No murder please! Royal Shrovetide is a wild ancient version of soccer still played today

It's described as one of the earliest forms of soccer with one ancient rule telling players not to murder each other. Every year thousands of people descend on a small town in the English countryside to watch a two-day game of mass street football that, to the casual observer, could be mistaken for a riot. This is Royal Shrovetide, a centuries-old ball game played in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. It looks nothing like the world’s most popular sport. Played between two teams of hundreds of players, the aim is to “goal” at either end of a three-mile sector that could take the match through rivers, hedgerows, high streets and just about anything except churchyards, cemeteries and places of worship.