Football’s NOT coming home…

A lot of people think that England ‘invented’ football. Unless you have entirely cut yourself off from UK media, you may have heard more than one reference to “football’s coming home.’  Spoiler alert, after Thursday it’s not.  However, may I admit that it’s a great song (that should get some below the line abuse) but the conceit that England somehow ‘invented’ football is one that needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Or possibly even a quarry full…

Now there are some Scottish football historians who insist that Scotland ‘invented’ football, going to great lengths to ‘prove’ their case.  The truth, in my view, is much more nuanced and both sides, north and south of the border, while having much right on their side, are also wrong in claiming their uniqueness as the originators of modern football.

Let’s start with some fairly well-known and acknowledged ‘facts.’  Although various forms of football can be traced across Europe from medieval times, it has a long history in the British Isles, essentially involving mobs of men from opposing villages competing, frequently with considerable violence, to carry and propel a ball – often an inflated pig’s bladder to a place or mark that constituted a ‘goal.’

Sometimes referred to as ‘mob football,’ this proto-form of the game had very few rules.  It was violent and dangerous.  Those who remember Boys Brigade football may empathise with this. To get from there to today’s VAR-dominated and, some would argue, excessively regulated game required a lot of change and ingenuity.

In my research for St Johnstone’s official history, I came across lengthy descriptions of some of these early games, notably the ‘Ba’ o’ Scoon,’ which was referred to in several books of Scottish customs and pastimes. The actual origins of this contest are lost to antiquity, but we know that it was held annually, at (Old) Scone, just outside Perth.  Originally it was held at a Mayday festival but latterly it took place on Shrove Tuesday. It was a competition between the married men of the village in one team and the bachelors in the other.  The objective for the bachelors was to ‘drown’ the ball three times in the river Tay, whilst the married men were to place the ball three times in a small hole in the moor.  Given the size of the Tay compared to a hole in the ground, this seems somewhat unfair and there were frequent outbursts of violence, but the prevailing atmosphere of the contest was summed up in the local proverb, “All was fair at the Ba’ o’ Scoon.”

Similar ‘marrieds’ vs ‘single men’ competitions were popular in the seventeenth century, with many games played on the North and South Inches (the public parks) of Perth on Eastern Eve (Shrove Tuesday). 

The eighteenth century, with its Jacobite risings, saw much less football played in Perthshire, probably because the government, not unnaturally, was suspicious of large gatherings of men, especially in country areas where landowners were supporters of the cause of “the King over the water.”  The nineteenth century saw two brief revivals prior to the later decades when the modern game took off in Perthshire.  These games demonstrated how relatively little football had changed since the Middle Ages.

The first of these was in the 1830’s when, at a meeting of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth, Lord Stormont and Lord Provost Pringle arranged a challenge match between Perth and Scone.  This game was played on the 8th of January 1836.  Each side consisted of 50 men, playing across the full extent of the North Inch and watched, it was said, by an improbably large crowd of some 14,000. 

The game ended when, with the Perth side pressing hard towards their opponents’ goal, the spectators interfered with play.  As a result of the confusion this caused, the umpires decided that the match was drawn.  The spectators were not happy and a riot broke out, with it being reported that some of the Scone players had to seek sanctuary in the nearby houses.

The next upturn came in the early 1850’s, as a result of a number of keen Irishmen in the town who would pile their coats, or heaps of stones, to form goals (something all of us can remember doing in our childhood).  These games became regular Saturday events and sometimes the spectators would join in, leading to matches between teams of up to 30-a-side.

In 1853, a challenge match took place on the North Inch, again between married men and bachelors.  The stakes were 1 shilling (5p) per man and a crowd of around 2,000 watched around a ‘pitch’ measuring almost a mile in length.  The married men scored the only goal and the game ended, by mutual consent, after two hours’ play.  Unlike the match in 1836, there appears to have been no undue violence, but despite this mid-century revival, football in Perth died away until the start of the Association game in the early 1880’s. 

These stories from Perthshire can be replicated across Scotland. Generally referred to as “the Ba’ game”and with records going back hundreds of years, this ‘football’ is still played today in Kirkwall, Jedburgh, Roxburgh and Duns.  I also came across an article on the Robert Gordon University ‘Jobs Blog’ (of all unlikely places) which explained that Aberdeenshire can also lay claim to having an interest in this proto-football, with records from the early 17th century showing that in either 1633 or 1636 (opinions differ as to which is the correct year), there is some evidence of schoolboys in Aberdeen playing a football game. The original source is in Latin, but roughly translated it suggests that handling of the ball was allowed, as was charging into the opposition, and the ball may have been ‘passed’ from player to player. The word used for the goal in the original source is (in Latin) “metum,” which was the pillar at each end of the circus course in a Roman chariot race.  As any Spanish scholars out there will know, the word for goal in that language is “meta” and a goalkeeper is a “guardameta.”

