Soccer in Sun and Shadow

The Rules of the Game

After centuries of official denial, the British Isles finally accepted the ball in its destiny. Under Queen Victoria soccer was embraced not only as a plebeian vice but as an aristocratic virtue.

The future leaders of society learned how to win by playing soccer in the courtyards of colleges and universities. There, upper-class brats unbosomed their youthful ardors, honed their discipline, tempered their anger, and sharpened their wits. At the other end of the social scale, workers had no need to test the limits of their bodies, since that is what factories and workshops were for, but the fatherland of industrial capitalism discovered that soccer, passion of the masses, offered entertainment and consolation to the poor and distraction from thoughts of strikes and other evils.

In its modern form, soccer comes from a gentleman’s agreement signed by twelve English clubs in the autumn of 1863 in a London tavern. The clubs agreed to abide by rules established in 1848 at the University of Cambridge. In Cambridge soccer divorced rugby: carrying the ball with your hands was outlawed, although touching it was allowed, and kicking the adversary was also prohibited. “Kicks must be aimed only at the ball,” warned one rule. A century and a half later some players still confuse the ball with their rival’s skull owing to the similarity in shape.

The London accord put no limit on the number of players, or the size of the field, or the height of the goal, or the length of the contest. Matches lasted two or three hours and the protagonists chatted and smoked whenever the ball was flying in the distance. One modern rule was established: the offside. It was disloyal to score goals behind the adversary’s back.

In those days no one played a particular position on the field. They all ran happily after the ball, each wherever he wanted, and everyone changed positions at will. It fell to Scotland around 1870 to organize teams with defense, midfielders, and strikers. By then sides had eleven players. From 1869 on, none of them could touch the ball with his hands, not even to catch and drop it to kick. In 1871 the exception to that taboo was born: the goalkeeper could use his entire body to defend the goal.

The goalkeeper protected a square redoubt narrower than today’s and much taller. It consisted of two posts joined by a belt five and a half meters off the ground. The belt was replaced by a wooden crossbar in 1875. Goals were literally scored on the posts with a small notch. Today goals are registered on electronic scoreboards but the expression “to score a goal” has stuck. In some countries we call the goalmouth the arco and the one who defends it the arquero, even though it’s all right angles and not an arch at all, perhaps because students at English colleges used courtyard arches for goals.

In 1872 the referee made his appearance. Until then, the players were their own judges, and they themselves sanctioned any fouls committed. In 1880, chronometer in hand, the referee decided when the match was over and when anyone should be sent off, though he still ran things by shouting from the sidelines. In 1891 the referee stepped onto the playing field for the first time, blowing a whistle to call the first penalty kick in history and walking twelve paces to indicate the spot where it was to be taken. For some time the British press had been campaigning in favor of penalties because the players needed some protection in front of the goal, which was the scene of incredible butchery. A hair-raising list of players killed and bones broken had been published in the Westminster Gazette.

In 1882 English authorities allowed the throw-in. Eight years later the areas of the field were marked with lime and a circle was drawn at the center. That same year the goal gained a net to trap the ball and erase any doubts as to whether a goal had been scored.

After that the century died, and with it the British monopoly. In 1904 FIFA was born, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, which has governed relations between ball and foot throughout the world ever since. Through all the world championships, few changes have been made to the British rules that first organized the sport.