   #copyright

Football

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Sports

   Football is the name given to a number of different, but related, team
   sports. The most popular of these world-wide is association football
   (also known as soccer). The English word "football" is also applied to
   American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic
   football, rugby football ( rugby union and rugby league), and related
   games. All of these codes (specific sets of rules) are referred to as
   "football" by their followers.
   Some of the many different codes of football.
   Enlarge
   Some of the many different codes of football.

   These games involve:
     * a spherical or prolate spheroid ball, which is itself called a
       football.
     * a team scoring goals and/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.
     * the goal and/or line being defended by the opposing team.
     * the ball being moved mostly by kicking, carrying and/or passing by
       hand, depending on the code.
     * goals and/or points resulting from players putting the ball between
       two goalposts.
     * in some codes, points being mostly scored by players taking the
       ball across the line.
     * players scoring a goal, in most codes, being required to put the
       ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts.
     * players in some codes receiving a free kick after they take a
       mark/make a fair catch.
     * players being required to use their feet (and possibly other
       specific parts of their bodies) to move the ball and/or score,
       depending on the code.
     * the winning team being the one that has the most points or goals,
       when a specified length of time has elapsed.

   Many of the modern games have their origins in England, but many
   peoples around the world have played games which involved kicking
   and/or carrying a ball since ancient times.

Etymology

   While it is widely believed that the word "football" (or "foot ball")
   originated in reference to the action of a foot kicking a ball, there
   is a rival explanation, which has it that football originally referred
   to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot.
   These games were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the
   horse-riding sports often played by aristocrats. While there is no
   conclusive evidence for this explanation, the word football has always
   implied a variety of games played on foot, not just those that involved
   kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has even been applied
   to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball.

History

Early history

   Throughout the history of mankind, the urge to kick at stones and other
   such objects is thought to have led to many early activities involving
   kicking and/or running with a ball. Football-like games predate
   recorded history in all parts of the world, and thus the earliest forms
   of football are not known.

Ancient games

   Documented evidence of what is possibly the oldest activity resembling
   football can be found in a Chinese military manual written during the
   Han Dynasty in about 2nd century BC. It describes a practice known as
   cuju, which involved kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece
   of silk cloth strung between two 30 foot poles.
   Kemari being played at the Tanzan Shrine, Sakurai, Japan.
   Enlarge
   Kemari being played at the Tanzan Shrine, Sakurai, Japan.

   Another Asian ball-kicking game, which may have been influenced by
   cuju, is kemari. 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). The game appears to
   have died out sometime before the mid-19th century. (It was revived in
   1903, and it can now be seen played for the benefit of tourists at a
   number of festivals.)

   Mesoamerican ballgames played with rubber balls are also
   well-documented as existing since before this time, and are thought to
   have resembled football in their earlier versions; but since later
   versions have more similarities to basketball or volleyball, and since
   their influence on modern football games is minimal, most do not class
   them as football.

   The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games
   some of which involved the use of the feet. The Roman writer Cicero
   describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a
   ball was kicked into a barber's shop. The Roman game of Harpastum is
   believed to have been adapted from a team game known as "επισκυρος"
   (episkyros) or pheninda that is mentioned by Greek playwright,
   Antiphanes (388-311BC) and later referred to by Clement of Alexandria.
   The game appears to have vaguely resembled rugby.

   There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, and/or
   prehistoric ball games, played by indigenous peoples in many different
   parts of the world. For example, in 1586, men from a ship commanded by
   an English explorer named John Davis, went ashore to play a form of
   football with Inuit (Eskimo) people in Greenland. 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 of the Jamestown settlement, Virginia
   recorded a game played by Native Americans, called Pahsaheman. In
   Victoria, Australia, Indigenous Australians played a game called Marn
   Grook ("ball game"). An 1878 book by Robert Brough-Smyth, The
   Aborigines of Victoria, quotes a man called Richard Thomas as saying,
   in about 1841, 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." It is widely believed that Marn Grook had an
   influence on the development of Australian rules football (see below).

   These games and others may well go far back into antiquity and may have
   influenced later football games. However, the main sources of modern
   football codes appear to lie in western Europe, especially England.

Games in Mediæval and early modern Europe

   The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide
   football matches throughout Europe, particularly in England. The game
   played in England at this time may have arrived with the Roman
   occupation, but there is little evidence to indicate this. Reports of a
   game played in Brittany, Normandy, and Picardy, known as La Soule or
   Choule, suggest that some of these football games could have arrived in
   England as a result of the Norman Conquest.

