Research to Date

I began my research online at the FIFA site and read both the "History of the Game" as well as the PDF version of the official "Laws of the Game".

The history of football dates back to the second and third centuries BCE in games that were performed during the Han Dynasty as well as a variety of similar games that can be linked to Japanese, Greek, Celtic, and Norman cultures. As the game evolved through the ages, it was mostly outlawed by most organized forms of government due to the affects the game had on its participants and surrounding environment. Most often, the games erupted into violence, which then turned into public property damage as well as public disturbances, etc. During times of war-100 Years' War specifically-the soldiers were prohibited from playing the game because it was deemed necessary that they practice archery instead.

In relativity to its existence, the regulation of soccer was quite recent: 1863. Before then, a variety of adaptations of the game existed: "Shrovetide football, as it was called, belonged in the 'mob football' category, where the number of players was unlimited and the rules were fairly vague (for example, according to an ancient handbook from Workington in England, any means could be employed to get the ball to its target with the exception of murder and manslaughter). Shrovetide football is still played today on Shrove Tuesday in some areas, for example, Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Needless to say, it is no longer so riotous as it used to be, nor are such extensive casualties suffered as was probably the case centuries ago." Ultimately in 1863, the rugby group parted ways from the centralized soccer associations in response to their overwhelming disapproval of carrying the ball.

Although the game was "persistently forbidden for 500 years", it was never fully suppressed. In the early 19th century, soccer became integrated with the public school system and this is seen as the point at which soccer became possible to organize and standardize.