#10 - Soccer the Greatest Game in the World

You know what time it is. Welcome to a special edition, episode 10, When with Webb, More Curious Than George, and excited to bring you an episode all about soccer, or football if you're in another part of the The World Cup is upon us. I'm super pumped. Are you? Do you watch soccer? Do you understand the rules? Will you watch the World Cup at all? Just mildly curious, but regardless of your affinity for or not for soccer, I'm going to share with you more of the history and how did it come to pass to this beautiful game that I love so much today and is the most popular sport in the entire world. Fight me. I got stats to back it up. So, couple origin stories. First, we're gonna start in 2nd and 3rd century BC China. Cuju, or a version that they played where it was a team of, let's say, 4 on 4 roughly, and they would juggle the ball to one another. The ball can't hit the ground, and they have a designated captain that is the scorer, the only one that can shoot, and there's a round goal, almost, you know, maybe bigger than a, definitely bigger than a basketball hoop, probably, I don't know, something like that, that they gotta then kick up almost like a hacky sack or, you know, juggling type move in the soccer we know today. And the team that gets more through the hole wins, hits the ground, other team gets the ball. Seems pretty straightforward, but why talk about it when I can show you? Pretty cool. A lot of skill to be able to balance it and have a really good assist or a pass in order to hit it through that goal. I would love to maybe construct one of those myself, backyard games this summer. Uh, so kuju is the name of this wonderful sport, and FIFA actually recognized Lindsay the city in the district along the Taigong Lake, which is where the key culture museum— they basically say this is the official ancient birthplace of the sport in 2004. Well, there's some controversy around that statement. There's some other folks, shall we say, across the pond, as they like to call themselves, that might disagree with this. And we'll get into that in a minute. But from the early start in China, cuju, or otherwise kickball, was during the Han Dynasty, the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. It was a leather ball. Filled with feathers and hair.

Icky.

And it is occurring during the Warring States period. So a lot of unrest in China, a lot of factions or parts of the country that were against one another. And as they came close and came together at the end of this Warring States period under this Qi state, this really became a unifying narrative, this game, and how people could come together. And this was talked about in Strategies of the Warring States and Records of Grand Historian. Two foundational texts of ancient Chinese history. So pretty neat to hear. And even, you know, dating further forward to 50 BC, teachings of the Confucian scholar and politician Lu Xin was that Cuju strengthened the fighting power of soldiers. Women even were allowed to play. And I'll briefly mention that there was this oppressive, awful practice of foot binding, which essentially limited their ability to use their feet in this game. And they used other parts of their body, their knees, their hips. And other things to try to play on their own. This foot binding was an oppressive tool of the patriarchy. It became a status symbol for the wealthy in Chinese that a woman could sit idle and not have to work. It's this bending of the foot to almost fold it in and to try to make it smaller, breaking of toes, really painful, awful manipulation that thankfully was abolished at the turn of the 19th century. Not soon enough. But anyway, at the time, a lot of women used aspects of kujou more towards being acrobats or entertainers, entertainers, and kujou Kujo was— I keep calling it Kujo— Kuju was a part of their act. So Kuju was associated with enjoyment and happiness. The Kuju player does not aspire to fame and profit, but delights in strolling around at leisure, according to the Chinese histories of the early association of the sport. And another states that it releases tension, raises spirits, and helps one to forget the pains and troubles of the busy world. Well, I think that still mirrors today. That's how I feel when I play. It dissolves hardened energy and matter, or qi, and causes the virtuous heart to become gentle and beautiful. That's really eloquent. I quite like that. Well, they hit a bit of a snag with Hongwu Emperor banned it as a detriment to military training and a distraction from work. So this emperor, the first Ming ruler, said, if you're caught playing, off with your foot. Pretty wild. Yeah. Trying some risky stuff there. Well, during that period, they tried some different forms. They even briefly tried Kuju on ice didn't last long. Wonder why. So today, fast forwarding ahead, you can visit the Linzi Football Museum, which opened in 2015 in Zibo City, Shandong Province, China, to see the history of kuju and the origins of soccer in China. And modern interpretations really see kuju as a mix of basketball, football, and volleyball when you really dig in and look at the gameplay. And I'll briefly say that after a lot of these bans on a detriment to work and against the military, other things, it still was something that was played more informally. And became something where people in small villages and people of a lesser economic status could come together and enjoy. And over time, you know, it kind of broke free of that. And as you can tell from FIFA's recognition in 2004 as the official ancient birthplace, is the wording they used, and the museum in 2015, which stands today. Pretty neat stuff. Now, there's also this medieval mob ball. That's a thing. What could that be about, I wonder? Hmm. Well, good thing I can show you. So this is from England. And this is as it sounds, pretty much no rules, except no murder. It's generally frowned upon, which I'll get into some of the history and, you know, records there from England and timing. But let's look at a little video of a modern rendition as to how maybe this would be played today.

