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, what is today a large grassy park in the heart of central Cambridge. Today, on the From the Touchline podcast, I take a look at Rule 2, which states: At the commencement of the play, the ball shall be kicked off from the middle of the ground: after

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, what is today a large grassy park in the heart of central Cambridge. Today, on the From the Touchline podcast, I take a look at Rule 1, which states: This club shall be called the University Foot Ball Club. Why take up a whole rule to name the

Thomas Fahn, founder and director of Sadaya International (SI), is returning to Liberia this summer. His main tasks will be conducting soccer clinics and spending time with coaches and academy teams for SI. He will also oversee work being done for his family's guest house — all positive signs of Liberia returning to some sense of normalcy from the Covid-19 global pandemic. Sadaya International leverages the power of soccer to educate and motivate Liberian youth to live healthier and more productive lives. They invest in young people with an aim to help them become agents of change in their families and communities. Many talented Liberian youths have been reduced to extreme desperation because of economic and other hardships. Many have

This Friday, December 3, is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. With this in mind, we take a look at disability sport — it's origins, some of the challenges, and the story of someone who is firmly entrenched in serving the disability sporting world as a chaplain. Today, on the From the Touchline podcast, my friend and fellow sports chaplaincy colleague, Rev Steve Jones, joins us to share more on disability (sometimes called adaptive) sport. Steve is the UK Disability Lead for Sports Chaplaincy UK and we've had occasion to share a curry in England from one of my trips across the pond. I pray that today's podcast will help to open your eyes and my own toward those

A few weeks ago, my friends, Dr Chad Carlson of Hope College and Dr Brian Bolt of Calvin University on their podcast Sport.Faith.Life ask the question, Would Jesus Play...Soccer? It's part of a new series whereby they are looking at some of the different sports that Jesus would have participated in back in his day and what about that sport Jesus might have liked and what he would not have liked. Today, on the From the Touchline podcast, I look at each of the reasons that Chad and Brian offer and then I offer a few of my own — on why I believe Jesus would have played soccer. And I can definitely say that I think Jesus would have.