Evolution of the Ball
A 1612 woodcut showing players using their hands rather than their feet raises questions about whether this word originally just meant playing "on foot".
What is football?
Founded in Paris in 1904, this global soccer governing body officially joined the IFAB board in 1913.
What is FIFA?
Instigated by Charles W. Alcock and contested since 1872, this is the oldest official football competition in the entire world
What is the FA Cup?
Historically, traditional English folk football games were predominantly played during this festive period right before Lent.
What is Shrovetide?
Along with Ashbourne, this Warwickshire town still hosts a famous surviving annual mob football tradition today.
What is Atherstone?
Unlike cheap solid balls, versions made using these inflated animal organs were highly expensive and rarely survived the chaos of medieval matches.
What are animal bladders?
Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg famously described the 1863 rules as one of the most important publications in history for allowing anyone, anywhere to play this specific sport.
What is association football?
The first official international football match took place in 1872 in Glasgow between England and this country.
What is Scotland?
The expansion of this infrastructure system in the 19th century allowed distinct communities to travel and play against one another.
What are railways?
In the famous annual Shrovetide game in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, players are divided into the Up'ards and Down'ards based on which side they live along this river.
What is the River Henmore?
Before the 19th century, standard footballs were solid and tightly stuffed with materials like wool, feathers, straw, or this type of small flowerless plant.
What is moss?
Rules drawn up at this English university in 1856 and 1863 laid the groundwork for unifying the sport's rules south of the Scottish border.
What is Cambridge?
The original format of the 1888 Football League consisted of this many founding clubs from the Midlands and Northern England.
What is twelve?
Beginning in 1839, a series of these legislative acts officially banned chaotic mob games from being played on public highways.
What are the Police Acts?
Requisitioned as a convalescent home during the First World War, patients and staff frequently played football in the gardens of this country estate.
What is Wrest Park?
This Norman-imported version of the game is considered a direct precursor to traditional English mob football.
Its a game thats played only once or twice on Festival Days
Formed in Manchester in 1886, this international body remains responsible for determining the official Laws of the Game.
What is the International Football Association Board (IFAB)
The world's first national football league was founded in Birmingham in 1888 by William McGregor, a director of this famous club.
What is Aston Villa?
Formed in 1824, the world's first-known club dedicated entirely to football was actually established in this capital city.
What is Edinburgh?
This town in Cumbria is home to another of the rare, surviving traditional mass football games played over hours or days.
What is Workington?
In Cornwall, communities at St Columb and St Ives bypassed leather entirely, opting to play their annual games with small, hard balls made of this material.
This Hull-born solicitor drafted the very first set of uniform Association rules in London in 1863.
Men's football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games since 1900, with the sole exception of this year.
What is 1932?
The earliest known written reference to organized ball games in England was penned in 1174 by this clerk in his description of London.
Who is William Fitzstephen?
During World War II, elite agents from the Polish section of the SOE routinely played competitive football on the lawns of this English property.
What is Audley End House?