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 generally
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.[12]
 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.[13] There is an alternative explanation, which is
that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe that
were played on foot.[14] There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation.

Early history
Ancient games
See also: Episkyros and Cuju
Ancient China

Emperor Taizu of Song playing cuju (Chinese

football) with his prime minister Zhao Pu (趙普) and other ministers, by Yuan
dynasty artist Qian Xuan (1235–1305)
The Chinese competitive game cuju is an early type of ball game where feet
were used, in some aspects resembling modern association football. It was
possibly played around the Han dynasty and early Qin dynasty, based on an
attestation in a military manual from around the second to third centuries BC.
[15][16][17]
In one version, gameplay consisted of players passing the ball between
teammates without allowing it to touch the ground (much like keepie uppie). In
its competitive version, two teams had to pass the ball without it falling, before
kicking the ball through a circular hole placed in the middle of the pitch. Unlike
association football, the two teams did not interact with each other but instead
stayed on opposite sides of the pitch.[18] Cuju has been cited by FIFA as the
earliest form of football.[4]
The Japanese version of cuju is kemari (蹴鞠), and was developed during
the Asuka period.[19] 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. The Silk Road facilitated the transmission of cuju, especially the game
popular in the Tang dynasty, the period when the inflatable ball was invented
and replaced the stuffed ball.[20]

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)[21][22] or φαινίνδα (phaininda),[23] 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.[24][25][26][27][28] 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.[29][30] Episkyros is described as
an early form of football by FIFA.[31]
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.[32] 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 Asia. In the game, people try to attack
each other's castle by kicking a ball made of sheep leather.[33]


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".[34] 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,
[35]
date from the 12th century.[36]
 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,[37] struggling to move an item, such as inflated animal's bladder[38] to
particular geographical points, such as their opponents' church, with play
taking place in the open space between neighbouring parishes.[39] The game
was played primarily during significant religious festivals, such as Shrovetide,
Christmas, or Easter,[38] 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.[40]
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".[41] 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.[42] 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".[41]

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]
[43]
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",[44] 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".[41][45]

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.[41]

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.[45] 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".[41]
 A pair of football boots were ordered by King Henry VIII of England in
1526.[46]
 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".[47]
 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".[48] 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.[49] 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.[50]:
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.[51]
[52]
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.[53]

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".[54]
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".[55] 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.[56]
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").[57]

A more detailed description of football is given in Francis Willughby's Book of

Games, written in about 1660.[58] 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".[59][60]

English public schools were the first to codify football games. In particular,
they devised the first offside rules, during the late 18th century.[61] 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.
 The first known codes – in the sense of a set of rules – were those of Eton
[61]

in 1815[62] and Aldenham in 1825.[62])

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,[63] 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.[64]

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 § British schools).

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.[65]

 1840s: Old Rugbeians v. Old Salopians (played at Cambridge University).
[66]

 1840s: Old Rugbeians v. Old Salopians (played at Cambridge University

the following year).[66]
 1852: Harrow School v. Westminster School.[66]
 1857: Haileybury School v. Westminster School.[66]
 24 February 1858: Forest School v. Chigwell School.[67]
 1858: Westminster School v. Winchester College.[66]
 1859: Harrow School v. Westminster School.[66]
 19 November 1859: Radley College v. Old Wykehamists.[66]
 1 December 1859: Old Marlburians v. Old Rugbeians (played at Christ
Church, Oxford).[66]
 19 December 1859: Old Harrovians v. Old Wykehamists (played at Christ
Church, Oxford).[66]
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.[68][66]

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.[69][70] The club forbade tripping but allowed
pushing and holding and the picking up of the ball.[70]

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.[71] 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.[72]

 7 November 1856: Bedford Grammar School v. Bedford Town Gentlemen.
[73]

 13 December 1856: Sunbury Military College v. Littleton Gentlemen.[74]

 December 1857: Edinburgh University v. Edinburgh Academical Club.[75]
 24 November 1858: Westminster School v. Dingley Dell Club.[76]
 12 May 1859: Tavistock School v. Princetown School.[77]
 5 November 1859: Eton School v. Oxford University.[78]
 22 February 1860: Charterhouse School v. Dingley Dell Club.[79]
 21 July 1860: Melbourne v. Richmond.[80]
 17 December 1860: 58th Regiment v. Sheffield.[81]
 26 December 1860: Sheffield v. Hallam.[82]
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.[83] 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 Rugby
football match took place between Scotland and England on 27 March 1871
at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh. The first international Association football
match officially took place between sides representing England and Scotland
on 30 November 1872 at Hamilton Crescent, the West of Scotland Cricket
Club's ground in Partick, Glasgow under the authority of the FA.
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.[84] 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.[85]