In their book on the Edinburgh Foot-ball Club, of which much more below, Scottish football historians Andy Mitchell and John Hutchison wrote of their discovery of a doodle in an Edinburgh University students’ jotter from the early 1670s.  This shows two men (in what look like Mexican sombreros- were England playing Mexico?) playing a game that involves kicking a ball.  This is the first known illustration in the country of a football-type game. The goals shown in the drawing have three traverse bars set between two posts, a bit like a farmer’s gate stuck on the top of two poles.  As the authors concede, there is no way of knowing exactly what is going on, but the ball seems to be roughly the same size as a modern ball and it very much looks like some form of football.  There is some speculation that the location of this kickabout – namely Gallowgreen, where the Edinburgh city gallows were – might have led to the old Scots’ term ‘hail’ becoming ‘goal’ as a result of the corruption of the word ‘gallows.’ However, Hutchison and Mitchell note “these are fanciful ideas awaiting positive proof.”

Gradually, the more extreme violence associated with medieval football was removed from the game as it began to be codified during the nineteenth century with the introduction of a more formal structure and rules, principally introduced by the public schools in England.  Nevertheless, before 1863, ‘hacking’ (essentially kicking an opponent to the ground) was accepted by many as a key component of a manly game. And as we saw in the England vs Argentina game, it’s not unknown today.

It is widely (and correctly) accepted that the main developments in the codification of the modern game of Association football were made in England and initially involved the famous public schools and universities of that country. However, as we shall see later, Scotland does have a very good claim to be the first to provide a set of rules for an organised football-like sport.  Furthermore, the reality is that the development of the modern game on both sides of the border in the latter third of the nineteenth century, demonstrates that both countries, in differing ways, played their own parts in the formulation and development of the modern sport, albeit with England playing the major part…

In the nineteenth century, several English public schools played a form of ‘football.’ The rules differed from school to school and area to area. As they became more unified, there were, naturally, those who dissented and wished to play according to their preferred set of laws.  As a result, today we have several different modern games all derived from the nineteenth century variations in football rules.  These obviously include rugby – whose origins are famously traced to the mythical day when William Webb Ellis allegedly caught and carried the ball in his hands at Rugby School in 1823 - and also Irish Gaelic football and, further afield, American football and Australian Rules football.  Interestingly, Aussie Rules has more than a passing connection with some elements of the field game as played at Eton College, notably the two additional, shorter posts at the side of the main goal posts (making four posts at each end in all). Also in Aussie Rules, the early football rule that there is no limit to the height the ball can be as it passes through space between the posts and still be counted as a goal still applies. For those interested in learning more about the similarities between the various forms of football played across the globe, I recommend Tony Collins’ book, “How Football Began.” However, these particular sports, while very popular in these countries, have remained minority interests across the world at large and it was Association football that, aided by the growth of the British Empire in the nineteenth century, spread across the planet. That it’s a very simple game to play and understand also helped…

As the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh left our shores to seek fortune and fame under the auspices of the Empire, they took with them not just football (and cricket) but also cultural influences, which, like football, became embedded in countries throughout the world; a phenomenon trenchantly summed up by the much-quoted remark of Sir Richard Turnbull, a senior British colonial official who was Governor of Tanganyika between 9^th December 1961 and 9^th December 1962.  Sir Richard famously said, “When the British Empire finally sinks beneath the waves of history, it will leave behind it only two memorials: one is the game of Association Football … and the other is the expression 'Fuck off'.” The two may, of course, be related…

The nineteenth century public schools’ attempts to find a mutually agreeable set of rules by which to play ‘football’ was to prove a long and wearisome task. The debate between the schools about the format of the game continued and it took several meetings until it was decided once for all that football was a dribbling-kicking game played exclusively with the feet and not a catch-and-run game played with the hands. From the late 1830s there are references in local histories of a game of ‘football’ being played that seems to have progressed slightly from the unregulated mob football described above. It is highly probable that some forms of rules were printed in various locations in the country but unless and until they turn up, we are none the wiser as to what they were.

Until 1863, carrying the ball with the hands was still practised in several schools, however, a first attempt to bring together a collection of rules that might be used everywhere that football was played was made in 1848 at a meeting in Cambridge (there is evidence of ‘Foot-Ball’ being played at Cambridge University in 1710). Representatives from various British schools attended and the meeting resulted in an agreement, called the ‘Cambridge Rules.’

