History of the sports
Football (AKA
soccer) has been around for a very long time. According to our most
"reliable" source, Wikipedia, the first evidence of an activity
resembling football was documented between the 3rd and 1st century BC, in
China!
'Contemporary
codes of football can be traced back to the codification
of these games at English public schools in the eighteenth and
nineteenth century.[2][3]
The influence and power of the British Empire allowed
these rules of football to spread'.
The first
evidence of an activity resembling rugby came quite a few years later, in 1883.
It's invention was credited to William Webb Ellis while he was a student at
Rugby School, a private boarding school situated in the north of England. It
was during a game of football that William decided he would break the rules by
picking up the ball and running with it. The rest was history!
Man vs.
Boy?
What is funny
about these games is that nowadays an Englishman is either an avid follower of
football or rugby. It is not very common to meet an Englishman who's a fan
of both sports. Rugby fans argue that rugby vs. football is like man vs. boy.
In the north
of England there are certainly more rugby supporters than in the south. It's
probably also true to say that a lot of rugby's fanbase went through the English
private school system. Private boarding schools in England tend to prefer rugby as
their main sport and consider football to be a game for the working classes (though
they'd never admit this, obviously!).
Do they play both sports in your country? If so, which game do you prefer and why?
