Football

Several codes of football. Images, from top to down,

left to right: Association football Australian rules
football, international rules football, a rugby union
scrum, rugby league, and American football.
Football is a family of team sports that
involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball
with a foot to score a goal. Unqualified, the
word football is understood to refer to
whichever form of football is the most
popular in the regional context in which
the word appears. Sports commonly called
football in certain places include
association football (known as soccer in
some countries); gridiron football
(specifically American football or
Canadian football); Australian rules
football; rugby football (either rugby
league or rugby union); and Gaelic
football.[1][2] These different variations of
football are known as football codes.

There are a number of references to

traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball
games played by indigenous peoples in
many different parts of the world.[3][4][5]
Contemporary codes of football can be
traced back to the codification of these
games at English public schools during
the nineteenth century.[6][7] The expansion
of the British Empire allowed these rules
of football to spread to areas of British
influence outside the directly controlled
Empire.[8] By the end of the nineteenth
century, distinct regional codes were
already developing: Gaelic football, for
example, deliberately incorporated the
rules of local traditional football games in
order to maintain their heritage.[9] In 1888,
The Football League was founded in
England, becoming the first of many
professional football competitions. During
the twentieth century, several of the
various kinds of football grew to become
some of the most popular team sports in
the world.[10]

Common elements
 Play media
Men kicking footballs

The various codes of football share certain

common elements and can be grouped
into two main classes of football: carrying
codes like American football, Canadian
football, rugby union and rugby league,
where the ball is moved about the field
while being held in the hands or thrown,
and kicking codes such as Association
football and Gaelic football, where the ball
is moved primarily with the feet, and where
handling is strictly limited. [11]

Common rules among the sports

include:[12]

Two teams of usually between 11 and

18 players; some variations that have
fewer players (five or more per team) are
also popular.
A clearly defined area in which to play
the game.
Scoring goals or points by moving the
ball to an opposing team's end of the
field and either into a goal area, or over a
line.
 Goals or points resulting from players
putting the ball between two goalposts.
The goal or line being defended by the
opposing team.
Players being required to move the ball—
depending on the code—by kicking,
carrying, or hand-passing the ball.
Players using only their body to move
the ball.

In all codes, common skills include

passing, tackling, evasion of tackles,
catching and kicking.[11] In most codes,
there are rules restricting the movement of
players offside, and players scoring a goal
must put the ball either under or over a
crossbar between the goalposts.

Etymology
There are conflicting explanations of the
origin of the word "football". It is widely
assumed that the word "football" (or the
phrase "foot ball") refers to the action of
the foot kicking a ball.[13] There is an
alternative explanation, which is that
football originally referred to a variety of
games in medieval Europe, which were
played on foot. There is no conclusive
evidence for either explanation.
Early history
Ancient games

A painting depicting Emperor Taizu of Song playing

cuju (i.e. Chinese football) with his prime minister Zhao
Pu (趙普 ) and other ministers, by the Yuan dynasty
artist Qian Xuan (1235–1305)

A Chinese game called Cuju ( 蹴鞠), Tsu'

Chu, or Zuqiu ( ⾜球) has been recognised
by FIFA as the first version of the game
with regular rules.[14] It existed during the
Han dynasty, the second and third
centuries BC. The Japanese version of
cuju is kemari ( 蹴鞠), and was developed
during the Asuka period.[15] This is known
to have been played within the Japanese
imperial court in Kyoto from about 600 AD.
In kemari several people stand in a circle
and kick a ball to each other, trying not to
let the ball drop to the ground (much like
keepie uppie).

The Ancient Greeks and Romans are

known to have played many ball games,
some of which involved the use of the feet.
The Roman game harpastum is believed to
have been adapted from a Greek team
game known as "ἐπίσκυρος"
(Episkyros)[16][17] or "φαινίνδα"
(phaininda),[18] which is mentioned by a
Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388–
311 BC) and later referred to by the
Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria
(c. 150 – c. 215 AD). These games appear
to have resembled rugby
football.[19][20][21][22][23] The Roman
politician Cicero (106–43 BC) describes
the case of a man who was killed whilst
having a shave when a ball was kicked into
a barber's shop. Roman ball games
already knew the air-filled ball, the
follis.[24][25] Episkyros is recognised as an
early form of football by FIFA.[26]
There are a number of references to
traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball
games, played by indigenous peoples in
many different parts of the world. For
example, in 1586, men from a ship
commanded by an English explorer named
John Davis, went ashore to play a form of
football with Inuit (Eskimo) people in
Greenland.[27] There are later accounts of
an Inuit game played on ice, called
Aqsaqtuk. Each match began with two
teams facing each other in parallel lines,
before attempting to kick the ball through
each other team's line and then at a goal.
In 1610, William Strachey, a colonist at
Jamestown, Virginia recorded a game
played by Native Americans, called
Pahsaheman. On the Australian continent
several tribes of indigenous people played
kicking and catching games with stuffed
balls which have been generalised by
historians as Marn Grook (Djab Wurrung
for "game ball"). The earliest historical
account is an anecdote from the 1878
book by Robert Brough-Smyth, The
Aborigines of Victoria, in which a man
called Richard Thomas is quoted as
saying, in about 1841 in Victoria, Australia,
that he had witnessed Aboriginal people
playing the game: "Mr Thomas describes
how the foremost player will drop kick a
ball made from the skin of a possum and
how other players leap into the air in order
to catch it." Some historians have
theorised that Marn Grook was one of the
origins of Australian rules football.

The Māori in New Zealand played a game

called Ki-o-rahi consisting of teams of
seven players play on a circular field
divided into zones, and score points by
touching the 'pou' (boundary markers) and
hitting a central 'tupu' or target.

Games played in Mesoamerica with rubber

balls by indigenous peoples are also well-
documented as existing since before this
time, but these had more similarities to
basketball or volleyball, and no links have
been found between such games and
modern football sports. Northeastern
American Indians, especially the Iroquois
Confederation, played a game which made
use of net racquets to throw and catch a
small ball; however, although it is a ball-
goal foot game, lacrosse (as its modern
descendant is called) is likewise not
usually classed as a form of "football."

These games and others may well go far

back into antiquity. However, the main
sources of modern football codes appear
to lie in western Europe, especially
England.
Ancient Greek football player balancing
the ball. Depiction on an Attic Lekythos,
Piraeus, 400-375 BC.

A Song dynasty painting by Su Hanchen (c.

1130-1160) depicting Chinese children
1130 1160), depicting Chinese children
playing cuju.

Paint of a Mesoamerican ballgame player

of the Tepantitla murals in Teotihuacan.
A revived version of kemari being played at
the Tanzan Shrine, Japan.
An illustration from the 1850s of
Australian Aboriginal hunter gatherers.
File:Children in the background are playing
a football game, possibly Woggabaliri.[28]
 A group of aborigines playing football in
Guiana.