There is no extant copy of the original 1848 Cambridge Rules, but a copy of a further revision, made in 1856, does exist and it is believed by some football historians that these later rules were identical, or at least very similar, to the 1848 version. These 1856 rules were as follows:

THE LAWS OF THE UNIVERSITY FOOT BALL CLUB

1.     This club shall be called the University Foot Ball Club.

2.     At the commencement of the play, the ball shall be kicked off from the middle of the ground: after every goal there shall be a kick-off in the same way.

3.     After a goal, the losing side shall kick off; the sides changing goals, unless a previous arrangement be made to the contrary.

4.     The ball is out when it has passed the line of the flag-posts on either side of the ground, in which case it shall be thrown in straight.

5.     The ball is behind when it has passed the goal on either side of it.

6.     When the ball is behind it shall be brought forward at the place where it left the ground, not more than ten paces, and kicked off.

7.     Goal is when the ball is kicked through the flag-posts and under the string.

8.     When a player catches the ball directly from the foot, he may kick it as he can without running with it. In no other case may the ball be touched with the hands, except to stop it.

9.     If the ball has passed a player, and has come from the direction of his own goal, he may not touch it till the other side have kicked it, unless there are more than three of the other side before him. No player is allowed to loiter between the ball and the adversaries’ goal.

10.  In no case is holding a player, pushing with the hands, or tripping up allowed. Any player may prevent another from getting to the ball by any means consistent with the above rules.

11.  Every match shall be decided by a majority of goals.

Interestingly, and with regard to the divergence of different codes of football noted above, it is worth comparing Rule 8 above with the “playing rules” of modern Gaelic Football which state: “The ball can be carried in the hand for a distance of four steps and can be kicked or ‘hand-passed,’ a striking motion with the hand or fist. After every four steps the ball must be either bounced or "solo-ed", an action of dropping the ball onto the foot and kicking it back into the hand. You may not bounce the ball twice in a row. Players may contest for the ball by playing it with the hand or by shoulder charging an opponent side-to-side.”

A year after the first Cambridge Rules were devised, Surrey FC (an offshoot of Surrey Cricket Club) printed a set of rules (in 1849, and published in Bell’s Life in London, as shown here). The connection with the cricket club meant that they played their games at the Oval Cricket Ground in London, where in due course, the early FA Cup finals were played. Only half of the six rules actually deal with the playing of the game, but nevertheless we do see the injunction “that wilful kicking shall not be allowed” – an anti-hacking sentiment that is shared by almost all the other early, formal rules for a kicking game rather than a handling one.

While the cricketers, varsity students and public school boys were debating their rules, football as an organised sport was also gaining in popularity in towns and cities. First and foremost were the men of Sheffield FC. This club still exists today and its website proudly claims (erroneously in my view) that it is the world’s first football club and the home of football.  It would be fairer to say that the British Isles more generally are the home of football, with no one city or club really being able to claim to being the sole genesis of the modern game. Indeed, the cross-fertilisation of ideas from different nineteenth century sports was central to the creation of the various ‘football’ games we enjoy today.

Sheffield and Perth are two very different cities, but there is an obvious parallel between the foundation of Sheffield FC and St Johnstone.  The latter came into being when members of the St Johnstone Cricket Club decided they wanted some exercise during the winter of 1884-85 and began kicking a ball around prior to the football club’s actual founding on 24^th February 1885.

Preceding them by some 28 years, the members of Sheffield Cricket Club similarly took up football, albeit of a somewhat primitive kind, as a means of keeping fit outside the cricket season. To this end, matches would be arranged between those with surnames beginning from A-M and those whose surnames began from N-Z, or bachelors against married men. These games were described as being played from 2.00 pm until it grew dark and, as in Perth, an interest in the winter game was kindled that led to the foundation of a proper football club. 

There were many other connections between football and cricket in those early days. In the UK, these included (Sheffield) Wednesday who came out of the eponymous cricket club in 1867, while north of the border, Clydesdale Cricket Club, formed in 1848 and still a major force in Scottish cricket today, produced Clydesdale FC, who played between 1872 and 1881. As well as producing several Scottish football internationalists, Clydesdale FC also contested the first ever Scottish Cup final, losing 2-0 to Queen’s Park in 1872.  In addition, Andy Mitchell has written about the birth of Partick Football and Cricket Club in March 1872. This was not the same club as Partick Thistle, but of interest to fans of the latter may be his discovery of a Partick Thistle Cricket Club who were playing in 1875. 

Coming from the same area of the Glasgow, but in rugby rather than football, West of Scotland were formed in 1865 as an off-shoot of the West of Scotland Cricket Club, which was itself formed in 1862. The rugby club played at Hamilton Crescent in Partick which is, of course, where the first official international football match was played, as were several other subsequent internationals and the 1877 Scottish Cup final.