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.[86] 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).[87]

"Scientific" football is first recorded in 1839 from Lancashire[88] and in the

modern game in rugby football from 1862[89] and from Sheffield FC as early as
1865.[90][91] The first side to play a passing combination game was the Royal
Engineers AFC in 1869/70.[92][93] By 1869 they were "work[ing] well together",
"backing up" and benefiting from "cooperation".[94] 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".[95] Passing was a regular feature of their
style.[96] By early 1872 the Engineers were the first football team renowned for
"play[ing] beautifully together".[97] 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".[98] The first side
to have perfected the modern formation was Cambridge University AFC;[99][100]
[101]
they also introduced the 2–3–5 "pyramid" formation.[102][103]

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.[104] 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.[105] 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.[106]

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.[107] 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.[108] 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.[109] 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,[110] 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".
[111]
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.[112]
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".[113]

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.[52] 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.[51] 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.[51] 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.[51][114] 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.[51]

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.[115]
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.[116] 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.[116] A "running game", resembling rugby football, was then
taken up by the Montreal Football Club in Canada in 1868.[117]

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.[51][118]

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.[119][120][121] 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.[122]

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.
[122]
American football still however remained a violent sport where collisions
often led to serious injuries and sometimes even death.[123] 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.[124] 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.[125]

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.[126] Canadian football then implemented the
legal forward pass in 1929.[127] 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.[128] 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,[129] 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.[130] Its first president
was Robert Guérin.[130] 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.[131] 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.[132]

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.[133]
 New Zealand's governing body renamed itself in 2007, saying "the
international game is called football".[134]
 Samoa changed from "Samoa Football (Soccer) Federation" to "Football
Federation Samoa" in 2009.[135][136]
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,[137] and has the highest television audience in sport,[138] making it
the most popular in the world.[139] 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,[140][141] with the annual Super Bowl game
accounting for nine of the top ten of the most watched broadcasts in U.S.
television history.[142] The NFL has the highest average attendance (67,591) of
any professional sports league in the world and has the highest revenue[143] out
of any single professional sports league.[144] Thus, the best association football
and American football players are among the highest paid athletes in the
world.[145][146][147]

Australian rules football has the highest spectator attendance of all sports in
Australia.[148][149] Similarly, Gaelic football is the most popular sport in Ireland in
terms of match attendance,[150] and the All-Ireland Football Final is the most
watched event of that nation's sporting year.[151]

Rugby union is the most popular sport in New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, and
Fiji.[152] It is also the fastest growing sport in the U.S.,[153][154][155][156] with college
rugby being the fastest growing[clarification needed][157][158] college sport in that country.[159]
[dubious – discuss]

Football codes board

Medi Cambr Associ
eval idge ation
footb rules footbal Indoor
all (1848 l
– (1863–
1863) ) Beach (1992–)

Futsal (1930–)
 Paralympic

Sheffi
eld Street
rules
(1857
– Rugby
1877) union w America
Underwater (1967–), Indoor, Arena, S
ith n
print, Flag, Touch, Street, Wheelchair (
minor football
1987–), XFL
modific (1869[b]–)
ations

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

Sevens (1883–), Tens, X, Touch, Tag, American

Rugby
flag, Mini, Beach, Snow, Tambo, Wheelchair, Un
football (1845–
derwater
)[c]
Rugby
Football
Union (
1871–) Nines
Rugby
league (1
Sevens
895–)

Touch football, Tag, Wheelchair, Mod

Rugby Australian rules (1859–) International rules

 rules
and
other
Englis
h football (1967–), Austus, Rec
public footy, Auskick, Samoa
school Rules, Metro, Lightning, AFLX, Nine-
games[ a-side, Kick-to-kick
f]

Gaelic football (1885–), Ladies'

Gaelic football (1969–)

Football codes development tree

hideFootball codes development tree
|

Football

Cambridge Rugby
Sheffield rules (1857–1877)
rules (1848–1863) football (1845–)

Association
football (1863–)

Rugby union with Canadian Rug

minor modifications football (1861–) Uni
 American Rugby
football (1869–) league (18

Arena Flag football

Flag football
football (1987–) (Canadian)

Rugby Rugby lea

Futsal (1930–)
league nines sevens

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