Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal.

Unqualified, the word football normally means the form of football that is the most popular where
the word is used. Sports commonly called football 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 various forms of football are known as football codes.
There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games played 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]

Contents

 1Common elements
 2Etymology
 3Early history
o 3.1Ancient games
o 3.2Medieval and early modern Europe
o 3.3Calcio Fiorentino
o 3.4Official disapproval and attempts to ban football
 4Establishment of modern codes
o 4.1English public schools
o 4.2Firsts
o 4.3Cambridge rules
o 4.4Sheffield rules
o 4.5Australian rules
o 4.6Football Association
o 4.7Rugby football
o 4.8North American football codes
o 4.9Gaelic football
o 4.10Schism in Rugby football
o 4.11Globalisation of association football
o 4.12Further divergence of the two rugby codes
 5Use of the word "football"
 6Popularity
 7Football codes board
o 7.1Football codes development tree
 8Present day codes and families
o 8.1Association football and descendants
o 8.2Rugby school football and descendants
o 8.3Irish and Australian varieties
o 8.4Surviving medieval ball games
o 8.5Surviving UK school games
o 8.6Recent inventions and hybrid games
o 8.7Tabletop games, video games and other recreations
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References

Common elements

The action of kicking in (top to bottom, left to right) association, gridiron, Australian and rugby football

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
Main article: Football (word)
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
See also: Episkyros and Cuju

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)

The Chinese competitive game cuju (蹴鞠), as stated by FIFA, is the earliest form of football for
which there is scientific evidence and appears in a military manual dated to the second and third
centuries BC.[14] It existed during the Han dynasty and possibly the Qin dynasty, in the second
and third centuries BC.[15] The Japanese version of cuju is kemari (蹴鞠), and was developed
during the Asuka period.[16] 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).
An ancient Roman tombstone of a boy with a Harpastum ball from Tilurium (modern Sinj, Croatia)

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)[17][18] or "φαινίνδα" (phaininda),[19] 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.[20][21][22][23][24] 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.[25][26] Episkyros is recognised as an
early form of football by FIFA.[27]
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.[28] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
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."[citation needed]
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 athlete balancing a ball on his thigh, Piraeus, 400-375 BC

A Song dynasty painting by Su Hanchen (c. 1130-1160), depicting Chinese children playing cuju

Paint of a Mesoamerican ballgame player of the Tepantitla murals in Teotihuacan

A group of aborigines playing a ball game in Guiana


 An illustration from the 1850s of Australian Aboriginal hunter gatherers

A revived version of kemari being played at the Tanzan Shrine, Japan, 2006

Medieval and early modern Europe

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.

"Football" in France, circa 1750

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).
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 Caunton, 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 medieval 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 were 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".