Foul Football

In honour of the Women's World Cup, legendary Lioness Jill Scott is joined by Rattus for a journey through the history of the beautiful game. 

Although football as we know it is a relatively recent invention, it's been around in some form or other for much longer than you think. Ball games have been played for centuries, and that's why the manager of struggling Ratchester Utd is scouring history to find players who can help him avoid relegation in Historical All or Nothing. 

Elsewhere, a Roman legion is struggling to survive the ancient game of harpastum, a ball game that was meant to encourage team spirit, but seemingly actually encouraged death and dismemberment! 

Women's football is flourishing around the world right now, but did you know that the FA once banned it for more than 70 years? We meet some of the women's game's early pioneers, and also their pet jaguars! In Match of That Day, we witness some of the most bizarre things ever to happen on a football pitch, and we also witness a game in which everyone's toughest opponent was the weather! 

We take a look at how the game as we know it came to be, including the FA trying to get everyone to play by one unified set of rules rather than their own ridiculous local ones, the origins of some famous football club nicknames, how red and yellow cards came to be a thing, and even how you were actually allowed to just kick people in the shins as part of the game! 

Finally, if you have long dreamed of seeing what Jill Scott and a rat look like while singing an incredibly catchy football song together, this is the show for you.