Outlawing football?
Hordes of hooligans and damage have no effect: football is still king in modern Western society, despite the cost and nuisance it sometimes brings. It wasn’t always the way. In 1314, the mayor of London outlawed the football of the time “as a result of the large disorder caused in the city”, a sport that “could give rise to a lot of evil that God condemns”. In 1388, Richard II did the same: “Locals and workers must have bows and arrows and make use of them on Sundays and festival days and abandon all hand and foot ball games.”
Two extracts from La fabuleuse histoire du football (The Fabulous History of Football) by Jean-Philippe Rethacker and Jacques Thibert (Ed. Minerva 2003)
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