Day 11: Lull Before the Storm and A Bit of History

Seems like there is a bit of a lull today (the lull before the storm?). Brazil play the opening game on Thursday in São Paulo, where there are some problems arising from the transit workers' strike. As one activist put it yesterday "this is the perfect time to strike because the eyes of the world are on us."

Here in Curitiba things are strangely quiet today. Yesterday was different - fireworks every few minutes all morning. But today, quiet. And a very strong police presence in the streets of the city centre.

I have seen more visiting fans in the streets the past two days. A few Nigeria fans mainly, and of course some random Australians - they really are everywhere, not just in Canmore. 

The Curitiba police must be having a bit of a 'clean up' campaign because many homeless people (not the Australians) from the city centre have suddenly 'migrated' to my neighborhood. 

Anyway, today is a good day for a quick primer on the history of soccer.

Ancient History of Ball Games
Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, humanitarian, and all-round good egg, once said this:

“Football is as old as the world… People have always played some form of football, from its very basic form of kicking a ball around to the game it is today.” (Sepp Blatter, quoted in Goldblatt, 2006, p. 3)

Now, Sepp also once said this:

“We honour the Chinese people for their country’s role as the cradle of the earliest forms of football, having firmly planted the roots of our sport and helping set the course for it to grow into the beautiful game it is today.” (quoted in Goldblatt, 2006, p. 5)

Although it may appear that Sepp has contradicted himself (or maybe changed his message for his audience - a bit like with the Qatar bid), he's not totally incorrect.

There was an ancient ball game in during the Chinese Han dynasty (200 BCE - Before Common Era) called 'cuju' (kick-ball). 

Cuju (Source: Wikipedia Commons).

BUT, competitive ball games were a feature of many societies in the ancient world. Here are some examples:

•Japan

–Kemari - 600 Common Era (CE)

•Malaysia/Thailand

–Sepak raga/sepak takraw (‘kick-ball’), 1500s

•Roman

–Harpastum (‘small ball game’) 300 BCE-400 CE

Perhaps the oldest game is Marn Grook, which was played by some of the Aboriginal peoples in Australia: 

Marn Grook (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

Of course, many of us know the story of how the official laws of football were written in England as a way of codifying (and controlling) the mass 'folk football' games played across the country. So, soccer as we know it today was created in modern history, but has its roots in ancient history. 

Sidenote for the history buffs: The laws were first written during a series of meetings in the fall of 1863 at the Freemason's Tavern, London, England.

I just think it's important to recognize that, while the rules were written in England and those rules exported by the English colonialists, versions of competitive ball games pre-dated the English rules.

So, maybe what Sepp could have said is this:

“The sphere is as old as the world. Kicking is as old as humanity. The Ancients knew the ball, but football is born of modernity”

–(Goldblatt, 2006, p. 18)

(Endnote: Quite a few ideas in this blog are based on Goldblatt's 2006 book "The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer").