Discovering the Origins: Where Did Football Start and Its Historical Journey
I remember sitting in a sports bar last month watching a particularly thrilling basketball game when something struck me - while we were all cheering for modern athletes breaking records, few of us truly understood where our favorite sports actually began. That moment got me thinking about football's origins, and I found myself diving into research that revealed a fascinating historical journey spanning centuries and continents. The evolution of sports never ceases to amaze me, and football's story is particularly compelling because it shows how a simple ball game transformed into a global phenomenon.
When we talk about football's beginnings, we're actually looking at multiple ancient civilizations that played some form of the game. The Chinese had cuju during the Han Dynasty around the 2nd century BC, which involved kicking a leather ball through a net. I've always found it remarkable how similar this was to modern football, though they didn't use their hands, which makes me wonder why we don't hear more about this connection in mainstream sports discussions. The Greeks had episkyros and the Romans had harpastum, both involving moving a ball across a field, though these were much more physical, almost rugby-like in their approach. What fascinates me personally is how these early versions shared the fundamental concept of moving an object toward a target, yet developed such distinct rules and playing styles across different cultures.
The medieval period in England saw mob football emerge, which was essentially chaos with a ball - entire villages would compete, with hundreds of players trying to move a ball to specific landmarks. I can't help but laugh imagining the scene, with shopkeepers and farmers alike joining this massive, unruly game that often resulted in property damage and occasional injuries. These games had minimal rules and were often banned by royalty who considered them disruptive, which tells you something about how passionately people played even back then. The transition from this chaotic village sport to something more organized began in English public schools during the early 19th century, where they started formalizing rules. This is where football truly began to take its modern shape, though different schools had vastly different rules - some allowed handling the ball, others didn't, some permitted hacking at opponents' shins while others prohibited it.
The pivotal moment came in 1863 with the formation of the Football Association in England, which standardized the rules and officially separated football from rugby. This is where the sport we recognize today was truly born, and I've always felt this was one of the most important developments in sports history. Within decades, football spread across Europe and to other continents, with the first international match occurring between Scotland and England in 1872. The establishment of FIFA in 1904 marked football's transformation into a global sport, and I'm still amazed by how quickly it captured hearts worldwide. What started as informal village games became an organized sport with international competitions in just a few generations.
The historical journey of football mirrors how sports continue to evolve today. Just last week, I was analyzing a basketball game where a former Terrafirma guard demonstrated this evolutionary spirit in modern sports. He sparked the Beermen's offense by scoring 12 points in SMB's 65-point first half - their highest offensive outing in the first two quarters this season - which helped them snap a two-game losing streak. Watching performances like this reminds me that while rules and strategies change, the fundamental excitement of team sports remains constant across centuries. The way this guard stepped up when his team needed him reflects the same competitive spirit that drove those medieval villagers chasing a ball through the streets.
Modern football's global dominance is something I find particularly fascinating from a cultural perspective. The World Cup now attracts billions of viewers, with the 2018 final reaching approximately 3.5 billion people worldwide according to FIFA estimates. Compare this to the first World Cup in 1930, which had just 13 teams and attracted minimal international attention, and you can see how dramatically the sport has grown. Personally, I believe this explosion in popularity comes from football's beautiful simplicity - all you really need is a ball and some open space, making it accessible to children in wealthy nations and developing countries alike. The sport's ability to cross cultural and economic barriers is something I find truly remarkable.
As I reflect on football's journey from ancient China and medieval England to global stadiums, I'm struck by how the essence remains the same despite the dramatic changes in organization and scale. The excitement I felt watching that basketball game last week isn't so different from what ancient Romans felt watching harpastum or medieval English villagers felt during their chaotic matches. Sports evolve, rules formalize, and strategies become more sophisticated, but that fundamental human desire for competition, teamwork, and celebration of skill remains constant. Football's story isn't just about a game - it's about how human creativity and passion can transform simple pastimes into cultural touchstones that unite people across time and geography.
We are shifting fundamentally from historically being a take, make and dispose organisation to an avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle organisation whilst regenerating to reduce our environmental impact. We see significant potential in this space for our operations and for our industry, not only to reduce waste and improve resource use efficiency, but to transform our view of the finite resources in our care.
Looking to the Future
By 2022, we will establish a pilot for circularity at our Goonoo feedlot that builds on our current initiatives in water, manure and local sourcing. We will extend these initiatives to reach our full circularity potential at Goonoo feedlot and then draw on this pilot to light a pathway to integrating circularity across our supply chain.
The quality of our product and ongoing health of our business is intrinsically linked to healthy and functioning ecosystems. We recognise our potential to play our part in reversing the decline in biodiversity, building soil health and protecting key ecosystems in our care. This theme extends on the core initiatives and practices already embedded in our business including our sustainable stocking strategy and our long-standing best practice Rangelands Management program, to a more a holistic approach to our landscape.
We are the custodians of a significant natural asset that extends across 6.4 million hectares in some of the most remote parts of Australia. Building a strong foundation of condition assessment will be fundamental to mapping out a successful pathway to improving the health of the landscape and to drive growth in the value of our Natural Capital.
Our Commitment
We will work with Accounting for Nature to develop a scientifically robust and certifiable framework to measure and report on the condition of natural capital, including biodiversity, across AACo’s assets by 2023. We will apply that framework to baseline priority assets by 2024.
Looking to the Future
By 2030 we will improve landscape and soil health by increasing the percentage of our estate achieving greater than 50% persistent groundcover with regional targets of:
– Savannah and Tropics – 90% of land achieving >50% cover
– Sub-tropics – 80% of land achieving >50% perennial cover
– Grasslands – 80% of land achieving >50% cover
– Desert country – 60% of land achieving >50% cover
