iol Sport - AFP,
Neil Connor, June 7, 2014
 |
| This photo shows a miniture model illustrating a traditional Chinese Cuju football game at the Linzi Football Museum in Zibo, Shandong Province. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON |
Zibo, China
- Images of a beaming FIFA President Sepp Blatter and a small blue certificate
in the Chinese city of Zibo proclaim it as the birthplace of football, to the
fury of English experts.
A map in
Zibo's Qi State History Museum shows a thin line stretching from China to
Egypt, then to Greece, Rome and France, before finishing in England, commonly
known as the home of football after the rules were codified there in the 19th
century.
The track
represents the path of football's development, according to the museum, with
the certificate Ä signed by Blatter Ä honouring China as “the cradle of the
earliest forms of football”.
But
international experts are sceptical of such claims, pointing to a “tenuous”
link between the ancient Chinese game of cuju and the modern sport, and
questioning FIFA's motives.
Despite its
long supposed footballing history China's national team failed to qualify for
the World Cup in Brazil later this month.
China has
only appeared at one final tournament, in 2002, when they lost all three of
their group matches and went out without even scoring a goal.
But
millions of fans will be watching the tournament and in Zibo Ä the modern city
on the site of the ancient Qi state's capital Linzi Äfootball is booming.
Statues of
cuju players stand on street corners and posters on bus shelters depict the
supposed forebear of the modern game.
“I really
like Sepp Blatter,” beams Zhu Shuju, vice director at the separate Zibo
Football Museum, which pays homage to the sport's history and gives huge
prominence to Blatter and other FIFA officials.
 |
This frame
grab taken from AFPTV footage shows a certificate - signed by FIFA
President
Sepp Blatter - honouring China as "the cradle of the earliest forms of
football" at the Qi State History Museum in the Chinese city of Zibo. AFP Photo/AFPTV |
“He is very
popular here,” she added, surrounded by images of Blatter and with a video of
his speech confirming Zibo's status continuously looping in the background.
Zibo has
invited Brazilian superstar Pele to open a new multi-million dollar museum
later this year.
Different
types of cuju existed in ancient China, but the competitive game still played
today involves keeping a leather ball stuffed with feathers off the ground
without using arms or hands, before heading or kicking it though a hole above
head height.
A
gladiatorial version with much physical contact emerged in the Warring States
period which unified China almost 2,500 years ago, and was popular with
soldiers exercising their legs after days on horseback.
But experts
outside China believe there are huge differences between cuju and modern
football.
“I find it
absurd to suggest ancient Chinese had comparable mentalities as football
enthusiasts today,” Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at
Britain's Staffordshire University told AFP via email. “So the link is
tenuous.”
Historians
say other ball sports existed around the same time as cuju emerged, including a
Greek game known as episkyros.
An ancient
stone carving at the Acropolis Museum in Athens shows a naked Greek athlete
balancing a ball on his thigh, and some say episkyros evolved into a game
played by the Romans, called harpastum, which was then transported to Britain.
There the
modern game was born when the Football Association rules, drawing on a public
school mob game, were written by Ebenezer Cobb Morley in 1863, and have since
changed very little.
For British
historian Tom Holland, football began in the 19th century.
“I'm afraid
I don't know anything about the classical origins of football, for the simple
reason they don't exist,” he said.
“Kicking
something around is an obvious human activity,” he added. “That various
peoples, in various parts of the world, may or may not have engaged in such
activities, does not prove that they were the originators of football.”
British football
author Jonathan Wilson agreed, saying that the 1863 rules “were then spread
across the world by British sailors and traders”.
“At no
point did they come upon a local form of football that needed to be eradicated
before the British game could take root,” he said.
“Rather
foreign cultures took on those laws and interpreted them in their own way.”
Eyebrows
were raised when FIFA came out in support of China's claims.
“Blatter
sees his brief to make football the richest sport in history and he has already
achieved that,” said Cashmore, whose book “Football's Dark Side” explores
corruption in the game.
“But to
maintain its commercial dominance, he needs to keep conquering new territories.
“China is
obvious: huge territory, an economy that's been growing like a blur and a
population that has already shown enthusiasm for the sport.”
FIFA and
Blatter have been criticised for several decisions in recent years, most
vociferously over the controversial award of the 2022 World Cup to a tiny Gulf
emirate that has immense gas wealth but sweltering summer temperatures.
British
historian Guy Walters, from London's New College of the Humanities, told AFP:
“Frankly, I'm surprised he hasn't stated that the game kicked off in the
ancient deserts of Qatar.”
Sapa-AFP
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