Medieval and early modern Europe

The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in

popularity of annual Shrovetide football
matches throughout Europe, particularly in
England. An early reference to a ball game
played in Britain comes from the 9th
century Historia Brittonum, which
describes "a party of boys ... playing at
ball".[29] References to a ball game played
in northern France known as La Soule or
Choule, in which the ball was propelled by
hands, feet, and sticks,[30] date from the
12th century.[31]

An illustration of so-called "mob football"

The early forms of football played in

England, sometimes referred to as "mob
football", would be played between
neighbouring towns and villages, involving
an unlimited number of players on
opposing teams who would clash en
masse,[32] struggling to move an item,
such as inflated animal's bladder[33] to
particular geographical points, such as
their opponents' church, with play taking
place in the open space between
neighbouring parishes.[34] The game was
played primarily during significant religious
festivals, such as Shrovetide, Christmas, or
Easter,[33] and Shrovetide games have
survived into the modern era in a number
of English towns (see below).
The first detailed description of what was
almost certainly football in England was
given by William FitzStephen in about
1174–1183. He described the activities of
London youths during the annual festival
of Shrove Tuesday:

After lunch all the youth of the

city go out into the fields to take
part in a ball game. The students
of each school have their own
ball; the workers from each city
craft are also carrying their balls.
Older citizens, fathers, and
 wealthy citizens come on
horseback to watch their juniors
competing, and to relive their
own youth vicariously: you can
see their inner passions aroused
as they watch the action and get
caught up in the fun being had by
the carefree adolescents.[35]

Most of the very early references to the

game speak simply of "ball play" or
"playing at ball". This reinforces the idea
that the games played at the time did not
necessarily involve a ball being kicked.
An early reference to a ball game that was
probably football comes from 1280 at
Ulgham, Northumberland, England:
"Henry... while playing at ball.. ran against
David".[36] Football was played in Ireland in
1308, with a documented reference to
John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football
game" at Newcastle, County Down being
charged with accidentally stabbing a
player named William Bernard.[37] Another
reference to a football game comes in
1321 at Shouldham, Norfolk, England: "
[d]uring the game at ball as he kicked the
ball, a lay friend of his... ran against him
and wounded himself".[36]
In 1314, Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor
of the City of London issued a decree
banning football in the French used by the
English upper classes at the time. A
translation reads: "[f]orasmuch as there is
great noise in the city caused by hustling
over large foot balls [rageries de grosses
pelotes de pee][38] in the fields of the public
from which many evils might arise which
God forbid: we command and forbid on
behalf of the king, on pain of
imprisonment, such game to be used in
the city in the future." This is the earliest
reference to football.
In 1363, King Edward III of England issued
a proclamation banning "...handball,
football, or hockey; coursing and cock-
fighting, or other such idle games",[39]
showing that "football" – whatever its
exact form in this case – was being
differentiated from games involving other
parts of the body, such as handball.

A game known as "football" was played in

Scotland as early as the 15th century: it
was prohibited by the Football Act 1424
and although the law fell into disuse it was
not repealed until 1906. There is evidence
for schoolboys playing a "football" ball
game in Aberdeen in 1633 (some
references cite 1636) which is notable as
an early allusion to what some have
considered to be passing the ball. The
word "pass" in the most recent translation
is derived from "huc percute" (strike it
here) and later "repercute pilam" (strike the
ball again) in the original Latin. It is not
certain that the ball was being struck
between members of the same team. The
original word translated as "goal" is
"metum", literally meaning the "pillar at
each end of the circus course" in a Roman
chariot race. There is a reference to "get
hold of the ball before [another player]
does" (Praeripe illi pilam si possis agere)
suggesting that handling of the ball was
allowed. One sentence states in the
original 1930 translation "Throw yourself
against him" (Age, objice te illi).

France circa 1750

King Henry IV of England also presented

one of the earliest documented uses of
the English word "football", in 1409, when
he issued a proclamation forbidding the
levying of money for "foteball".[36][40]
There is also an account in Latin from the
end of the 15th century of football being
played at Cawston, Nottinghamshire. This
is the first description of a "kicking game"
and the first description of dribbling: "[t]he
game at which they had met for common
recreation is called by some the foot-ball
game. It is one in which young men, in
country sport, propel a huge ball not by
throwing it into the air but by striking it and
rolling it along the ground, and that not
with their hands but with their feet...
kicking in opposite directions" The
chronicler gives the earliest reference to a
football pitch, stating that: "[t]he
boundaries have been marked and the
game had started.[36]

Other firsts in the mediæval and early

modern eras:

"a football", in the sense of a ball rather

than a game, was first mentioned in
1486.[40] This reference is in Dame
Juliana Berners' Book of St Albans. It
states: "a certain rounde instrument to
play with ...it is an instrument for the
foote and then it is calde in Latyn 'pila
pedalis', a fotebal."[36]
a pair of football boots was ordered by
King Henry VIII of England in 1526.[41]
women playing a form of football was
first described in 1580 by Sir Philip
Sidney in one of his poems: "[a] tyme
there is for all, my mother often sayes,
When she, with skirts tuckt very hy, with
girles at football playes."[42]
the first references to goals are in the
late 16th and early 17th centuries. In
1584 and 1602 respectively, John
Norden and Richard Carew referred to
"goals" in Cornish hurling. Carew
described how goals were made: "they
pitch two bushes in the ground, some
eight or ten foote asunder; and directly
against them, ten or twelue [twelve]
score off, other twayne in like distance,
 which they terme their Goales".[43] He is
also the first to describe goalkeepers
and passing of the ball between players.
the first direct reference to scoring a
goal is in John Day's play The Blind
Beggar of Bethnal Green (performed
circa 1600; published 1659): "I'll play a
gole at camp-ball" (an extremely violent
variety of football, which was popular in
East Anglia). Similarly in a poem in 1613,
Michael Drayton refers to "when the Ball
to throw, And drive it to the Gole, in
squadrons forth they goe".

Calcio Fiorentino
An illustration of the Calcio Fiorentino field and starting
positions, from a 1688 book by Pietro di Lorenzo Bini.

In the 16th century, the city of Florence

celebrated the period between Epiphany
and Lent by playing a game which today is
known as "calcio storico" ("historic
kickball") in the Piazza Santa Croce. The
young aristocrats of the city would dress
up in fine silk costumes and embroil
themselves in a violent form of football.
For example, calcio players could punch,
shoulder charge, and kick opponents.
Blows below the belt were allowed. The
game is said to have originated as a
military training exercise. In 1580, Count
Giovanni de' Bardi di Vernio wrote Discorso
sopra 'l giuoco del Calcio Fiorentino. This is
sometimes said to be the earliest code of
rules for any football game. The game was
not played after January 1739 (until it was
revived in May 1930).

Official disapproval and attempts to

ban football

There have been many attempts to ban

football, from the middle ages through to
the modern day. The first such law was
passed in England in 1314; it was followed
by more than 30 in England alone between
1314 and 1667.[44]:6 Football faced armed
opposition in the 18th Century when used
as a cover for violent protest against the
enclosure act. Women were banned from
playing at English and Scottish Football
League grounds in 1921, a ban that was
only lifted in the 1970s. Female footballers
still face similar problems in some parts of
the world.

Establishment of modern
codes
English public schools
While football continued to be played in
various forms throughout Britain, its public
schools (known as private schools in other
countries) are widely credited with four key
achievements in the creation of modern
football codes. First of all, the evidence
suggests that they were important in
taking football away from its "mob" form
and turning it into an organised team
sport. Second, many early descriptions of
football and references to it were recorded
by people who had studied at these
schools. Third, it was teachers, students
and former students from these schools
who first codified football games, to
enable matches to be played between
schools. Finally, it was at English public
schools that the division between "kicking"
and "running" (or "carrying") games first
became clear.