Well, I've heard that Murder and Mansell trying onto land, so I'm quite happy about that. And that extreme violence is frowned upon. When it's really wet and rainy and cold, you can see all the steam rising off them. It's a fantastic atmosphere, it really is.

And they're bound to get in the brook at some time. Oh, goodness gracious. You can see the inflated pigskin ball. And essentially back in the early times, it would be like almost one town versus another. Sounds like the modern-day Green Street Hooligans and maybe where some of that lore comes from. And the object was to get the ball into the opponent's town square. I'm guessing that's kind of a haha and like capture the flag-esque thing from what all I was looking at. And at the time, as I'll share more, uh, you know, they were just joking that, hey, you know, manslaughter and murder aren't allowed and, you know, excessive violence isn't tolerated. Well, that was kind of like the loose version when it originated in terms of no murder, because there were definitely tons of injuries, no other rules, there's no referee, um, destruction of property, all these things. It's pretty wild. So Mob Ball, as they call it. So essentially, as I said, you know, this is maybe all the way back to King Edward II in 1314, and no official reference to what we consider maybe the modern origin of football with the foot or soccer. But essentially, we have on record these royal decrees, these laws that are seeking to say, you know what, this chaotic game of mob ball where people are getting hurt, windows are broken, all these things, Um, we can't have it. So they're trying to, you know, essentially say, hey, um, you know, we're not using the bow and arrow as much anymore, and that's a deterrent for our military. It's not as fun, so we got to create rules to outlaw this game. And in a comical bit of political irony, Henry the V111— I don't know my Roman numerals— so he passed stringent laws against upkeep for football fields and limiting play but he actually had a pair of custom-made leather football boots in his belongings when he passed. So the early references of ball don't define it well enough to know that it was indeed football. But back in 1200, a reference to King Arthur and the Knights, pretty cool, playing some— playing ball. Some drive balls far over the field. Well, to me, to drive a ball far over a field, you got more power and an ability. When I think of the size of a tickle field, I think that that could be with the foot, right? So that's just my obscure tying it into actual proper soccer or football. But this isn't the official first time. The— is the official first time of the recorded word ball, which is all good and fun, right? So instead we have the earliest reference that definitively points to proper football is Henry, son of William Ellington, playing at ball on Trinity Sunday with David LeCoultre and many others. Ran against David and received an accidental wound from David's knife, which he died on the following Friday. They were both running the ball and ran against each other, and the knife hanging from David's belt stuck out so that the point through the sheath struck against Henry's belly and the handle against David's belly. Henry was wounded right through the sheath and died by misadventure. Yeah, misadventure for sure. That's wild. So this is in the 1500s, I believe. I don't have the exact date, but yeah, that's the official first reference to proper football and what occurred. So now the ball game in question is not— it is true— described as a football and may therefore be open to the same objection as ambiguous instances that I've already mentioned above. And it's clearly a game of considerable violence and a lot of players. And we're certain that football is being played only a few decades later. When it became a public nuisance in London. So really, this resemblance of this story is sufficiently striking to incur the notion that, you know, these games could be identical. And excuse me, it was 1321. So there is the time during 1314, King Edward II, warring with Scotland, had an unambiguous reference to football stated from the mayor of London at the time, by virtue of Nicholas de Farnden, then mayor, and trustworthy men of several wards caused inquiry to be made concerning malefactors and night prowlers, and has caused a proclamation set forth below as follows to be proclaimed throughout the entire city. Whereas our Lord the King is going towards the parts of Scotland in his war against his enemies, has specially commanded us strictly to keep his peace. And whereas there is a great uproar in the city, London, through certain tumults arising from the striking of great Footballs in the fields of the public, from which many evils perchance may arise, which may God forbid, we do command and do forbid on the King's behalf upon pain of imprisonment that such games shall not be practiced henceforth in the city. This also refuted a French claim that they introduced football to England during the Hundred Years' War. Uh-uh. Sorry, Frenchies. Not this time. But if we really fast forward, the birth of modern football was closer to 1863. And by the 19th century was more propagated and popular in English public schools. Eton, Harrow, and Rugby playing their own version of football to keep students disciplined. However, there's different rules. Some allowed carrying the ball, some didn't. And there was some discussions on, you know, setting up this idea of what would be next. This has led to the formation of