Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The predecessor of modern forms of football

I've mentioned this game before, but thought I'd give a source and some context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_football
Medieval football is a modern term sometimes used for a wide variety of localised football games which were invented and played in Europe of the Middle Ages. Alternative names include folk footballmob football and Shrovetide football 
These archaic forms of football, typically classified as mob football, would be played between neighboring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig's bladder by any means possible to markers at each end of a town.
By some accounts, any means could be used to move the ball to a goal, as long as it did not lead to manslaughter or murder.
 Shrovetide is still played in one British town.

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