The earliest evidence that games

resembling football were being played at
English public schools – mainly attended
by boys from the upper, upper-middle and
professional classes – comes from the
Vulgaria by William Herman in 1519.
Herman had been headmaster at Eton and
Winchester colleges and his Latin
textbook includes a translation exercise
with the phrase "We wyll playe with a ball
full of wynde".[45]
Richard Mulcaster, a student at Eton
College in the early 16th century and later
headmaster at other English schools, has
been described as "the greatest sixteenth
Century advocate of football".[46] Among
his contributions are the earliest evidence
of organised team football. Mulcaster's
writings refer to teams ("sides" and
"parties"), positions ("standings"), a referee
("judge over the parties") and a coach "
(trayning maister)". Mulcaster's "footeball"
had evolved from the disordered and
violent forms of traditional football:
 [s]ome smaller number with such
overlooking, sorted into sides and
standings, not meeting with their
bodies so boisterously to trie
their strength: nor shouldring or
shuffing one an other so
barbarously ... may use footeball
for as much good to the body, by
the chiefe use of the legges.[47]

In 1633, David Wedderburn, a teacher from

Aberdeen, mentioned elements of modern
football games in a short Latin textbook
called Vocabula. Wedderburn refers to
what has been translated into modern
English as "keeping goal" and makes an
allusion to passing the ball ("strike it
here"). There is a reference to "get hold of
the ball", suggesting that some handling
was allowed. It is clear that the tackles
allowed included the charging and holding
of opposing players ("drive that man
back").[48]

A more detailed description of football is

given in Francis Willughby's Book of
Games, written in about 1660.[49]
Willughby, who had studied at Bishop
Vesey's Grammar School, Sutton Coldfield,
is the first to describe goals and a distinct
playing field: "a close that has a gate at
either end. The gates are called Goals." His
book includes a diagram illustrating a
football field. He also mentions tactics
("leaving some of their best players to
guard the goal"); scoring ("they that can
strike the ball through their opponents'
goal first win") and the way teams were
selected ("the players being equally
divided according to their strength and
nimbleness"). He is the first to describe a
"law" of football: "they must not strike [an
opponent's leg] higher than the ball".
English public schools were the first to
codify football games. In particular, they
devised the first offside rules, during the
late 18th century.[50] In the earliest
manifestations of these rules, players
were "off their side" if they simply stood
between the ball and the goal which was
their objective. Players were not allowed to
pass the ball forward, either by foot or by
hand. They could only dribble with their
feet, or advance the ball in a scrum or
similar formation. However, offside laws
began to diverge and develop differently at
each school, as is shown by the rules of
football from Winchester, Rugby, Harrow
and Cheltenham, during between 1810 and
1850.[50] The first known codes – in the
sense of a set of rules – were those of
Eton in 1815 [51] and Aldenham in
1825.[51])

During the early 19th century, most

working class people in Britain had to work
six days a week, often for over twelve
hours a day. They had neither the time nor
the inclination to engage in sport for
recreation and, at the time, many children
were part of the labour force. Feast day
football played on the streets was in
decline. Public school boys, who enjoyed
some freedom from work, became the
inventors of organised football games with
formal codes of rules.

Football was adopted by a number of

public schools as a way of encouraging
competitiveness and keeping youths fit.
Each school drafted its own rules, which
varied widely between different schools
and were changed over time with each
new intake of pupils. Two schools of
thought developed regarding rules. Some
schools favoured a game in which the ball
could be carried (as at Rugby, Marlborough
and Cheltenham), while others preferred a
game where kicking and dribbling the ball
was promoted (as at Eton, Harrow,
Westminster and Charterhouse). The
division into these two camps was partly
the result of circumstances in which the
games were played. For example,
Charterhouse and Westminster at the time
had restricted playing areas; the boys were
confined to playing their ball game within
the school cloisters, making it difficult for
them to adopt rough and tumble running
games.

Rugby School
William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby
School, is said to have "with a fine
disregard for the rules of football, as
played in his time [emphasis added], first
took the ball in his arms and ran with it,
thus creating the distinctive feature of the
rugby game." in 1823. This act is usually
said to be the beginning of Rugby football,
but there is little evidence that it occurred,
and most sports historians believe the
story to be apocryphal. The act of 'taking
the ball in his arms' is often misinterpreted
as 'picking the ball up' as it is widely
believed that Webb Ellis' 'crime' was
handling the ball, as in modern soccer,
however handling the ball at the time was
often permitted and in some cases
compulsory,[52] the rule for which Webb
Ellis showed disregard was running
forward with it as the rules of his time only
allowed a player to retreat backwards or
kick forwards.

The boom in rail transport in Britain during

the 1840s meant that people were able to
travel further and with less inconvenience
than they ever had before. Inter-school
sporting competitions became possible.
However, it was difficult for schools to play
each other at football, as each school
played by its own rules. The solution to
this problem was usually that the match
be divided into two halves, one half played
by the rules of the host "home" school, and
the other half by the visiting "away" school.

The modern rules of many football codes

were formulated during the mid- or late-
19th century. This also applies to other
sports such as lawn bowls, lawn tennis,
etc. The major impetus for this was the
patenting of the world's first lawnmower in
1830. This allowed for the preparation of
modern ovals, playing fields, pitches, grass
courts, etc.[53]

Apart from Rugby football, the public

school codes have barely been played
beyond the confines of each school's
playing fields. However, many of them are
still played at the schools which created
them (see Surviving UK school games
below).

Public schools' dominance of sports in the

UK began to wane after the Factory Act of
1850, which significantly increased the
recreation time available to working class
children. Before 1850, many British
children had to work six days a week, for
more than twelve hours a day. From 1850,
they could not work before 6 a.m. (7 a.m.
in winter) or after 6 p.m. on weekdays
(7 p.m. in winter); on Saturdays they had to
cease work at 2 p.m. These changes mean
that working class children had more time
for games, including various forms of
football.

Firsts

Clubs

Sports clubs dedicated to playing football

began in the 18th century, for example
London's Gymnastic Society which was
founded in the mid-18th century and
ceased playing matches in 1796.[54][55]

The first documented club to bear in the

title a reference to being a 'football club'
were called "The Foot-Ball Club" who were
located in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the
period 1824–41.[56][57] The club forbade
tripping but allowed pushing and holding
and the picking up of the ball.[57]

In 1845, three boys at Rugby school were

tasked with codifying the rules then being
used at the school. These were the first
set of written rules (or code) for any form
of football.[58] This further assisted the
spread of the Rugby game.

Competitions

One of the longest running football fixture

is the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, contested
between Melbourne Grammar School and
Scotch College, Melbourne every year
since 1858. It is believed by many to also
be the first match of Australian rules
football, although it was played under
experimental rules in its first year. The first
football trophy tournament was the
Caledonian Challenge Cup, donated by the
Royal Caledonian Society of Melbourne,
played in 1861 under the Melbourne
Rules.[59] The oldest football league is a
rugby football competition, the United
Hospitals Challenge Cup (1874), while the
oldest rugby trophy is the Yorkshire Cup,
contested since 1878. The South
Australian Football Association (30 April
1877) is the oldest surviving Australian
rules football competition. The oldest
surviving soccer trophy is the Youdan Cup
(1867) and the oldest national football
competition is the English FA Cup (1871).
The Football League (1888) is recognised
as the longest running Association
Football league. The first ever international
football match took place between sides
representing England and Scotland on
March 5, 1870 at the Oval under the
authority of the FA. The first Rugby
international took place in 1871.

