Football Evolution

Royalty ‘created football in 1400s

http://www.thesun.co.uk 

18 October 2011

FOOTBALL was played in an organised form at least 350 years before it is traditionally thought to have been created, new evidence suggests.

Experts had believed that before the 19th century the game only existed in a "barbaric" style. Teams of 100 players beat each other to get their hands on the ball over a two-mile pitch.

But historians have now found evidence that royalty held civilised games in courtyards in the late 15th century.

Players only used their feet and were commended for skilful touches of a ball made from a pig's bladder.

Scottish Football Museum curator Richard McBrearty found accounts from King James IV of Scotland showing he paid two shillings for a bag of "fut ballis" in 1497.

Football following the rules played today was not officially invented until 1848.