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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

'''Football''' refers to a number of different team [[sport]]s, all of which involve scoring points with a round or ellipsoid [[Football (ball)|ball]] into or onto a goal area defended by the opposing team. Many of the modern football games have their origins in [[England]].

== Summary ==

The object of all football games is to advance the ball by kicking, running with, or passing and catching, either to the opponent's end of the field where points or goals can be scored by, depending on the game, putting the ball across the goal line between posts and under a crossbar, putting the ball between upright posts (and possibly over a crossbar), or advancing the ball across the opponent's goal line while maintaining possession of the ball.

In all football games, the winning team is the one that has the most points or goals when a specified length of time has elapsed.

== History ==

Throughout the history of mankind the urge to kick at stones and other objects must have inevitably led to many early activities involving kicking and running with a ball. 
Football-like games undoubtedly predate recorded history in all parts of the world and the earliest forms of football can only be guessed at.

=== 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 "''tsu chu''" which involved kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece of silk cloth strung between two 30 foot poles. 
It was not a game as such but more of a spectacle for the amusement of the Emperor and it may have been performed as many as 3000 years ago.

Another ball-kicking game of [[Far East]]ern origin that may have been influenced by ''tsu chu'' is "''kemari''" which known to have been played within the Japanese imperial court in [[Kyoto]] from about [[600]]AD. 
In ''kemari'' several individuals 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 survived through many years but appears to have died out sometime before the mid 19th century. 
In [[1903]] in a bid to restore ancient traditions the game was revived and it can now be seen played for the benefit of tourists at a number of festivals.

The [[Ancient Greece|Greek]]s and [[Roman]]s 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 barbers shop. 
The Roman game of ''Harpastu'' is believed to have been adapted from a team game known as &alpha;&rho;&pi;&alpha;&sigma;&tau;&omicron;&nu;(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 football|rugby]].

There are a number of less well-documented references to similar ball games all around the world. [[William Strachey]] of the [[Jamestown settlement]] is the first to record a game played by the [[Native American]]s called "''Pahsaheman''" in 1610. In [[Australia]], Robert Brough-Smyth's book "''The Aborigines of Victoria''" published in 1878 quotes from a report made by a Mr Richard Thomas in around 1841 who witnessed Australian [[aborigines]] playing a ball game called "''[[Marn Grook]]''". 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. 
The game may well have had an influence on the modern [[Australian Rules Football]].
These games and others may well stretch far back into antiquity and have influenced football over the centuries. However, the route towards the development of modern football games appears to lie in Western Europe and particularly [[England]].

=== Mediaeval football ===

The first description of football in England is given by William FitzStephen (c1174-1183) [http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/introduction/intro01.html#p25]. 
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".

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 similar game being played in [[Brittany]], [[Normandy]] and [[Picardy]] known as "''Choule''" or "''Soule''" suggest that it could have arrived with the [[Norman Conquest]].

The first reference to football in [[Ireland]] occurs in the [[Statute of Galway]] of [[1527]], which allowed the playing of football and [[archery]] but banned ''"'hokie' - the [[hurling]] of a little ball with sticks or staves"'' as well as other sports.

The [[Middle Ages]] saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football matches throughout Europe and particularly in England. 
These chaotic games would be played between neighbouring towns and villages in which an unlimited number of players on opposing teams 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. 
A legend that these games in England evolved from a more ancient and bloody ritual of kicking the "Dane's Head" is unlikely. 
Shrovetide games are still played in a number of English towns such as [[Ashbourne]] in [[Derbyshire]] and [[Sedgefield]] in [[County Durham]].

Most of the early references to the game speak simply of "ball play" or "playing at ball" and not "football" leading to speculation that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve the ball being kicked.  
However, in [[1424]], [[James I of Scotland]] issued an edict to ban the playing of "fute-ball".  
Later on the modern spelling appeared in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] play ''King Lear'': "Nor tripped neither, you base football player" (Act I Scene 4). 
He also mentions the game in ''A Comedy of Errors'' (Act II Scene 1):
:''Am I so round with you as you with me,''<br>
:''That like a football you do spurn me thus?''<br>
:''You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:''<br>
:''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 leather ball between players.

