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Common elements

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Etymology

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Early history
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 Establishment of modern codes
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Use of the word "football"

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Popularity

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Football codes board
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Present-day codes and families
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See also

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Notes
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Football
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the family of sports. For specific sports and other uses,
see Football (disambiguation).
 Association football

American football

Australian rules football

Rugby union

Rugby league

Gaelic football
 Several codes of football

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 North America,
Ireland and Australia); gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian
football); Australian rules football; rugby union and rugby league; and Gaelic football.
[1]
These various forms of football share to varying extents common origins and 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. [2][3][4] Contemporary codes of football can
be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during
the 19th century.[5][6] The expansion and cultural influence of the British
Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside
the directly controlled Empire.[7] By the end of the 19th 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.[8] In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first
of many professional football associations. During the 20th century, several of the
various kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in
the world.[9]

Common elements
The action of kicking in (clockwise from upper left) association, gridiron, rugby, and Australian 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, Australian 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. [10]
Common rules among the sports include:[11]

 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 using only their body to move the ball, i.e. no additional equipment such
as bats or sticks.
In all codes, common skills include passing, tackling, evasion of tackles, catching
and kicking.[10] 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.[12] There is an alternative explanation, which is that football
originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe that were played on foot.
[13]
There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation.

Early history
Ancient games
See also: Episkyros and Cuju
Ancient China
 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) resembles modern association football.
[14]
It existed during the Han dynasty and possibly the Qin dynasty, in the second and
third centuries BC, attested by descriptions in a military manual. [15][16] The Japanese
version of cuju is kemari (蹴鞠), and was developed during the Asuka period.[17] 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)
Ancient Greece and Rome
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)[18]
[19]
or "φαινίνδα" (phaininda),[20] 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.[21][22][23][24][25] 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.[26][27] Episkyros is described as an early form of football by FIFA. [28]
Native Americans
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 in Greenland.[29] 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] Pasuckuakohowog, a game similar to modern-
day association football played amongst Amerindians, was also reported as early as
the 17th century.
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]

Oceania
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]
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.
Turkic peoples
Mahmud al-Kashgari in his Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, described a game called "tepuk"
among Turks in Central and East Asia. In the game, people try to attack each other's
castle by kicking a ball made of sheep leather.[30]

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 indigenous people playing a ball game in French Guiana

An illustration from the 1850s of indigenous Australians playing marn grook

 

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

Medieval and early modern Europe

Further information: Medieval football
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, attributed to Nennius, which
describes "a party of boys ... playing at ball". [31] 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,[32] date from the 12th century.[33]

An illustration of so-called "mob football"

The early forms of football played in England, sometimes referred to as "mob
football", would be played in towns or between neighbouring villages, involving an
unlimited number of players on opposing teams who would clash en masse,
[34]
struggling to move an item, such as inflated animal's bladder[35] to particular
geographical points, such as their opponents' church, with play taking place in the
open space between neighbouring parishes. [36] The game was played primarily during
significant religious festivals, such as Shrovetide, Christmas, or Easter, [35] 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. [37]
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".[38] 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. [39] 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".[38]
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][40] 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", [41] 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".[38][42]
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. [38]

Oldest known painting of foot-ball in Scotland,

by Alexander Carse, c. 1810 "Football" in Scotland, c.

1830
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.[42] 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". [38]
 A pair of football boots were ordered by King Henry VIII of England in 1526.[43]
 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". [44]
 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".[45] 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
Main article: 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.[46] 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
Main article: Attempts to ban football games
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. [47]: 6 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.
American football also faced pressures to ban the sport. The game played in the
19th century resembled mob football that developed in medieval Europe, including a
version popular on university campuses known as old division football, and several
municipalities banned its play in the mid-19th century. [48][49] By the 20th century, the
game had evolved to a more rugby style game. In 1905, there were calls to
ban American football in the U.S. due to its violence; a meeting that year was hosted
by American president Theodore Roosevelt led to sweeping rules changes that
caused the sport to diverge significantly from its rugby roots to become more like the
sport as it is played today.[50]

