Football might be ‘coming home’, but where is home?

July 11, 2018

• Topical

Football might be ‘coming home’, but where is home?

‘Football is coming home’. These are the words of Skinner and Baddiel’s 1996 football song which declared that England would bring football back to its rightful home through a victory at the European Championships (of course, it did not come home and England lost the tournament on penalties to Germany!). Over the past few weeks, the belief that football is coming home has swept the nation once again. However, is England the home of football?

In many ways, the answer to this question is yes – England is the home of the game of football we know, play and watch in the 21st century. The forms of football which existed in England from around the 1500s onwards were violent and would be difficult to recognise today. However, there were many important footballing developments in 19th century England.

In 1848, the first formal rules for football (as the game is known today) were written by university students in Cambridge. The English Football Association, which was formed in 1863, then adopted most of these rules and was football’s first governing body. The beautiful game then spread from England to the rest of the world. These footballing developments very much reflected the political context of the 19th century – the rise of a more disciplined, less violent, rules based society and a British nation which had significant global influence through its empire.

However, it could also be said that there are other homes of football too. In Ancient China ‘Tsu’ Chu’ involved kicking a leather ball through a small opening while under pressure from opponents’ attacks. The Romans played a game called ‘Harpastum’. The aim of this game was to kick the ball over the opposing team’s boundary line and the pitch for this sport was a rectangle with a centre line. The Ancient Greeks and Japanese also played their own forms of football. Therefore, while England can take pride in its footballing tradition, it seems that football has always had many homes across the globe. At Kings Tutors HQ, we are very excited about watching this evening’s game. Will you be watching it too?