The DEFINITIVE English football banter thread

**Steve Austin** · 01-20-2013, 07:35 AM

Originally Posted by magglis

Hey Steve, Stevie, Steve O, Steveman, Stevevolution you are so fine!!

**B-MCINTYRE** · 01-20-2013, 07:35 AM

Another theory regarding its origin is that when 'mob football' was being played in the British Isles in the early centuries AD, a similar game was thriving in France, particularly in the northern regions of Normandy and Brittany. So it is possible that the Normans brought this form of the game to England with them.

**B-MCINTYRE** · 01-20-2013, 07:35 AM

Scholars have also suggested that besides the natural impulse to demonstrate strength and skill, in many cases pagan customs, especially fertility rites, provided a source of motivation for these early 'footballers'. The ball symbolised the sun, which had to be conquered in order to secure a bountiful harvest. The ball had to be propelled around, or across, a field so that the crops would flourish and the attacks of the opponents had to be warded off.

**B-MCINTYRE** · 01-20-2013, 07:36 AM

A similar significance was attached to contests between married men and bachelors that prevailed for centuries in some parts of England, and, likewise, to the game between married and unmarried women in the Scottish town of Inveresk at the end of the 17th century which, perhaps by design, was regularly won by the married women. Women's football is obviously not as new as some people think.

**B-MCINTYRE** · 01-20-2013, 07:36 AM

For all the conflicting views on the origins of the game, one thing is incontestable: football has flourished for over a thousand years in diverse rudimentary forms, in the very region which we describe as its home, Britain.

**B-MCINTYRE** · 01-20-2013, 07:37 AM

If early football generated tremendous enthusiasm among common folk in Britain, it also withstood repeated - and unsuccessful - interventions from the authorities who frowned on this often violent recreation.

**magglis** · 01-20-2013, 07:37 AM

Nice way to increase your posts number

**B-MCINTYRE** · 01-20-2013, 07:37 AM

As long ago as 1314 the Lord Mayor of London saw fit to issue a proclamation forbidding football within the city due to the chaos it usually caused. Infringement of this law meant imprisonment .

**B-MCINTYRE** · 01-20-2013, 07:38 AM

During the 100 Years' War between England and France from 1337 to 1453 the royal court was unfavourably disposed towards football. Kings Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V all made the game punishable by law because it prevented their subjects from practising more useful military disciplines, particularly archery.