Paphos People

Did you know that the first dugout appeared at Pittodrie (home of Aberdeen) in the early 1920s.

The trainer at the time was a boxing and dancing enthusiast and was obsessed with footwork.

I think Everton were second in the UK to have a dugout.

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This story was published in the local Aberdeen newspaper roundabout June 2006............

The Dons might be not be a match for Brazil, Germany or England.

But it turns out Aberdonians have long been showing the world how to play the beautiful game.

A centuries-old book, found in the vaults of the National Library, reveals football was invented in the Granite City.

The artefact has now made the trip to Germany, where it is on display to World Cup fans.

The pocket-sized book, titled Vocabula and written in Latin, was penned by an Aberdeen schoolmaster.

It had been stored under lock and key as part of the national collection.

But Scottish historians only discovered its true value after stumbling on an academic paper written in Hungary in the 1950s, which had translated its contents.

They show the modern passing game was being played in Scotland 230 years before the Football Association was established in England.

The book was written by Aberdeen Grammar School teacher David Wedderburn.

He wrote: "Let's pick sides. Those who are on the outside, come over here. Kick off, so that we can begin the match... Pass it here."

Richard McBrearty, curator of the Scottish Football Museum, said: "The traditional folk football games were normally depicted as being unruly physical free-for-alls.

"This Aberdeen game, however, is quite different - the players are structured.

"The descriptions in the 1633 book bear closer resemblance to the modern game than the First Laws of 1863, which had key rugby-style characteristics.

"It is frankly an amazing discovery and one which is hard to dispute."

The book, which has been insured for thousands of pounds, was accompanied by a guardian on the trip to Germany.

It is on show at the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Hamburg at the Fascination exhibition.

Football expert Professor Wulf Koepke, based at the museum, said: "You have this book from Aberdeen appearing, talking about passing the pass, which was never supposed to happen until the late 1860s. It seems Scots made the game playable."