Association football is the most popular sport on earth; watched and played by millions, if not billions of people every weekend. It’s a sport which can make the world stand still, stop wars, and rock all nations. The history of football and a few subjects gets my juices flowing quite as much. So, in this post, we have set the task of trying to give the most comprehensive rundown of the entire history of the sport.
Let’s Take It Back To 300 BC:
Numerous territories’ late claims haven’t been the earliest interpretations of football, dating back to ancient empires. FIFA recognizes the Chinese sport of Cuju in the 3rd century BC, as the earliest form of football for which there is evidence. However, the Japanese had another variation in the sport called Kemari, along with the ancient Greeks and Romans who all had ball games played with the feet.
The 1500s to 1800s:
Accounts from English explorers even report a form of the sport being played by the Inuit people of Greenland in the 1500s, the Native Americans in Virginia in the 1600s, and on the Australian continent by Indigenous Australians in the 1880s. Meanwhile, back in Europe and particularly in Britain, and Ireland, there was a rather lawless, and aggressive medieval sport sometimes referred to as “mob football” typically played between local villagers.
The early seeds of football as we know it was sown in upper-class public schools in England and these fee-paying schools were the first to start to codify the sport in the 1700s. In the early to mid-1800s came the Sheffield rules which were the dominant code, but it would soon be replaced with the founding of the Football Association in 1863.
The FA Got Started And Football Starts To Spread:
The world’s first Football Association, the FA, were headed up by Hall mates of Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who drew up the first unified laws of the game, the year the organization was founded.
The world’s first association football clubs such as Cambridge University, Barnes FC, Sheffield FC, and Hallam FC were founded in the mid-1800s, and not long after in 1860, the first non-British team was founded in Lucerne in Switzerland. This was followed by the first non-European team Buenos Aries FC founded in Argentina in 1867.
Both Luzerne and Buenos Aires football clubs were founded by British people, by railway workers, and managers in Argentina, and by students in Switzerland. They represented the start of the sport spreading internationally.
The First Tournament:
In 1867, the world’s first football tournament, the Youdan Cup took place in Sheffield and was won by Hallam FC. Five years later, the world’s first national competition and the world’s oldest football tournament still in existence was born– the Football Association cup — with the first final seeing London club Wanderers FC overcome the Royal Engineers.
The first international football match between England and Scotland took place in 1870, followed by the first international match recognized by FIFA in 1872, both games ended in draws.
During the 1870s, and 1880s, football went from a rigidly individualistic sport in which players look to dribble as far as they could without losing the ball, to a much more tactical team sport; an innovation-led primarily by the Scottish clubs. During this time, British student workers, and touring teams began to spread the FA’s laws of the game further onto France, Germany, Canada, and Scandinavia.
Teams Begun To Swap Halves:
In 1873, the FA decided the team should swap halves at halftime, and brought in sendings off during a serious foul play, a rule implementation still unbusted by Sergio Ramos to this day. Crossbars replaced tape at the top of the goal, matches were set in 90 minutes in length, and referees were given whistles.
In 1885, professionalism was legalized as the FA fed that major Northern clubs forming a breakaway League, and in 1888 the Football Association created the world’s first football league, known as the Football League with 12 founding members. Preston North End FC won the world’s first league title becoming the first and still the early English team to go unbeaten during an entire campaign, as they also lifted the FA Cup.
The Formation Of FIFA:
The 1890s saw the further globalization of football along with the introduction of nets as New Zealand, Argentina, and Singapore joined the list of countries with their football associations. In 1904, FIFA was founded as world football’s governing body, and in 1906 England joined the organization.
Football and The Olympics:
Significantly, football was officially introduced as part of the Olympic Games at the 1908 Games in London, in what would be the first meeting of international teams in a global knockout competition.
Football had been played at the 1900 and the 1904 games but only by clubs and scratch teams. France was so keen, that they answered two teams but their first string of beating was 7-1 by Denmark who went on to lose 2-0 to the hosts Great Britain in the gold medal match.
Great Britain won gold again in 1912, the same year the goalkeepers were banned from using their hands outside of the area, meanwhile, Uruguay won the first COPA America in 1960.
Following the first world war which disrupted European football, the game’s first stars were born. The likes of Dixie Dean, Arthur Friedenreich, and Hos Andrade reached a level of fame outside of their home nations, not previously seen.
The 1924 Olympics was the first time European and South American opposition met at the international level, and Uruguay cruised to the gold medal. Denmark and Great Britain refused to compete due to FIFA refusing to enforce a strict amateur status. The same disputes saw the FA pull out of FIFA all together in 1928, meaning they would not feature in 1930, 1934, or 1938 World Cups.
Uruguay Hosts FIFA Finals And Italy Prove Everyone Wrong:
Uruguay defended their crown in style once again at the 1928 Olympics, and FIFA rewarded them hosting rights for the very first World Cup Finals in 1930. There were almost no European teams at the world’s first World Cup before, but later, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, and Romania ended up making the journey by sea.
Uruguay and Argentina were the favorites, and they crushed all in their wake en-route to the final, for Uruguay became the first FIFA World Cup winners.
