Greetings from the desk of Dr Footius Balloonicus.
Reaching into the depths of time, we find
an ancient kin to the game of football in
the ancient Greek tradition of episkyros,
which means "on the line", and is perhaps
more colourfully referred to as a sphairomachia:
"battle ball".
In this sport the ball, was placed on a line.
Two teams - it is conjectured of 12 players
each, just like Canadian football - line up
on either side of this line.
The contest then consists of seizing the ball
and attempting to throw it behind the other
team, the objective being to push the other
team behind the back line to score.
