"Organised" football was being played in castle courtyards in Scotland more than 500 years ago, experts have found.
Documents show a set of accounts from the court of King James IV indicating he paid two shillings for a bag of "fut ballis" in April 1497.
The world's oldest surviving football dates back to 1540 and was found behind panelling in Stirling Castle.
The Scottish Football Museum said it appeared the game evolved rather than was invented.
Richard McBrearty, the museum curator, told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme it appeared rules were emerging in the 15th and 16th Century, hundreds of years before football was codified at Cambridge University in 1848.