In 1934, fascist Italy was chosen as the hosts, a reminder that questionable host selection by FIFA is not a new invention. Uruguay refused to participate due to the European teams not traveling to South America, the Brits were still in FIFA exile, and Italy won the trophy after Mussolini picked and met with the referees for all of Italy’s games.
As suspect as that sounds, and indeed was, Italy did prove their class by becoming the first back-to-back World Cup winners in France in 1938.
Mitropa Cup Is Formed:
A major international club competition was set up in 1927 called the Mitropa Cup, competed between the best club sides in Central Europe, and it would be the precursor to the European Cup.
They were no World Cups between 1934 and 1950, with so many nations involved in the devastation of the Second World War, but some tremendous teams emerged as the conflicts came to an end.
Britain had been decimated by the war, but England had managed to assemble the best of a team during that time. Stanley Matthews became arguably the sports first global superstar, joined by tremendous footballers like Raich Carter, Neill Franklin, Wolfe Mannion, and Tommy Lawton.
Another great team of the 1940s was the Torino side known as Grande Torino who provided the bulk of the Italy team at the time.
Torino won 4 consecutive titles up until 1949 when their entire team was killed in an accident as the team returned home from a game against Benfica.
World Cup Returned In 1950:
The World Cup returned in 1950, and it returned to South America for the first time since 1930. Brazil were the hosts, and huge favorites England were humiliated by the rank amateurs of the United States at their first World Cup, signaling the end of their golden generation.
The United States upset England in the group stage after being third place in the 1930 World Cup. However, it is impressive that today Soccer is not so popular in the USA. I wrote an article explaining Why Soccer is not popular in The United States where you can take a look why the third best team in 1930 is not a protagonist en the worldwide scene today.
Meanwhile, Uruguay returned to the competition following two decades away. They returned spectacularly, coming from a goal down in the decisive game in the finals against the host nation Brazil, winning 2-1 to make it two from two for La Celeste at the World Cup.
The final game was watched by a world record attendance of 199,844 people, with more than 170,000 paying spectators, and multiple sources suspecting the actual attendance to have well exceeded 200,000 people.
Health and safety regulations mean that record isn’t likely to ever be exceeded, and Brazil entered a state of national shock and anger following defeats Uruguay, which was known as the Maracanazo.
Also, in the 1950s a number of the world’s best sports clubs and domestic clubs decided to sign lucrative contracts in Colombia, who have been exiled from FIFA but that house of cards soon came crashing down.
In that decade, Hungary’s golden generation was irrepressible between 1950 and 1956, losing just one game in six years, but that game was the 1954 World Cup final against West Germany.
European Cup Was Born In 1955 and The Era Of Pele:
The European Cup was founded in 1955 and Real Madrid won the first five editions with a star-studded lineup featuring former Colombian exile Alfredo Di Stefano and Hector Rial. The next great team was arguably the greatest ever assembled to this day, and Brazil first made their mark in 1958.
Having bounced back from humiliation on home soil in 1950 like Hungary, Brazil was getting ready to break ground with a revolutionary re-formation and a world-class group of players.
The Brazilians played a 4-2-4 formation with two fullbacks who attack as no one had ever seen before, a fantastic forward line and an ace up their sleeve. That ace was a 17-year old named Pele, who came into the tournament carrying an injury, and as a young boy who was unknown outside of Brazil.
He left the world cup as the most famous footballer on earth becoming Brazil’s top scorer, despite scoring all his goals in the knockout stages.
Brazil made it back-to-back World Cups in 1962 and made it three from four with the third Jules Rimet trophy in 1970. Pele was the only player to make all three squads, and he spent more than a decade as the best forward runner on earth. Pele wasn’t just better than all those who came before him, he was a freak of nature, and he took the sport in new lights.
The 1960s: Decade Of Wingless Wonders
England’s Wingless Wonders Marsh by Alf Ramsey won the 1966 World Cup, sandwiched between Brazil’s dominance as Goeff Hertz became the first and only man to this day to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.
England’s star Bobby Charlton had come back from the despair of the Munich air disaster, eight years earlier which had wiped out so many of Manchester United’s brilliant Busby Babes, but the Red Devils recovered to win both the first division title and the European Cup, in the 1960s with a sensational attacking trio made up of Charlton George Basque, and Dennis ball. All three of whom won the Ballon d’Or.
The decade also brought European Cup trunks of Benfica, Celtic, both Milan clubs, but ended with football giving birth to the conflict in Central America as writing during the 1970 World Cup qualifier between Honduras and El Salvador led to the so-called football war taking 3,000 lives in just 100 hours.
The 1970s: Football Became More Technical
More tactical innovation arrived in the 1970s by Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff, with their idealistic Total Football and IX and with the Dutch national team.
Their noble approach may have become more popular even more, were it not for the more rigidly set West German team, led by Franz Beckenbauer along with its even more pragmatic Argentina team, denying them from winning any major silver. They couldn’t be denied at club level, winning 3 consecutive European Cups, followed by three consecutive European transfers by Munich.
