History of football

The history of modern football sports such as soccer and rugby essentially began in England during early industrialization. Earlier driftball games, however, have been around for a long time.

Beginnings of the football game

Football player from a mural in Tepantitla near Teotihuacán (c. 6th century)

There are different and many traditions about the beginnings of the football game. Already in the 3rd century BC A soccer-like game called Cuju (Ts'uh-küh) was played in China . Nothing is known of the rules of this game at that time; however, it is certain that this game was conducted as a military training program. In the course of the Zhou dynasty , the sports game spread among the people and stricter rules were used to try to prevent violence and roughness. The ball was sewn together from pieces of leather and stuffed with feathers and animal hair. The game of football grew in popularity from the Qin to the Sui Dynasty . The latest research has shown that until around AD 600, Qin was even a national sport and there could have been a professional league back then. In those years an air-filled ball was invented and football rules (goals, goalkeepers and captains) were recorded. About 100 years later, the ball game was completely forgotten again and has no relation to the development of the modern football game.

In the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica , the ball game was practiced as a cultic-religious but also as a leisure activity. The full round ball was made of rubber , was usually a few kilograms and therefore jumped on after the impact. Again, little is known about the rules; In the ritual ball game, touching the ball with the feet does not seem to have been allowed - in the case of pure leisure time it was probably different. In any case, the Mesoamerican ball game had a great influence on the further development of European ball games.

In Turkish history had the football long before the Turks to Anatolia came a long tradition. The Turkish scholar Mahmud al-Kāschgharī describes in his book dīwān lughāt at-turk that in the 11th century a game called Tepük ( Old Turkish language for: kick) enjoyed great popularity among the Turkic peoples living in Central Asia .

In the 17th century, a type of football was played in Florence

Although England is considered the motherland of football, there have also been fighting games related to the driftball game in France and Italy . Since the 15th century, the Calcio Storico , a kind of football game that could be quite rough, was practiced in Florence .

Football has been played in England since that time, with two villages attempting to get a ball into the opposing city gate. Everything was allowed, serious injuries were common. The “playing field” was always between two villages, even if they were several kilometers apart. These games were extremely brutal and were therefore banned several times by the Church and Crown, which is why their importance decreased more and more after the Industrial Revolution at the beginning of the 19th century.

Origin of the modern football game

Instead, they have now become more and more popular at English private schools and universities (e.g. Rugby School , Cheltenham College (founded 1841), Eton College , Harrow School , Westminster School , Charterhouse School , Shrewsbury School ) for "physical training". However, the rules were anything but uniform, which long prevented football teams from different universities from competing against each other. The oldest rules of football are the rules of the Rugby School of 1845. In 1848, Cambridge University students wrote the first rules of football . After that, a team consisted of 15 to 20 players. Under these rules, the ball could be picked up but not carried under certain circumstances. In 1843, Guy's Hospital Football Club, the oldest still existing football club, was founded. Then as now, the variant rugby football was played. 1857 the world's first club for was Association football , of Sheffield FC founded. On December 26, 1860, Sheffield FC played their first football game against another club, FC Hallam , which was founded in September .

England is now considered the motherland of football mainly because the Football Association (FA) was founded in London in 1863 and the extensive set of rules promoted the development of football as a whole. In 1866 the offside rule was modified: A player was only offside if he had fewer than three opponents in front of him when receiving the ball. In Sheffield code were corner and kick introduced. In 1870 the FA limited the number of players to eleven. A year later, the English Football Association banned all field players from playing handball (before that, the so-called fair catch was allowed). Only the goalkeeper was allowed to play the ball in his own half with his hand, but had to release it after two steps. This majority decision led to rugby supporters leaving the FA and from then on rugby football and association football to develop separately. Only from this point in time can one speak of two different sports, both of which, however, continued to be referred to as "football" (at this point in time also in Germany). Even today, the term football stands for six different sports in English , with Association football having the most supporters.

The first international match on November 30, 1872

In 1872 the English Association established a uniform ball size. On November 30, 1872, a Scottish and an English team led by Cuthbert Ottaway faced each other on Hamilton Crescent near Glasgow - the first official international match in football ended goalless 0-0. In the same year, the first national soccer competition, the FA Cup, was introduced.

