Ian Syson’s book tells the history of Australian football from it's early beginnings in the 1860's up to World War II.

Since the first football was kicked in Australia, soccer has been seen as a foreign sport.

But using historical reports and photographs, Syson's book documents how the game has been present at key moments in Australian history - most notably during World War I.

“The story of Irymple, a town in Mildura is what starts the project of this book off,” Syson told FourFourTwo.

“I discovered this photo (pictured above) in 2009 of a soccer team in Mildura in 1913. That was the first surprise that soccer was popular in Mildura.

"The second surprise is looking at the asterisks below the photo, it shows how five out of the team died in World War I.

“Then I did further research and I found that it was actually nine or 10 that died from that club.

“That was the deal breaker for me. That photo was a real opener for me and is perhaps the inspiration for this book

“I thought, ‘wow I wonder how common this story is. I wonder if this story can be told all around Australia'.”

Indeed, that is what Syson found out. That throughout the country there were stories of soccer clubs whose players sacrificed themselves for their country.

And that images, such as the one below of football being played at Gallipolli, challenges the established narrative that has been used to denigrate soccer.

“I thought if this story was revealed properly and widely we’d no longer have to say soccer is a foreign game,” Syson said.

“That it’s no longer a game that doesn’t belong in the Australian story, that we now know it’s a game that is central to the Australian story.

“These men that lost their lives were ordinary Australian guys that enlisted and died like so many other Australian guys did.

“They are not different they are not unusual they are just soccer players.

“We should be confident that as part of the Australian soccer community that you are part of Australian life, that you are not special, not different, not below, nor are you above the rest of the community, you are just part of it.”