The Story of Football
People have played games like football
for thousands of years.
- In ancient China they played a special game for the emperor's birthday. Soldiers kicked balls made of animal skin into a net between two posts. These posts were ten metres high.
- In the Pacific Islands they played games using hands and feet. They used coconuts and oranges as balls.
- In Mexico & Central America they played on a special pitch shaped like a capital "I". It was 10 - 15 metres long with high walls several feet at each end. In the middle of each wall there was a special stone or a wooden ring. You scored ‘goals’ by putting a hard rubber ball through the ring.
Strange Balls
- The Eskimos also played a game like football - on
ice!. They used a ball filled with grass and animal hair.
Games were played between different villages. Sometimes
the goals were fifteen kilometres apart.
- There are many legends about the early history of football in England. One story is that soldiers used the skulls of their enemies as balls.
- Another is that an English village beat a Roman team
on the pitch and then in battle in 217 AD. But there are
very few written records of early football.