Two years later, the football referee was added, who directed the game as a referee. In the following years the rules were specified and expanded: The lower edge of the crossbar at a height of 2.44 m (8 feet) was set as the upper limit of the goal and a half-time break with a change of sides was introduced (1875). The referee allowed a sending-off grant (1877) and the kick was defined as a punishment for an offense (1880). In order for the referee to better assert himself against the players, referees used a whistle , for the first time in Nottingham in 1878 . From 1882 throw-in with both hands was allowed. The following year, the referee was given sole decision-making authority and two line judges (assistant referees) to assist . The goal net (1890), the penalty kick (1891), the graduation of the catalog of penalties for an intentional and deliberate foul play (1897) as well as the extension (1897) were adopted into the rules before the turn of the century.

In 1878 the first game with electric lighting (by so-called floodlights ) took place in Sheffield on Bramall Lane . In 1888 the first football league was founded in England, the first champions being Preston North End . In 1899, paid changes of club were allowed in England, initially at a maximum of £ 10.

Introduction of football in continental Europe

Switzerland as a pioneer

FC St. Gallen in 1881

In continental Europe, football was able to prevail, especially in Switzerland . In the Lake Geneva region , English people studying at private schools there introduced football in the 1860s. The first football clubs were established there as early as 1870. The oldest still existing Swiss club, FC St. Gallen , which was also founded by English students in 1879 , then played a central role in administrative issues relating to football.

Football was exported from Switzerland to the surrounding countries: the Stade Helvétique Marseille , founded by the Swiss, became French champions in 1909; the team consisted of ten Swiss and one Englishman. In turn, FC Barcelona was founded by Joan Gamper . Since the nationalist oriented Milan Cricket and Football Club did not accept foreigners, the association Inter Milan was founded by Swiss and Italians .

In 1895, eleven Swiss clubs formed the Swiss Football Association . This hosted the first Swiss championship in the 1897/98 season under the sponsor “La Suisse Sportive”, a French sports newspaper. The first Swiss champion was the Grasshopper Club Zurich .

Denmark and Belgium also played a pioneering role in continental Europe .

Football is coming to Germany

In 1875 Konrad Koch published the first German football rule set .

A soccer team in the Prussian main cadet institute , 1900

The first certified soccer game on German soil took place in Stuttgart in 1865. The rules of the rugby school were played .

In 1874, according to the prevailing opinion, Association Football was first introduced in Germany by Konrad Koch , a teacher at the Martino-Katharineum grammar school in Braunschweig . The game was first played with a rugby football. According to Koch, the aim was to cultivate ethical virtues and to combat lack of exercise: "With soccer, our German youth, who have been weaned from fresh outdoor play, is the quickest way to regain their lost desire to play." In 1875, Koch published the rules of the middle-class soccer club of the Martino-Catharineum the first German rule set, very similar to today's football. The terms offside , half-time and corner kick used today can also be traced back to Konrad Koch. In a publication in which individual articles by Konrad Koch are compiled and commented on, it is emphasized that Konrad Koch was an advocate of the rugby game and that his first set of rules was only devoted to this variant of the football game.

The credibility of other sources, according to which in the 1850s in Dissen am Teutoburger Wald and in Heidelberg, English boarding school students played football according to rugby school rules with locals , remains very controversial. The first evidence of a football game according to the rules of the Football Association (FA) comes from Lüneburg and dates to the year 1875. At the Johanneum there, the teacher Wilhelm Görges and the young Englishman Richard EN Twopeny from Marlborough College introduced the football game.

Development after the separation of football and rugby

In Germany, football had to struggle for social recognition for much longer than in its mother country, because until the 20th century, German physical education and training was synonymous with gymnastics that was firmly anchored in schools and the military . This was created from 1811 by the father of the German gymnastics movement, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, as a reaction to French rule, in order to physically prepare the German youth for a desired war of liberation. Football imported from England was a new form of physical culture in the German Empire . The athletes and sports officials, however, pursued less overarching political goals with the practice of their sports, but rather a leisure time in the middle class.