   These archaic forms of football, typically classified as " mob
   football", would be played between neighbouring towns and villages,
   involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would
   clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig's
   bladder by any means possible to markers at each end of a town
   (sometimes instead of markers, the teams would attempt to kick the
   bladder into the balcony of the opponents' church). A legend that these
   games in England evolved from a more ancient and bloody ritual of
   kicking the " Dane's head" is unlikely to be true. Shrovetide games
   survived in a number of English towns in the modern era (see below).

   The first detailed description of football in England was given by
   William FitzStephen (c. 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.

   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.

   In the early 14th century, Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor 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] 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 or
   "foot ball".

   In 1363, King Edward III of England issued a similar proclamation
   banning "...handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting,
   or other such idle games", showing that "football" — whatever its exact
   form in this case — was being differentiated from other games, such as
   handball.

   Other firsts in the Mediæval and early modern eras:
     * the first mention of football in Ireland was in 1308, when a
       spectator at a football game at Newcastle, County Dublin was
       charged with accidentally stabbing a player.
     * "a football", in the sense of a ball, was mentioned in 1486.
     * a pair of football boots was ordered by King Henry VIII of England
       in 1526.
     * women playing a form of football was in 1580, when Sir Philip
       Sidney described it 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."
     * 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
       score off, other twayne in like distance, which they terme their
       Goales". 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" . (According to
       the first English-Latin dictionary, Promptorium Parvulorum (1440)
       this was a version of "foott balle"..) 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

   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 della Novere or the Piazza
   Santa Croce. 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

   Numerous attempts have been made to ban football games, particularly
   the most rowdy and disruptive forms. This was especially the case in
   England and in other parts of Europe, during the Middle Ages and early
   modern period. Between 1324 and 1667, football was banned in England
   alone by more than 30 royal and local laws. The need to repeatedly
   proclaim such laws demonstrated the difficulty in enforcing bans on
   popular games.

   King Edward II was so troubled by the unruliness of football in London
   that on April 13, 1314 he issued a proclamation banning it: "Forasmuch
   as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls
   from which many evils may 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."

   The reasons for the ban by Edward III, on June 12, 1349, were explicit:
   football and other recreations distracted the populace from practicing
   archery, which was necessary for war.

   By 1608, the local authorities in Manchester were complaining that:
   "With the ffotebale...[there] hath beene greate disorder in our towne
   of Manchester we are told, and glasse windowes broken yearlye and
   spoyled by a companie of lewd and disordered persons ..." That same
   year, the word "football" was used disapprovingly by William
   Shakespeare. Shakespeare's play King Lear contains the line: "Nor
   tripped neither, you base football player" (Act I, Scene 4).
   Shakespeare also mentions the game in A Comedy of Errors (Act II, Scene
   1):

          Am I so round with you as you with me,
          That like a football you do spurn me thus?
          You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:
          If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.

   "Spurn" literally means to kick away, thus implying that the game
   involved kicking a ball between players.

   King James I of England's Book of Sports (1618) however, instructs
   Christians to play at football every Sunday afternoon after worship.
   The book's appears to be an attempt to offset the strictness of the
   Puritans, regarding the keeping of the Sabbath.

Establishment of modern codes of football

British public schools

   While football continued to be played in various forms throughout
   Britain, its public schools (known as 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
   British 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 Horman in 1519. Horman 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".

   Richard Mulcaster, a student at Eton College in the early 16th century
   and later headmaster at other schools, has been described as “the
   greatest sixteenth Century advocate of football”. 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.

   In 1633, David Wedderburn, a teacher from Aberdeen, mentioned elements
   of modern football games in a short Latin textbook called "Vocabula".
   Wedderburn is the first to refer to things which, in modern English,
   translate as "keeping goal" and "passing a ball". 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 ("keep him out").

   A more detailed description of football is given in Francis Willughby's
   Book of Sports, written in about 1660. Willughby, who had studied at
   Sutton Coldfield School, 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".

   By the early 19th century, (before the Factory Act of 1850), 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.

   William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby school, is said to have "showed a
   fine disregard for the rules of football, as played in his time" by
   picking up the ball and running to the opponents' goal 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. Nevertheless, by 1841 (some sources say
   1842), running with the ball had become acceptable at Rugby, as long as
   a player gathered the ball on the full or from a bounce, he was not
   offside and he did not pass the ball.