Establishment of modern codes

English public schools
Main article: English public school football games
While football continued to be played in various forms throughout Britain, its public
schools (equivalent to 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".[51]
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".[52] 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.[53]
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"). [54]
A more detailed description of football is given in Francis Willughby's Book of
Games, written in about 1660.[55] 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".[56][57]
English public schools were the first to codify football games. In particular, they
devised the first offside rules, during the late 18th century.[58] 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.[58] The first known codes – in the sense of a set of rules – were those of Eton in
1815[59] and Aldenham in 1825.[59])
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.[citation needed]

Although the Rugby School (pictured) became

famous due to a version that rugby football was invented there in 1823, most sports
historians refuse this version stating it is apocryphal.
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 association football, however handling the ball at the time was often
permitted and in some cases compulsory,[60] 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.[61]
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).

A Football Game (1839) by British

painter Thomas Webster
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 pm. These changes meant that working class children had more
time for games, including various forms of football.
The earliest known matches between public schools are as follows:

Football match in the 1846 Shrove

Tuesday in Kingston upon Thames, England

 9 December 1834: Eton School v. Harrow School. [62]

 1840s: Old Rugbeians v. Old Salopians (played at Cambridge University). [63]
 1840s: Old Rugbeians v. Old Salopians (played at Cambridge University the
following year).[63]
 1852: Harrow School v. Westminster School.[63]
 1857: Haileybury School v. Westminster School. [63]
 24 February 1858: Forest School v. Chigwell School.[64]
 1858: Westminster School v. Winchester College.[63]
 1859: Harrow School v. Westminster School.[63]
 19 November 1859: Radley College v. Old Wykehamists. [63]
 1 December 1859: Old Marlburians v. Old Rugbeians (played at Christ Church,
Oxford).[63]
 19 December 1859: Old Harrovians v. Old Wykehamists (played at Christ
Church, Oxford).[63]
Firsts
Clubs
Main article: Oldest football clubs

Sheffield F.C. (here pictured in 1857, the year of its foundation) is the oldest surviving association football
club in the world.

Notes about a Sheffield v. Hallam match, dated 29 December 1862

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.[65][63]
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.[66][67] The club forbade tripping but allowed pushing and holding
and the picking up of the ball.[67]
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.[68] This further assisted the spread of the Rugby game.
The earliest known matches involving non-public school clubs or institutions are as
follows:

 13 February 1856: Charterhouse School v. St Bartholemew's Hospital. [69]

 7 November 1856: Bedford Grammar School v. Bedford Town Gentlemen. [70]
 13 December 1856: Sunbury Military College v. Littleton Gentlemen. [71]
 December 1857: Edinburgh University v. Edinburgh Academical Club. [72]
 24 November 1858: Westminster School v. Dingley Dell Club. [73]
 12 May 1859: Tavistock School v. Princetown School.[74]
 5 November 1859: Eton School v. Oxford University. [75]
 22 February 1860: Charterhouse School v. Dingley Dell Club. [76]
 21 July 1860: Melbourne v. Richmond.[77]
 17 December 1860: 58th Regiment v. Sheffield. [78]
 26 December 1860: Sheffield v. Hallam. [79]
Competitions
Main article: Oldest football 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.
[80]
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 international football match took place between
sides representing England and Scotland on 5 March 1870 at the Oval under the
authority of the FA. The first rugby international took place in 1871.
Modern balls
Main article: Football (ball)

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.[81] 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. [a] 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.[82]
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
Main article: Passing (association football)
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.[83] 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).[84]
"Scientific" football is first recorded in 1839 from Lancashire[85] and in the modern
game in rugby football from 1862[86] and from Sheffield FC as early as 1865.[87][88] The
first side to play a passing combination game was the Royal Engineers AFC in
1869/70.[89][90] By 1869 they were "work[ing] well together", "backing up" and benefiting
from "cooperation".[91] 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".
[92]
Passing was a regular feature of their style. [93] By early 1872 the Engineers were
the first football team renowned for "play[ing] beautifully together". [94] 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". [95] The first side to have
perfected the modern formation was Cambridge University AFC;[96][97][98] they also
introduced the 2–3–5 "pyramid" formation.[99][100]
Rugby football
Main articles: Rugby football and History of rugby union

