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As you are reading this on the World Wide Web, far be it from me to deny claims that soccer was invented by the Chinese, Greeks or Romans. However, the fact is that the rules of the game of soccer we use today are due to the young men at England's schools and universities in the mid nineteenth century. They produced the codes of law that were necessary before two teams could compete on equal terms. If
you were transported back to the 1860s, you could be forgiven for assuming that the group of young men playing with a large muddy object in open fields were engaged in a game of rugby (or American football) rather than soccer, or maybe just a general brawl! If a player caught the ball, he could run with it until tripped or hacked to the ground; "hacking" was a sharp kick to the shins. If the ball was on the ground, both sets of players would form a scrum round the ball and attempt to move it forwards. A participant admitted that "frequently, rough play was engaged in" and you can imagine that tempers were short in the general melee. Another account described the players "as a set of harmless lunatics, who amused themselves by kicking one another's shins, but did no great harm to the public at large". The
public schools took the lead in writing down the rules of the game for others to follow. However, each school had different ideas on the size of the pitch, the size and shape of the ball, how much handling was allowed, and whether or not hacking was permitted. The early soccer clubs would have adopted whatever practices suited them best. The first "club" (as distinct from a school or university ) was the Sheffield club, formed in 1857. Sheffield adopted a set of eleven rules. These were based, we believe, on the laws in use in the public schools and at Cambridge. Pushing with the hands was allowed, but not hacking or tripping. Running with the ball in the hands (as practised at Rugby school) was not allowed. However, the ball could be caught, provided it had not touched the ground; a free kick then followed (similar to the "mark" in today's rugby football). The ball could also be pushed on with the hand. There were no off-side rules, so players known as "kick-throughs" were positioned permanently in the opponents' half. There was no limit on team size, and whatever size or shape of ball that happened to be handy was used. Referees were unnecessary, as the two captains would settle any dispute. In tracing the history of the game, there are three sets of laws in particular that a made a significant contribution to today's game. They are Cambridge (1848), Sheffield (1857), Uppingham (1862) and the fledgling Football Association in 1863. Remember that one set of rules do not supersede another; it was up to the clubs (or the "association" to which they belonged) to decide which set to adopt. It was the eventual merger of the rules of Sheffield and the Football Association in 1878 that provided the platform for the growth of the game world-wide. This was formalised in 1882, when the "International Board" was created to look after the rules. To begin with, the International Board consisted of two representatives from each of the the four United Kingdom associations, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Today, the Board consists of four representatives nominated by FIFA, and one from each of the four UK associations.
The seeds which marked the beginning of this great event were planted by the president of the World Football Federation, in 1926. There would be no such thing as a world cup history if it were not for Jules Rimet, who first took the presidency in 1921. The positive message infused by Rimet is summarized by his famous words "Soccer could reinforce the ideals of a permanent and real peace", as he pushed to organize an international event that would make no discrimination on the grounds of professional or amateur status. As his words were spoken the plans for a world tournament involving all of the federations was being planned for the coming 3 to 4 years. Along with the help of 5 other officials, Rimet organized the event for 1930. Via congressional meetings of the World Football Federation the semantics for the tournament were laid out and finalized.
On May 26th, 1928 the World Cup was born. History was changed forever as five European countries plus a chosen host of Uruguay planned to hold the first tournament on May 18th, 1929 at the congress of Barcelona. Uruguay was chosen as host based on their outstanding Olympic record, and as Rimet was encouraging a regime of international peace, utilizing the reputation the Olympic games already held was simply intelligent leveraging.
The actualization of the event did not transpire until the year later, when on July 13th, 1930 the first game of the first world cup kicked off in Pocitos Stadium, and France beat Mexico 4 to 1. This truly marked the beginning of a long and wonderful world cup history.
The first world cup was the only event to not involve the modern qualifying rounds. The only European teams involved were France, Belgium, Yugoslavia, and Romania. Other European teams either wished to remain in purely Amateur events, or argued that the expected trip time was far too long. Other than Uruguay six additional south American teams participated, including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru.
Two teams remained to complete the final 13 for 1930, Mexico and the United States. The U.S. was utilizing a heavily Scottish roster for the event.
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