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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4h

5 of 5 So what? I am sure Harley wasn’t the only exponent that Piendibené had seen. He knew the English style was a cul de sac. When he saw John Harley from Glasgow, I wonder if Harley was the first elite player who he could bring to Montevideo? A criollo and a Scot created Uruguayan genius.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4h

4 of 5 Harley's playing style was the revelation for which Piendibené had been searching. The minute he saw Harley’s close short passing, ground game - controlling the pitch from the midfield, an idea for Uruguayan Football was born. THIS is how the #scotchprofessor took Football around the world.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4h

3 of 5 The Uruguayans were looking for an answer to an unspoken question - How could they play a style better than English football? That is why, even though CURCC/Peñarol won, Piendibené knew he was watching the future of Uruguayan football in John Harley. The score was irrelevant.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4h

2 of 5 I reckon the legendary ‘British’ sailors will have had kickabouts in every port. Uruguay played the English Dodoball Game. A solution - but not to the question they were asking. In the first ever game v Argentine, there were a majority of criollo players. Enter the maestro: José Piendibené.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4h

1 of 5 #scotsfoundedfootball OTD 1908 Ferrocarril Oeste v Peñarol 0-4 The game where CURCC see John Harley. This is THE DAY, when Scotland passed football to Uruguay. That is a bit cheeky... Let me explain. The Uruguayans already had football. We are not arguing about who first kicked a ball.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 4h

I win the internet! Gedboy is a Rube. And with the Phoenix comment I was being ironic. Alway difficult on Social Media.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 23h

Can't wait for the new film 'Napoleon McMenemy' starring Joaquin Phoenix in a role which will stretch him...

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

4 of 4 So what? McMenemy’s place in the Celtic Pantheon is certain. Of more interest to me is the Europeans watching him in the 1900s and seeing the technical and intellectual excellence of his game. A #scotchprofessor whose influence needs more research. Nicknamed ‘Napoleon’. Well now...

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

3 of 4 He won 11 Leagues with Celtic. 6 Scottish Cups. One more with Partick Thistle. Became Manager of Thirds. Trainer with Celts. Master strategist... These are words which separate skilled players from a #scotchprofessor i.e. someone who thinks as well as plays.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

2 of 4 Jimmy McMenemy was a ‘master strategist of infinite ability for whom the game is a series of chess moves...’ Intriguingly the piece comments on the Newcastle team who had visited Basle before Celtic and were criticised for their ’direct’ approach. They would get #scotchprofessor input.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

1 of 4 #scotsfoundedfootball OTD 1880 Jimmy McMenemy born Rutherglen. Won the Junior double with Alec Bennett and Rutherglen Glencairn in 1902. Pat Woods ‘A Celtic A-Z’ p. 113 uses a cracking quote to describe his genius.

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Andy Mitchell @andymitchellmedia.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Interesting to see that the site of the first Hampden Park in Glasgow - until recently occupied by a bowling club - is now on the market as an 'exciting leisure opportunity'. g-s.co.uk/properties/p...

Sales brochure for former Hampden Bowling Club

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

An exciting opportunity to look like we are doing something and when no-one can afford the deal we 'offered' Hampden BC we can then shrug our shoulders and call for the demolition men. I wonder who might be able to quickly demolish a wee building?

Reigart equipment sitting on top of the demolished remains of Clincart Farm, December 2021. 200 year old building.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

5 of 5 So What? HRT played a game that was not Scottish Combination. He was in a southern, amateur, military, milieu where the Scots code was irrelevant. However, Scotland was its own country and was able to have a structure that could ignore what the London Association was forcing on the Provinces.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

4 of 5 For England, a terrible thing happened in the 1860s. A tiny group of the social elite in London and the south East of England became dominant. Their sport was very minor, when you look at the laughable attendances at their big games. If England had gone with the Sheffield Code, who knows?

