Задание № 3 FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND

Football, in its roughest and most primitive form, had been played in Great Britain from time immemorial. Like other things, it is sometimes said to have been introduced by the Romans, but since Irish antiquaries claim that a form of football was played more than 2,000 years ago, it may have had pre-Roman existence in England. At all events a game with a ball of some kind was played in very old times in England, the great festival day being Shrove Tuesday, for reasons which are unknown. It was a game without rules, of which the sole aim seems to have been to drive the ball by fair means or foul through the opponent's goal. So rough was the game and so many were its accidents, sometimes fatal, that it fell gradually into disrepute and Shrove Tuesday football seems to have died out about 1830, from which date onwards for about thirty or forty years football was only played by the great public schools, some of which had their own set of rules.

Today football is played in Great Britain under two sets of rules, Rugby and Association. Among the schools with their separate rules were Eton. Harrow, Winchester and Rugby, and it happened that the rules of Rugby were chosen by schools, exactly when and why it is difficult to be certain, but probably at some time in the forties and fifties. And by 1860, many other schools besides Rugby were playing football under Rugby rules, and London and other clubs followed suit. When the Rugby game first became adopted by other clubs its rules must have been fairly simple. (Eric Parker, English Sport)