Not really a Tolkien-Footie connection, but just to show how old the game is...
I was listening to the song Jack Rowland by Martin Carthy ealier; it's based on tales of
Childe Rowland, which are very old stories. I noticed that the tale begins with a game of what seems to be football, and then goes off into adventures in Faerie. There aren't many stories that link Faerie and Football, I'm sure.