Liverpool became a domestic and European superpower in the 1970s and 80s, meanwhile Brian Clough and Peter Taylor took Nottingham Forest from the depths of the second division to two European Cup titles.
Maradona Becomes The Star Of The 1980s:
The outstanding Footballer of the 1980s was a maverick hot-headed and stocky attacking midfielder by the name of Diego Armando Maradona. He graced a football pitch, as though he were a gift from God.
Maradona later claimed it was by the hand of God that he scored a handball against England at the 1986 World Cup, four years on from Dino Zoff lifting the trophy with Italy. But Maradona’s brilliance was worthy of the trophy on its own in 1986.
By the end of the 1980s, a former shoe salesman named Auriga Saki had created a two-time European Cup-winning outfit, at AC Milan. And in 1990 Franz Beckenbauer became a World Cup winner for the second time, but this time as a manager.
Brazil won the 1994 World Cup thanks largely to the genius of Romario, who was part of Barcelona’s dream team under Johan Cruyff at the time.
France’s golden generation won consecutive major trophies in 1998 and 2000, followed by a fifth World Cup for Brazil in 2002. As indeed Zidane and Ronaldo laid down their markers as the two best players on earth.
Ajax recorded famous Champions League glories in the 1990s, moments later Manchester United became the dominant force in the English game under a Scottish manager named Alex Ferguson, culminating in trouble winning in 1999.
The creation of the Premier League in 1992, led to further televising and commercialization of the sport, and an explosion of wages that continues to the present day.
However, the 1970s and 80s were a dark period for football, which was riddled by hooliganism and disasters which came to a climax during two events, the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus. This led to 39 Juventus fans losing their lives, and it led to English clubs receiving a five-year international cup ban with Liverpool getting six years of recession. Unemployment hit English football very hard, particularly in the north of England, and even prominent and historical teams such as Birmingham and Preston suffered consecutive relegations.
It all came to a head in 1989 following the Hillsborough disaster, which forced the FA to modernize football by focusing on improved security, better stadiums, seating at the stadium, and tougher punishment for hooligans. This did help make a difference and make it safer as it is today.
2000’s To Present:
Italy was unfounded outsiders going into the 2006 World Cup following the Calciopoli scandal but they won the tournament after Zinedine Zidane saw red in both his and the tournament’s final game.
The late 2000s saw the rise of Spain and Barcelona, with their tiki-taka style of play under Vincent Del Bosque and Pep Guardiola, and they dominated the club at international scenes between 2008 and 2012. The late 2000s also heralded the arrival of two footballers who would cement their reputations to the greatest of all time over the next decade with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi winning 11 Ballon d’Ors between them.
Spanish teams dominated the Champions League thanks in no small part to those two in the 2010 s, and Real Madrid won three consecutive Champions League titles in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Spain collapsed at the 2014 World Cup, as Germany broke Argentine hearts, before collapsing themselves four years later in Russia, as France won their second World Cup, and that just about brings us to the present day.
Today, soccer has become the most popular sport in the world. For most people in the United States and other countries where soccer is not so popular this hard to understand, which is why I wrote an article with 17 Reasons Why Soccer is the Most Popular Sport in the World.
What Major Change Revolutionized The Game?
The FA Premier League was formed in 1992 when the top 22 clubs in English football broke away from the Football League, to increase their incomes, and become more competitive on an international scale –not because of greed.
The selling of TV rights in a separate deal to the Football League to Sky TV led football on a cash-rich journey that it is still on today. This deal made clubs money, and in 1995 players got the power.
The Bosman rule gave the players that particular power. Before 1995, clubs were owned and controlled players, even when their contracts had expired. Today players can move for free when their contracts expire or even sign pre-contracts with clubs within six months of their current contract status which is coming to an end. This gave players more power however, players under 24 years old can still move, but they have to go to a transfer tribunal. But that’s decided by a separate committee, and not by any of the football clubs.
Either way, players could use this to demand higher wages and longer contracts and it’s one of the many reasons why the wages of players are as high as they are today as well as the number of agents that are infecting the game.
One of the common questions that soccer fans and people that have never see soccer too, ask themselves when they see extremely high wages in the game is Why Are Soccer Players Paid So Much? You can click the link to see my article in which I answer that question deeply.
The decision also bans European leagues from restricting how many foreign players a team could use. If they were European didn’t matter anymore, in the past, it had a problem where they had Irish and Welsh players and they counted as foreign players. So, that was removed if you were European you were no longer considered a foreign player.
So, this led to a huge increase in foreign players in the top flight of English football. In 1999 on Boxing Day, Gianluca Vialli Chelsea’s side consisted solely of eleven foreign players in a win at Southampton. So, today in terms of entertainment football is in amazing health, it is just as good as ever. However, with the incredible increase in transfer fees, and wages, it cannot be long until the bubble burst and more clubs go bust.
Foreign investment is an absolute must and 57% of clubs in England’s top two divisions are owned or controlled or led by foreign investors, and 14 out of the 20 clubs in the Premier League are under foreign ownership. If they decide to leave British football could see a financial meltdown, but that’s the future people to worry about.