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Tam
GET A LIFE!!! |
     
A COWFIELD which staged the world's first organised football match two centuries ago is to host matches again.
Thousands of football fans from all over the world are expected to flock to the oldest-known football pitch in the world, in Callander, West Perthshire, for the first annual fans' "World Cup" next July.
Matches will take place on the same field where a team of Highlanders played a Lowland side for the unofficial Scottish Championship as early as 1815.
Experts at the National Museum of Scotland confirmed that the modern game of association football evolved in the pasture, and claimed that matches on the site may have taken place as early as Roman times.
The historic pitch, which explodes the myth that the game was developed by English public schoolboys, will be transformed into a Mecca for world football.
Eric Brown, who owns the hotel and its surrounding fields, said: "At the moment, the field is used by grazing cattle, but we have to celebrate the fact that it is the oldest football field in the world.
"We will allocate the same weekend every year for a festival of football on the site of the world's earliest pitch."
Mr Brown, 41, who played host to Hollywood legend Robert Duvall during the making of the football film A Shot at Glory, added: "A lot of our guests are interested in the history of the building, which dates back to 1625, but we are now making them aware of the special place it has in football history.
"We expect thousands of people to make a pilgrimage from all over the world."
Alex Porter, who has set up a limited company to organise the event, said: "There is evidence that football was played at Callander in 1815 and almost certainly before that.
"The field is undoubtedly the cradle of modern football."
Documents discovered by Dr Neil Tranter, a Stirling University historian, show that the park was the venue for matches between teams from the north and south of Scotland. He said that the pitch hosted proper, organised, modern soccer as opposed to the rough-and-ready battles between gangs of local farmhands that pre-date the modern game by centuries.
He said: "It is clear from reports that a game was played on the grounds of the Roman Camp Hotel from at least 1815, and possibly even from Roman times.
"It attracted hundreds of spectators and was probably a free-for-all, but, unlike the games in the Borders and Orkney, where people tried to get the ball from one part of town to another, this match was always played on the same field."
A report in the now-defunct Stirling Journal of 5 January, 1883, reads: "On New Year's Day, according to immemorial custom, the young men marched through the town to the Roman Camp, where they played football.
"Alex McFarlane, aged 78, said he had witnessed 70 New Year's Day games on the field."
John Burnett, the curator of the history of sport at the National Museum of Scotland, said: "What happened there was strikingly similar to football as we know it today, but at an amazingly early date.
"We can see the traditional ball game being replaced by modern soccer.
"It pre-dates Queens Park Football Club's claims to have played the first organised game in Scotland in 1867," he added.
By: JOHN INNES Date: 27-Jul-02
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Note: All opinions expressed above are that of the author and in no way respresent any club, organisation or disorganisation
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Total Posts: 664 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 12:44 am on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Ghaax
GET A LIFE!!! |
P!ssin' doon today.
No' heard any thunder though................
..................I think it must have been stolen.
Well Sonny, at least your efforts seem tae have kick started this lot intae action.
Did you meet or hear of this Alex Porter during yer travels? A plc indeed?
Tam - where did ye find this oot?
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Sometimes we bounce off the walls & sometimes we bounce off the floor................but we always bounce back. KM
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Total Posts: 841 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 8:15 am on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Ally Macabre
More Than Words |
Ghaax,
Nae worries, this Alex Porter chappie is very well known to Sonny, and I'm sure they'll be having words!
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Total Posts: 1755 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 8:35 am on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Mick North Croy
GET A LIFE!!! |
DOH !!
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Mick. Support the TAMB Sunshine Appeal
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Total Posts: 823 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 8:43 am on July 29, 2002 | IP
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westa 5556
Something to say |
Ally,
Are you saying that Alex Porter is Sonny?
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Total Posts: 100 | Joined April 2002 | Posted on: 12:23 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Ruary
GET A LIFE!!! |
Westa your powers of observation are indeed particularly astute in this matter 
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TAMB Sunshine Appeal show the true face of the Tartan Army remember "one beer less" can make one hell of a difference
The future is bright the future is Scottish
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Total Posts: 1677 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 12:32 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Ally Macabre
More Than Words |
If I was saying that I'd have said it! 
I think... 
