Christianity and association football

In 16th-century England, Puritan Christians opposed the contemporary forms of football, due to its violence and its practice on Sunday, the Sabbath day of rest.

Several of England's leading clubs, including Everton, Manchester City and Southampton, were founded by churches, as was Celtic in Scotland.

[2] Puritan preachers Thomas Eliot and Philip Stubbs voiced their disdain for football because of the violence in matches at the time.

[8] On 6 November 1887, the Celtic Football Club was founded at the Catholic St. Mary's Church Hall in Calton as a way to fight poverty in East Glasgow.

[13] Port Vale half-back Norman Hallam was a Methodist Minister, and conducted the funeral of his manager Gordon Hodgson, following his sudden death in June 1951.

[15] In 1970, Peter Knowles voluntarily left his career as a footballer with Wolverhampton Wanderers to follow the Christian denomination, Jehovah's Witnesses.

[16] In 1991 folk-rock musician Billy Bragg released a song, "God's Footballer", on his album Don't Try This at Home inspired by Knowles' story.

[16] Midfielder Gavin Peacock became a Christian during his first spell with QPR aged 18 and later left the UK to become a pastor in Calgary, Canada.

[19] Goalkeeper Artur Boruc was nicknamed "The Holy Goalie" due to his Catholic faith which he openly displayed at matches by making the sign of the cross.

[2] Christianity is entwined with the culture of football in Brazil,[14] and 2007 Ballon d'Or winner Kaká has pledged to spend his retirement preaching the faith.

[21] Argentine goalkeeper Carlos Roa, who took retirement at the turn of the millennium believing that the world would end, would not play on Saturdays, the Sabbath of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

[30] Assyriska FF, founded in 1971 in the Swedish city of Södertälje and playing in the Superettan (second division), represents the Assyrians, a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Middle East.