Interestingly, in 1880, The Times newspaper reported that there were probably more than twice as many rugby union players as footballers across the UK, but by the end of the century the round ball game was dominant. This was partly because rugby was inherently more violent and dangerous (in Yorkshire in the late 1880s/early1890s several men died as a result of injuries sustained at rugby) but also quite possibly because soccer was a far easier game to understand and play. This was graphically illustrated by the fact that when the FA Rules were first drawn up in 1863 there were only 13 laws for football, but when the Rugby Football Union was formed in January 1871, they devised 59 laws for their sport.  Today, this has decreased to only 21, but the game itself seems to have become far more complicated for both players and spectators. 

Returning to Sheffield, we find that, despite the city’s industrial image as the steel capital of England, the two founding fathers of Sheffield FC were very much from the middle-classes.  William Prest was a wine merchant and captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Nathaniel Creswick was a solicitor. Some football historians believe that the public school rules played a part in influencing the rules produced by the Sheffield club but others, perhaps with an underlying political motive, disagree. Either way, the formulation of the Sheffield Rules was a seminal moment in the development of football.

Looking at them today, the Sheffield rules are clearly not football as we know it. For a start, there are only 11 of them, compared to today’s 17.  Moreover, they also have more than a passing resemblance to rugby in some places. There were several drafts made before they were finally agreed, at a meeting in the Adelphi Hotel in the city on 28^th October 1858, as follows:

1. Kick off from Middle must be a place kick.

2. Kick out must not be from more than twenty five yards out of goal.

3. Fair Catch is a Catch from any player provided the Ball has not touched the ground and has not been thrown from touch and entitles a free kick.

4. Charging is fair in case of a place kick (with the exception of a kick off) as soon as the player offers to kick, but he may always draw back unless he has actually touched the Ball with his foot.

5. Pushing with the Hands is allowed but no Hacking (or tripping up) is fair under any circumstances whatsoever.

6. No player may be held or pulled over.

7. It is not lawful to take the Ball off the ground (except in touch) for any purpose whatever.

8. The Ball may be pushed or hit with the Hand – but holding the ball (except in the case of a fair kick) is altogether disallowed.

9. A Goal must be kicked but not from touch nor by a free kick from a catch.

10. A ball in touch is dead. Consequently the side that touches it down, must bring it to the edge of the touch, & throw it straight out at least six yards from touch.

11. Each player must provide himself with a Red and dark blue flannel Cap, one colour to be worn by each side.

The importance of the Sheffield Rules lies in the fact that, despite the continuing links with a rugby-style game, their insistence on what we now recognise as the key elements of modern football was a major change. For example, as rule 9 makes clear, a goal could only be scored by a player kicking the ball.  We can also see that they had a throw-in when the ball went out of play (rule 10), but the player threw it in using only one hand and he had to hurl it at right angles to the touch-line for a distance of at least six yards (as is, more or less, the case with a line-out in rugby today, although the distance is now five metres). In addition, the rejection of hacking (rule 5) created clear blue water between Sheffield and some of the public schools, such as Rugby.  In 2021, a copy of the Sheffield Rules fetched £56,7000 at an online auction carried out by Sotheby’s, its value presumably boosted by its claim to be the earliest, official (and printed) guide to the game. In fact, as noted above, Cambridge University’s rules (1848) and Surrey FC’s rules (1849) predate Sheffield’s, and Cambridge’s rules were preceded by printed rules from Rugby School in 1845 and Eton College in 1847.  However, as we shall see, none of these was the first: that particular honour lies north of Hadrian’s Wall.

Despite Sheffield putting down their marker, there was a problem in that lots of other clubs played to their own rules. This made it difficult for anyone attempting to officiate and it was obvious that for the sport to prosper some unifying body and standardised regulations were needed. 

In October 1863, a meeting was held at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London (on Great Queen Street, near the current Holborn tube station) to discuss the issue and it was agreed that evening to form the Football Association. This initially consisted of the dozen London and suburban clubs who attended that night. These clubs, which included several public schools, then met a further six times over the next 44 days to formulate an agreed set of rules.  These are shown below, alongside a photo of the original, hand-written laws, which are now in the English Football Museum in Manchester.

1. Kick off from Middle must be a place kick.

2. Kick out must not be from more than twenty five yards out of goal.

3. Fair Catch is a Catch from any player provided the Ball has not touched the ground and has not been thrown from touch and entitles a free kick.

