Passing, the act of kicking the ball to a team mate, is a fundamental and frequent activity of football as we know it now in the 21st century. However the development of this technique has not been researched in detail.
The new research paper, published in the respected International Journal of the History of Sport, has now proved, beyond doubt, that passing the ball in football was first developed and evolved in Sheffield and not Scotland, as has been widely believed.
Dr John Wilson
University Teacher in Change, Organisations and Change Management
Football in the mid-nineteenth century was often conducted in a pack with individual players dribbling the ball but this strategy proved ineffective compared to combined play with players positioned across the pitch. There are match reports of passing in the 1860s in Sheffield and this tactical development was then interlinked with the evolution of the rules of the game. Passing and forward kicking, sometimes with long balls, were encouraged, in addition to heading.
Whilst the passing tactic wasn't always successful, the beginnings of the modern game of passing and possession football took place in Sheffield which was then refined by the Scots Professors who came down from Scotland.
Passing is now used by all teams and has been turned into artistry by clubs such as Barcelona, Manchester City and Spain, providing a direct evolutionary link with the passion and possession tactics developed in Sheffield, the world's first football culture.
The research paper, published in The International Journal of the History of Sport, is co-authored by Dr John Wilson (Sheffield University Management School) and football historians John Stocks, Stephen Woods and John Clarke.