece for the unveiling of the 1848 Football Rules. Join @IanDaborn for new Summer Saturday from 3pm pic.twitter.com/gJe97a9nnV
— Cambridge 105 Radio (@cambridge105) May 12, 2018
The oldest soccer competition out there is the famous FA Cup, which has been played since 1872. Wanderers Football Club won the first FA Cup, and then won it again in 1873, and then three more times after that. Wanderers eventually wandered into obscurity and the original club was dissolved in 1887.
#OnThisDay 1872: The very first FA Cup final was won by London club, Wanderers FC. pic.twitter.com/atZlb0yuKA
— Yesterday Channel (@YesterdayTweets) March 16, 2018
It wasn’t until 2009 that the club was reformed, now competing in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Division Two. Try to say that five times fast! A little bit of trivia too: Wanderers earned their name because they never had their own stadium, but rather hopped around different grounds in London to play their games.
The first ever football league in the world was also formed in England in 1888. Aston Villa director William McGregor was the founder of the football league, and it was comprised of 12 clubs in the Midlands and north England region: Accrington Stanley, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
| #OnThisDay in ...@AVFCOfficial William McGregor wrote to the committees of;
suggesting the creation of a league competition that would become the @EFL.
— Football On This Day (@footieonthisday) March 22, 2018
We hope you enjoyed your history lesson, folks. Now you can bore all of your friends with this information, write up a paper on the history of soccer or whatever else you think you can do with this new knowledge.
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