Modern balls
Richard Lindon (seen in 1880) is believed to have
invented the first footballs with rubber bladders.

In Europe, early footballs were made out of

animal bladders, more specifically pig's
bladders, which were inflated. Later leather
coverings were introduced to allow the
balls to keep their shape.[60] However, in
1851, Richard Lindon and William Gilbert,
both shoemakers from the town of Rugby
(near the school), exhibited both round and
oval-shaped balls at the Great Exhibition in
London. Richard Lindon's wife is said to
have died of lung disease caused by
blowing up pig's bladders.[61] Lindon also
won medals for the invention of the
"Rubber inflatable Bladder" and the "Brass
Hand Pump".

In 1855, the U.S. inventor Charles

Goodyear – who had patented vulcanised
rubber – exhibited a spherical football,
with an exterior of vulcanised rubber
panels, at the Paris Exhibition Universelle.
The ball was to prove popular in early
forms of football in the U.S.A.[62]
The iconic ball with a regular pattern of
hexagons and pentagons (see truncated
icosahedron) did not become popular until
the 1960s, and was first used in the World
Cup in 1970.

Modern ball passing tactics

The earliest reference to a game of

football involving players passing the ball
and attempting to score past a goalkeeper
was written in 1633 by David Wedderburn,
a poet and teacher in Aberdeen,
Scotland.[63] Nevertheless, the original text
does not state whether the allusion to
passing as 'kick the ball back' ('Repercute
pilam') was in a forward or backward
direction or between members of the
same opposing teams (as was usual at
this time)[64]

"Scientific" football is first recorded in

1839 from Lancashire[65] and in the
modern game in Rugby football from
1862[66] and from Sheffield FC as early as
1865.[67][68] The first side to play a passing
combination game was the Royal
Engineers AFC in 1869/70[69][70] By 1869
they were "work[ing] well together",
"backing up" and benefiting from
"cooperation".[71] By 1870 the Engineers
were passing the ball: "Lieut. Creswell,
who having brought the ball up the side
then kicked it into the middle to another of
his side, who kicked it through the posts
the minute before time was called"[72]
Passing was a regular feature of their
style[73] By early 1872 the Engineers were
the first football team renowned for
"play[ing] beautifully together"[74] A double
pass is first reported from Derby school
against Nottingham Forest in March 1872,
the first of which is irrefutably a short
pass: "Mr Absey dribbling the ball half the
length of the field delivered it to Wallis,
who kicking it cleverly in front of the goal,
sent it to the captain who drove it at once
between the Nottingham posts"[75] The
first side to have perfected the modern
formation was Cambridge University
AFC[76][77][78] and introduced the 2–3–5
"pyramid" formation.[79][80]

Cambridge rules

In 1848, at Cambridge University, Mr. H. de

Winton and Mr. J.C. Thring, who were both
formerly at Shrewsbury School, called a
meeting at Trinity College, Cambridge with
12 other representatives from Eton,
Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and
Shrewsbury. An eight-hour meeting
produced what amounted to the first set of
modern rules, known as the Cambridge
rules. No copy of these rules now exists,
but a revised version from circa 1856 is
held in the library of Shrewsbury School.[81]
The rules clearly favour the kicking game.
Handling was only allowed when a player
catches the ball directly from the foot
entitling them to a free kick and there was
a primitive offside rule, disallowing players
from "loitering" around the opponents'
goal. The Cambridge rules were not widely
adopted outside English public schools
and universities (but it was arguably the
most significant influence on the Football
Association committee members
responsible for formulating the rules of
Association football).
Sheffield rules

By the late 1850s, many football clubs had

been formed throughout the English-
speaking world, to play various codes of
football. Sheffield Football Club, founded
in 1857 in the English city of Sheffield by
Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, was
later recognised as the world's oldest club
playing association football.[82] However,
the club initially played its own code of
football: the Sheffield rules. The code was
largely independent of the public school
rules, the most significant difference being
the lack of an offside rule.
The code was responsible for many
innovations that later spread to
association football. These included free
kicks, corner kicks, handball, throw-ins and
the crossbar.[83] By the 1870s they became
the dominant code in the north and
midlands of England. At this time a series
of rule changes by both the London and
Sheffield FAs gradually eroded the
differences between the two games until
the adoption of a common code in 1877.

Australian rules
 

Tom Wills, widely regarded as the father of Australian

football

There is archival evidence of "foot-ball"

games being played in various parts of
Australia throughout the first half of the
19th century. The origins of an organised
game of football known today as
Australian rules football can be traced
back to 1858 in Melbourne, the capital city
of Victoria.
In July 1858, Tom Wills, an Australian-born
cricketer educated at Rugby School in
England, wrote a letter to Bell's Life in
Victoria & Sporting Chronicle, calling for a
"foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to
keep cricketers fit during winter.[84] This is
considered by historians to be a defining
moment in the creation of Australian rules
football. Through publicity and personal
contacts Wills was able to co-ordinate
football matches in Melbourne that
experimented with various rules,[85] the
first of which was played on July 31, 1858.
One week later, Wills umpired a
schoolboys match between Melbourne
Grammar School and Scotch College.
Following these matches, organised
football in Melbourne rapidly increased in
popularity.

Wood engraving of an Australian rules football match

at the Richmond Paddock, Melbourne, 1866

Wills and others involved in these early

matches formed the Melbourne Football
Club (the oldest surviving Australian
football club) on May 14, 1859. Club
members Wills, William Hammersley, J. B.
Thompson and Thomas H. Smith met with
the intention of forming a set of rules that
would be widely adopted by other clubs.
The committee debated rules used in
English public school games; Wills pushed
for various rugby football rules he learnt
during his schooling. The first rules share
similarities with these games, and were
shaped to suit to Australian conditions. H.
C. A. Harrison, a seminal figure in
Australian football, recalled that his cousin
Wills wanted "a game of our own".[86] The
code was distinctive in the prevalence of
the mark, free kick, tackling, lack of an
offside rule and that players were
specifically penalised for throwing the ball.
The Melbourne football rules were widely
distributed and gradually adopted by the
other Victorian clubs. The rules were
updated several times during the 1860s to
accommodate the rules of other influential
Victorian football clubs. A significant
redraft in 1866 by H. C. A. Harrison's
committee accommodated the Geelong
Football Club's rules, making the game
then known as "Victorian Rules"
increasingly distinct from other codes. It
soon adopted cricket fields and an oval
ball, used specialised goal and behind
posts, and featured bouncing the ball while
running and spectacular high marking. The
game spread quickly to other Australian
colonies. Outside its heartland in southern
Australia, the code experienced a
significant period of decline following
World War I but has since grown
throughout Australia and in other parts of
the world, and the Australian Football
League emerged as the dominant
professional competition.

Football Association

     

The first football international, Scotland versus

England. Once kept by the Rugby Football Union as an
l l f b f b ll
early example of rugby football.

During the early 1860s, there were

increasing attempts in England to unify
and reconcile the various public school
games. In 1862, J. C. Thring, who had
been one of the driving forces behind the
original Cambridge Rules, was a master at
Uppingham School and he issued his own
rules of what he called "The Simplest
Game" (these are also known as the
Uppingham Rules). In early October 1863
another new revised version of the
Cambridge Rules was drawn up by a seven
member committee representing former
pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton,
Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster.

