The Birth of Football: Curiosities, Incredible Stories and Myths Football. Millions of fans, billions of views, cosmic contracts. Today it is an industry with polished to a shine rules. But it was not always like that. The path to modern football is strewn with quirks, human errors, outright frauds, and such coincidences that it is impossible to believe in them. Let's wind the clock back and look at the birth of the great game without rose-tinted glasses. The Round Object and the Crowd: Where it All Really Began If you think football was born in England, you are only half right. Games where you have to kick some object existed in all ancient peoples. The Chinese played \"chuqiu\" three centuries before our era. The Japanese chased \"kemari\". The ancient Greeks and Romans fought each other for an oval ball in \"harpastum\". Even the Aztecs had their own version with a rubber ball. But the main quirk is that all these games were more a mix of rugby, wrestling, and street brawls. The rules changed from village to village. In medieval England, for example, \"mob football\" (folk football) was a real scourge for city dwellers. The number of players was not limited, the field was the whole street, and the gates could be the city gates at opposite ends of the city. Scoring a goal meant delivering the ball to the town hall, at which time any grabs were allowed. Historians have found records where city dwellers complained about doors being knocked out, stalls being crushed, and drunken players who confused the gates with other houses. The Legend of the Dissected Ball and the Orange Slice One of the most vivid myths says that the first round football ball was made from the severed head of a Danish prince. The English, supposedly, avenged the invaders by kicking the enemy's skull. It sounds impressive, but it is just a beautiful fairy tale that people loved to tell in taverns in the XIX century to stir up patriotic spirit. In fact, leather balls at that time were terrible. Th ... Read more