The "English sport" (up to the early 20th century often pejoratively referred to as "foot lolling" or "English illness") was practiced in the early years mainly by British entrepreneurs, students, technicians, business people and embassy staff; so there were in Darmstadt z. B. since 1878 an - English - football club. German high school students played in this unofficially. But when they wanted to join the club, they were strictly forbidden from doing so by the principal of the grammar school because "it would be a bloody game". There were also locals who had got to know the game of football in England - for example through their studies abroad - who continued to play this sport after their return.

The sport of soccer was mainly played by the higher earners. Workers barely had the financial means to pay for the high cost of the equipment; they organized themselves further in the gymnastics clubs. In contrast, employees were more open to new ideas, and 30 to 40 percent of them were willing to spend a large part of their income on leisure activities. Imitation of student connection cultures such as the Latinized club names “Borussia”, “Alemannia”, adoption of color customs and repositioning of songs, so O wonderful football game and the use of attributes of civil respectability, e.g. B. Orders, medals and titles like "Meister", which did not exist in the professional life of the employees, were formative for the early soccer game in Germany. In the western Rhineland resident English merchants and industrialists brought alongside the traditional equestrian the sport of football in the country. In 1900, pupils and students founded the "Alemannia football club" in Aachen .

Soccer match between Dresden and Berlin in 1892

Due to the diverse international contacts of the Moravian Brethren , the first international football match on German soil took place in Neuwied in 1887.

In 1893 the Arbeiter-Turnerbund (ATB) was founded. In the same year, the " Jena Rules " stipulated that the playing fields in Germany must be free of trees and bushes. With the establishment of the German Football Association (DFB) in 1900, football was given a higher-level association. In the same year football became Olympic .

It was not until 1908 that the Imperial Navy also allowed cabin boys to participate in the squadron championships . In 1910, the army also discovered football as a contemporary educational measure for physical exercise and promoting camaraderie. Ideologically, the sporting competition could also be used in the sense of militarism , in which “battles for supremacy” were waged: attack , defense , flank , cover and parade are words that come directly from the military language . The ideal footballer corresponded to the image of the modern soldier, he was conscientious, loyal and independent.

In 1909 Heinrich von Prussia (1862–1929) donated the Germany shield, the first challenge prize for the soccer championship of the German Imperial Navy .

Further development and football as a global sport

On May 21, 1904, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA ) was founded in Paris to organize international matches and establish international football rules. FIFA defined the term “dangerous game”, introduced the direct free kick and repealed the requirement that players' pants must cover the knees. Further new rules of the World Football Association forbade the goalkeeper to leave the goal line when taking a penalty, but he was allowed to move to irritate the shooter. Furthermore, metal inserts in the football boots were prohibited, the ball had to be made of leather and the referees were asked to make a match report. In 1907 the offside was canceled in their own half of the game. Two years later, rules on eviction were made. In 1913, FIFA introduced the so-called “appropriate distance” (10 yards = approx. 9.15 m) between the shooter and opponents on free kicks. In 1920 the offside at throw-in was canceled. Since 1924, the corner kick can be turned directly into a goal.

With the introduction of a professional league in 1924, Austria was the first continental European country with a league for professional football players . Three years later, the Austrian Football Association initiated the Mitropacup, the first major international competition for club teams in Europe. The Mitropacup is considered to be the forerunner of today's European Football Cup .

In 1930, on the initiative of Jules Rimet and Enrique Buero, FIFA hosted the first football World Cup in Uruguay (world champions: Uruguay). Thirteen teams took part in the World Cup, but the German team decided not to travel to South America for cost reasons . The European football association UEFA was founded in 1954 in Basel , Switzerland . As early as 1955/56, UEFA hosted the first ever European Cup . The European Cup of Nations took place for the first time in 1960 and was renamed the European Championship eight years later .

The soccer game became more and more popular in the years to come, the mass media and the development of television increased worldwide interest in soccer. 198 national teams were registered for qualifying for the 2002 World Cup . With 208 members, more countries are represented in the world football association FIFA than in the United Nations (192).

