What’s the FIFA World Cup all about?

Football is the world game and reflects the wider issues of the world in many ways. I think everyone hopes that the good aspects remain and the bad aspects get addressed and things become better. I'm sure they can't continue like this indefinitely.

The Origin of Australian Rules The origins and the early history of the game of rugby that is now generally described as “Australian Rules” are reasonably well-known. In the first half of the 19th century in Australia there was very little activity which bore any resemblance to any current form of rugby. Prior to 1850 there were various past times which involve kicking a ball, but none of them took place with any prevailing rules or as part of a structured competition, and were usually associated with other festive activities. Recognition of the circumstances of the genesis and evolution of Australian Rules of Rugby is important in understanding the historical significance of the involvement in the game. It is generally thought that Tom Wills was instrumental in bringing about the establishment of a rugby competition in Melbourne. Having been born in New South Wales, he was sent to Rugby School in England where he played rugby for five years before returning to Melbourne in December 1856, bringing with him the rules of Rugby School rugby. By then rugby was being played in schools in England but usually in accordance with their own version of the rules without there being a code by which everybody played. The Rugby School had developed a game with the characteristics of rugby, but others, for example, Eton played their rugby in a style similar to what became football. On his return Wills set about attracting interest in playing games of rugby and on 10 July 1858 he published an open letter calling on sportsmen who had just finished a season of cricket to form a rugby club, and advocating the establishment of a committee to draw up a code of laws. Later that year several games of Melbourne rugby were played in the parklands around Melbourne. Not surprisingly, the absence of rules made umpiring a challenge, and also probably explained why one of the early matches between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar took three consecutive Saturdays without either team scoring the best of three goals to win in accordance with the Rugby School custom, and the match was finally declared drawn. The game quickly grew in popularity bringing with it increasing urgency in formulating agreed laws for the conduct of games. In what is now regarded as one of the most significant developments in the history of the game, on 14 May 1859 the Melbourne Rugby Club was established and on 17 May 1859 Wills, William Hammersley and Thomas Smith met in the guise of members of the Melbourne Rugby Club in a back room of the Parade Hotel in Melbourne in order to embark upon the task of formulating appropriate rules. The meeting had a momentous outcome with the formulation of what came to be known as “the Melbourne Rules”. Bearing in mind that rugby had been most influential in the Melbourne Rules games played until then, there were several significant innovations in the rules that were then published. Tripping and pushing were still allowed, but hacking was banned, no doubt to the disappointment of Rugby adherents who enjoyed the technique. Hacking involved deliberately kicking an opponent in the shins or lower legs, but below the knee and provided the player was running with the ball. The ball could be taken in hand only when caught from the foot “or on the hop”, and, in what amounted to the greatest divergence from then current practices, the ball, while in play, could under no circumstances be thrown. Significantly, no provision was made for an offside rule. The rules were published, but did not result in immediate agreement or consistent application. This was due in part to the fact that Wills, who had been the most influential figure in the emergence of the game as an organised activity, because of his prominence in other sports such as cricket and athletics left Victoria for Queensland and did not return until 1864 when the game seem to pick up momentum again, including in relation to the clarification of the rules of the game. Wills, notwithstanding his initiative in promoting a game specific to the Colonies maintained a tendency to seek to preserve rugby practices which were normally so complex that probably only he understood them. One practice that he sought to maintain was the use of a crossbar attached to the goalposts, but he was unsuccessful and four posts were introduced. In 1866 following a meeting of clubs in Melbourne, another important development took place with the introduction of the requirement to bounce the ball “every five or six yards”. The agreement embodied in the Melbourne Rules reflected a uniformity which had not taken place in England. English rugby comprised two groups, one of which was responsible for the formation of the Rugby Association in 1863, and the other preferring a code of Rugby which preserved the ancient and venerable art of hacking. These tardy developments have led to claims of triumph by Australian rugby historians that Australian Rules is older than either of the codes of football or rugby. The introduction of the Melbourne Rules did not immediately provide a game for all tastes, and agreement as to the appropriate level of vigour was not immediately forthcoming. The eminent Colden Harrison, who later became a pillar of the administration of the game, is renowned for his famous assertion that “rugby is essentially a rough game all over the world and is not suitable for men-poodles and milk sops”. It is said that despite the rules, players still regularly tripped punched and kicked each other, charged or jumped on a player who had just taken a mark, or slung their opponent to the ground even if yards from the ball. It took more than a century before some of these practices finally disappeared. In any event, the formulation and publication of the Melbourne Rules was undoubtedly the start of what has been a gradual process of 150 years of refinement of the fundamentals of the laws of the game of Australian Rules which were then put in place. What is also worthy of note is the subsequent rapid spread of the game of rugby played according to the Melbourne Rules across the south of the country and to the west, with the result that playing Melbourne Rules according to Rugby rules never took hold, and never has since, to any significant degree. That was not the case in the colonies to the north. The game was known as Melbourne Rules for short and Wills dropped any reference to old school rugby. With the spread of the popularity of the Melbourne Rules, the sport outgrew Melbourne and ventured into a number of Victorian outcrops to be come famous as Victorian Rules. As the game grew and started to be played in other southern colonies, it eventually became known as Australian Rules.

Lets not start another ridiculous discussion about this and waste our time. The Sport is called football since its inception, but some people choose to call it soccer. You can call it whatever you like, but the game is football. Call it a rabbit if you like, but its football. Despite what the Americans tell them, Beckham, Cahill, Pele, Oliver et al should have the courage to call it football, because that's what the sport is called. I applaud the FFA for having the courage to set the record straight here in Australia.

Its an amazing event on many levels and showcases the many facets of players, fans and administrators. How its interpreted or reported on reflects the varied opinions in the world, even from those that don't follow the world game.

I should have added sporting organisation.

So did David Beckham and Pele when they were in America. Its more to do with the culture and marketing over there. Like Cahill, when they are outside the US they call it football. Pele didn't want to call his book "Why Soccer Matters" but his US publishers insisted. Americans should have the courage to call it what it is, which is football. Australian football followers do have the courage.

I would have mentioned his name except he was an Englishman who kept calling it "Sokkah". He remains an anonymous US commentator. :)