The Last Scrimmage by Edwin Buckman, depicting a

rugby scrum in 1871
Rugby football was thought to have been started about 1845 at Rugby
School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England although forms of football in which the ball
was carried and tossed date to medieval times. In Britain, by 1870, there were 49
clubs playing variations of the Rugby school game.[101] 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.[102] 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.
Regardless of any form of football, the first international match between the national
team of England and Scotland took place at Raeburn Place on 27 March 1871.
Rugby football split into Rugby union, Rugby league, American football,
and Canadian football. Tom Wills played Rugby football in England before
founding Australian rules football.
Cambridge rules
Main article: Cambridge rules
During the nineteenth century, several codifications of the rules of football were
made at the University of Cambridge, in order to enable students from different
public schools to play each other. The Cambridge Rules of 1863 influenced the
decision of the Football Association to ban Rugby-style carrying of the ball in its own
first set of laws.[103]
Sheffield rules
Main article: 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. [104] 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.[105] 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 football
Main article: Australian rules football
See also: Origins of Australian rules football
 Tom Wills, major figure in the creation 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. [106] 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, [107] the first of
which was played on 31 July 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 14 May 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".[108] 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.
The Football Association
Main article: The Football Association

The first football international, Scotland versus England. Once kept by the Rugby Football Union as an
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 26
October 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. [109]
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 the Game", 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".[110]
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.
North American football codes
Main articles: Gridiron football, History of American football, and Canadian football
§ History
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.[49] 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. [48] 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.[48] 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.[48][111] 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.[48]

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. [112]

In Canada, the first documented football match was a practice game played on 9
November 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. [113] 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.[113] A "running game", resembling rugby football, was then
taken up by the Montreal Football Club in Canada in 1868.[114]

Rutgers University (here pictured in 1882) played the

first inter-collegiate football game v Princeton in 1869.
On 6 November 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.[48][115]

The Harvard v McGill game in 1874. It is considered

the first rugby football game played in the United States.
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.[116][117][118] Within a few years, Harvard had both adopted McGill's rules and
persuaded other U.S. university teams to do the same. On 23 November 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.[119]
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 were replacing the scrummage with the line of
scrimmage and the establishment of the down-and-distance rules.[119] American
football still however remained a violent sport where collisions often led to serious
injuries and sometimes even death.[120] This led U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to
hold a meeting with football representatives from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton on 9
October 1905, urging them to make drastic changes. [121] 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. [122]
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.
[123]
Canadian football then implemented the legal forward pass in 1929. [124] 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
Main article: History of 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 7 February 1887.
[125]
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 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."
Further information: History of rugby league
The International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded in 1886,[126] 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
Main article: History of FIFA
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 21 May 1904.[127] Its first president was Robert Guérin.[127] 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.[128] 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.

Use of the word "football"

Further information: Football (word)
The word football, when used in reference to a specific game can mean any one of
those described above. Because of this, much 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 (which is
association football in most countries). So, effectively, what the word "football"
means usually depends on where one says it.