At the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen

Street, London on the evening of October
26, 1863, representatives of several
football clubs in the London Metropolitan
area met for the inaugural meeting of The
Football Association (FA). The aim of the
Association was to establish a single
unifying code and regulate the playing of
the game among its members. Following
the first meeting, the public schools were
invited to join the association. All of them
declined, except Charterhouse and
Uppingham. In total, six meetings of the FA
were held between October and December
1863. After the third meeting, a draft set of
rules were published. However, at the
beginning of the fourth meeting, attention
was drawn to the recently published
Cambridge Rules of 1863. The Cambridge
rules differed from the draft FA rules in two
significant areas; namely running with
(carrying) the ball and hacking (kicking
opposing players in the shins). The two
contentious FA rules were as follows:

IX. A player shall be entitled to

run with the ball towards his
adversaries' goal if he makes a
fair catch, or catches the ball on
the first bound; but in case of a
fair catch, if he makes his mark
he shall not run.

X. If any player shall run with the

ball towards his adversaries'
goal, any player on the opposite
side shall be at liberty to charge,
hold, trip or hack him, or to wrest
the ball from him, but no player
shall be held and hacked at the
same time.[87]
At the fifth meeting it was proposed that
these two rules be removed. Most of the
delegates supported this, but F. M.
Campbell, the representative from
Blackheath and the first FA treasurer,
objected. He said: "hacking is the true
football". However, the motion to ban
running with the ball in hand and hacking
was carried and Blackheath withdrew from
the FA. After the final meeting on 8
December, the FA published the "Laws of
Football", the first comprehensive set of
rules for the game later known as
Association Football. The term "soccer", in
use since the late 19th century, derives
from an Oxford University abbreviation of
"Association".[88]

The first FA rules still contained elements

that are no longer part of association
football, but which are still recognisable in
other games (such as Australian football
and rugby football): for instance, a player
could make a fair catch and claim a mark,
which entitled him to a free kick; and if a
player touched the ball behind the
opponents' goal line, his side was entitled
to a free kick at goal, from 15 yards
(13.5 metres) in front of the goal line.

Rugby football
 

A rugby scrum in 1871

In Britain, by 1870, there were about 75

clubs playing variations of the Rugby
school game. There were also "rugby"
clubs in Ireland, Australia, Canada and
New Zealand. However, there was no
generally accepted set of rules for rugby
until 1871, when 21 clubs from London
came together to form the Rugby Football
Union (RFU). The first official RFU rules
were adopted in June 1871. These rules
allowed passing the ball. They also
included the try, where touching the ball
over the line allowed an attempt at goal,
though drop-goals from marks and general
play, and penalty conversions were still the
main form of contest.

North American football codes

As was the case in Britain, by the early

19th century, North American schools and
universities played their own local games,
between sides made up of students. For
example, students at Dartmouth College in
New Hampshire played a game called Old
division football, a variant of the
association football codes, as early as the
1820s.[89] They remained largely "mob
football" style games, with huge numbers
of players attempting to advance the ball
into a goal area, often by any means
necessary. Rules were simple, violence
and injury were common.[90] The violence
of these mob-style games led to
widespread protests and a decision to
abandon them. Yale University, under
pressure from the city of New Haven,
banned the play of all forms of football in
1860, while Harvard University followed
suit in 1861.[90] In its place, two general
types of football evolved: "kicking" games
and "running" (or "carrying") games. A
hybrid of the two, known as the "Boston
game", was played by a group known as
the Oneida Football Club. The club,
considered by some historians as the first
formal football club in the United States,
was formed in 1862 by schoolboys who
played the "Boston game" on Boston
Common.[90][91] The game began to return
to American college campuses by the late
1860s. The universities of Yale, Princeton
(then known as the College of New
Jersey), Rutgers, and Brown all began
playing "kicking" games during this time. In
1867, Princeton used rules based on those
of the English Football Association.[90]
 

The "Tigers" of Hamilton, Ontario, circa 1906. Founded

1869 as the Hamilton Foot Ball Club, they eventually
merged with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats to form the
Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team still active in the Canadian
Football League.[92]

In Canada, the first documented football

match was a practice game played on
November 9, 1861, at University College,
University of Toronto (approximately 400
yards west of Queen's Park). One of the
participants in the game involving
University of Toronto students was (Sir)
William Mulock, later Chancellor of the
school.[93] In 1864, at Trinity College,
Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, Frederick
A. Bethune, and Christopher Gwynn, one of
the founders of Milton, Massachusetts,
devised rules based on rugby football.[93] A
"running game", resembling rugby football,
was then taken up by the Montreal
Football Club in Canada in 1868.[94]

On November 6, 1869, Rutgers faced

Princeton in a game that was played with a
round ball and, like all early games, used
improvised rules. It is usually regarded as
the first game of American intercollegiate
football.[90][95]
Modern North American football grew out
of a match between McGill University of
Montreal, and Harvard University in 1874.
During the game, the two teams alternated
between the rugby-based rules used by
McGill and the Boston Game rules used by
Harvard.[96][97][98] Within a few years,
Harvard had both adopted McGill's rules
and had persuaded other U.S. university
teams to do the same. On November 23,
1876, representatives from Harvard, Yale,
Princeton, and Columbia met at the
Massasoit Convention in Springfield,
Massachusetts, agreeing to adopt most of
the Rugby Football Union rules, with some
variations.[99]
 

Rutgers College Football Team, 1882

In 1880, Yale coach Walter Camp, who had

become a fixture at the Massasoit House
conventions where the rules were debated
and changed, devised a number of major
innovations. Camp's two most important
rule changes that diverged the American
game from rugby was replacing the
scrummage with the line of scrimmage
and the establishment of the down-and-
distance rules.[99] American football still
however remained a violent sport where
collisions often led to serious injuries and
sometimes even death.[100] This led U.S.
President Theodore Roosevelt to hold a
meeting with football representatives from
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton on October 9,
1905, urging them to make drastic
changes.[101] One rule change introduced
in 1906, devised to open up the game and
reduce injury, was the introduction of the
legal forward pass. Though it was
underutilised for years, this proved to be
one of the most important rule changes in
the establishment of the modern
game.[102]
Over the years, Canada absorbed some of
the developments in American football in
an effort to distinguish it from a more
rugby-oriented game. In 1903, the Ontario
Rugby Football Union adopted the
Burnside rules, which implemented the line
of scrimmage and down-and-distance
system from American football, among
others.[103] Canadian football then
implemented the legal forward pass in
1929.[104] American and Canadian football
remain different codes, stemming from
rule changes that the American side of the
border adopted but the Canadian side has
not.
Gaelic football

The All-Ireland Football Final in Croke Park, 2004.

In the mid-19th century, various traditional

football games, referred to collectively as
caid, remained popular in Ireland,
especially in County Kerry. One observer,
Father W. Ferris, described two main forms
of caid during this period: the "field game"
in which the object was to put the ball
through arch-like goals, formed from the
boughs of two trees; and the epic "cross-
country game" which took up most of the
daylight hours of a Sunday on which it was
played, and was won by one team taking
the ball across a parish boundary.
"Wrestling", "holding" opposing players,
and carrying the ball were all allowed.

