{"id":28211,"date":"2025-05-21T11:37:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T11:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28211"},"modified":"2025-05-21T12:24:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:24:52","slug":"did-soccer-originate-in-scotland-new-claim-draws-jeers-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28211","title":{"rendered":"Did Soccer Originate in Scotland? New Claim Draws Jeers in England."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The discovery of a 17th-century \u201cfoot-ball\u201d pitch in Scotland would relocate the birthplace of the modern game.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Since the mid-19th century, England has been widely accepted as the birthplace of modern soccer. The sport\u2019s lineage is commonly traced back to mob football, a violent and chaotic game popular in the British Isles during the Middle Ages. Hundreds of players from neighboring hamlets would separate into two teams, lock themselves into an enormous scrum and struggle blindly for control of a circular object, often an inflated pig\u2019s bladder. The drunken pushing, kicking and pummeling could last for hours, even days, and had no time limit. The only set rule: weapons were prohibited.<\/p>\n

In a 1583 broadside, \u201cThe Anatomie of Abuses,\u201d the Puritan pamphleteer Philip Stubbs raged against the brutality of the pastime, which he called a \u201cbloody and murdering practice.\u201d In 1863, to reduce the mayhem and regulate gameplay, a young English solicitor drafted the first comprehensive rule book, which was adopted in London by the newly formed Football Association established by erstwhile boarding school lads from the likes of Eton and Harrow. Hence England\u2019s claim to have pioneered today\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, that narrative is utterly without merit,\u201d said Ged O\u2019Brien, a retired schoolteacher and a founder of the Scottish Football Museum in Glasgow. \u201cThe fact is that for centuries, football has been played in every town and village in Scotland. Not mob football, but proper football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month Mr. O\u2019Brien and a team of archaeologists identified what they believe is the world\u2019s oldest known soccer playing field, or pitch, on a former 17th-century farm in the town of Anwoth in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. The find offers rare physical proof of an organized playing field, in an era when written accounts of working-class recreations were scarce.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u201cOur discovery has serious implications for sports historians,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Brien said. \u201cThey will have to rewrite everything they think they know about the origins of the so-called beautiful game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first clues emerged in a letter written by Reverend Samuel Rutherford, a Presbyterian cleric who was pastor at Anwoth Old Kirk (Church) from 1627 to 1638 and later a professor of divinity at St. Andrews University. In the document, he expressed dismay about parishioners who played \u201cFoot-Ball\u201d on Sabbath afternoons at a place called Mossrobin Farm.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The discovery of a 17th-century \u201cfoot-ball\u201d pitch in Scotland would relocate the birthplace of the modern game.Since the mid-19th century, England has been widely accepted as the birthplace of modern soccer. The sport\u2019s lineage is commonly traced back to mob football, a violent and chaotic game popular in the British Isles during the Middle Ages. Hundreds of players from neighboring hamlets would separate into two teams, lock themselves into an enormous scrum and struggle blindly for control of a circular object, often an inflated pig\u2019s bladder. The drunken pushing, kicking and pummeling could last for hours, even days, and had no time limit. The only set rule: weapons were prohibited.In a 1583 broadside, \u201cThe Anatomie of Abuses,\u201d the Puritan pamphleteer Philip Stubbs raged against the brutality of the pastime, which he called a \u201cbloody and murdering practice.\u201d In 1863, to reduce the mayhem and regulate gameplay, a young English solicitor drafted the first comprehensive rule book, which was adopted in London by the newly formed Football Association established by erstwhile boarding school lads from the likes of Eton and Harrow. Hence England\u2019s claim to have pioneered today\u2019s game.\u201cUnfortunately, that narrative is utterly without merit,\u201d said Ged O\u2019Brien, a retired schoolteacher and a founder of the Scottish Football Museum in Glasgow. \u201cThe fact is that for centuries, football has been played in every town and village in Scotland. Not mob football, but proper football.\u201dLast month Mr. O\u2019Brien and a team of archaeologists identified what they believe is the world\u2019s oldest known soccer playing field, or pitch, on a former 17th-century farm in the town of Anwoth in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. The find offers rare physical proof of an organized playing field, in an era when written accounts of working-class recreations were scarce.\u201cOur discovery has serious implications for sports historians,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Brien said. \u201cThey will have to rewrite everything they think they know about the origins of the so-called beautiful game.\u201dThe first clues emerged in a letter written by Reverend Samuel Rutherford, a Presbyterian cleric who was pastor at Anwoth Old Kirk (Church) from 1627 to 1638 and later a professor of divinity at St. Andrews University. In the document, he expressed dismay about parishioners who played \u201cFoot-Ball\u201d on Sabbath afternoons at a place called Mossrobin Farm.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28213,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28211"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28214,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28211\/revisions\/28214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}