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

3 of 5 Scots burst onto the scene in the 1860s because they already had the general concept of a field kicking game that used tactics, positions, training, logic and Combination. Regular parish Football. What happened from the 1830s on (John-Hope Rules etc) merely led to a structuring of Football.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

2 of 5 It will be impossible to find a society in the 1700s that did not play a field kicking game. So there is no necessary kudos in having the first of anything. Anwoth 1627 is just a fact because there isn’t an older fact about a pitch. But there will be one, lying hidden in the archives.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

1 of 5 #scotsfoundedfootball Let me underline yesterday’s posts about Henry Rennie Tailyour. It also speaks to the variety of codes played by members of the England 1872 team and the difference between them and Scotland, in terms of being a national game. It explains Scotland’s foundational role.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

5 of 5 So what? HRT is the absolute example of the fact that the Scotch Professor is a cultural, not a racial thing. Like Kinnaird HRT was steeped in an English tradition. He is one of the reasons why Scotland lost the 1872 international. The 3 Anglos did not understand the Code being played.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

4 of 5 Maybe someone has explained why the ‘Combination’ style did not carry the RE to world fame and make them England’s most important club. And then gone on to explain why a club who seemed to influence nobody keeps getting mentioned. I’ll wait.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

3 of 5 However, this is where the RE style starts and ends. HRT played cricket ‘gentleman’ not ‘player’ i.e. paid. His influence seems to have been overcome by the English style. Fun fact: Francis Marindin allegedly founded the RE and was a superior rank.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

2 of 5 Andy Mitchell is our go-to guy ‘First Elevens’ p.129. His importance might be as an introducer of the #scotchprofessor to England. Scottish father. Childhood spent near Montrose. Now Wiki mentions the Royal Engineers Combination game. It is usually the argument that England/RE had our code.

Front cover 'First Elevens' by Andy Mitchell. Subtitled 'The Birth of International Football and the Men Who Made it Happen'. Front cover is a colourised detail from the Ralston images of the first international. A Scot shoulder charges an English player, whilst a fellow Scot comes away with the ball at his feet.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

1 of 5 #scotsfoundedfootball OTD 1849 Henry Waugh Renny-Tailyour was born. HRT is crucial for what he wasn’t - a #scotchprofessor Born Mussoorie British India. Royal Engineers. Scored Scotland’s first ever goal. You know how much I dislike statistics on their own, so what can we say?

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Yes -m Google was the first one to actually acknowledge that there was another narrative. My knowledge of how LLMs are made to work is very limited, so I am using my questions to try and improve my understanding of the process of information gathering and analysis. Should I have hope... or despair?

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

5 of 5 So What? Almost all LLMs wipe your chat from their database (or so they say). Worse, they wipe my back and forth where they admit their analysis is poor/wrong. They admit that someone else asking the same question as me will get the original crap answer. You might say ‘what is the point?’

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

4 of 5 The the LLM will move towards a synthesis of my analysis and they will - in almost all cases - accept that they need to completely reassess their litany of unproven and non-historical rubbish. Unfortunately, it is worthless. The apologies. The cringing. The promise to change.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

3 of 5 LLMs have been trained to be cringing when they are caught out. It gets more and more annoying. The cloying mix of apologies; the overpraising of my analysis (and god knows I despise modesty). The working towards an acceptance that much of what they say lacks historical rigour.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

2 of 5 It has ceased to be fun, for many reasons. I get the rubbish summary. (NEVER an analysis). I then reply with variants of: please mention Scotch Professor; Scottish Combination; Anwoth, Liverpool 1892; Sunderland 1895, PNE; Passing and Running; Backing-Up; Sheffield and Melbourne Codes etc.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

1 of 5 #scotsfoundedfootball #DangersofAI I find it amusing to tear to pieces, an LLM’s story of how Football was founded. It is not difficult because they literally mention Scotland once. 1872. Some are better than others and I will give them their place in later posts. Gemini. Qwen.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

5 of 5 So What? Serious Historians like the Scots Football Historians’ Group have no chance whatsoever - in the UK. I’ve got an interview coming up with an Italian indy tv guy. He is bothering his butt to fly to Scotland with a cameraperson and an interpreter. THAT is how we can spread the word.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

4 of 5 ‘Association Football and the Men Who Made It’ (published 1906) tinyurl.com/3nhwn33w is one of the great works of Edwardian fiction. It is a cornerstone of the following 120 years of Dodoballmania. LLMs will take publications like this, and the thousands of articles referencing it.

tinyurl.com

Association Football & The Men Who Made It by Gibson, Alfred & Pickford, William: Good Hardcover (1906) 1st Edition | Pastsport

1st Edition - Hardcover - Caxton Publishing Co., London - 1906 - Condition: Good - The classic work on football in four volumes, profusely illustrated with numerous full-page photos of the players and...

