Horse 266 - Football IS Football

Soccer finally becomes football
Date: January 1 2005
As of today, the game of soccer in this country will officially be known as football. The national body will assume its new title, Football Federation Australia, and all other organised bodies are expected to follow suit.

The FFA says: "While we are not pretending that all Australians will take to calling the game football immediately, we feel that it is important to make this symbolic change, and to bring the world game in Australia into line with rest of the football world."

Here at the Herald, we agree and have decided to embrace it - from the start. From now on, the game will be called football in these pages, as it is throughout the world. The word football will still be used as a generic term for rugby league, rugby union and Australian football.
- Sydney Morning Herald

Is this the definative answer? How much more do you need? A quick look at the history of the game should put people in their place.

All throughout history, many ball games have emerged as well as perished independently to one another, often leaving us with nothing but speculations. Considering that many of these games were impulsive and had few or no regulations, it is likely that they also were quite violent. The roughness of these early games surely must have demanded involvement of the legs, for kicking.
We have to emphasize the difference between such scuffles and today's "beautiful game". The feet are not only used for kicking but also for controlling and moving the ball (dribbling.) Using body parts other than the feet, like the head or chest, is another factor suggesting the development expert technical skills.

During the Middle Ages Europe was the stage for violent town games known universally as Mob Football. It is very surprising to notice the progress of ball games in this historical period and consider their violent upturn. In contrast to the ball games of Ancient times, authorities often prohibited and opposed their practice.

The Football Association was founded in 1861, the oldest of the clubs being Sheffield Wednesday in 1861. The FA Cup as an open competition was founded in 1871. The Rugby game broke away in 1871 with the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby League broke apart from that in 1908 in Australia. The theory that William Webb Ellis "with fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game" in 1823, is in fact a load of old codswallop and can not be substantiated as there has never been a William Ellis that has ever attended the Rugby school.

Football should remain football and now that the SMH have relented it is my personal crusade to enforce this rule. FOOTBALL IS FOOTBALL.