   During this period, the Rugby school rules appear to have spread at
   least as far, perhaps further, than the other schools' codes. For
   example, two clubs which claim to be the world's first and/or oldest
   football club, in the sense of a club which is not part of a school or
   university, are both stongholds of rugby football: the Barnes Club,
   said to have been founded in 1839, and Guy's Hospital Football Club,
   reportedly founded in 1843. Neither date nor the variety of football
   played is well-documented, but such claims nevertheless allude to the
   popularity of rugby before other modern codes emerged.

   The boom in rail transport in Britain during the 1840s meant that
   people were able to travel further and with less inconvenience than
   they ever had before. Inter-school sporting competitions became
   possible. However, it was difficult for schools to play each other at
   football, as each school played by its own rules.

   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. This further assisted
   the spread of the Rugby game.

Cambridge Rules

   In 1848 at Cambridge University, Mr. H. de Winton and Mr. J.C. Thring,
   who were both formerly at Shrewsbury School, called a meeting at
   Trinity College, Cambridge with 12 other representatives from Eton,
   Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury. An eight-hour meeting
   produced what amounted to the first set of modern rules, known as the
   Cambridge Rules. No copy of these rules now exists, but a revised
   version from circa 1856 is held in the library of Shrewsbury School.
   The rules clearly favour the kicking game. Handling was only allowed
   for a player to take a clean catch entitling them to a free kick and
   there was a primitive offside rule, disallowing players from
   "loitering" around the opponents' goal. The Cambridge Rules were not
   widely adopted outside English public schools and universities but did
   influence the Football Association committee members responsible for
   formulating the rules of soccer as it is played today .

Other developments in the 1850s

   The increasing interest and development of the various English football
   games was shown in 1851, when Richard Lindon and William Gilbert both
   Boot and Shoemakers from Rugby, Warwickshire, exhibited both round and
   oval-shaped balls at the Great Exhibition in London. Richard Lindon
   also won medals for the invention of the "Rubber inflatable Bladder"
   and the "Brass Hand Pump".

   Dublin University Football Club — founded at Trinity College, Dublin in
   1854 and later famous as a bastion of the Rugby School game — is
   arguably the world's oldest football club in any code.

   By the late 1850s, many clubs had been formed throughout the
   English-speaking world, to play various codes of football. (For more
   details see: Oldest football clubs.)

   Sheffield Football Club, founded by former Harrow School pupils
   Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, in 1857, was later recognised as
   the world's oldest Association football (soccer) club. However, the
   club initially played its own code of football: the Sheffield Rules.
   There were some similarities to the Cambridge Rules, but players were
   allowed to push or hit the ball with their hands, and there was no
   offside rule at all, so that players known as kick throughs could be
   permanently positioned near the opponents' goal. The code spread to a
   number of clubs in the area and was popular until the 1870s.

Australian rules football

   An Australian rules football match at the Richmond Paddock, Melbourne,
   in 1866. (A wood engraving by Robert Bruce.)
   Enlarge
   An Australian rules football match at the Richmond Paddock, Melbourne,
   in 1866. (A wood engraving by Robert Bruce.)

   Tom Wills began to develop Australian football in Melbourne during
   1858. Wills had been educated in England, at Rugby School and had
   played cricket for Cambridge University. The extent to which Wills was
   directly influenced by British and Irish football games is unknown, but
   there were similarities between some of them and his game. There were
   pronounced similarities between Wills's game and Gaelic football (as it
   would be codified in 1887). It appears that Australian football also
   has some similarities to the indigenous Australian game of Marn Grook
   (see above).

   Melbourne Football Club was also founded in 1858 and is the oldest
   surviving Australian football club, but the rules it used during its
   first season are unknown. The club's rules of 1859 are the oldest
   surviving set of laws for Australian rules. They were drawn up at the
   Parade Hotel, East Melbourne on 17 May, by Wills, W.J. Hammersley, J.B.
   Thompson and Thomas Smith (some sources include H.C.A. Harrison). These
   men had similar backgrounds to Wills and their code also had pronounced
   similarities to the Sheffield rules, most notably in the absence of an
   offside rule. A free kick was awarded for a mark (clean catch).
   However, running while holding the ball was allowed and although it was
   not specified in the rules, a rugby ball was used. The club shared many
   members with the Melbourne Cricket Club, which was based at the
   Melbourne Cricket Ground, and cricket ovals — which vary in size and
   are much larger than the fields used in other forms of football —
   became the standard playing field for Australian rules. The 1859 rules
   did not include some elements which would soon become important to the
   game, such as the requirement to bounce the ball while running.