4. A goal shall be won when the ball passes between the goal posts or over the space between the goal posts (at whatever height), not being thrown, knocked on, or carried.

5. When the ball is in touch the first player who touches it shall throw it from the point on the boundary line where it left the ground, in a direction at right angles with the boundary line.

6. When a player has kicked the ball any one of the same side who is nearer to the opponent’s goal line is out of play and may not touch the ball himself nor in any way whatever prevent any other player from doing so until the ball has been played; but no player is out of play when the ball is kicked from behind the goal line.

7. In case the ball goes behind the goal line, if a player on the side to whom the goal belongs first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick from the goal line at the point opposite the place where the ball shall be touched. If a player of the opposite side first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick (but at the goal only) from a point 15 yards from the goal line opposite the place where the ball is touched. The opposing side shall stand behind their goal line until he has had his kick.

8. If a player makes a fair catch he shall be entitled to a free kick, provided he claims it by making a mark with his heel at once; and in order to take such kick he may go as far back as he pleases, and no player on the opposite side shall advance beyond his mark until he has kicked.

9. No player shall carry the ball.

10. Neither tripping nor hacking shall be allowed and no player shall use his hands to hold or push his adversary.

11. A player shall not throw the ball or pass it to another.

12. No player shall take the ball from the ground with his hands while it is in play under any pretence whatever.

13. No player shall wear projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta percha on the soles or heels of his boots.

Definition of TermsA Place Kick: Is a kick at the ball while it is on the ground, in any position in which the kicker may choose to place it.

A Free Kick: Is the privilege of kicking at the ball, without obstruction in such a manner s the kicker may think fit.

A Fair Catch: Is when the ball is caught after it has touched the person of an adversary, and before it has touched the ground or one of the side catching it; but if the ball is kicked from behind the goal line, a fair catch cannot be made.

Hacking: Is kicking an adversary intentionally.

Tripping Is throwing an adversary by the use of the leg.

Knocking on: Is when a player strikes or propels the ball with his hands or arms.

Holding: Includes the obstruction of a player by the hand or any part of the arm below the elbow.

Touch: Is that part of the field on either side of the ground, which is beyond the line of flags.

As you can see, these rules are not particularly different from the Sheffield Rules made only a few years earlier and there are several similarities with rugby, such as law 8 which involves what is still called ‘making a mark’ in Rugby Union today.  It’s also worth noting that a goal was awarded if the ball went between the posts at any height. There was also no mention of offside, which wasn’t introduced until 1866. Interestingly, the FA rules still subscribed to the idea that football would be (as the FA website explains), “a blend of handling and dribbling. Players would be able to handle the ball: a fair catch accompanied by ‘a mark with the heel’ would win a free kick. The sticking point was ‘hacking’, kicking an opponent on the leg, which Blackheath FC wanted to keep.”

In Scotland, the rules of the game in the 1860s were notably different in one area in particular. In England, only the goalkeeper was allowed to handle the ball, but in Scotland the outfield players were still allowed to use their hands at this time.  However, the 1860s did see some key changes to the rules, notably the introduction of a tape stretched between the goalposts at a height of eight feet to form a complete goal (before this, as noted above, a goal was awarded simply for the ball passing between the uprights, no matter at what height).  In 1866, the first offside rule was introduced and a few years later, in 1869, goal-kicks were introduced. 

It’s important to realise that despite its seemingly all-encompassing title, the FA was pretty weak in its early years.  In the Official History of the Football Association, published in 1991, the author, Bryon Butler, wrote: “The FA’s early influence on the game at large was not dramatic or even widespread. Its membership was small and its authority and laws were often challenged and sometimes ignored. But its motives and ambitions were so honourably based that, like growing ripples on a still pond, its standing grew perceptibly. It was a period of high ideals and ready compromise.” 

Even after the formation of the English Football Association in 1862, the development of a unified set of rules was a slow process, as demonstrated by the work of football historian and academic Andrew Harvey.  He researched the rules for all types of football as used by universities, public schools, local regions and counties and what he referred to as “Scottish variants of rugby.” He concluded that in 1868 there were 105 different versions and this number increased every year up to 1873, by which time there were 275.  Of course, over time, this number withered away as the different branches of Association and Rugby football went their separate ways and their rules became codified and agreed nationally, but their common origins are plain to see.  

What these different regional codes meant in reality was that games, especially those between the London clubs and those from the north, were often played to the rules of the home side or alternatively one set of rules was played in the first half and another in the second half. Sheffield FC, despite joining the FA in 1863, continued to use their rules.  This did little to standardise matters. There was lots of experimentation and gradual change and, in both England and Scotland, a small number of organisations came to the fore.  In England, the Football League was formed as a separate organisation in 1888 but never acknowledged the FA as ‘the ultimate authority’ until the FA Premier League was instituted in 1992.  The formation of the Football League had created a 12 club competition which began in 1888-89.  Such a competition in turn required consistency of regulations and, in due course, a body of referees to try to apply the agreed laws consistently and fairly. 

