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Why is football such a worldwide sport?

Well, because everybody plays to the same rule book.

And who began the revolution?

A man called Ebenezer Morley known as the father of English football.

You're listening to me, hard-eats-in-coly, on the BBC World Service,

and this sporting revolution began in the early 1860s,

when footballers, more and more frustrated by the chaotic state of the game,

started writing to the newspapers.

Mr. Editor, will you give me a small space in your valuable paper

to say a few words about football?

The various public schools play this game according to their respective rules.

These differ so much as to render it impossible for many of the schools

to play matches with each other.

Why should not football, like cricket, have one code of laws,

which all shall be bound to observe?

Another reader immediately took up the course.

At Eaton, a player is not allowed to touchable with his hands

and the goal must be kicked.

At Harrow, a player catching a ball before it reaches the ground

...