Heading from The Sportsman (London) front page of

25 November 1910, illustrating the continued use of the word "football" to
encompass both association football and rugby
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.[129]
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".[130]
 New Zealand's governing body renamed itself in 2007, saying "the international
game is called football".[131]
 Samoa changed from "Samoa Football (Soccer) Federation" to "Football
Federation Samoa" in 2009.[132][133]

Small football stadium in Croatia

Popularity
Several of the football codes are the most popular team sports in the world.
[9]
Globally, association football is played by over 250 million players in over 200
nations,[134] and has the highest television audience in sport, [135] making it the most
popular in the world.[136] American football, with 1.1 million high school football players
and nearly 70,000 college football players, is the most popular sport in the United
States,[137][138] with the annual Super Bowl game accounting for nine of the top ten of
the most watched broadcasts in U.S. television history.[139] The NFL has the highest
average attendance (67,591) of any professional sports league in the world and has
the highest revenue[140] out of any single professional sports league.[141] Thus, the best
association football and American football players are among the highest paid
athletes in the world.[142][143][144]
Australian rules football has the highest spectator attendance of all sports in
Australia.[145][146] Similarly, Gaelic football is the most popular sport in Ireland in terms of
match attendance,[147] and the All-Ireland Football Final is the most watched event of
that nation's sporting year.[148]
Rugby union is the most popular sport in New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji. [149] It
is also the fastest growing sport in the U.S.,[150][151][152][153] with college rugby being the
fastest growing[clarification needed][154][155] college sport in that country.[156][dubious – discuss]

Football codes board

Medieval Cambridge Association
football rules (1848– football
1863) (1863–)
Indoor
 Beach (1992–)

Futsal (1930–)

Paralympic

Street
Sheffield
rules (1857–
1877) Underwater
football (1967–), Indoor
American football, Arena
Rugby Union American football, Sprint
with minor football (1869[b]- football, Flag
modifications ) football, Touch
football, Street
football, Wheelchair
football (1987–), XFL

Rugby football (1845–)[c]

Canadian
Burnside rules football (1861–) Flag football[e]
[d]

Rugby
Football
Union (1871–
) Rugby sevens (1883–), Rugby tens, Rugby
X, Touch rugby, Tag rugby, American flag
rugby, Mini rugby, Beach rugby, Snow
rugby, Tambo rugby, Wheelchair
rugby, Underwater rugby

Rugby
league (1895–)

Nines

Rugby league sevens

 Touch football, Tag
rugby, Wheelchair rugby
league, Mod league

Rugby rules International rules

and other football (1967–), Austus,
English Australian rules (1859–) Rec
public school footy, Auskick, Samoa
games[f] Rules, Metro
Footy, Lightning
football, AFLX, Nine-a-
Gaelic football (1885–), Ladies' Gaelic football (1969–) side footy, Kick-to-kick

Football codes development tree

hideFootball codes development tree
|

Football

Cambridge Rugby Rug

Sheffield rules (1857–1877)
rules (1848–1863) football (1845–) English

Association
Austr
football (1863–)

Rugby union with minor Canadian Rugby Football

modifications football (1861–) Union (1871–)
 Rugby
American football (1869–)
league (1895–)

Arena Flag football

Flag football
football (1987–) (Canadian)

Rugby league Rugby league

Futsal (1930–)
nines sevens

Beach soccer (1992–) Indoor soccer Paralympic football Street football

Notes:

Present-day codes and families

Association
Main article: Variants of association football

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)

Women's beach soccer game at YBF 2010 in Yyteri

Beach, Pori, Finland
These codes have in common the prohibition of the use of hands (by all players
except the goalkeeper, though outfield players can "throw-in" the ball when it goes
out of play), unlike other codes where carrying or handling the ball by all players is
allowed

 Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and footie

 Indoor/basketball court variants:
o Five-a-side football – game for smaller teams, played under various rules
including:
 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.
o Indoor soccer – the six-a-side indoor game, the Latin American variant (fútbol
rápido, "fast football") is often played in open-air venues
o Masters Football – six-a-side played in Europe by mature professionals (35
years and older)
 Paralympic football – modified game for athletes with a disability. [157] Includes:
o Football 5-a-side – for visually impaired athletes
o Football 7-a-side – for athletes with cerebral palsy
o Amputee football – for athletes with amputations
o Deaf football – for athletes with hearing impairments
o 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
 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
 Walking football – players are restricted to walking, to facilitate participation by
older and less mobile players
 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

Rugby sevens; Fiji v Wales at the 2006

Commonwealth Games in Melbourne Griffins RFC

Kotka, the rugby union team from Kotka, Finland, playing in the Rugby-7
Tournament in 2013
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
during play is prohibited by anyone except the goalkeeper. They also feature various
methods of scoring based upon whether the ball is carried into the goal area, or
kicked above the goalposts.

