How Did Soccer Influence The Creation Of Football?

By: Shawn Landis

Break Studios Contributing Writer

How did soccer influence the creation of football? Soccer and football's history is intertwined, as one is a descendant of the other. The history of soccer begins at some unknown date. Historians were more concerned with unimportant things like wars, famines, and political upheaval than tracking the development of football.

A precursor to soccer was played in the original Greek Olympic Games. The game consisted of 27 men trying to score points against the opposing team. The exact details of the game are not known, although one-third of the players usually needed medical attention after each game. Rugby, it is rumored, has a similar injury rate.

A game that more closely resembles soccer is described in a Chinese Text dating from the first century B.C. The next time history records a soccer game is in 611 A.D. The game took place in Japan's capital city of Kyoto. This game probably developed independently of a similar game that was being played by the peasantry in England. While the commoners loved the sport of soccer, the English nobility openly despised it.

The game took root in its current shape in England and it did not go unnoticed by the monarchy. King Edward proclaimed: “For as much as there is a great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls, from which many evils may arise, which God forbid, we command and forbid on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city future."

Those who preferred physical contact in the early soccer games developed the sport that became known as rugby. Rugby gained popularity on American college campuses during the 19^th century. A collegiate athletics director named Walter Camp would alter the rules for rugby into what would become the American Football.

The history of soccer, rugby and football are all intertwined. The latter two sports are direct descendants of the first. Even though the World Cup comes down to one game every four years, it has not quite caught on as a popular excuse to throw a party with the American public. Perhaps the final game of the World Cup is an excuse to throw a party in some alternate universe where the U.S. Men's Soccer team has a chance of actually winning the World's Cup.

Sources:

Walter Camp

<a href="\"\\"\\\\"http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-soccer.htm\\\\"\\"\"">The History of Soccer </a> <a href="\"\\"\\\\"http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/hist1.html\\\\"\\"\"" _cke_saved_href="\"\\"\\\\"http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/hist1.html\\\\"\\"\"">American Attitudes Towards Soccer </a>

Posted on: Mar. 12, 2010