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

3 of 5 It gets better or worse. YMMV. ‘Why is this a Bias? It is a bias because frequency of publication does not equal historical primacy’. OK - a frank confession. 99.9% of the general writing on Football regurgitates the lies of Alcock et al.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

2 of 5 ‘In large language models, **retrieval bias** (closely related to the availability heuristic) occurs when an AI defaults to the most statistically frequent, widely published, and easily accessible information in its training data, rather than the most nuanced or historically complete truth.’

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

1 of 5 #scotsfoundedfootball #DangersofAI Following on from 4th Oct, let me tell you what generally happens when I quiz an LLM (Large Language Model). The first issue is ‘Retrieval Bias’. Qwen 3.7 Plus confessed to this. A nice quote from Qwen explains...

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

4 of 4 #scotsfoundedfootball So what? Another #scotchprofessor who ended up as a player/coach at PNE 1903-08. Even in the 1900s, the intellectual skills of the #scotchprofessor had enough cachet to see men like Bell training up another generation.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

3 of 4 Two Leagues with Dumbarton 91 and 91 meant he was stolen away to professional England. Played 130 games for Everton 93-98. First Chairman of the AFU on its foundation in 98 which meant he had to leave Everton - for Celtic 1898-1900. No wage cap there.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

2 of 4 Scored in the 4-1 defeat to England 1892. ‘Scottish Referee’ said he had an an excellence derived from a ’sterling capacity for hard work and stubborn resolution’. These are character attributes which give us nothing of a #scotchprofessor pedigree.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

1 of 4 #scotsfoundedfootball OTD 1869 John ‘Jack’ Bell born Dumbarton. President of the Association Footballers’ Union. He is another of those players who turned out for New Brighton Tower (1900-01) alongside the more obvious Dumbarton, Everton, Celtic, PNE, Scotland.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Sorry - missed yesterday 5th Oct.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

5 of 5 So What? Why does this matter? Almost everything out there - except the work of the Scots Football Historians’ Group - is explicit in the certainty that England was almost solely responsible for founding Football. They deliver a synthesis of this nonsense. I will develop this in later posts.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

4 of 5 I question each LLM (large language model) as to why they have given me utterly terrible answers which really only vary in style - not substance. They are without sentience and are just scraping the World Wide Web for any reference to Football. They have no ability to weight their scrapings.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

3 of 5 With AI, it feels like I am chatting to a person who is keen to please. They are a cyber-parrot. Same answers: 1863, FA, Rules, Kinnaird, Eton, Harrow. A few variations such as Sheffield. Scotland gets mentioned in one way: as the team who played England in the world’s first international.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

2 of 5 My recent chats with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Qwen, DeepSeek, Perplexity and Grok have not gone well. I always start with a question like ‘Who invented modern Football and how did they do it?’ After all these decades, what I get back is the same nonsense, like in my lovely big encyclopaedias.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

1 of 5 #scotsfoundedfootball I have turned my attention away from #DangersofWiki I am now keen to cuddle up to #DangersofAI I just follow where the mob are heading. May I state that the 'I' in Artificial Intelligence is a complete misnomer. Intelligence implies an ability to understand.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

No - that was it. I got my staff at the Scottish Football Museum to go through unlikely texts to 'search for what wasn't there'. The Anglocentric texts had nothing about Scots and lied by omission. We looked for those little flecks of gold. I would expect there to be more in the Hammermen records.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Yes: in my Book '100 Reasons...' George Chalmer takes pride of place as Reason 1: 1562 - possibly the oldest reference to a Footballer. He had to buy a ball as part of the conditions to join the Perth Hammermen.

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Reposting to my timeline because the Hammermen were Football daft.

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The Scottish Record Society @scotrecsoc.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

In a list of 'dead, absent and poor' hammermen is an entry for one who went off to fight in the Dutch wars (c.1575). He is described as 'called candy to the wars' (cannon fodder?). Has anyone come across this phrase before? @profmurdoch.bsky.social @aberjack.bsky.social @weegiegraeme.bsky.social

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ScotsFoundedFootball @gedboy58.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

4 of 4 So what? Though England had been exposed to the Combination game since QPFC’s birth in 1867. 30 years later it was still easier to head north for a brilliant player. Why would this be? Surely England had taken on the Scottish Combination game and made it their own? Possibly not...

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