This Article Is About The Family of Sports

This article is about the family of sports.
For specific sports and other uses, see Football

(disambiguation).
American football (gridiron)
Association football (soccer)
Australian rules football
Gaelic football (GAA)
Rugby league football

Rugby union 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
Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States, and sometimes in Ireland and New
Zealand); Australian rules football; Gaelic football; gridiron football (specifically American
football, Arena football, or Canadian football); International rules football; rugby league football;
and rugby union football.[1] These various forms of football share, to varying degrees, 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, itself an outgrowth of medieval
football.[5][6] The expansion and cultural power 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 usually have 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 kicki

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This article is about the family of sports.

For specific sports and other uses, see Football

American football (gridiron)

Association football (soccer)

Australian rules football

Gaelic football (GAA)

Rugby league football

A painting depicting Emperor Taizu of Song playing cuju (i.e.

An ancient Roman tombstone of a boy with a Harpastum ball

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