Economia

An early description of football, dating from the 1660s, is to be found in Francis Willughby's "Book of Games".  My notes follow.
They blow a strong bladder and tie the neck of it as fast as they can, and then put it into the skin of a bull's cod and sew it fast in.
They play in a long street, or a close that has a gate at either end. The gates are called Goals, say A B, and C D. The ball isthrown up in the middle between the goals, as about O, the players being equally divided according to their strength and nimbleness. The players at A must kick the ball towards C D goal, those at C towards A B goal. They that can strike the ball through their opponents' goal first win. They usually leave some of their best players to guard the goal while the rest follow the ball.
They often breakone another's shins when two meet and strike both together against the ball, and therefore there is a law that they must not strike higher than the ball.
"Tripping Up of Heels"' is when one follows one of his opponents and (to prevent him from striking the ball) strikes that foot as he runs, that is from the ground, which - catching against the other foot - makes him fall.
The trick is to hitthat foot that is moving and just taken from the ground, and then a little touch makes him fall. Suppose A foot fixed, B moving from N to M. If it be struck on the outside before it comes to C, just against the fixed foot, it falls across behind the fixed foot at L and makes him fall.
The harder the ball is blown, the better it flies. They used to put quicksilver into it sometimes to keep itfrom lying still.
The players must at first all stand at their goals, the ball lying just in the middle between them, and they that can run best get the first kick.
Notes:
There are two simple illustrations in the original manuscript.  The first shows two goal positions and a point between them, with the goals labelled AB and CD. The second shows two feet.
The kick off (according to paragraph2) is by "throwing up" the ball in the midway point between the goals.  The same terminology is used today in the Ashbourne game.  However, at Ashbourne the ball lands in the middle of the throng of players, whereas the final paragraph implies that the players in this game must rush from the goals.
Paragraph three has echoes of today's game, with players 'going over the ball' when making atackle.
"Tripping Up of Heels" brings to mind the debate about hacking in the early years of association football.  Hacking was more than the 'trip' described above, usually consisting of a powerful kick at the opponents shins!
 
Reference: University of Nottingham Library, Middleton Collection Mi LM 14 p. 155
Francis Willughby's Book of Games: A Seventeenth-Century Treatise on Sports, Games andPastimes
Edited by David Cram, University of Oxford, UK and Jeffrey L. Forgeng, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA, Dorothy Johnston, University of Nottingham, UK
Francis Willughby's Book of Games, published for the first time by Ashgate in 2003 (ISBN: 1859284604), is a remarkable work and an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in early modern social history. Dating from the 1660s, itwas left unfinished when the writer died in 1672 at the age of 36. Nevertheless, Willughby's manuscript, even in its unpolished form is a goldmine of detail providing a snapshot of mid seventeenth century life, language and culture. The manuscript itself lists a wide variety of sports, games and pastimes, including football, hurling, card games, tennis and children's games. As well as providingrules and a description of the various games (often with accompanying sketches to explain particular points) there are numerous fascinating snippets of related information (such as the care of fighting cocks), that bring the subject to life, whilst the section on children's games is particularly poignant. Besides the intrinsic interest of the subject matter, the fact that Willughby embarked on...