Has it always been 11 players in soccer?
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Soccer is a sport played by two teams of 11 players.
Matches are 90 minutes long.
Field players are generally not allowed to handle the ball with their hands. And so on.
For anyone who knows soccer, these might all seem like common knowledge.
But if you think about it for a moment, it’s quite curious.
Why is soccer played with 11 players?
Not 10, not 12, but 11.
Was it decided that way from the very beginning of soccer?
This time, we’ll take a look back at how soccer evolved into its current form, starting from the seemingly obvious number "11."
Originally, soccer wasn't played with the same rules.
One of the major turning points that led to modern soccer was 1863.
In that year, the Football Association (FA) was established in England, and unified rules began to be created.
So, what happened before that?
In fact, different forms of football were played with varying rules in different schools and regions.
A play that was allowed in one place might not be allowed in another.
Even though it was all called "football," the rules were different.
Therefore, efforts were made to standardize the rules so that different teams could play against each other under the same regulations.
Then, in 1863, the earliest FA rules were established.
However, when comparing these rules to modern soccer, one notices something unexpected.
It didn't say "11 players."
In current soccer, a match is played with 11 players per team.
However, the earliest FA rules, established in 1863, had no規定 for the number of players on a team.
In other words,
"Soccer is played with 11 players"
This rule, which seems so fundamental today, was not decided from the outset.
At the time, the number of players varied by school and other organizations, and it is said that numbers would sometimes be adjusted when different teams played each other.
The number of players was not yet fixed.
In fact, a match played in January 1864 to test the new FA rules was played with 14 players per side.
Why did "11 players" later become the standard for soccer?
It seems difficult to pinpoint a single reason.
However, the 11-player system gradually spread.
The world's first official international match in 1872, between England and Scotland, was also 11-a-side.
Then, in 1897, the Laws of the Game first explicitly stated "11 players per team."
In other words, it's more accurate to think that the 11-player system did not suddenly appear in 1897, but rather that the already widespread 11-player system was later formalized as an official rule.
It wasn't just 11 players. "Normal" was still very different.
Looking at the early rules, we find differences from today beyond just the number of players.
For example, the use of hands.
Today, if a field player handles the ball, it's a handball.
However, early rules included the concept of a "fair catch," where a player could directly catch a ball that came through the air.
It retained elements that were more reminiscent of rugby than modern soccer.
However, players could not run with the ball after catching it.
The rules for goalkeepers were also different from today.
It was in 1871 that goalkeepers first appeared in the rules as a special entity.
Under the rules of that year, goalkeepers were allowed to use their hands "to defend the goal."
It wasn't 90 minutes either?
Another common rule in modern soccer is:
"Match duration is 90 minutes."
However, this wasn't decided from the beginning either.
It is said that the earliest FA rules in 1863 had no regulations regarding match duration.
The 90-minute duration gradually became established, and in the 1897 Laws of the Game, it was explicitly stated as "90 minutes," unless both parties agreed otherwise.
Soccer gradually became "soccer"
Looking at it this way, it's quite fascinating.
11 players.
90 minutes.
No use of hands.
Goalkeeper.
Today, all of these seem like very basic rules that make soccer what it is.
But many of them weren't there from the start.
There were people chasing a ball with different rules, and they had to align the rules to play against other teams.
They would play, and if something was inconvenient, they would change it.
Modern soccer exists as a result of that accumulation.
In other words, rather than someone suddenly inventing modern soccer one day,
People gradually created "soccer" through repeated matches.
That's one way to look at it.
Looking back just a little at what we take for granted
Soccer is played almost every week all over the world.
We casually think,
"Soccer is played with 11 players."
But if we go back more than 150 years into that "normal," we find a very different kind of soccer.
Even for things we usually take for granted,
"Why did it become this way?"
If you ask yourself that question, you might discover an unknown world beyond what you always see.
The next time you watch soccer, the 11 players lined up on the pitch might look just a little different.
【References】
National Football Museum — The Laws of the Game, 1863
The FA — England v Scotland: The first ever international
Hiroshi Yamamoto, "The World History of Football"