the Football Association, and a major split occurred during these meetings. One group wanted to allow hacking or kicking of the shins and carrying the ball in our hands. And they broke away and maybe unsurprisingly to you all listening, formed the Rugby Football Union. The other group kept their focus strictly on the feet, the Association of Football. So we here in America call it soccer. And there's this funny idea from people not from here that think we're weird and backwards, sort of like the whole metric system for calling it soccer. But did you know that soccer actually was a British invention? In the late 19th century, Oxford students loved slang, and they shortened words and added -er. Sounds like a version of me in Spanglish when I wasn't very good at Spanish at one point in time. And so they took something that was association football, and it was shortened to assoc, or A-S-S-O-C, and that eventually morphed into soccer. So come to find out, it's a British word to begin with. Odd. So going global, 1904 is when FIFA was founded in Paris by European nations, and 1930 was the very first FIFA World Cup held in Uruguay. It was only 13 teams at the time, and the hosts won the tournament, solidifying soccer as a true international spectacle. So outside of mob ball in England, I mean, they can't be the only spots that have some claim or mention of origins of soccer. Well, we can look at Japan actually got influence from Cuju, and they created Kamari around the 6th century. But it was a very different kind of a game. It was a noncompetitive cooperative game. There are no winners. No losers, and no goals. Usually it was around 6 to 8 people in a muddy square. The sole objective is to keep this hollow, lightweight ball, and for them in Japan, made of brushed deer hide, in the air using your feet, knees, and elbows. So it was considered highly reputable and institutionalized. It was a refined art form played by emperors, courtiers, and even samurai. Took immense skill, coordination, and grace. Think of it like what kids do nowadays with hacky sacks, but a much more prim and proper and, you know, early version. Then we have here in the Americas, forgive my pronunciation, the pasakonkahaug, and that translates literally to they gather together to play ball with the foot, played by the Algonquin and Powhatan people along the northeastern coast of what is now the US. Records of this game date back to the early 17th century. We also have a couple honorable mentions. The Marn Grook in Australia heavily influenced the unique Australian rules of football, but it's not considered tied to global soccer. And then there's the Mesoamerican ballgame. So the Mayans, the Aztecs, but feet weren't used as the primary mechanic. So it's not necessarily directly tied, but again, influences similar to Cujo being maybe a mix of some basketball and volleyball concepts as well. And as we saw from Mob Ball, it's pretty much any rules went before later, you know, separating what became known today as rugby and what's known as football in the world and soccer here in the US. So something else that people in the US might not really fully fathom or understand or recognize, but you just heard all the different places in the origin of this beautiful sport that I love. Well, according to 2022 FIFA World Cup numbers, they had 5 billion global engagements. That's roughly 60% of the entire human population engaged with the FIFA World Cup in 2022 in some capacity. It's crazy. The final match between France and Argentina reached a verified audience of 1.42 to 1.5 billion people. That means nearly 1 in 5 people on Earth were watching this exact same match simultaneously. Crazy. So it was an average of 175 million viewership across all 64 games of the tournament. That's wild. And this year they're expecting to cross 6 billion engagements easily. So just for perspective, a lot of people think American football does quite well and it does the Super Bowl, but it's really limited to here. Now the game is growing their international presence, but American football has an estimated global fan base of around 410 million. 410 million. Soccer, 5 billion. That's almost 10 times the size of the popularity of American football. And whether you know it or not, cricket is about half the popularity globally as soccer, coming in at number 2. Basketball has grown quite considerably internationally and coming in at the bronze at 2.2 billion. And just wild, wild. So As we're gearing up for the World Cup to start, I'm cheering on the US, of course, but also Germany, Austria. I studied abroad there, and I'm the nerd that did a fantasy bracket with some friends to see, you know, who's going against who, points for who wins the match and continues, and so on. So I hope you enjoyed a lighter version of Win with Webmore Curious and George to learn a little bit about the origins of soccer and maybe appreciate that Perhaps here we're a little more insulated and we don't recognize just the global reach and the popularity of the great game of soccer. And even some of the nice things of learning is a form of art, as a form of people coming together in Japan where it wasn't competitive about score. In terms of something that you saw from the video that still played in a less violent, more, I'm sure, healthily regulated version in England. And a way for us to celebrate our history and appreciate the beginnings of, in my humble opinion, what is the greatest game on earth. So here's to a wonderful World Cup, and we'll see you on the pitch.