Football

TRACING FOOTBALL’S FAMILY TREE

Week in, week out, hundreds of thousands of people enthusiastically risk life, limb and dignity just to play some kind of football; blissfully unaware that they’re playing a game that’s at least as old as the Pyramids and Stonehenge.

Graeme Dobson takes the reader on a romp through 5,000 years of extraordinary history as he traces the family tree of all the modern football codes. He identifies a startling array of ancestors, from English school boys all the way back, through Vikings, Greeks and a host of other players, to an ancient Chinese warlord. Along the way he introduces huge professional football leagues, complete with female players and fan clubs that existed 1,000 years ago.

Like in any family tree, there are bizarre black sheep and myths to investigate—like, ‘were the first games played with the heads of executed criminals?’ ‘Was soccer invented by the English?’ ‘Did rugby originate when Web Ellis picked the ball up and ran with it during a soccer match?’ ‘Which came first—Australian or Gaelic football?’ and ‘Could a mob of Kiwis really be responsible for rugby league in Australia?’

The answers are both intriguing and unexpected.