Sports historian finds pitch from 1600s 'proving Scotland invented football'

Daily Record

25-04-2025

A sports historian who has long argued that Scotland, not England, is the birthplace of football now claims to have discovered the world's oldest known football pitch - and it's north of the border. Ged O'Brien, a former president of the Association of Sports Historians and founder of the Scottish Football Museum, says new archaeological evidence points to a farm in Scotland where the sport was played over 400 years ago. This predates the formation of the Football Association in England in 1863 by more than two centuries. O'Brien believes the discovery will challenge the widely held belief that England is the true birthplace of modern football, forcing its proponents to 'rewrite everything they think they know.' His findings centre on the small village of Anwoth, located in Kirkcudbrightshire , which O'Brien argues should now be recognised as 'one of the cornerstones of the new world history of football.' The breakthrough, which will be revealed on BBC Scotland's A View From The Terrace on Friday, April 25, follows the emergence of a key historical clue. And it's one that O'Brien says is the "proof" that Scotland "invented modern world football". O'Brien points to a letter written by the Rev Samuel Rutherford, who served as the minister at Anwoth Old Kirk from 1627 to 1638. The letter details how Rutherford arrived at the parish to find 'there was a piece of ground on Mossrobin farm where on Sabbath afternoon the people used to play at foot-ball.' O'Brien, who has spent years campaigning for Scotland to be recognised as the birthplace of football, says his breakthrough discovery could change the history of the game. Since 2019, O'Brien has argued that football was being played in Scotland around 500 years before England claimed its invention. Now, he believes he has uncovered crucial evidence that supports his theory. He said: 'This is one of the most important sentences I have ever read in football history, because it specifically identifies the exact place the football pitch was." He believes football was played in Scotland long before England laid claim to the sport, though proving it has always been difficult due to the lack of records from working people. The new evidence comes from a letter written by Rev Samuel Rutherford. The minister was infuriated at his Anwoth parishioners playing football every Sunday and he took it upon himself to confront them, declaring that "as the stones around him were his witness, they were doing wrong." According to the letter, Rutherford took action by ordering the parishioners to move a line of stones across the pitch to stop their weekly games. O'Brien, working with a team of archaeologists, set out to find these stones. Their efforts led them to uncover a line of 14 large rocks across a flat area at the former Mossrobin farm, where the game was reportedly played. Tests on the soil beneath the stones confirmed that they were placed there around the time of Rutherford's intervention. Archaeologist Phil Richardson from Archaeology Scotland, who conducted the tests, said: 'This backs up the story that a barrier was put across an open space. It's not about stock control, it's not about agriculture or land boundaries and ownership. This is not a wall, it's a temporary barrier to stop a particular event happening – in this case football.' O'Brien added: "There are serious implications for historians because they are going to have to rewrite everything they think they know. In the history books, football is mob-football. It was chaos, people drunk, it's anarchy. The traditional view of modern football is that it started in 1863 with a group of ex-public schoolboys from places like Eton and Harrow.' O'Brien argues this narrative is "entirely and utterly mistaken", pointing out that for centuries, Scots have been playing a more organised form of football in places like Anwoth, where his discovery was made. "Looking at the map, there are five tracks leading to the edge of this site," O'Brien continued. 'So, 400 years ago, everybody in a 10-mile radius knew where this was. If you're playing football every Sunday of every year, you've got rules because you have to agree on rules. You couldn't play violent football because you needed to work on Monday, so you're thinking about your football, you're playing regular football.' O'Brien firmly believes that this was the ancestor of modern football. "This is the ancestor, the grandparent, of modern world football, and it's Scottish," he said. Standing on the site of the ancient pitch, he added: 'This is one of my great days ever, because we're stood on the proof that we need to show that Scotland invented modern world football.' He points to Scotland's dominance in early international football matches as further evidence of the country's head start. 'In 1872, the minute international football started [with Scotland v England], Scottish clubs were absolutely destroying English teams. It's absolutely no surprise because these people are 200 years in front of what England is doing.' For O'Brien, Anwoth now holds a crucial place in the history of football. 'Anwoth is going to be one of the cornerstones of the new world history of football. This is a place that the locals specifically chose as a football pitch and I've got the evidence. It's the start of the narrative that runs through to today because the game they played is the game everybody plays everywhere in the world." O'Brien also believes the legacy of the game played in Anwoth lives on in every match, no matter where it's played. 'You can be up the side of a mountain in the Himalayas, watching a football game, and the ghosts of Anwoth will be watching,' he added. Archaeologist Kieran Manchip, who assisted with the discovery, agreed that the site felt particularly significant. 'You do get that sense of it being almost like a natural amphitheatre," Manchip said. "Putting together all the sources, being here in the landscape and seeing how it all pieces together, all of those things corroborate with one another.' O'Brien's findings will be revealed on BBC Scotland's A View from the Terrace on Friday, April 25, at 10.30pm.