History of football English lesson

What will I learn from the English lesson history of football?

During this English lesson you will learn a brief history about football, how rules was introduced and the teams that made up the first league in England.

Football has been played for over 300 years

Football has been played by people for well over three thousand years. It is not possible to say when football was played for the first time. Evidence can be found indicating that it might have been played in China, Japan, Rome and Greece. Most people say the birthplace of football is the UK (England and Scotland).

Football started as a war game

Even though it is thought as a war game, the first football game to take place in England was in the east. The locals played football with the head that had been cut off from a Danish Prince they had just defeated in a battle.

In the medieval times the game was very rough and kicking, punching, biting and gouging were allowed. King Edward III even tried to get football banned, but the game had become too popular. Even before Queen Elisabeth I came to throne she couldn't stop it, if people were found to be playing football the players were put in jail for one week.

Football rules

In the year 1815, the English School, Eton College, came up with a set of rules.
The Football Association (also known as the FA) was founded in 1863. In 1869 the handling of the ball was stopped. In the 1880s the students of Oxford University came up with a slang word for the word association. They shortened it to "SOC" and then added "ER". This is how the word soccer was created. Nowadays only Americans used the word soccer most people refer to it as football.

English Football League

In the year 1888 the first English Football League was created. In the first league only twelve teams made up the league.

The twelve clubs were:
Accrington Stanley (also known as the old Reds)
Aston Villa
Blackburn Rovers
Bolton Wanderers
Burnley
Derby County
Everton
Nott's County
Preston North End
Stoke City
West Bromwich Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers

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