Before a Champions League game (2005)

In 1992 the European Cup was replaced by the UEFA Champions League . On December 15, 1995, the so-called " Bosman decision " shook the common replacement practice in football. The European Court of Justice found that soccer players were normal workers. Since then, football players can only be charged a transfer fee if they have an ongoing contract.

In 2004, the world football association FIFA celebrated its 100th anniversary. In the same year, the World Cup was held for the last time (winners FC Porto ) and replaced the following year by the Club World Cup .

Chronology of the rules of football

• 1845: Rugby School students write the first modern football rules in writing. This variant is still played today with numerous modifications in the football sport rugby.
• 1848: Students at Cambridge University wrote the first cross-school football rules, the so-called " Cambridge Rules ". After that, a team consisted of 15 to 20 players.
• 1862: JC Thring, principal of the Uppingham School, publishes a draft of the rules ("The simplest game").
• 1863: The Football Association (FA), the world's first national football association, is founded in London. A comprehensive set of rules is adopted, which comprises 14 paragraphs. It is based on the Cambridge Rules. Accordingly, it is fundamentally anchored: playing with the foot and only kicking after the ball. The first offside rule states that every player is offside in front of the ball, i.e. between the ball and the opposing goal.
• 1864: Rules for playing attire - pants must cover the knees and hats must have tassels.
• 1865: The gates are bordered with a cord at a height of 2.44 m
• 1866: First modification of the offside rule: a player is only offside if he has fewer than three opponents in front of him when receiving the ball. The " Sheffield Code " introduces a corner kick and free kick .
• 1870: The FA limits the number of players to eleven.
• 1871: Separation between (associations) football and rugby (football): The FA forbids all field players to play handball (before that, the so-called fair catch was allowed), only the goalkeeper is allowed to play the ball in his own half with his hand, but has it to release again after two steps. Afterwards, some clubs leave the association and found the Rugby Football Union .
• 1872: Introduction of the corner kick. Establishing a uniform ball size. The first official international match will take place in Glasgow between Scotland and England (final score 0-0).
• 1874: Football referees direct the game.
• 1875: Lower edge of the transverse battens at a height of 2.44 m as the upper limit of the gate. Introduction of half-time break and changing sides. Konrad Koch , a teacher in Braunschweig, publishes the first German-language football rules.
• 1877: The referee should a sending-off place.
• 1878: First use of the referee's whistle
• 1880: The free kick is defined as a “penalty”. The FA prescribes shin guards.
• 1882: Throwing in with both hands is allowed.
• 1886: The IFAB ( International Football Association Board ), the highest international body for changing and passing football rules to this day, is founded in London; it initially only consists of British representatives.
• 1889: The referee receives sole decision-making authority and two linesmen to assist .
• 1890: Introduction of goal nets.
• 1891: Introduction of the penalty kick .
• 1893: In the " Jena Rules " it is stipulated, among other things, that in Germany the playing fields must be free of trees and bushes. In addition, the penalty area now has the shape of a rectangle and is no longer a semicircle.
• 1897: Introduction of the terms “intentional” and “intentional” to graduate the catalog of penalties for foul play .
• 1899: The paid change of club is allowed. The maximum yield is £ 10 for now.
• 1902: The semicircle of the penalty area becomes a rectangle. The penalty spot is introduced.
• 1903: The goalkeeper is only allowed to play handball in his own penalty area.
• 1904: FIFA defines the term "dangerous game", introduces the indirect free kick and removes the requirement that players' pants must cover the knees.
