Head the Ball

A documentary on the History Channel yesterday - interestingly the opening day of the Olympic football competition - described how footballs origins can be traced to the BC era in China. According to a document found in 1973, the Yellow Emperor defeated an enemy Chiyou in war and as a means of venting whatever anger remained, ordered the beheading of his enemy, and then ordered his men to kick the head in a game of Cuju (pronounced Choo Jii). Apparently FIFA have recognised this as the oldest record of what's now called football, codified somewhat more recently by our friends across the Irish Sea as Association Football, or soccer.

Soccer's uniqueness arises from the allowance in only limited circumstances of the use of the hands. Cuju shared this rule with soccer, and indeed many of the ball control skills, according to historians. Due to the weight of the ball, it could be kicked neither high nor far, so much more focus was placed on control close to the body. According to the reconstructed footage in the documentary, the game appeared quite similar to soccer - spectacular dive included.

Given that between one and two millenia passed between the two versions of the game, it's reasonable to suppose that there is no direct ancestral relationship between the two games. Instead, it's probable that both games arose independently and happened upon the "no handling" rule due to their own spiritual, pragmatic or other reasons. Just because two sports appear similar does not require us to believe that they share any evolutionary link, much as we'd like to. Richard Dawkins, Oxford University's contemporary poster-boy for Darwin's natural selection theory, wrote in one of his tomes of the existence of - or indeed just our need to believe in - "evolutionary good tricks". Using the eyes as an example, as I recall, Dawkins explained that the existence of eyes in two species does not require an evolutionary link, the having of eyes provides a selective advantage making the species more able to survive. So it's not unlikely for two explorations of DNA space to have happened upon this useful organ. Not handling the ball may just be a useful adaptation, as are many of the other features of soccer - especially when space is at a premium. In China Cuju was played in army barracks and later palaces, where, I suppose windows could have been broken. Soccer's appeal to the urban audience was due to precisely the same reasons.

In this country we've often assumed that an ancestral relationship existed between our own football and Australia's native game, originating in the Victorian colony. The two games appear similar, much like Cuju and soccer, and the skills required are so similar that players can transfer relatively easily between the two. The first game of Australian Football was apparently played in 1858, with the first proper rules being documented by one Thomas Wills the following year. Michael Cusack's rules and organisation didn't exist until 1884, but prior to that football games were played, most famously the Caid game in the south. It is suggested, then, that Caid played parent to both Gaelic Football and Australin Football, but there is no evidence to support this. Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey, on behalf of the VFL/AFL investigated the link between our football and theirs, and found no sound evidence to suggest a substantial link. There were in the early days of Victorian football, for example, no Irish clubs in Victoria, few Irish names on record as club members, no teams using green, no discussion on record of any Irish relationship to the game. In fact, the documentation that exists, which is not much, treats in much detail the relationship between Australian football and games played in England's public schools. Other suggestions such as a relationship between Australian Football and Aboriginal Games such as Mangook appear as unlikely as they are unproven.

What seems likely to me is that there is little purity in the descent of sports. They borrow from each other in many conscious and unconscious ways. This was particularly the case in the mid 19th centure when different villages in Ireland, towns in Australia and schools in England had their local versions of football. As well as hundreds of other versions likely elsewhere. Where games are regulated locally, changes can be rapid leading to speciation, divergence and convergence. As I see it, this is what happened with Ireland and Australia. Both our games likely have some shared history, but not necessarily more of an overlap than we have with many other sports, both living and extinct.

By the way, the documentary on Cuju is available online at http://www.truveo.com/Ancient-Chinese-Sports-Soccer/id/797328393.