The Dangerous Game Of Football

by Read Listen Learn

These days, the dangers of football are usually because of the fans at matches. Some people go to football stadiums to make trouble. They want to fight with the fans of other teams. In the 1980s, this was especially true of English football fans and many foreign clubs did not want them to travel to games in their countries. They were difficult to control at the football ground and also in the town centre before and after the match. This was a new thing in football – dangerous crowds in the streets, fighting and even death.

But, in fact, that is not true. Football has a very long history in Britain and the game has always been dangerous. From the thirteenth century, people have written about football players dying. For example, in 1280, Henry Ellington ran against his friend in a game to get the ball away from him. Sadly, he ran into the knife that his friend was wearing and died a few days later. Other footballers often fell and killed themselves on their swords when they were playing the game. In 1314, the King of England, Edward the Second, complained that very large football games often caused problems, although he did not say what these were.

Perhaps Edward was unhappy that young men spent too much time playing football and so did not practise archery. This was a very important hobby for young men because they needed it in wartime. King Edward said that all young men must buy a bow and arrows and every village must make a place for them to practise. When Edward thought that football was more popular than archery, he stopped the game. His son, King Edward III, did the same thing in 1331 before his army attacked Scotland. A later king, Henry IV did more in 1410: when people played football, he sent them to prison for three weeks. Even as late as the seventeenth century, Oliver Cromwell tried to forbid football as well as horse racing. Of course, when he died in 1658, the game started again and was as popular as always.

However, war had changed before Cromwell became the governor of England. Kings did not need young men to practise archery: now soldiers had guns. So, why did governments still try to stop people playing football?

This happened as late as the middle of the nineteenth century when soldiers shot at footballers in many towns in England. It was not the game. Rich young men at private schools played football and many teachers thought it was good for their minds and bodies. The difficulty with the game was that many poor young men got together in the same place, perhaps drank, possibly broke windows with their ball and were sometimes out of control. The rich were afraid. It was not because the players broke their own bones, but broke other people’s.

So, we can see that football hooliganism is nothing new. Football has always worried people.