FIFA Museum Collection - 1000 Years of Football

<body background="/museum/images/bgmuseum.gif" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000CC" alink="#FF9933" vlink="#9999FF"> <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"> <tr valign="top"> <td rowspan="2" width="125"><img width="125" height="10" hspace="0" src="/images2/fifaspace125x10.gif"><br> <img width="96" height="24" hspace="0" src="/images2/fifaonline.gif"><img width="96" height="134" hspace="0" src="/museum/images/museicon.gif"><br></td> <th></th> </tr> <tr> <td> <blockquote> <br> <center> <img width="284" height="172" hspace="10" vspace="2" src="/museum/images/museum.gif" alt="FIFA Museum Collection"><br> <img width="179" height="15" vspace="10" src="/museum/images/intro.gif" alt="Introduction"> </center> <p>Football began somewhere in the mists of antiquity with glimpses of an ancient game in China, among the Toltecs, the Ancient Greeks, the clans of Scotland.</p> <p>The rules, if there were any, varied from nation to nation, region to region, village to village but the common elements were in place an age ago - a ball, men and the desire for play and competition.</p> <p>There are many signs in history of the importance of football An English king banned the game because he feared his bowmen were spending too much time away from archery practice in preparation for war against France.</p> <p>Oliver Cromwell played football at Cambridge University in the early 1 600s and said the only man he feared on the football field was one John Wheelright - who later took his family and his game to America, where his portrait now hangs in the State House; looking down on Boston Common where the first football game was played in the New World.</p> <p>There are links between British football and 11 Calcio of Italy in the Renaissance writings of an English head master in the years between 1561 and 1608. There is a legend recorded in a 1 7th century "Statistical Account of Scotland" that Football "had its origins in the days of chivalry, when it is alleged that an Italian who came into Scotland challenged all the parishes in the neighbourhood of Scone. (...) Scone accepted, beat the foreigner and in consequence the game was instituted."</p> <p>But it was not until the 19th century that a group of men met in London to bring some order to the varieties of football being played and set down the Laws of the Game of Association Football. Others, then and later, preferred a different game and so began Rugby Football, divided later into Rugby Union and Rugby League, and leading, through time and adaptation, to American Football and Australian Rules.</p> <p>It is, of course, the Association game - our football - which has become the sporting phenomenon of the world, reaching into every comer of humankind.</p> <p>However, if football began in antiquity, the FIFA Museum Collection, this most magnificent record of the past, began with a 5 shilling purchase of a small print in the 1950s; bought as a present by Mrs Ann Langton for her husband Harry Langton who went on to assemble paintings and prints, balls and boots, toys and games, ceramics and sculptures which show how deeply people felt about their game long before the age of communication made the world's delight obvious to all.</p> <p>The FIFA Museum Collection is the result of those long years of Football's past and also the long years of care and devotion and patience of Harry Langton who has sometimes characterized the Collection as "an accident" and said that sometimes objects became known to him in such strange ways it was if "they wanted to be found for posterity': If so, it was a happy accident and it is certain that other objects will appear ... because no matter how full and beautiful, the FIFA Museum Collection is not complete any more than football itself is complete.</p> <p>As the game grows, as our future becomes the past, the thread which links humanity through football will remain intact because of the FIFA Museum Collection</p> <p><br></p> <h2>Your browser does not support frames</h2> <p></p> <h3>At this time, the remaining pages of The FIFA Museum Collection are only available as framed documents. We regret the inconvenience and are working on a non-frame version</h3> </blockquote> <p></p> <p></p> <hr size="8"> <center> <a href="/scripts/runisa.dll?M2:MR1::67173"><b>Media releases</b><img vspace="5" hspace="7" align="absmiddle" width="42" height="41" src="/images2/back.gif"></a><a href="/index.html"><img vspace="5" hspace="7" align="absmiddle" width="42" height="41" src="/images2/home.gif"></a><a href="/fifa/pub/index.publications.html"><img vspace="5" hspace="7" align="absmiddle" width="42" height="41" src="/images2/fwd.gif"><b>FIFA Publications</b></a> <p><font size="-1">Copyright © 1997 <a href="/fifa/pub/copyright.html">Fédération Internationale de Football Association</a>. All rights reserved.<br> Copyright © 1997 <a href="/enlinea/index.html">En-Linea, Inc.</a> All rights reserved.</font></p> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </body>