By the 1870s, Rugby and Association

football had started to become popular in
Ireland. Trinity College, Dublin was an early
stronghold of Rugby (see the
Developments in the 1850s section,
above). The rules of the English FA were
being distributed widely. Traditional forms
of caid had begun to give way to a "rough-
and-tumble game" which allowed tripping.
There was no serious attempt to unify and
codify Irish varieties of football, until the
establishment of the Gaelic Athletic
Association (GAA) in 1884. The GAA
sought to promote traditional Irish sports,
such as hurling and to reject imported
games like Rugby and Association
football. The first Gaelic football rules
were drawn up by Maurice Davin and
published in the United Ireland magazine
on February 7, 1887. Davin's rules showed
the influence of games such as hurling
and a desire to formalise a distinctly Irish
code of football. The prime example of
this differentiation was the lack of an
offside rule (an attribute which, for many
years, was shared only by other Irish
games like hurling, and by Australian rules
football).

Schism in Rugby football

An English cartoon from the 1890s lampooning the

divide in rugby football which led to the formation of
rugby league. The caricatures are of Rev. Frank
Marshall, an arch-opponent of player payments, and
James Miller, a long-time opponent of Marshall. The
caption reads: Marshall: "Oh, fie, go away naughty boy, I
don't play with boys who can’t afford to take a holiday
 p y y y
for football any day they like!" Miller: "Yes, that's just
you to a T; you’d make it so that no lad whose father
wasn’t a millionaire could play at all in a really good
team. For my part I see no reason why the men who
make the money shouldn’t have a share in the
spending of it."

The International Rugby Football Board

(IRFB) was founded in 1886, but rifts were
beginning to emerge in the code.
Professionalism had already begun to
creep into the various codes of football.

In England, by the 1890s, a long-standing

Rugby Football Union ban on professional
players was causing regional tensions
within rugby football, as many players in
northern England were working class and
could not afford to take time off to train,
travel, play and recover from injuries. This
was not very different from what had
occurred ten years earlier in soccer in
Northern England but the authorities
reacted very differently in the RFU,
attempting to alienate the working class
support in Northern England. In 1895,
following a dispute about a player being
paid broken time payments, which
replaced wages lost as a result of playing
rugby, representatives of the northern
clubs met in Huddersfield to form the
Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU).
The new body initially permitted only
various types of player wage
replacements. However, within two years,
NRFU players could be paid, but they were
required to have a job outside sport.

The demands of a professional league

dictated that rugby had to become a better
"spectator" sport. Within a few years the
NRFU rules had started to diverge from the
RFU, most notably with the abolition of the
line-out. This was followed by the
replacement of the ruck with the "play-the-
ball ruck", which allowed a two-player ruck
contest between the tackler at marker and
the player tackled. Mauls were stopped
once the ball carrier was held, being
replaced by a play-the ball-ruck. The
separate Lancashire and Yorkshire
competitions of the NRFU merged in 1901,
forming the Northern Rugby League, the
first time the name rugby league was used
officially in England.

Over time, the RFU form of rugby, played

by clubs which remained members of
national federations affiliated to the IRFB,
became known as rugby union.

Globalisation of association football

The need for a single body to oversee

association football had become apparent
by the beginning of the 20th century, with
the increasing popularity of international
fixtures. The English Football Association
had chaired many discussions on setting
up an international body, but was
perceived as making no progress. It fell to
associations from seven other European
countries: France, Belgium, Denmark,
Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and
Switzerland, to form an international
association. The Fédération Internationale
de Football Association (FIFA) was
founded in Paris on May 21, 1904. Its first
president was Robert Guérin. The French
name and acronym has remained, even
outside French-speaking countries.
Further divergence of the two rugby
codes

Rugby league rules diverged significantly

from rugby union in 1906, with the
reduction of the team from 15 to 13
players. In 1907, a New Zealand
professional rugby team toured Australia
and Britain, receiving an enthusiastic
response, and professional rugby leagues
were launched in Australia the following
year. However, the rules of professional
games varied from one country to another,
and negotiations between various national
bodies were required to fix the exact rules
for each international match. This
situation endured until 1948, when at the
instigation of the French league, the Rugby
League International Federation (RLIF)
was formed at a meeting in Bordeaux.

During the second half of the 20th century,

the rules changed further. In 1966, rugby
league officials borrowed the American
football concept of downs: a team was
allowed to retain possession of the ball for
four tackles (rugby union retains the
original rule that a player who is tackled
and brought to the ground must release
the ball immediately). The maximum
number of tackles was later increased to
six (in 1971), and in rugby league this
became known as the six tackle rule.

With the advent of full-time professionals

in the early 1990s, and the consequent
speeding up of the game, the five metre
off-side distance between the two teams
became 10 metres, and the replacement
rule was superseded by various
interchange rules, among other changes.

The laws of rugby union also changed

during the 20th century, although less
significantly than those of rugby league. In
particular, goals from marks were
abolished, kicks directly into touch from
outside the 22 metre line were penalised,
new laws were put in place to determine
who had possession following an
inconclusive ruck or maul, and the lifting of
players in line-outs was legalised.

In 1995, rugby union became an "open"

game, that is one which allowed
professional players.[105] Although the
original dispute between the two codes
has now disappeared – and despite the
fact that officials from both forms of rugby
football have sometimes mentioned the
possibility of re-unification – the rules of
both codes and their culture have diverged
to such an extent that such an event is
unlikely in the foreseeable future.

A player takes a free kick, while the opposition form a

"wall", in Association football

Use of the word "football"

The word football, when used in reference
to a specific game can mean any one of
those described above. Because of this,
much friendly controversy has occurred
over the term football, primarily because it
is used in different ways in different parts
of the English-speaking world. Most often,
the word "football" is used to refer to the
code of football that is considered
dominant within a particular region. So,
effectively, what the word "football" means
usually depends on where one says it.

Players assemble at the line of scrimmage in an

American football game.
In each of the United Kingdom, the United
States, and Canada, one football code is
known solely as "football", while the others
generally require a qualifier. In New
Zealand, "football" historically referred to
rugby union, but more recently may be
used unqualified to refer to association
football. The sport meant by the word
"football" in Australia is either Australian
rules football or rugby league, depending
on local popularity (which largely
conforms to the Barassi Line). In
francophone Quebec, where Canadian
football is more popular, the Canadian
code is known as le football while
American football is known as le football
américain and association football is
known as le soccer.[106] Of the 45 national
FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football
Association) affiliates in which English is
an official or primary language, most
currently use Football in their
organisations' official names; the FIFA
affiliates in Canada and the United States
use Soccer in their names. A few FIFA
affiliates have recently "normalised" to
using "Football", including:

Australia's association football

governing body changed its name in
2005 from using "soccer" to
"football"[107]
 New Zealand's governing body also
changed in 2007, saying "the
international game is called football."[108]
Samoa changed from "Samoa Football
(Soccer) Federation" to "Football
Federation Samoa" in 2009.[109][110]

Popularity
Several of the football codes are the most
popular team sports in the world.[10]
Globally, association football is played by
over 250 million players in over 200
nations,[111] and has the highest television
audience in sport,[112] making it the most
popular in the world,[113] American football
is the most popular sport in the United
States,[114] with the annual Super Bowl
game accounting for seven of the top
eight of the most watched broadcasts in
U.S. television history.[115] Australian rules
football has the highest spectator
attendance of all sports in
Australia.[116][117] Similarly, Gaelic football
is the most popular sport in Ireland in
terms of match attendance,[118] and the
All-Ireland Football Final is the most
watched event of that nation's sporting
year.[119]

Football codes board

 Indoor
Cambridge rules
Beach (1992–)
(1848–1863)
Futsal (1930–)
Association
Paralympic
football
(1863–) Street
Sheffield rules (1857–
1877) Rugby Union American Flag football,
with minor football Arena football
modifications (1869[120]-) (1987–)

Flag
Canadian football (1861–)
Football football[122]

Rugby sevens (1883–)

Rugby rules[121] Nines

Rugby
Rugby union (1871–) Rugby league
league
sevens
(1895–)
Touch football

Rugby rules and other

English public school Australian rules (1859–) International
games[123] rules (1967–)
Gaelic (1887–)

Football codes development tree

 Fo

Footba

Cambridge
Sheffield
rules
rules (1857-
(1848-
1877)
1863)

Association Football
(1863-)

Rugby union
with minor
modifications
 American
football
(1869-)

Arena
Flag football
football(19

Futsal
(1930-)

Beach
Indoor Paralymp
soccer
soccer footbal
(1992-)
Notes:
Present day codes and
families
Association football and descendants

An indoor soccer game at an open-air venue in Mexico.