   Australian rules is sometimes said to be the first form of football to
   be codified but — as was the case in all kinds of football at the time,
   there was no official body supporting the rules — and play varied from
   one club to another. By 1866, however, several other clubs in the
   Colony of Victoria had agreed to play an updated version of the
   Melbourne F.C. rules, which were later known as "Victorian Rules"
   and/or " Australasian Rules". The formal name of the code later became
   Australian rules football (and, more recently, Australian football). By
   the end of the 19th century the code had spread to the other Australian
   colonies (although rugby football would remain more popular in New
   South Wales and Queensland) and other parts of the world.

The Football Association

   The first football international, Scotland versus England. Once kept by
   the Rugby Football Union as an early example of rugby football.
   Enlarge
   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 Freemason's Tavern, Great Queen Street, London on the evening of
   October 26, 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 were sent
   to 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 Sheffield Rules and the 1863 version of the
   Cambridge Rules. There were two rules in the FA's draft which differed
   substantially from the Cambridge game:

          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 [to take a free kick] 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.

   At the fifth meeting it was proposed that these two rules be removed.
   Most of the delegates supported this, but F. W. Campbell, the
   representative from Blackheath and the first FA treasurer, objected. He
   said: "hacking is the true football". However, the motion to ban
   hacking was carried and Blackheath withdrew from the FA. After the
   final meeting on 8 December, the FA published the " Laws of Football",
   the first comprehensive set of rules for the game later known as
   association football (later known in some countries as soccer).

   The first FA rules still contained elements that are no longer part of
   association football, but which are still recognisable in other games:
   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 in front of the goal line.

Rugby football

   1871 engraving of the game
   Enlarge
   1871 engraving of the game

   In Britain, by 1870, there were about 75 clubs playing variations of
   the Rugby school game. 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). (Ironically,
   Blackheath now lobbied to ban hacking.) The first official RFU rules
   were adopted in June 1871. 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.

North American football

   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.

   The first game of rugby in Canada is generally said to have taken place
   in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local
   civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal
   Football Club was formed in 1868, the first recorded football club in
   Canada.

   In 1869, the first game played in the United States under rules based
   on the English FA (soccer) code occurred, between Princeton and
   Rutgers. This is also often considered to be the first US game of
   college football, in the sense of a game between colleges (although the
   eventual form of American football would come from rugby, not soccer).
   Rutgers College Football Team, 1882
   Enlarge
   Rutgers College Football Team, 1882

   Modern American football grew out of a match between McGill University
   of Montreal, and Harvard University in 1874. At the time, Harvard
   students are reported to have played the Boston Game — a running code —
   rather than the FA-based kicking games favored by US universities. This
   made it easy for Harvard to adapt to the rugby-based game played by
   McGill and the two teams alternated between their respective sets of
   rules. Within a few years, however, Harvard had both adopted McGill's
   rugby rules and had persuaded other US university teams to do the same.
   In 1876, at the Massasoit Convention, it was agreed by these
   universities to adopt most of the Rugby Football Union rules. However,
   a touch-down only counted toward the score if neither side kicked a
   field goal. The convention decided that, in the US game, four
   touchdowns would be worth one goal; in the event of a tied score, a
   goal converted from a touchdown would take precedence over four
   touch-downs.

   Princeton, Rutgers and others continued to compete using soccer-based
   rules for a few years before switching to the rugby-based rules of
   Harvard and its competitors. US colleges did not generally return to
   soccer until the early twentieth century.

   In 1880, Yale coach Walter Camp, devised a number of major changes to
   the American game, beginning with the reduction of teams from 15 to 11
   players, followed by reduction of the field area by almost half, and;
   the introduction of the scrimmage, in which a player heeled the ball
   backwards, to begin a game. These were complemented in 1882 by another
   of Camp's innovations: a team had to surrender possession if they did
   not gain five yards after three downs (i.e. successful tackles).

   Over the years Canadian football absorbed some developments in American
   football, but also retained many unique characteristics. One of these
   was that Canadian football, for many years, did not officially
   distinguish itself from rugby. For example, the Canadian Rugby Football
   Union, founded in 1884 was the forerunner of the Canadian Football
   League, rather than a rugby union body. (The Canadian Rugby Union was
   not formed until 1965.) American football was also frequently described
   as "rugby" in the 1880s.

Gaelic football

   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 February 7, 1887.
   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).

The split in Rugby football

   The International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded in 1886, but
   rifts were beginning to emerge in the code. Professionalism was
   beginning to creep into the various codes of football.

   In Britain, 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.

