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).

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 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 Kī-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 farther 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
Further information: History of rugby league

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."
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]
Popularity

Small football stadium in Croatia

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
Medie
val
footbal
l Cambri Indoor
dge
rules
(1848– Beach (1992–)
1863)

Futsal (1930–)

Associat
ion
football
(1863–)
Paralympic

Sheffiel
d rules Street
(1857–
1877)
Rugby
union wit American
Underwater (1967–), Indoor, Arena, Sprint, Flag,
h minor football
Touch, Street, Wheelchair (1987–), XFL
modificati (1869[b]–)
ons

Rugby
football (1845–)[c]

Burnside Canadian Flag football[e]

rules football (18
61–)[d]
 Sevens (1883–), Tens, X, Touch, Tag, American
flag, Mini, Beach, Snow, Tambo, Wheelchair, Underwater

Rugby
Football
Union (18
71–)
Nines
Rugby
league (189
5–)
Sevens

Touch football, Tag, Wheelchair, Mod

Rugby
rules
and
other
Australian rules (1859–)
English International rules football (1967–), Austus, Rec
public footy, Auskick, Samoa
school Rules, Metro, Lightning, AFLX, Nine-a-side, Ki
games[f] ck-to-kick

Gaelic football (1885–), Ladies' Gaelic

football (1969–)

Football codes development tree

hideFootball codes development tree
|

Football
 Rugby rules and othe
Cambridge Sheffield rules (1857– Rugby
English public schoo
rules (1848–1863) 1877) football (1845–)
games

Association
Australian rules (1859
football (1863–)

Rugby union with Canadian Rugby Football

Int'l R
minor modifications football (1861–) Union (1871–)

American Rugby
Rugby sevens (
football (1869–) league (1895–)

Arena Flag football

Flag football
football (1987–) (Canadian)

Rugby league Rugby league

Futsal (1930–) Touch footb
nines sevens

Paralympic
Beach soccer (1992–) Indoor soccer Street football
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.[161] 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.