The referee has just awarded the red team a free kick.

Street football, Venice (1960)

These codes have in common the
prohibition of the use of hands (by all
players except the goalkeeper), unlike other
codes where carrying or handling the ball is
allowed

Association football, also known as

football, soccer, footy and footie
Indoor/basketball court variants:
Five-a-side football – played
throughout the world under various
rules including:
Futebol de Salão
Futsal – the FIFA-approved five-
a-side indoor game
 Minivoetbal – the five-a-side
indoor game played in East and
West Flanders where it is
extremely popular
Papi fut – the five-a-side game
played in outdoor basketball
courts (built with goals) in
Central America.
Indoor soccer – the six-a-side
indoor game, the Latin American
variant (fútbol rápido, "fast football")
is often played in open-air venues
Masters Football – six-a-side
played in Europe by mature
professionals (35 years and older)
Paralympic football – modified game for
athletes with a disability.[124] Includes:
Football 5-a-side – for visually
impaired athletes
Football 7-a-side – for athletes with
cerebral palsy
Amputee football – for athletes
with amputations
Deaf football – for athletes with
hearing impairments
Powerchair football – for athletes in
electric wheelchairs
Beach soccer, beach football or sand
soccer – variant modified for play on
sand
Street football – encompasses a
number of informal variants
Rush goalie – a variation in which the
role of the goalkeeper is more flexible
than normal
Headers and Volleys – where the aim is
to score goals against a goalkeeper
using only headers and volleys
Crab football – players stand on their
hands and feet and move around on
their backs whilst playing
Swamp soccer – the game as played on
a swamp or bog field
Jorkyball
Rushball
The hockey game bandy has rules partly
based on the association football rules
and is sometimes nicknamed as 'winter
football'.

There are also motorsport variations of the

game.

Rugby school football and

descendants

These codes have in common the ability of

players to carry the ball with their hands,
and to throw it to teammates, unlike
association football where the use of hands
is prohibited by anyone except the goal
keeper. They also feature various methods
of scoring based upon whether the ball is
carried into the goal area, or kicked through
a target.

Rugby football
Rugby union
Mini rugby a variety for
children.
Rugby sevens and Rugby tens
– variants for teams of
reduced size.

Rugby sevens; Fiji v Wales at the 2006

Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
Rugby league – often referred to
simply as "league", and usually
known simply as "football" or
"footy" in the Australian states of
New South Wales and Queensland.
Rugby league sevens and
Rugby league nines – variant
for teams of reduced size.
Beach rugby – rugby played on
sand
Touch rugby – generic name for
forms of rugby football which do
not feature tackles, one variant has
been formalised
 Tag Rugby – non-contact variant in
which a flag attached to a player is
removed to indicate a tackle.
Gridiron football
American football – called "football"
in the United States and Canada,
and "gridiron" in Australia and New
Zealand.
Nine-man football, eight-man
football, six-man football –
variants played primarily by
smaller high schools that lack
enough players to field full
teams.
 Street football/backyard
football – played without
equipment or official fields and
with simplified rules
Touch football – non-tackle
variants
Canadian football – called simply
"football" in Canada; "football" in
Canada can mean either Canadian
or American football depending on
context. All of the variants listed for
American football are also attested
for Canadian football.
Flag football – non-contact variant
in which a flag attached to a player
 is removed to indicate a tackle.
Indoor football, arena football –
indoor variants

Irish and Australian varieties

International rules football test match from the 2005

International Rules Series between Australia and
Ireland at Telstra Dome, Melbourne, Australia.

These codes have in common the absence

of an offside rule, the prohibition of
continuous carrying of the ball (requiring a
periodic bounce or solo (toe-kick),
depending on the code) while running,
handpassing by punching or tapping the
ball rather than throwing it, and other
traditions.

Australian rules football – officially

known as "Australian football", and
informally as "football", "footy" or
"Aussie rules". In some areas it is
referred to as "AFL", the name of the
main organising body and competition
Auskick – a version of Australian
rules designed by the AFL for young
children
Metro footy (or Metro rules footy) –
a modified version invented by the
USAFL, for use on gridiron fields in
North American cities (which often
lack grounds large enough for
conventional Australian rules
matches)
Kick-to-kick – informal versions of
the game
9-a-side footy – a more open,
running variety of Australian rules,
requiring 18 players in total and a
proportionally smaller playing area
(includes contact and non-contact
varieties)
Rec footy – "Recreational Football",
a modified non-contact variation of
Australian rules, created by the AFL,
which replaces tackles with tags
Touch Aussie Rules – a non-tackle
variation of Australian Rules played
only in the United Kingdom
Samoa rules – localised version
adapted to Samoan conditions,
such as the use of rugby football
fields
Masters Australian football (a.k.a.
Superules) – reduced contact
version introduced for competitions
 limited to players over 30 years of
age
Women's Australian rules football –
women's competition played with a
smaller ball and (sometimes)
reduced contact
Gaelic football – Played predominantly
in Ireland. Commonly referred to as
"football" or "Gaelic"
Ladies Gaelic football
International rules football – a
compromise code used for games
between Gaelic and Australian Rules
players

Surviving medieval ball games

Inside the UK

The Haxey Hood, played on Epiphany in

Haxey, Lincolnshire
Shrove Tuesday games
Scoring the Hales in Alnwick,
Northumberland
Royal Shrovetide Football in
Ashbourne, Derbyshire
The Shrovetide Ball Game in
Atherstone, Warwickshire
The Shrove Tuesday Football
Ceremony of the Purbeck Marblers
in Corfe Castle, Dorset
 Hurling the Silver Ball at St Columb
Major in Cornwall
The Ball Game in Sedgefield, County
Durham
In Scotland the Ba game ("Ball Game") is
still popular around Christmas and
Hogmanay at:
Duns, Berwickshire
Scone, Perthshire
Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands
Outside the UK

Calcio Fiorentino – a modern revival of

Renaissance football from 16th century
Florence.
 la Soule – a modern revival of French
medieval football
lelo burti – a Georgian traditional
football game

Surviving UK school games

Harrow football players after a game at Harrow School

(circa 2005).

