Dr Ashraf Abul Saud
FIFA recognises the oldest documented form of a game resembling football as cuju, which originated in ancient China more than 2,000 years ago. Over the centuries, the sport evolved in Europe into primitive popular forms known as “mob football”. Played in city streets and open fields, these matches were often characterised by violence and a complete lack of formal rules.
During the 19th century, the game began to take institutional shape within English public schools as a tool to instil discipline and teamwork. In 1857, Sheffield FC, one of the world’s oldest independent football clubs—was founded. A defining turning point followed in 1863 with the establishment of The Football Association (FA) in London. The FA introduced the sport’s first official, codified rules, triggering a permanent split between association football and rugby.
Britain quickly assumed a central role in internationalising modern football during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. This spread was not random; it was directly tied to the expanding commercial, maritime, and colonial influence of the British Empire, whose networks spanned Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
European ports such as Genoa in Italy, Bilbao in Spain, and Le Havre in France were among the earliest gateways for football onto the continent. British sailors and traders played the game during their shore leave, sparking the curiosity of locals who soon learned the rules and took up the sport.
As industrialisation swept across Europe, British firms dispatched thousands of engineers and workers abroad to construct railway networks, mines, and ports. These workers carried not only technical expertise but also their passion for football. They founded several clubs that eventually became iconic fixtures in their host nations—most notably Spain’s Recreativo de Huelva, established in 1889 by British workers at the Rio Tinto copper mines.
At the same time, youth from wealthy European families who were educated in British schools and universities helped introduce the game to their home countries. Many went on to establish local clubs modelled on the English system, popularising the rules across different social classes. The European press also played a vital role in embedding modern football into everyday culture by publishing regulations, translating rulebooks, and dedicating extensive coverage to matches and results. This unified public understanding of the game and transformed it from a local pastime into a sport with standardised international benchmarks.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, football reached the Arab world and the wider Middle East alongside British and French colonial expansion. Officers and soldiers played the game inside barracks and military camps. It also spread through seaports, shipping companies, government offices, and the railway lines built by colonial powers across their territories.
The expansion of the game was further linked to foreign schools and educational missions managed by British administrators or missionary institutions. Football was integrated into physical education curricula to reinforce values of discipline, teamwork, and adherence to rules, while simultaneously projecting notions of white superiority and uniqueness. Providing local populations with a space to learn the game served as a form of soft power designed to facilitate colonial control.
Post-colonial scholars argue that this approach was an integral part of a broader British cultural project. Its aim was to disseminate behavioural patterns and values tied to imperial institutions, shaping local elites who would be more connected and subservient to the Western model.
However, a major historical paradox emerged: the very game introduced through imperial channels was swiftly repurposed by Arab societies to serve an entirely different agenda. Football shifted from an instrument of cultural influence into a vital arena for expressing national identity and resisting colonial rule.
In Egypt, Al Ahly SC was founded in Cairo in 1907 as a national club for Egyptians at a time when most major sporting clubs were dominated by foreign communities or the colonial administration. The nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul was among the club’s prominent supporters and served as its president in its early years, deepening its ties to the Egyptian national movement. From its inception, Al Ahly worked to cement its national identity in contrast to rival clubs that fielded large numbers of foreign players. Matches against British teams turned into national events drawing massive public attention, where every victory was celebrated as a moral triumph over the occupation fuelling national consciousness in the years leading up to the 1919 Revolution.
In Algeria, football took on an even more explicit role in the national liberation struggle. In 1958, the National Liberation Front (FLN) football team was established in Tunis after several top Algerian players led by Rachid Mekhloufi withdrew from the French professional league to join the squad. The team toured dozens of countries, effectively turning football into an instrument of revolutionary diplomacy that raised awareness of the Algerian cause and built international support for independence.
In Palestine during the British Mandate, several national clubs were formed, including the Islamic Club in Jaffa and the Arab Club. Beyond providing athletic opportunities, these sports institutions functioned as cultural and social hubs that reinforced Palestinian national identity and fostered a sense of belonging against efforts by colonial and Zionist authorities to monopolise sports representation.
In Iraq, the conditions of the British occupation after 1920 led several sports clubs founded by Iraqi youth to become spaces for national mobilisation. They provided venues to exchange anti-colonial ideas and organise events that strengthened loyalty to the emerging Iraqi state.
Ultimately, the history of football in the Arab world highlights a striking historical irony. A sport introduced through the mechanisms of British imperial power gradually transformed into a popular language of resistance and identity. Clubs became strongholds of heritage, players emerged as national figures, and matches served as symbolic arenas where populations asserted their dignity and political will making football far more than just a game, but a crucial chapter in the Arab political and social history of anti-colonial resistance.
By Dr Ashraf Abul Saud
Writer and an international relations scholar