Arguably, it was the introduction of the FA Cup in 1872 that did most to bring all the clubs together and the FA’s rules subsequently became the dominant national – and, eventually, international - code. However, it was still the case that for much of the latter decades of the nineteenth century football was, in some key respects, far removed from the game we watch today.

One thing that constantly stands out is the extent to which there were differing rules and interpretations of the rules in different areas of the country. Like, I suspect, most football fans who have grown up with the game in the post-war period, I assumed the laws were more or less set in stone from the beginning.  However, as I have demonstrated here, although it is possible (and some do try) to make a case for one part of the country (usually England or Scotland) as being the most important in the development of the modern game, it’s clear to me that the credit should be shared around. 

In Scotland, the SFA, founded in 1873, had competition from the Scottish Junior FA, founded in 1886, with the latter’s clubs taking no part in the Scottish Cup at this time. Pre-dating the formation of the SFA, Queen’s Park, the oldest Association football club in Scotland, was formed in 1867 followed by Kilmarnock in 1869, Stranraer in 1870 Dumbarton and Rangers in 1872.  Although there were “Scotch” versions of the rules, the bulk of the work in creating a set of laws that could be applied universally was, as described above, done in England. However, several decades earlier, there was a club in Scotland that, while not playing what we now call Association football, was most definitely a football club within the wide range of sporting styles of the game that persisted throughout the early and middle nineteenth century.  Moreover, much to the chagrin of those in Sheffield (and Cambridge), this club also produced a set of rules, which have survived and predate anything similar from south of the border.

The club was called simply The Foot-Ball Club (of Edinburgh) and it began life in 1824.  Although the archive containing all the information about this club was first discovered by social historian Dr Neil Tranter, the full story is told in detail in the book “The World’s First Football club (1824): John Hope and the Edinburgh footballers: a story of sport, education and philanthropy.” Written by John Hutchinson and Andy Mitchell and published in 2018, it tells how Edinburgh student John Hope established this club in 1824 and which then carried on for another 17 years. Fortunately, the club’s records have all survived and show, in immense detail, the membership lists, accounts, letters and personal reminiscences. In addition, there is a set of rules of the game, dating to 1833 and, as shown below, these (much like their later, English equivalents) suggest clearly that the game played was certainly not football as it is played today, but rather (a bit like the Sheffield Rules) a game that mixed handling and kicking, with holding and pushing allowed but no tripping. 

Edinburgh Foot-ball Club Rules

1.     Single-soled shoes, no iron

2.     No tripping

3.     Ball to pass imaginary line

4.     A place kick if ball out of bounds

5.     Pushing is allowed. Holding not illegal.

6.     Allow the ball to be lifted between fields

Below this list of rules, John Hope added his own thoughts on the attributes of the game, viz, “Aff (affirmative) Fun, air, exercise, Neg (negative) No tripping.”

What we have here is, at the time of writing, the first known set of written rules of football of any kind, including rugby football (whose first rules were not written down until 1845).  They clearly pre-date the first written rules from England and, I suspect to the annoyance of many in Sheffield, the existence of the Foot-Ball Club in Edinburgh suggests that the Sheffield FC’s claim (on its website and on the club crest) to be “the first football club in the world” and “the home of football,” is somewhat tarnished.

The claim of the Steel City to primacy is further diminished when we learn, again courtesy of Hutchison and Mitchell, that John Hope also produced a printed guide to playing football some four years before the Sheffield rules were published.  In 1854, John Hope financed and created the ‘Stockbridge Playground’ – a public park in Edinburgh, complete with a fully-laid out football pitch.   To help the park’s users, he had printed and published that same year, a set of rules which include the following:

Rules for the Stockbridge Playground

“The Game of Foot-Ball is strongly recommended as giving most exercise and fun in a short time. There must be no kicking of the shins, nor tripping – for these are apt to produce quarrels and hurts, and do not form part of the game. The ball is not “hailed,” unless it is sent between the posts, by one of the side whose duty it is to send it through, and unless it touch the ground.  If the ball is sent through by one of the other side, it is not “hailed.”  The ball should not be kicked out of bounds. When this occurs, it should be lifted up by the hand, and brought within bounds.  The party thus lifting it, is entitled to a “free kick,” but the ball must not be lifted by the hand from the ground at any other time.  The British League Cap, to distinguish sides, cost 2d, is recommended.  Beware of kicking the ball over the fences.”