Games still played at UK public

(independent) schools:
 Eton field game
Eton wall game
Harrow football
Winchester College football

Recent inventions and hybrid games

Keepie uppie (keep up) – the art of

juggling with a football using the feet,
knees, chest, shoulders, and head.
Footbag – several variations using
a small bean bag or sand bag as a
ball, the trade marked term hacky
sack is sometimes used as a
generic synonym.
 Freestyle football – participants are
graded for their entertainment value
and expression of skill.
Based on FA rules

Three sided football

Triskelion
Based on rugby

Force ’em backs a.k.a. forcing back,

forcemanback
Hybrid games

Austus – a compromise between

Australian rules and American football,
invented in Melbourne during World War
II.
Bossaball – mixes Association football
and volleyball and gymnastics; played
on inflatables and trampolines.
Cycle ball − a sport similar to
association football played on bicycles
Footvolley – mixes Association football
and beach volleyball; played on sand
Football tennis – mixes Association
football and tennis
Kickball – a hybrid of Association
football and baseball, invented in the
United States in about 1942.
Speedball – a combination of American
football, soccer, and basketball, devised
in the United States in 1912.
 Universal football – a hybrid of
Australian rules and rugby league,
trialled in Sydney in 1933.[125]
Volata – a game resembling Association
football and European handball, devised
by Italian fascist leader, Augusto Turati,
in the 1920s.
Wheelchair rugby – also known as
Murderball, invented in Canada in 1977.
Based on ice hockey and basketball
rather than rugby.

Note: although similar to football and

volleyball in some aspects, Sepak takraw
has ancient origins and cannot be
considered a hybrid game.
Tabletop games, video games and
other recreations

Based on Association football

Subbuteo
Blow football
Table football – also known as foosball,
table soccer, babyfoot, bar football or
gettone
Fantasy football
Button football – also known as Futebol
de Mesa, Jogo de Botões
Penny football
FIFA Video Games Series
 Pro Evolution Soccer
Mario Strikers
Lego Football
Based on American football

Paper football
Blood Bowl
Fantasy football (American)
Madden NFL
Based on Australian football

AFL video game series

List of AFL video games
Based on Rugby League football

Sidhe's Rugby League series

 Rugby League 3
Australian Rugby League

See also
Football field (unit of length)
List of types of football
List of players who have converted from
one football code to another
Names for association football
1601 to 1725 in sports: Football
Footgolf
Underwater football

Notes
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doi:10.1080/0264041031000102105 .
2. "Editorial: Soccer – or should we say
football – must change" . 12 June 2014.
“New Zealanders on the way to their local
rugby grounds should still be talking of
"going to the football"”
3. "History of Football - Britain, the home of
Football" . FIFA.com.
4. Post Publishing PCL. "Bangkok Post
article" . bangkokpost.com.
5. "History of Football - The Origins" . FIFA.
Retrieved 29 April 2013.
6. "History of Rugby in Australia" . Rugby
Football History. Retrieved 11 January
2012.
7. Bailey, Steven (1995). "Living Sports
History: Football at Winchester, Eton and
Harrow". The Sports Historian. 15 (1): 34–
53. doi:10.1080/17460269508551675 .
8. Perkin, Harold (1989). "Teaching the
nations how to play: sport and society in the
British empire and commonwealth". The
International Journal of the History of Sport.
6 (2): 145–155.
doi:10.1080/09523368908713685 .
9. Reilly, Thomas; Doran, D. (2001). "Science
and Gaelic football: A revie". Journal of
Sports Sciences. 19 (3): 181–193.
doi:10.1080/026404101750095330 .
10. Bale, J. (2002). Sports Geography.
Taylor & Francis. p. 43. ISBN 0-419-25230-4.
11. Douge, Brian (2011). "Football: the
common threads between the games".
Science and Football (Second ed.).
Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 3–19. ISBN 978-0-
415-50911-4.
12. Association, The Football. "Law 1: The
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13. "Football" . Etymology Online. Retrieved
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University of Hawaii Press. pp. 26–27.
ISBN 9780824824648. Retrieved
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16. ἐπίσκυρος , Henry George Liddell,
Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on
Perseus Digital Library
17. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007
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elements of football, episkuros, or
harpaston, was played, and it had migrated
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BC".
18. φαινίνδα , Henry George Liddell, Robert
Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
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19. Nigel Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient
Greece, Routledge, 2005, p. 310
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Rome), The University of North Carolina
Press, 1995, on Google Books
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Greenhaven Press, 1999, p. 83
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59894-1.
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Scotland|]], Scotland:
The game was this: he who at any time
got the ball into his hands, run [sic] with it
till overtaken by one of the opposite part;
and then, if he could shake himself loose
from those on the opposite side who
seized him, he run on; if not, he threw the
 ball from him, unless it was wrested from
him by the other party, but no person was
allowed to kick it. (William Hone, 1825–
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61. The exact name of Mr Lindon is in
dispute, as well as the exact timing of the
creation of the inflatable bladder. It is
known that he created this for both
association and rugby footballs. However,
sites devoted to football indicate he was
known as HJ Lindon , who was actually
Richards Lindon's son, and created the ball
in 1862 (ref: Soccer Ball World ), whereas
rugby sites refer to him as Richard Lindon
creating the ball in 1870 (ref: Guardian
article ). Both agree that his wife died when
inflating pig's bladders. This information
originated from web sites which may be
unreliable, and the answer may only be
found in researching books in central
libraries.
62. soccerballworld.com, (no date) "Charles
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Sheffield party, however, eventually took a
lead, and through some scientific
movements of Mr J Wild, scored a goal
amid great cheering"
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Australia (SMH.com.au. December 17,
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symbolic move would bring Australia into
line with the vast majority of other countries
which call the sport football."
108. "NZ Football – The Local Name Of The
Global Game" . NZFootball.co.nz. April 27,
2006. Archived from the original on 22
September 2009. “The international game is
called football and were part of the
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“Soccer is the most popular sport in the
world and is an industry worth over US$400
billion world wide. 80% of this is generated
in Europe, though its popularity is growing
in the United States. It has been estimated
that there were 22 million soccer players in
the world in the early 1980s, and that
number is increasing. In the United States
soccer is now a major sport at both the high
school and college levels”
114. "As American as Mom, Apple Pie and
Football?" . Harris Interactive. 16 January
2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
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In TV History" . NPR. Retrieved 18 June
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widely cited as a game played on November
6, 1869, between two college teams,
Rutgers and Princeton. But the game was
played under rules based on the association
football rules of the time. During the latter
half of the 1870s, colleges playing
association football switched to the Rugby
code.
121. In 1845, the first rules of rugby were
written by Rugby School pupils. But various
rules of rugby had existed until the
foundation of the Rugby Football Union in
1871.
122. There are Canadian rules [1]
established by Football Canada. Apart from
this, there are also rules [2] established by
IFAF.
123. Some historians support the theory
that the primary influence was rugby
football and other games emanating from
English public schools. On the other hand,
there are also historians who support the
theory that Australian rules football and
Gaelic Football have some common origins.
See Origins of Australian rules football.
124. Summers, Mark. "The Disability
Football Directory" .
125. Fagan, Sean (2006). "Breaking The
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References
Eisenberg, Christiane and Pierre
Lanfranchi, eds. (2006): Football History:
International Perspectives; Special Issue,
Historical Social Research 31, no. 1. 312
pages.
 Green, Geoffrey (1953); The History of
the Football Association; Naldrett Press,
London
Mandelbaum, Michael (2004); The
Meaning of Sports; Public Affairs,
ISBN 1-58648-252-1
Williams, Graham (1994); The Code War;
Yore Publications, ISBN 1-874427-65-8

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