The Story of Football from a village game to the world cup
The Early History of Football: Legends



  • The Eskimos also played a game like football - on ice!. They used a ball filled with grass and animal hair. Games were played between different villages. Sometimes the goals were fifteen kilometres apart. possibly true - but no records were kept

  • A man was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barber's shop. possibly/probably true as this was reported by Cicero


  • Roman soldiers played football - but used the skulls of their enemies as balls. almost certainly not true

  • An English village beat a Roman team on the pitch and then in battle in 217 AD. probably not true


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