 Rugby football
o Rugby union
 Mini rugby a variety for children.
 Rugby sevens and Rugby tens – variants for teams of reduced size.
o 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 – variants for teams of
reduced size.
o Beach rugby – rugby played on sand
o Touch rugby – generic name for forms of rugby football which do not feature
tackles, one variant has been formalised
 o Tag Rugby – non-contact variant in which a flag attached to a player is
removed to indicate a tackle.
 Gridiron football
o 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
 Flag football – non-contact variant in which a flag attached to a player is
removed to indicate a tackle.
 Touch football – non-tackle variants
o 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.
o Indoor football – indoor variants, particularly arena football
o Wheelchair football – variant adapted to play by athletes with physical
disabilities
See also: Comparison of American football and rugby league, Comparison of
American football and rugby union, Comparison of Canadian and American football,
and Comparison of rugby league and rugby union
Irish and Australian

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
o Auskick – a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL for young
children
 o 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)
o Kick-to-kick – informal versions of the game
o 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)
o Rec footy – "Recreational Football", a modified non-contact variation of
Australian rules, created by the AFL, which replaces tackles with tags
o Touch Aussie Rules – a non-tackle variation of Australian Rules played only
in the United Kingdom
o Samoa rules – localised version adapted to Samoan conditions, such as the
use of rugby football fields
o Masters Australian football (a.k.a. Superules) – reduced contact version
introduced for competitions limited to players over 30 years of age
o 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"
o Ladies Gaelic football
 International rules football – a compromise code used for international
representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic
football players
See also: Comparison of Australian rules football and Gaelic football
Medieval
 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
Britain

 The Haxey Hood, played on Epiphany in Haxey, Lincolnshire

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

Harrow football players after a game at Harrow

School (c. 2005)
Games still played at UK public (private) schools:

 Eton field game

 Eton wall game
 Harrow football
 Winchester College football
Recent and hybrid
 Keepie uppie (keep up) – the art of juggling with a football using the feet, knees,
chest, shoulders, and head.
o 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.
o Freestyle football – participants are graded for their entertainment value and
expression of skill.
Association

 Three sided football

 Triskelion
Rugby

 Force 'em backs a.k.a. forcing back, forcemanback

Hybrid

 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
 Footgolf – golf played by kicking an association football.
 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 about 1942.
 Underwater football – played in a pool, and the ball can only be played when
underwater. The ball can be carried as in rugby.
  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.[158]
 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.
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

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

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

 AFL video game series

o List of AFL video games
Based on rugby league football

 Australian Rugby League

 Sidhe's Rugby League series
o Rugby League 3

See also

 Football portal

 1601 to 1725 in sports: Football

 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
 American football in the United States
 List of largest sports contracts

Notes
Footnotes
1. ^ 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 Richard
Lindon's son, and created the ball in 1862 (ref: Soccer Ball World Archived 16 June 2006 at
the Wayback Machine), whereas rugby sites refer to him as Richard Lindon creating the ball in
1870 (ref: Guardian article Archived 15 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine). 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.
2. ^ The first game of American football is widely cited as a game played on 6 November 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.
3. ^ 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.
4. ^ In 1903, Burnside rules were introduced to Ontario Rugby Football Union, which transformed
Canadian football from a rugby-style game to the gridiron-style game.
5. ^ There are Canadian rules [1] Archived 21 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine established
by Football Canada. Apart from this, there are also rules [2] Archived 18 October 2015 at
the Wayback Machine established by IFAF.
6. ^ 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.

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References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Football.

 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.
show

Football codes

show
 Team sports
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