The Beautiful Game: There's No Need To Thank Us

We Brits have much to be proud of.

Rest assured I am not here to glorify the age of empire, and I will not mention Winston Churchill at all—except that I have just mentioned him.

Our great gifts to the world are what I speak of here.

Usually when people say things like that they mean Shakespeare, Milton, etc.—the masters of the English language. But I just do not believe that street urchins in Bogota or Rio are apt to recite passages from Richard III or Paradise Lost.

But they will know the global sports that originated in Britain, and in particular they will know football.

It is obvious that throwing balls or similar objects, or kicking them, or whacking them with sticks, cannot have exclusively British origins. Codifying those activities, forming regulatory bodies and club structures, and doing it so successfully that the sports concerned have become global phenomena is almost uniquely a British achievement.

The Football Association was formed in London, in 1863. There was no need to say it was The English Football Association, because it was the only one. Ten years later The Scottish Football Association was formed, followed by Wales in 1875 and Ireland in 1880.

In 1871 the world's first football competition was inaugurated—the FA cup.

Curiously, the first international match was played in 1972, when there was officially only one football nation. It was between England and Scotland, the Scottish team was that of Queen's Park, Scotland's oldest football club.

Football is a simple game, very easy for spectators to follow. It also rewards skill and fitness, and can provide extremely gripping entertainment, especially when team or national loyalties are involved.

It now seems inevitable that football should have spread.

By the outbreak of WWI there were 21 nations with football associations, and there were 41 when international play was interrupted by WWII. Today the world rankings list 201 nations.

How many people play football?

That is an impossible question to answer. A single kid kicking a ball against a wall probably thinks he is playing it, and two kids passing a ball between them definitely do.

The official minimum number of players in a team is seven; the maximum is 11, not counting substitutes. That rule, and all rules for international matches, was laid down by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which was formed in Manchester in 1886.

FIFA, which was formed in Paris in 1904, is an administrative body, and has always accepted the supremacy of IFAB, to which it has four delegates.

When there is no longer a Britain in the world, as is entirely possible, there will still be football as a major element in the lives of countless millions. It came from us, and the world loves it.

You're very welcome for the beautiful game. There's no need to thank us.