The origins of Football and Rugby
Games that England gave the world
Football (soccer)
and Rugby
are two of the world's most popular sports. Today
these games are played worldwide. This article looks at their early
days.
![](images/rugby-1881.jpg)
The "balls" were not like modern footballs. They were usually made from the skin or the stomach of an animal.
![](images/early-football.jpg)
In 1863, some men formed the Football Association in London, and fixed the rules. Eighteen years later, the first F.A. Cup took place. Football was very popular with workers in the north of England, particularly in industrial cities like Manchester and Liverpool. By 1888, the Football League was established with 12 clubs.
Today, football is the most popular ball game in the world, and rugby is a very international sport too.
![Word guide](../photos/owl.jpg)
ancient: historic, very old - stomach: the part of the body where we digest food - age of Queen Victoria: between 1832 and 1901 - later: after that - established: began, set up
Return to Linguapress site index
Printing: Optimized for printing
Copyright © Linguapress. Do not copy this document to any other website
Copying permitted for personal study, or by teachers for use with their students
Worksheet
Interactive exercise - missing words:Choose the correct words that are missing from this extract from the article. This exercise can be done on your computer, or as a classroom exercise using an interactive whiteboard. Take care; in some cases, nothing is needed. In these cases select Ø .
Football
and rugby began
lives in England, hundreds of years
. In
days,
were different ball games in different places;
and
today, there are
places in England
people still
play ancient
of the game. Early football had very
rules, and
the rules changed
one place to
. The basic rule was simple;
a team tried to move a ball
the other
line. Sometimes the
lines were a long way
.
The "balls" were not modern footballs. They were usually made from the or the stomach of an animal.
The "balls" were not modern footballs. They were usually made from the or the stomach of an animal.
For teachers:
For general information on getting the most out of reading texts, see ► Reading texts - a model lesson planThis is a very simple text, suitable for students from age 12 upwards, in their first or second year of English, depending on the speed of progress. The theme should interest readers worldwide.
The missing words exercise concentrates on words that can easily be confused or are often misspelled.
There is a longer and extended B2 level version of this text here: The story of football and Rugby
Other ideas?
EFL teachers: Help develop this resource by contributing extra teaching materials or exercises.
To contribute click here for further details
This teaching resource is © copyright Linguapress 2024
Linguapress; home | Découvrez l'Angleterre (en français) | Discover Britain |