The Beginning of the Game

When 22 men gathered in Battersea Park, London, in 1864 for a game of football, no-one could imagine the worldwide sporting and cultural revolution that would follow. This was the first game to be played according to the Rules of Association Football, written by the embryonic English Football Association and the first attempt to unite and codify the games’ rules.

At first football’s impact was merely national, and its impact on culture not as drastic as it is today. The game was invented by a group from Cambridge which then went on to start the original version of the Football Association (the F.A).  As if it had gone viral, the game spread across the country and soon you would find herds of men kicking a ball around the streets (often aimlessly at first) in an attempt to get in on the action. Nevertheless it instantly achieved then what it has now achieved world wide, bringing massive groups of people together to chant and support in unison.