New evidence that the evolution of football into the modern game first took place in Sheffield has been published for the first time in an international academic journal. ‘The new research paper – The Evolution of Football Passing in Nineteenth-Century Britain, published in the respected International Journal of the History of Sport, has now proved beyond doubt, that passing the ball in football was first developed and evolved in Sheffield and not Scotland, as had been widely believed’ says Dr John Wilson one of the co-authors of the paper, along with John Stocks, Steve Wood and John Clarke from the charity Sheffield Home of Football.
‘The earliest evidence of passing the ball in Association football has been identified in matches involving Sheffield teams in the 1860s’ says Dr Wilson. ‘Using the British Newspaper Archive and other football archives, we have identified matches in which the early individual dribbling style of football at the head of a pack of players evolved’ reveals Steve Wood co-author of the report.
‘To be more effective and strategic, Sheffield players scientifically positioned themselves across the pitch thus enabling them to pass the ball around their opponents with the aim of winning matches, adds Steve. ‘This tactical development in the game was connected with the evolution of the rules and particularly the offside rule which was more lenient in Sheffield and Scotland compared to the more stringent one employed in London by the Football Association’, says John Clarke. ‘The Sheffield and Scottish games encouraged passing, forward kicking and crosses from the wings’ adds John.
‘These high balls also encouraged heading and in a match played between London and Sheffield at the Oval in January 1872 the Sheffield Daily Telegraph described this unusual behaviour: “Sampson headed the ball judiciously. This style of play was evidently new to the Cockneys and caused a hearty laugh”, reveals John Stocks. ‘The passing game wasn’t always successful and the direct ‘route-one ball’ or brute force by the opposition sometimes won the game’, says Dr Wilson. ‘However, these were the beginnings in Sheffield of the modern game of passing and possession football which were then refined by the Scots Professors who came down from Scotland’, adds Dr Wilson .
‘Indeed, the old form of individual dribbling was finally ended when Blackburn Olympic beat Old Etonians in the 1883 FA Cup Final by using passing which was encouraged by their captain, Jack Hunter from Sheffield’, says John Clarke. ‘Passing is now used by all teams and has been turned into artistry by clubs such as, Barcelona Manchester City and Spain, providing a direct evolutionary link with the passing and possession which was developed in Sheffield, the world’s first football culture’ concludes Dr Wilson.
