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April 22, 2018 by Alexander Meldrum
History of football in Scotland.
Scotland was one of the earliest modern footballing nations.
Various games, known as "football" (or variants) were played in Scotland in the Middle Ages. However, ...History of football in Scotland.
Scotland was one of the earliest modern footballing nations.
Various games, known as "football" (or variants) were played in Scotland in the Middle Ages. However, despite bearing the same name, medieval football bears/bore little resemblance to Association Football (soccer).
The ball was often carried by hand, and the teams were often large or unequal in number, and scrummaging was sometimes involved. Some of these games are still played to this day, notably in Kirkwall and Jedburgh.
The earliest historical reference to "fute-ball" in Scotland was in 1424 when King James I outlawed the playing of it in the Football Act 1424.
This was presumably because of the disruption football was having on military training as well its often violent nature. Subsequent kings issued very similar decrees, suggesting that the bans were unsuccessful.
Certainly James the VI King of Scots was well aware of the violent nature of football, stating in his personal publication of 1603 a debar from commendable exercise "all rough and violent exercises, as the foot-ball".
There were, however, times when royal prohibitions seem to have been relaxed, if not officially. In 1497, for example, the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer include the purchase of footballs for the King.
It is not known if he ever played the game. There is also a tradition that King James V crossed over from Melrose to Jedburgh to participate in the Jedburgh ball game.
There is, however, no documented evidence to corroborate this belief and the earliest contemporary account of the game at Jedburgh comes much later at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The origin of football in Scotland is uncertain. The Highlanders apparently never played such a game (unlike other Celtic regions, such as Cornwall, Wales and Brittany).
It has therefore been suggested that football reached Scotland from France or England.
Early modern history (1867–1900)
Early history (pre 1867)
The Foot-Ball Club (active 1824–41) of Edinburgh, Scotland, is the first documented club dedicated to football, and the first to describe itself as a football club.
The only surviving club rules forbade tripping, but allowed pushing and holding and the picking up of the ball. Other documents describe a game involving 39 players and "such kicking of shins and such tumbling".
Scotland was one of the earliest modern footballing nations.The game started to become popular in Scotland following the development in London in 1863 of the first ever rules of Association Football, established by The Football Association.
Scottish football clubs started to be formed towards the end of the 1860s and 1870s. Queen's Park was Scotland's first football club, founded in 1867. It is the oldest existing football club outside England.
In its very early years it played in the English FA Cup, reaching the final twice.
In the late 1860s football rules in Scotland still allowed the ball to be handled by all the outfield players, as well as the goalkeeper,
whereas in England only the keeper was permitted to handle the ball and then only in his own area[7] According to the Scotsman newspaper on 2 December 1872 at this time there were only about ten football clubs in Scotland.
The first official (i.e. currently recognised by FIFA) international match would take place between Scotland and England on 30 November 1872.
This match was played under the Football Association rules. Over the following decades association football was to become the most popular sport in Scotland.
This match is, however, not the origin of the blue Scotland shirt for contemporary reports of the 5 February 1872 rugby international at the Oval
clearly show that "the scotch were easily distinguishable by their uniform of blue jerseys.... the jerseys having the thistle embroidered" The thistle had been worn previously in the 1871 rugby international.
While the first clubs emerged in Britain, possibly, as early as the fifteenth century, these are poorly-documented and defunct. For example,
the records of the Brewers' Company of London between 1421 and 1423 mention the hiring out of their hall "by the "football players" for "20 pence", under the heading "Trades and Fraternities".
The listing of football players as a "fraternity" or a group of players meeting socially under this identity is the earliest allusion to what might be considered a football club.
Other early sporting bodies dedicated to playing football include "The Gymnastic Society" of London which met regularly during the second half of the eighteenth century to pursue two sports: football and wrestling .
The club played its matches – for example between London-based natives of Cumberland and Westmorland – at the Kennington Common from well before 1789 until about 1800.
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