Compare these instructions with the Sheffield Rules described above and it’s clear that Hope’s game set the parameters first. That said, we can infer from both Edinburgh and Sheffield that the emphasis was on playing the game within a defined set of boundaries, between two teams with different colours (the caps) and the requirement to avoid handling the ball and not to hack the opposition are also familiar to us today (although the odd hack is not uncommon in the twenty-first century). 

I didn’t appreciate until I read Hutchison and Mitchell just how important a role Edinburgh played in the development of not just football but a number of other sports.  Today, we tend to think of Scottish football as having originated in the west of the country, with Queen’s Park being the first Association club, closely followed by Kilmarnock, with Rangers, Celtic, Dumbarton, Vale of Leven, Clydesdale and Renton also being prominent early winners of the Scottish Cup and Football League. In fact, much to my surprise, I discovered that Vale of Leven have won the Scottish Cup more often that St Johnstone.  And although Hearts and Hibs did soon make their mark on Scottish football in the nineteenth century, most people, I suspect, would consider the Greater Glasgow area as being the crucible of our game.  However, as Hutchison and Mitchell tell us, it was actually Edinburgh that was home to “the world’s first football trophy, printed rules, organised games for girls and the first inter-school football matches.” 

John Hope’s Foot-Ball Club lasted for some 17 years, eventually running out of members in 1841. Latterly, as he became a man of considerable influence in Edinburgh, he turned his hand to other sporting and leisure related projects, all underpinned by his insistence on abstinence from “alcohol, tobacco or opium.” However, while the Foot-Ball Club lasted it counted many notable young gentlemen (a few of the 300 or so members were as young as 12 and 13 and the vast majority were in their teens or twenties), principally from Edinburgh but also from across the United Kingdom, including several Englishmen and lads from places as far apart as Barra, Shetland and Herefordshire.  These young men, from wealthy backgrounds, would go on to play important and influential roles in many different areas of Scottish and British life, both at home and overseas.  Significantly, they seem to have carried their interest in football and other sports on into their later lives and played their part in the development of the modern game of football that we know today.

That said, and as I have inferred previously, the evolution of the current rules of the modern ball games of football, rugby, Gaelic, Australian and American football, can all be traced back to the nineteenth century and the school and university clubs in England, Scotland and Ireland. Across the Irish Sea, Dublin University Football Club, founded in 1854, still exists today and has a good claim to be the longest standing football club of any code of football in the world. It is closely followed by Edinburgh Academy Football Club, founded only a few years later in 1857 and still going strong today, albeit very much in the rugby union tradition. 

There are, for perfectly understandable reasons, many who wish to seize the crown of being the world’s first, but when looked at dispassionately, it’s obvious that those who make such claims forget that the modern versions of football, rugby etc. were moulded and formed by a diverse range of people over the years. As these games and their associated rules changed over the nineteenth century, so they have changed over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as the patchwork of different rules and interpretations slowly came together to create the modern game.

To give an idea of how late-nineteenth century football was only part-way to its modern incarnation, consider this description of an 1880-81 FA Cup match between Old Etonians (twice winners of the FA Cup) and Stafford Road, the Great Western Railways works team. This is taken from Andy Mitchell’s book on (Lord) Arthur Kinnaird, the Scotsman who was one of the game’s leading figures in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  It is actually a quote from a report of the game by one of the umpires.

“During the game, Ray, the Stafford Road goalkeeper, fell on the ball after saving a shot.  Macaulay had promptly fallen on top of him and soon a regular Rugby scrimmage was formed, with all the players assisting. After this had been in progress for some minutes (my emphasis), Kinnaird, who was buried in the thick of it, was observed to be wriggling out backwards, and when free he rushed to the referee saying ‘I claim hands! Somebody must have handled the ball.’ Receiving a negative reply, he immediately buried himself in the melee.”

It’s abundantly clear from this and many other match reports that this was not yet the game we enjoy today.  Football in England had evolved at this time into, at times, a non-handling version of a rolling maul in rugby, whereby teams hunted in packs. Football historians believe that the game there was played principally by players surrounding the ball and attempting to dribble/shepherd it towards their opponents’ goal.     

In contrast, in Scotland the players seem to have spread out more across the field and each individual would attempt to run with the ball at his feet.  When they were tackled, the ball might break to a team-mate or, alternatively, it could be passed to him.  The Scots’ style of play was closer to football as we know it today, but it should be emphasised that, as described below, the state of the pitches and the boots used were such that passing the ball accurately must have been difficult. Moreover, all bar one of the contemporary reports of the first football international between Scotland and England in 1872 make no reference to the ball being passed but instead emphasise the dribbling of both teams.

