[Lexicog] Re: Naming the Beautiful Game: Football or Soccer?

[John Roberts]

According to the histories I have read Julius Caesar and his Romans brought 
football (or a version of football) to Britain when he invaded in 55BC. 
During the Middle Ages the game took hold of the public with annual 
Shrovetide matches being played between neighbouring villages with teams of 
unlimited numbers. The ball was usually a pig's bladder although on one 
infamous occasion in Chester the head of a dead Viking was used to celebrate 
a recent victory over the invaders. It was something country folks did to 
let off steam. It was banned in the cities. But football survived the 
attempts to ban it completely. Football remained a fairly lawless and unruly 
game until the mid-1840s when the desire of teams, particularly public 
schools, to play against each other resulted in meetings where the first set 
of formal rules for the game of association football were written. The 
world's first football clubs were formed in northern England in the 1850s 
and 1860s and thus the modern game of football was born. In 1888 the first 
football league was started with the following founder members

The twelve clubs were:
Accrington (Old Reds)
Aston Villa
Blackburn Rovers
Bolton Wanderers
Burnley
Derby County
Everton
Notts County
Preston North End
Stoke City
West Bromwich Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers

None from Massachusetts I am afraid. From the north of England football was 
spread around the world through the empire on which the sun never set. Thus 
football became the game it is today - played in just about every country of 
the world.

John Roberts




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