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Total Posts: 1755 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 12:37 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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westa 5556
Something to say |
So why would Sonny [or anybody else] want to set up a LTD COMPANY to market this event?
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Total Posts: 100 | Joined April 2002 | Posted on: 12:45 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Jaggy Bunnet
Opinionated Wind Bag |
Maybe so that if it goes badly wrong and loses a lot of cash they don't end up losing all of their wordly goods and ending up homeless?
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Total Posts: 242 | Joined April 2002 | Posted on: 12:50 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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sonny
GET A LIFE!!! |
Tam,
What paper was it in?
westa5556,
JB is correct.
I'll be talking to Eric Brown again soon and fully expect to have a date established for next year. BTW, I don't know anything about a fan's world cup or "thousands" of people. Perhaps journalistic licence....
(Edited by sonny at 1:27 pm on July 29, 2002)
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When up they gat, and shook their lugs, Rejoiced they were nae men but dogs; An' each took aff his several way, Resolved to meet some ither day.
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Total Posts: 2530 | Joined Jan. 2002 | Posted on: 1:24 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Bob Shields
Something to say |
This story appeared in Saturday's Scotsman and a smaller version in the Daily Star.
None of the Sundays followed it up though.
If it's true ?????? it's a great story. Imagine us having the home of football . . . and letting coos s***t on it for 200 years!
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Big Boab
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Total Posts: 63 | Joined Oct. 2001 | Posted on: 2:28 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Ruary
GET A LIFE!!! |
Bob it is true all right even down to the coos sh***ng on it 
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TAMB Sunshine Appeal show the true face of the Tartan Army remember "one beer less" can make one hell of a difference
The future is bright the future is Scottish
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Total Posts: 1677 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 2:32 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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JimFaeKdy
GET A LIFE!!! |
There was a slimline version of the article in the Record on saturday which was posted on AOB.
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Wives Are Like Potatoes,Best Kept In The Dark
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Total Posts: 1062 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 2:51 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Tam
GET A LIFE!!! |
Sonny,
this appeared on Yahoo news I posted it the same day.
It was from the Scotsman section of Yahoo.(Saturday July 27, 03:09 AM)
Cheers,
Tam
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Note: All opinions expressed above are that of the author and in no way respresent any club, organisation or disorganisation
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Total Posts: 664 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 3:11 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Bob Shields
Something to say |
Aye, so it was. I didn't think we did the true stories!
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Big Boab
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Total Posts: 63 | Joined Oct. 2001 | Posted on: 3:12 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Ally Macabre
More Than Words |
One of the Sunday's covered this a couple of months ago!!!
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Total Posts: 1755 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 4:13 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Bob Shields
Something to say |
It's still a great tale. Does this mean that football didn't come home at Euro '96 after all? It's coming to its REAL home at Euro 2008!!!
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Big Boab
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Total Posts: 63 | Joined Oct. 2001 | Posted on: 4:50 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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Tam
GET A LIFE!!! |
Boab,
I've read right through the 2008 booklet and I cannae find anywhere,
that the final will be played in a coo-field
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Note: All opinions expressed above are that of the author and in no way respresent any club, organisation or disorganisation
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Total Posts: 664 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 4:57 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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ScottishMagpie
Talks too much |
Don't wish to be pedantic but...
What does this actually mean? Are we talking about association football, which presumably didn't start until the codification of the rules by the FA in the 1860s.
If not then didn't the Italians play something that is relatively similar to association football in the middle ages in one of the city states. Isn't there evidence that games similar to football were played in China thousands of years ago.
Unless you are talking about Association Football then it's all irrelevant (IMHO).
BTW, the oldest continually used football ground in the world is York Road, home of the famous Berkshire Magpies, Maidenhead United. The club has played on this ground since 1870. It's not a ploughed field, although give it a few months and that might change.
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Total Posts: 127 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 5:12 pm on July 29, 2002 | IP
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westa 5556
Something to say |
Sonny, please dont clash with the TA tourney or T In The Park......last week in July would be most sensible [halfway between the home game with Germany and the away game in Norway]
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Total Posts: 100 | Joined April 2002 | Posted on: 11:13 am on July 30, 2002 | IP
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Oldest football pitch to host World Cup