The globalisation of association football (soccer)

   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 May 21, 1904. Its first president was Robert Guérin. The
   French name and acronym has remained, even outside French-speaking
   countries.

The reform of American football

   Both forms of rugby and American football were noted at the time for
   serious injuries, as well as the deaths of a significant number of
   players. By the early 20th century in the USA, this had resulted in
   national controversy and American football was banned by a number of
   colleges. Consequently, a series of meetings was held by 19 colleges in
   1905–06. This occurred reputedly at the behest of President Theodore
   Roosevelt. He was considered a fancier of the game, but he threatened
   to ban it unless the rules were modified to reduce the numbers of
   deaths and disabilities. The meetings are now considered to be the
   origin of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

   One proposed change was a widening of the playing field. However,
   Harvard University had just built a concrete stadium and therefore
   objected to widening, instead proposing legalisation of the forward
   pass. The report of the meetings introduced many restrictions on
   tackling and two more divergences from rugby: the forward pass and the
   banning of mass formation plays. The changes did not immediately have
   the desired effect, and 33 American football players were killed during
   1908 alone. However, the number of deaths and injuries did gradually
   decline.

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 reponse, and professional rugby leagues were launched
   in Australia the following year. However, the rules of professional
   rugby 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 20th century, the rules changed further. In
   1966, rugby league officials borrowed the American football concept of
   downs: a team could retain possession of the ball for no more than four
   tackles. 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 rules of rugby union also changed significantly and became very
   complex and technical during the 20th century. In addition, rucks and
   mauls became homogenised, and in line-outs players began to be lifted
   by their teammates to contest their opponents.

   In 1995, rugby union became an "open" game, that is one which allowed
   professional players. 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 a event is unlikely in the
   foreseeable future.

Football today

Use of the word "football" in English-speaking countries

   The word "football", when used in reference to a specific game can mean
   any one of those described above. Because of this, much friendly
   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.

   In most English-speaking countries, the word "football" usually refers
   to Association football, also known as "soccer" (the name was
   originally a slang abbreviation of Association). Of the 45 national
   FIFA affiliates in which English is an official or primary language,
   only three ( Canada, Samoa and the United States) use "soccer" in their
   name, while the rest use football (although the Samoan Federation
   actually uses both). However, in some countries, such as Australia and
   New Zealand, use of the word "football" by soccer bodies is a recent
   change (or a reversion to a long-abandoned name) and has been
   controversial.

   The different codes are listed below and are described more fully in
   their own articles.

Present day codes and "families" of football

Association football (soccer) and games descended from it

     * Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and
       footie.
     * Indoor/basketball court varieties of Association football:
          + Five-a-side football – played throughout the world under
            various rules including:
               o Futsal – the FIFA-approved five-a-side indoor game.
               o Minivoetbal – the five-a-side indoor game played in East
                 and West Flanders where it is hugely popular.
               o Papi fut — the five-a-side game played in outdoor
                 basketball courts (built with goals) in Central America.
          + Indoor soccer – the six-a-side indoor game as played in North
            America.
     * Paralympic football – modified association football for athletes
       with a disability. Includes:
          + Football 5-a-side - for visually impaired athletes
          + Football 7-a-side - for athletes with cerebral palsy
          + Electric wheelchair soccer
     * Beach soccer – football played on sand, also known as sand soccer.
     * Footvolley – football & beach volleyball combination played on
       sand, played by many famous footballers (Brazilian greats) around
       the world
     * Street football – encompasses a number of informal varieties of
       football.
     * Bossaball — mixes football with volleyball and gymnastics on
       inflatables and trampolines.
     * Rush goalie – is a variation of football in which the role of the
       goalkeeper is more flexible than normal.
     * Headers and volleys – where the aim is to score goals against a
       goalkeeper using only headers and volleys.
     * Fouling football – all tackles except the use of weapons and
       (usually) kicks to the groin are allowed, teams can be of sizes
       upwards of 5 but usually less than 15, injuries are par for the
       course.

