The Game of Football

The game of football is ancient. Boys have been kicking balls around for millenia. The Ancient Romans definitely played team based ball games.

The Roman author Galen writing in the first Century AD talked about a game called "harpastum" which was: "better than wrestling or running because it exercises every part of the body, takes up little time, and costs nothing."

For the next 1700 years ball games of various degrees of violence and complexity were popular local pasttimes around the world.

The game we know to day as football (or soccer) has its roots in the formation of the The Football Association (FA) in England in 1863. There were six arguementative meetings before the newly formed FA could agree the exact rulof the game. Eventually they published the "Laws of Football" on the 8th December 1863.

England's Premier division teams (2008)