That said, there is no doubt that the Scots did lead the way in passing the ball in a more modern manner and matches played between Scottish and English clubs, and the export of players to play for northern clubs in the FA Cup, spread this style down south and had a significant influence on subsequent refinements of the rules.  Similarly, the introduction of payments to players – with mill towns in northern England offering work to talented Scottish footballers (often referred to as the “Scotch Professors”) led, in time, and despite strong opposition from both the FA and SFA, to professionalism both south and north of the border.

The most famous Scottish club at this time was, of course, Queen’s Park.  Avowedly amateur (until 2019), Queen’s Park is the mother club of Scottish football and in their early years they were active in travelling around the country and encouraging others to take up the game. Famously, they demonstrated the game in Alexandria and as a result Vale of Leven FC was formed in 1872. The Vale’s ground was opened with a match against Queen’s Park which ended 0-0, partly because the game was stopped several times while the Queen’s players explained the rules to the new-boys.

They also took part in the first few FA Cup competitions, including the very first one in 1872. They made the semi-final that year, but, after drawing 0-0 with Wanderers, they had to withdraw because the club couldn’t afford to travel to London for the replay. Despite their financial embarrassment, Queen’s Park did subsequently make the final on two other occasions, in 1884 and 1885, although they lost both times.  As well as Queen’s Park, a number of other Scottish clubs joined the English FA and Cowlairs, Hearts, Rangers, Partick Thistle, Renton and Third Lanark all played in the FA Cup (with Rangers reaching the semi-final in 1886-87), but as the game grew in Scotland, they left the FA and joined the Scottish football firmament, specifically the SFA and the Scottish Football League. They were strongly encouraged to cut their ties with England by the SFA, which passed a rule in May 1887 forbidding its clubs from being a member of another national association, under penalty of expulsion.

With increasing interest in football both north and south of the border, it was inevitable that games would be arranged between the leading clubs. Queen’s Park was the first Scottish club side to host an English side in Scotland.  In front of a crowd of 10,000, this match was played in October 1875 at Hampden (this was the first Hampden stadium, not the current – third – one), and the visitors were Wanderers, with whom Queen’s Park had drawn the 1872 FA cup semi-final.  Queen’s Park had never lost at home up to that point and they routed their English visitors by five goals to nil. The Glasgow side’s superiority was such that their goalkeeper reportedly did not touch the ball once in the first half.

Matches between the top clubs in Scotland and England over the next few years usually demonstrated the superiority of the Scots at this time.  In addition, there were a series of matches played between Sheffield and Glasgow – in effect between the two Cities’ Football Associations (and thus initially featuring mainly players from Sheffield Wednesday and Queen’s Park).  The first of these was at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, on the 14^th March 1874, and they continued regularly for nearly 90 years, with the last being played on 16^th November 1960 at Celtic Park. In total, 68 matches were played, with Glasgow winning 33 times, Sheffield 23 times and with 12 draws. 

Further evidence of the strength of the game in Scotland came when the Scottish Cup holders, Vale of Leven, travelled to London in April 1878 to play FA Cup winners, Wanderers. This ended in a 3-1 win for the Scots and was one of the first instances of the demonstration of the superiority of the Scots’ passing game as opposed to the reliance on individual dribbling that characterised the English approach to football. 

In the following year, a tour by the Old Etonians to Scotland matched the then FA Cup holders with Vale of Leven, holders of the Scottish FA Cup, and resulted in a 5-2 drubbing for the English side. This match was played two days after Christmas, in the teeth of a gale which worsened over the next 24 hours and, on the following day (28^th December 1879) led to the Tay Bridge Disaster.  At the end of that 1879-80 season, the Old Etonians hosted Vale of Leven at the Oval in London and once again lost.  Interestingly, the match reports make it clear that the first half was played under Scottish rules and despite this the Etonians were winning at half-time.  However, Vale adapted better to the FA rules in the second half than the Etonians had to the Scottish rules in the first half and scored three times to finish the game as deserved victors.

So, what does this all mean…?  Well, in my view, it means that when the English claim that “Football’s coming home,” and use that term to mean that if/when they win the World Cup again the game will be coming to the place that gave birth to it, they are not correct. But they are not entirely wrong. It would be foolish to deny their part in the codification of the laws, but as I’ve shown, it would be much more accurate to say that the modern game of football that we (usually) love today was the result of adaptations, modifications and influences from across the British Isles and none of its constituent countries can solely claim to have ‘invented’ football.  But that won’t stop some of them trying!

Alastair Blair, Ops Director, the SFU