Rugby school football and games descended from it

     * Rugby football
          + Rugby league – usually known simply as "football" or "footy"
            in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland,
            and by some followers of the game in England. Also often
            referred to simply as "league".
               o Rugby league nines (or sevens)
               o Touch football (rugby league) – a non-contact version of
                 rugby league. In South Africa it is known as six down.
               o Oz Tag - a non-contact version of rugby league, in which
                 a velcro tag is removed to indicate a tackle.
          + Rugby union
               o Rugby sevens
               o Tag rugby – a form of rugby union using the velcro tag
          + Touch rugby – generic name for forms of rugby football which
            does not feature tackles.
     * American football – called "football" in the United States and
       Canada, and "gridiron" in Australia and New Zealand.
          + Arena football – an indoor version of American football.
          + Touch football (American) – non-tackle American football.
               o Flag football – non-tackle American football, like touch
                 football, in which a flag that is held by velcro on a
                 belt tied around the waist is pulled by defenders to
                 indicate a tackle.
     * Canadian football – called simply "football" in Canada; "football"
       in Canada can mean either Canadian or American football depending
       on context.
          + Canadian flag football – non-tackle Canadian football.

Irish and Australian varieties of football

   These codes are all united by the absence of an offside rule, the
   requirement to bounce or solo (toe-kick) the ball while running,
   handpassing by punching the ball rather than throwing it, and other
   traditions.
     * Australian rules football – officially known as "Australian
       football", and informally as "Aussie rules" or "footy". In some
       areas (erroneously) referred to as " AFL", which is the name of the
       main organising body and competition.
          + Auskick – a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL
            for young children.
          + 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).
          + 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.)
          + Rec footy – "Recreational Football", a modified non-contact
            touch variation of Australian rules, created by the AFL, which
            replaces tackles with tags.
          + Touch Aussie Rules - a non-contact variation of Australian
            Rules played only in the United Kingdom
          + Samoa rules – localised version adapted to Samoan conditions,
            such as the use of rugby football fields.
          + Masters Australian football (a.k.a. Superules) – reduced
            contact version introduced for competitions limited to players
            over 30 years of age.
          + Women's Australian rules football – played with a smaller ball
            and (sometimes) reduced contact version introduced for women's
            competition.
     * Gaelic football – Played predominantly in Ireland. Sometimes
       referred to as "football" or "gaah" (from the acronym for Gaelic
       Athletic Association).
          + Ladies Gaelic football
     * International rules football – a compromise code used for games
       between Gaelic and Australian Rules players.

Surviving Mediæval ball games

British Shrove Tuesday games

     *
          + Alnwick in Northumberland
          + Ashbourne in Derbyshire (known as Royal Shrovetide Football)
          + Atherstone in Warwickshire
          + Corfe Castle in Dorset – The Shrove Tuesday Football Ceremony
            of the Purbeck Marblers.
          + Haxey in Lincolnshire (the Haxey Hood, actually played on
            Epiphany)
          + Hurling the Silver Ball takes place at St Columb Major in
            Cornwall
          + Sedgefield in 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

Outside the UK

     * Calcio Fiorentino – a modern revival of Renaissance football from
       16th century Florence.

Surviving public school games

     * Eton field game
     * Eton wall game
     * Harrow football
     * Winchester College football

Recent inventions and hybrid games

     * Based on Mediæval football:
          + Murder Ball
     * Based on FA rules:
          + Cubbies
          + Three sided football
          + Triskelion
     * Keepie uppie – is the art of juggling with a football using feet,
       knees, chest, shoulders, and head.
          + Footbag – is a small bean bag or sand bag used as a ball in a
            number of keepie uppie variations, including hacky sack (which
            is a trade mark).
     * Freestyle football – a modern take on keepie uppie where
       freestylers are graded for their entertainment value and expression
       of skill.
     * Based on Rugby:
          + Scuffleball
          + Force ’em backs
     * Hybrid games
          + Speedball (American) – a combination of American football,
            soccer, and basketball, devised by Elmer D. Mitchell at the
            University of Michigan in 1912.
          + Wheelchair Rugby – previously known as Murderball. Invented in
            Canada in 1977 and initially derived from ice hockey and
            basketball rather than rugby football.
               o Wheelchair power tag rugby
               o Wheelchair rugby league
          + Austus – a compromise between Australian rules and American
            football, invented in Melbourne during World War II.
          + Universal football – A hybrid of Australian rules and rugby
            league, trialled at the Sydney Showground in 1933.

Tabletop games and other recreations

     * Based on association football (soccer):
          + Subbuteo
          + Blow football
          + Table football – also known as foosball, table soccer,
            babyfoot, bar football or gettone)
          + Fantasy football (soccer)
          + Button football – also known as Futebol de Mesa, Jogo de
            Botões
     * Based on rugby:
          + Paper football
     * Based on American football:
          + Blood Bowl
          + Fantasy football (American)
          + Madden NFL
     * Based on Australian football:
          + List of Australian rules football computer games
               o AFL Premiership 2005
          + AFL Dream Team

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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