=== [[Calcio Fiorentino]] ===
In the [[16th century]], the city of [[Florence]] celebrated the period between [[Epiphany]] and [[Lent]] by playing a game known as "''o Calcio storico''" ("kickball in costume") in the Piazza della Novere or the Piazza di Santo Croce. The young aristocrats of the city would dress up in fine silk costumes and embroil themselves in cross between football and wrestling. 
It was a mass brawl in which kicking, punching, shoulder charges, and hitting below the belt were all allowed, it probably originated as a military training exercise. 
The most famous match took place on [[17 February]] 1530. Whilst the troops of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]] were besieging Florence a game of "calcio" was organised as a show of defiance. In 1580 Count Giovanni de' Bardi di Vernio wrote "Discorso sopra 'l giuco del Calcio Fiorentino. This is sometimes credited as the earliest known published rules of any football game. The game was played up until January [[1739]] but it was revived in May [[1930]] to celebrate the 400th anniversary of this famous match and is still played as a tourist attraction today.

=== Controversy ===

Football has been the subject of countless attempts to ban it. 
In England alone there were over 30 Royal and local edicts prohibiting the game. 
King [[Edward II of England|Edward II]] was so troubled by the unruliness of football in [[London]] that on April 13 [[1314]] he issued a proclamation banning it. 
It read -''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.'' - [[Edward III of England|Edward III]] imposed a similar ban June 12 1349, but his concern was of a practical nature. 
Football and other recreations distracted the populace from practising archery, and after the great loss of life that had occurred during the [[Black Death]], England needed as many archers as possible.

The game featured in similar attempts to ban recreational sport across Europe. 
In France it was banned by [[Phillippe V of France|Phillippe V]] in [[1319]] and [[Charles V of France|Charles V]] in [[1369]]. In Scotland it was banned by [[James I of Scotland]] in 1424. Later attempts at banning the game in England (notably by [[Richard II of England|Richard II]] in 1389, [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]] in [[1401]], and [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] in [[1540]]) and Scotland ([[James II of Scotland|JamesII]] in [[1457]]) all failed to curb the people's desire to play the game. Only [[Oliver Cromwell]] had any success in firmly suppressing the game, which then became even more popular following the Restoration in [[1660]]. [[Charles II of England]] gave the game royal approval in [[1681]] when he attended a fixture between the Royal Household and [[George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle]]'s servants.

Continued efforts to try ban the game at a local level forced the game off the streets. In [[1827]] [[Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland]] allowed the annual [[Alnwick]] Shrove Tuesday game to go ahead by providing a field for the game to be played upon and presenting the ball before the match - a ritual that continues to this day. In 1835 the [[Highways Act 1835|Highways Act]] banned the playing of football on public highways, with a maximum penalty of forty shillings.

===English Public Schools===
By the early [[19th Century]], (before the [[Factory Act 1850|Factory Act of 1850]]), most [[working class]] people in Britain had to work six days a week, often for over twelve hours a day. The had neither the time nor the inclination to engage in sport for recreation. [[Feast day]] football on the public highway was at an end. Thus the [[public school (UK)|public school]]s of England, where the youth of the upper classes were able to enjoy freedom from constant toil, became the breeding grounds where organised football games with formal rules were could be developed and evolve into the modern games that we know today.

The earliest evidence that games resembling football were being played in English public schools comes from the ''Vulgaria'' by William Horman. Horman had been headmaster at [[Eton College]] and [[Winchester College|Winchester]] and this [[Latin]] textbook includes a translation exercise with the phrase "We wyll playe with a ball full of wynde". The first specific mention of football can be found in a Latin poem by Robert Matthew, a Winchester scholar from 1643 to 1647. He describes how ''"...we may play quoits, or hand-ball, or bat-and-ball, or football; these games are innocent and lawful...".'' A document from 1766 (Nugae Etonenses by T. Frankland) speaks of the "Football Fields" of Eton.

