Football News

It's simple, this game we all love. Football, eh?

Dumb it down and aliens would wonder exactly what it was about this 'sport' that captivates an entire species. It's just a few folks running around within a marked area trying to kick a spherical object into a net, after all.

Break it down like that and, yes, they might wonder where the exhilaration lies and football was once a pastime of distinct primitivity. A game which formerly celebrated vigour and violence has evolved into an art form lauded as 'beautiful'.

Cultural differences have reflected alternate interpretations of this ever-evolving art, from the Dutch's, Brazil's, Argentina's, Austria's coffee houses and England's 4-4-effin-2.

There are some who simply couldn't live without it, but who do fans have to thank for the invention of the beautiful game?

There are multiple ancient iterations of the sport, with the Scots also claiming to have been kicking a ball around for hundreds of years before the mid-19th century.

The earliest form of football is believed to have been played in third-century BC China during the Han dynasty. Called 'cuju' ('kickball'), the aim of the game was kicking the ball into a net. Players were not allowed to use their hands, which can't be said about the Ancient Greeks' interpretation: 'episkyros'.

The Greeks' version involved a similar number of players to the sport as we know it, but it was much more violent — even the vintage Estudiantes outfits would have found it a little much.

Football has taken on many forms, but the invention of the sport as it is recognised today has to be credited to the English Football Association, which was founded during a meeting on 26 October 1863at the Freemasons' Tavern on Great Queen Street in London.

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