• 1906: New rules forbid the goalkeeper to leave the goal line when taking penalties. But he may move on it. Furthermore, metal inserts in the football boots are prohibited, the ball must be made of leather and the referees are required to draw up a match report.
• 1907: Offside in one's own half of the game is canceled.
• 1909: Provisions for eviction are established.
• 1913: The "appropriate distance" between the shooter and the opponent on the free kick is set at 10 yards = 9.15 meters. The first four non-UK representatives of FIFA will join the IFAB.
• 1920: Offside at the throw-in is canceled.
• 1924: The corner kick can be converted directly into a goal.
• 1925: Change of the offside rule - at the moment when the ball is released, there must be at least two opponents (previously three) between the player and the goal.
• 1929: Rules change for the penalty kick - the goalkeeper is not allowed to move on the goal line until the shot. This restriction is no longer in the current rules of the DFB (2005).
• 1937: The mass of the ball is officially increased and is now 14 to 16 ounces (396 g to 453 g).
• 1938: The IFAB rewrites the set of rules, which, apart from minor changes, has essentially remained constant to this day.
• 1939: Official introduction of the shirt numbers
• 1948: In the Dimayor , the professional league in Colombia, which is not an official member of its own national association and therefore not a FIFA member, two substitutions per game and team are allowed.
• 1960: Referees check players' shoes before international games.
• 1963: Playing barefoot in India is banned.
• 1965: In the English league, an injured player can be substituted for the entire season.
• 1966: The English league introduces a new substitution system. Regardless of injuries, two players may be substituted during the entire game. This rule will soon apply worldwide.
• 1967: The “four-step rule” for goalkeepers is introduced. According to this, a goalkeeper can only move four steps with the ball in his hand. Otherwise, the opponent receives an indirect free kick.
• 1968: Yellow and red cards are tried out at the Olympic soccer tournament in Mexico .
• 1969: Official introduction of the substitution rule, according to which each team can exchange two players during the entire game. Introduction of the away goals rule in UEFA competitions. The goal difference (subtraction method) is introduced to determine the table status; it replaces the goal difference (division method).
• 1970: At the IX. Soccer World Cup in Mexico the yellow and red cards are officially introduced. Introduction of penalty shoot-outs after extra time (initiated by UEFA).
• 1970: The football game ban for women by the DFB is lifted.
• 1971: Teams are allowed to nominate 5 substitutes.
• 1974: Automatic ban after 3 yellow cards in the cup or in the league
• 1978: UEFA introduces the five-year coefficient for its club competitions.
• 1983: Red card for the " emergency brake "
• 1984: Yellow card for "exuberant jubilation"
• 1988: At the European Football Championship in the Federal Republic of Germany, only referee collectives from one country are used.
• 1990: “Equal Height” is no longer offside
• 1991: Introduction of the yellow-red card as a graded expulsion
• 1992: The back pass to the goalkeeper is restricted in that he is no longer allowed to pick up the ball with his hand.
• 1993: Prohibition of the "tackle from behind" (so-called blood tackle )
• 1995: Substitution of three substitutes is allowed. Changed the definition of the half-time break from "5 minutes in the cabin" to "maximum 15 minutes".
• 1996: " Golden Goal " is introduced for the first time at the European Championships.
• 1998: A foul from behind is to be punished immediately by the referee with expulsion.
• 1999: The " swallow " is banned and punished with a yellow card.
• 2002: "Golden Goal" is abolished again after the World Cup.
• 2002: UEFA introduces the “ Silver Goal ” rule.
• 2004: The “Silver Goal” rule is abolished again. After the European Championships in 2004, the original rules from before 1994 will be returned to.

