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I recently had occasion to visit Cambridge, England and while I was there, I was interested to learn a unique piece of football history. Apparently, the first known instance of codifying (or writing down) the rules of association football (or, what we Yanks call soccer) happened in Cambridge. In 1848, a group of Cambridge University students wrote out a set of 11 rules. They nailed these to the trees surrounding Parker’s Piece, a large grassy park in central Cambridge.

Today, on the From the Touchline podcast, I take a look at Rule 6:

When the ball is behind it shall be brought forward at the place where it left the ground, not more than ten paces, and kicked off.

Rule #6 carries with it a pathway towards restoration. When the ball goes out of play, there is a way to kick it back in to restart play. In life, we need pathways and processes toward restoration and I believe that this Cambridge Rule of 1848 does well in illustrating this for us. For example, to bring the ball back in where it went out or to give some relief from the boundary line — these are all helpful ways of getting back where we need to be. This helps us when things get “behind” the goal, as it were. Listen as I extrapolate this more in today’s podcast.

From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).

Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.