IT HAS GENERALLY been assumed the English invented the game of football.
However, new research from the Scottish Football Museum suggests that a version of the game was first played in Scottish courtyards over 500 years ago.
Mary Queen of Scots was said to have been privy to this unique experience, as the research reveals she watched a game at Carlisle Castle in 1568 that was said to have involved 20 people and lasted over two hours.
Speaking in relation to the discovery, museum curator Richard McBrearty said:
“We have been looking at small closed games that were played and evidence of structure and skill. We found fragments of information which show that there has been an evolution of the game which goes back hundreds of years.”
Football was originally thought to have been invented the 1800s, and was believed to be far more violent and unstructured than its present-day equivalent.