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ScotsFoundedFootball

@gedboy58.bsky.social

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Football History of the Scotch Professor. Telling the story of how Scotland invented modern world football. Working to Preserve, Protect and Publicise the history of the game from a Scottish perspective and crush the myth that England invented the game.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · Aug 7

A non-Football point about Privacy and Data protection. I have not signed up to the new UK laws on Identity. Bluesky seem to be using a games company to harvest my details before I can get back on my messages. Nah. Not going to happen. I am skeptical. [email protected] if you need to contact me.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 9h

5 of 5 So what? Are these coincidences? Cathcart contained four stadiums because there was space and QPFC had worked out how to build them. The railways expanded across Cathcart. Harley worked for them in Springburn, before his emigration to Argentina and his appointment with eternal fame.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10h

4 of 5 Cathcart encompassed the house where Archibald Rae wrote his famous 1872 letter, the home of the Maleys of Celtic renown, and all the Hampdens: 1, 2 (aka Cathkin 2) and 3 as well as #RememberClincart Glasgow expanded because there was no room for expansion inside the old city limits.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10h

3 of 5 Through the 19th c. it became full of houses and factories. Into these new neighbourhoods came the migrants from other parts of Scotland and immigrants from Ireland, Jews escaping pogroms. Glasgow laid out Queen’s Park, even though it was not Glasgow. The migrants all seemed to know Football.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10h

2 of 5 However - Let me go back to where Harley originated. He was born in Cathcart on the South Side. A village on the southern outskirts of Glasgow. Outside the City, by a good way. However, it was an important parish. It stretched up to Govanhill. Areas which contained Third Lanark and QPFC.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10h

1 of 4 #scotsfoundedfootball OTD 1908 Ferro Carril Oeste v (what became) Peñarol 0-4 The game where CURCC saw John Harley. I will never tire of analysing this match. It underlines the fact that most books on football are of no use to us, in understanding the foundations of modern world football.

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Reposted by ScotsFoundedFootball

Malik Al Nasir @malikalnasir.bsky.social · 15h

I’ll be at the Birmingham Conservatoire tomorrow to present my new book “Searching for My Slave Roots” with Kehinde Andrews. Tickets here…

www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoir...

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 1d

4 of 4 So what? It would never occur to them that their opinions are devoid of any form of logic. The confidence of the truly self-regarding. The book is disdainful about professionalism, whilst noting how the professionals are - far and away - the best footballers. Logic. Science. Combination.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 1d

3 of 4 p.165 ‘The excessive multiplication of cups, in our opinion, has spoilt football as a sport by practically putting an end to the genuine club fixture, which is the foundation of the Rugby Union game...’ We have the poshy paradox: play hard but play as a friendly.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 1d

2 of 4 Have a portion of nonsense: ‘Until about 1875 there was practically no Association football in the provinces except at Sheffield. About 1875 [...] the provincial movement began and the game was taken up in Lancashire, Staffordshire, and the whole of the Midlands...’ One mention of QPFC p.164

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 1d

1 of 4 #scotsfoundedfootball Today we have ‘lying through careful editing of the facts’. The English FA Cup chapter from ‘Badminton’. Wanderers are praised to the hilt. p. 163 ‘During this period London, Sheffield and the Universities were the only important centres of activity in the Game’.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 2d

4 of 4 So what? If Scotland is mentioned, it is a problem. It is apparently not the solution for the whole world. It is hard to see the writer in this edited work: most likely WJ Oakley or GO Smith - both Corinthians. Scotland is almost completely ignored. THIS is how you change the narrative.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 2d

3 of 4 The growth of clubs like Southampton FC f. 1885 is not a good thing. Why? p.274 ‘...local talent is conspicuous by its absence.’ It gets worse. Who are the culprits? Local youths have ‘become spectators instead of players, preferring to watch the paid gladiators from Scotland’. GLADIATORS.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 2d

2 of 4 The books follow the same, blinkered path. I will pick one issue: professionalism.The only people who love the game are apparently the amateurs. In a passive aggressive manner, we are left to imagine the professional’s attitude to football. Warning: contains anti-Scottish tropes.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 2d

1 of 4 #scotsfoundedfootball From the 1890s onwards there was a surge in publication of books about the history of the game. Most of the pioneers were still around, though in their 60s, so it made sense. 1904 ‘The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes’.

Front Cover: the Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes' published 19045. Brown cover with a picture in brown tones (known as Brunaille) of a wooden chair and table and sports equipment such as a cricket bat leaning against the chair.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 3d

5 of 5 So What? I am not overly interested in Football Stats. Read a book of them if that floats your boat. The true meaning of Scottish Combination lies in it being a window to the human condition: the best parts of us. Brisbane John deserves a better grave.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 3d

4 of 5 Here’s a thing. I don’t believe in coincidences so the Johnny Jaap from Bellshill who played for Bethlehem Steel and had ten games for Hearts 1930-31 is surely related to our John Jaap from Glasgow University. We are talking about a name that is going to be one of the rarest in Scotland.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 3d

3 of 5 This is one of the myriad reasons why Football is the world’s greatest cultural phenomenon. It is more important than a way of filling your leisure time. The Scientific Game helped the mentally ill. It did not involve dangerous physical excess. It was a positive thing for the poor souls.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 3d

2 of 5 He is an example of the Scottish intelligentsia’s part in the spread of Scottish Combination around the world. Glasgow University awarded him his MD in 1858 and he was made MRCSE in 1861. We are looking at a guy whose profession was not Football, but Football was a tool for his profession.

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 3d

1 of 5 #scotsfoundedfootball On behalf of the Scots Football Historians’ Group, I went to pay my respects at the grave of Dr. John Jaap. He is buried in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane. He was a valued member of the local medical profession, being Surgeon-Superintendent of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 3d

@fotc.au If there is ever a Football tour (no - I will not call it sokkah) then you will start with Dr. John Jaap of Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum. #scotsfoundedfootball

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 3d

The grave of Dr. John Jaap of Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum died 1877. Interred Toowong Cemetery. And Glasgow University.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4d

5 of 5 So what? Hammer this point home whenever you can. Arguing about types of throw-in or the height of goalposts is a waste of time. You have to start and finish on the idea of Combination and the practice required to perfect it. That is part of Scottish culture. Tell me again how England...

ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4d

4 of 5 It isn’t the rules: that’s how. Taking a Sheffield mark. Having a three person London Offside. Hacking. Rouges. Scrimmaging. All irrelevant, when placed against the only Football concept that matters: Scottish Combination. THIS is why Scotland invented the modern world game.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4d

3 of 5 Individually they played well and determinedly, but the tactics of the home team prevailed...’ One of the best teams in England - who had played Nottingham, London, Sheffield and Scottish Rules, were utterly destroyed by the #scotchprofessor How could this have happened?

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4d

2 of 5 Notts County were one of the first provincial teams to have players capped by London: Cursham and E. H. Greenhalgh played against QPFC. However: ‘The strangers, too, lacked the combination so observable in the play of their opponents, and seldom ventured the “passing” game at all.

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