Football
England
- Football at this time is still an essentially rural activity played mainly on public holidays and not so much by teams as by mobs, Shrove Tuesday being a traditional day for games across the country. There are few rules other than the aim of moving the ball towards the opposing team's goal and both kicking and handling are allowed.
- It is in the early nineteenth century that some of the public schools become interested and begin to devise their own versions, rules of which are verbally agreed and handed down over many years. Each school (e.g., Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester) develops its own variations.
Ireland
- Various football games, referred to collectively as "caid", are popular in County Kerry, especially the Dingle Peninsula. Father W Ferris describes two forms of caid: the "field game" in which the object is to put the ball through arch-like goals, formed from the boughs of two trees; and the epic "cross-country game" which lasts the whole of a Sunday (after Mass) and is won by taking the ball across a parish boundary. "Wrestling", "holding" opposing players, and carrying the ball are all allowed.
Read more about this topic: 1801 In Sports
Famous quotes containing the word football:
“... in the minds of search committees there is the lingering question: Can she manage the football coach?”
—Donna E. Shalala (b. 1941)
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)