literature

• Elisabeth Angermair, Roman Beer, Manfred Peter Heimers, Anton Löffelmeier, Ingo Schwab: Soccer in Munich - from Theresienwiese to the Allianz Arena. Edited by the Munich City Archives. München Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-937090-12-2 .
• Karl Ulrich Bertrams: “O wonderful football game”. The academic background of a popular sport . In: Studentenkurier No. 3/1998, pp. 13-15.
• Beatrix Bouvier (ed.): On the social and cultural history of football . Study Center Karl Marx House of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Trier 2006, ISBN 978-3-89892-572-3 ( full text as PDF ).
• Christiane Eisenberg, Pierre Lanfranchi , Tony Mason, Alfred Wahl : FIFA 1904–2004 - 100 Years of World Football . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-442-1 . (Well-known historians report on the development and worldwide spread of football, examine the development of playing styles and analyze the current tension between football, media and politics. There are also interviews with international superstars such as Pelé, Maradona and Beckenbauer.)
• Christiane Eisenberg and Pierre Lanfranchi , eds. (2006): Football History: International Perspectives ; Special Issue, Historical Social Research 31, no. 1. 312 pages. Full text download .
• Konrad Koch: The history of football in ancient and modern times . 2nd Edition. Gaertner, Berlin 1895 (reprint: Lit, Münster 1983, ISBN 3-88660-110-2 ).
• Florian Reiter: The kick with the ball: The history of football . Past Publishing, Berlin 2009. ISBN 978-3-940621-06-1 .
• Francis Peabody Magoun: History of football from the beginnings to 1871 . Pöppinghaus, Bochum-Langendreer 1938 ( Cologne English studies ; vol. 31).
• Wolfram Pyta: The long way to the Bundesliga. To the triumph of football in Germany . Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7261-0 .
• Helmut Brinker : Laozi crosses, Confucius dribbles. China apparently on the sidelines: from football and its secret cradle. Lang, Bern et al. 2006, ISBN 3-03910-890-5 ( Worlds of East Asia ; Vol. 9).
• “You have to be eleven friends!” Objections and impulses on German football history . Haug, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995, ISBN 3-928276-08-5 ( history workshop ; 28).
• Magazine: Libero international. International Federation of Football History & Statistics . IFFHS, Wiesbaden 1992ff .; Previous journals: 11 (1985–1987); Libero. German Football Magazine (1988-1991); World football magazine (1987-2000)
• Konrad Koch: When football came to Germany: The prehistory and early history of German football . Bernhard Oeckl, Langenargen 2019, DNB  1192819381 (Contains the translation of the following works by Konrad Koch from the old German Fraktur script into the new German script and spelling: "The history of football in ancient times and in modern times" (1894), "Rules of the football club of the middle classes of the Martino-Catharineum in Braunschweig ”(1875),“ German art expressions of the football game ”(1903)).

Web links

Commons : History of Football  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://kulturelbellek.com/tepuk-oyunu-hakkinda-bilgi/
2. ^ Graham Curry: The Making of Association Football: Two Decades Which Created the Modern Game . Cambridge Scholars Publisher, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2021, ISBN 978-1-5275-6077-2 , p. 20.
3. ^ Origins of Rugby. Retrieved August 30, 2016 : "" A separate meeting was also held in the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, London with eleven schools and clubs supporting the kicking and handling codes present. They drew up common rules by which they could play each other, however, after they had reached a compromise a number of the attendees recanted and ended up adopting the Cambridge rules (which precluded running with the ball). Blackheath subsequently withdrew from the football association as it was then called. Henceforth there was a split between Association football (soccer) and Rugby Football (rugby). "" 
4. ^ Heineken, Philipp: The football game. Association and rugby. Classics of Sports Literature Volume 2 . New edition 1993 edition. 1898, ISBN 3-88746-306-4 .
5. ^ Philipp Heineken: Memories of the Cannstatter Soccer Club . Ed .: Verlag Hermann Meister, Heidelberg 1930.
6. ↑ Malte Oberschelp: Konrad Koch - The football pioneer. An annotated edition of selected original texts. Hildesheim 2015, pp. 7, 13.
7. ^ Hans-Peter Hock: The Dresden Football Club and the beginnings of football in Europe. Arete-Verlag, Hildesheim 2016, ISBN 978-3-942468-69-5 , pp. 18-20.
8. ^ ^{A b} Christiane Eisenberg: Football in Germany 1890-1914. A parlor game for the middle class. In: Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 20th year, issue 2/1994, pp. 184ff
9. ↑ Half right with a false beard When the relaxed bourgeoisie sank on the sidelines: O wonnevolles Fußballspiel , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 22, 1994, No. 142, p. N5 Geisteswissenschaften
10. ↑ Start of football in Aachen ( Memento of the original from June 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Moravian Quarter . In: neuwied.de .
12. ↑ Germany's Football - Das Lexikon , published by the DFB and the Sportverlag Berlin, 1st edition 2000, p. 504, ISBN 978-3-328-00857-6
13. ^ In the catalog of the German National Library