Violence has been associated with soccer since its early beginnings in 13th century England and has continued on in the professional game up until this day. It all got started off with village/town disputes being settled by two large groups of men trying to get a ball, which at that time was in the form of a leather bound inflated pig's bladder, and the aim was to kick it against a designated church door. This mob game was closely associated to the church calendar of holy days and wakes and was a chance for the people to meet as a community and let off steam (Van Mourik, 2004). There were very few rules and really you could do what you wanted, meaning you could be violent. This is now a tradition in England called 'the annual Ashbourne Football game' which is played once a year on Shrove Tuesday.
             People in the 13th century found nothing strange or sinister with these rituals of the modern game and violence was just a part of the sport along with extended bouts of drinking resulting in serious injuries and even death (History of football violence). The acceptance of violence in the sport was not widespread and by the 14th century there were calls for regulations to be placed into the game. These requests only arose because on match days it was keeping away local citizens from market towns and was therefore bad for business. The game had such a bad reputation among English royalty that King Edward III banned the game and players got jailed for up to a week. Soccer was so popular by this time that it received official sanction in England in 1681. The matches were still vicious with players only leaving the field if they were injured. The size of the team and field at this time were still ignored and unorganized (History of football violence).
             It took hundreds of years until soccer became more tamed. This came about at the beginning of the nineteenth century when public schools transformed the sport into an organized regular game w...