It is known that by the early 19th century the game had come to be adopted by a number of public schools as a way of encouraging competitiveness and keeping youths fit. Each school drafted their own rules as they saw fit and they often varied widely and were changed over time with each new intake of pupils. By the mid 19th century two camps had developed. Those that favoured the handling game, (as played at [[Rugby School|Rugby]], [[Marlborough School |Marlborough]], and [[Cheltenham School|Cheltenham]]) and those that favoured the kicking game, played at Eton, [[Harrow School]], [[Westminster School|Westminster]], and [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]]. The division into these two camps was partly the result of circumstances in which the games were played at each school. At Charterhouse and Westminster the boys were confined to playing their ball game within the cloisters making the rough and tumble of the handling game difficult. The apocryphal tale of [[William Webb Ellis]] handling the ball is dated [[1823]], but there is no certainty that this actually happened, or that handling was not allowed at Rugby School before that time.

===The Establishment of Modern Codes of Football===
In [[1848]] at from [[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 College|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 ~1856 is held in the library of Shrewsbury School. The rules clearly favour the handling 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.  However the ''Cambridge Rules'' were far from universally adopted.

The world's oldest surviving "football club", [[Sheffield F.C.|Sheffield Football Club]] was founded by former Harrow pupils Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, in either [[1855]] or [[1857]]. Creswick and Prest devised the ''Sheffield Rules'' in [[1857]]. Their game did not have an ''offside'' rule at all, allowed players to push or hit the ball with their hands, and allowed "charging" and/or pushing opponents. However, pulling at an opponent was forbidden, as was holding the ball, except when a player took a ''fair catch'' (as in the Cambridge Rules). For many years the Sheffield players mostly played games against each other, under these rules.

On the other side of the world, [[Australian Rules Football]] was first devised at [[Melbourne]] during [[1858]] by [[Tom Wills]], who had been educated in England at Rugby School and played cricket for Cambridge University. The extent to which Wills was directly influenced by the various English football games is unknown, but there were similarities between some of them and his game. Australian Rules also has similarities to [[Gaelic football]] (which was not codified until much later) and [[Marn Grook]]. The [[Melbourne Football Club]] was also founded in 1858 and is the oldest surviving Australian football club, but it did not necessarily use Wills's rules in its early years. The first proper rules were written, by Wills and others, in [[1859]]. 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.

In 1862 J.C. Thring, who had been one of the driving forces behind the original ''Cambridge Rules'', was now a master at [[Uppingham School]] and he issued his own rules in [[1862]] of what he called "The Simplest Game". In early October of [[1863]] a new revised set of ''Cambridge Rules'' rules were drawn up by a seven man committee representing former pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster. This later revised version of the ''Cambridge Rules'' rules were to form the basis of what eventually became the rules adopted by [[The Football Association]].

===The Football Association===
On the evening of [[October 26]], [[1863]] at the Freemason's Tavern in Great Queen Street, [[London]], [[The Football Association]] (FA) met for the first time. It was the first organising body for football anywhere in the world. The meeting had been called, not by public school figures, but by members of several football clubs in the [[London]] Metropolitan area. Their aim was to produce a single code of football that everybody could agree to and to set up a governing body for the regulation of the game. The first meeting resulted in the issuing of a request for representatives of the public schools to attend a series of six meetings between [[October]] and [[December]]. The decision had to be made whether to favour a handling game or a kicking game. After the delegates discussed the ''Cambridge Rules'' of 1863 for the first time &mdash at the fourth meeting &mdash it became clear that most of them were swaying towards a kicking game, and the FA produced the first comprehensive set of football rules ("The Laws of Football") for the game later known as [[Association football]] (or, colloquially, ''soccer''). These first FA rules still contained elements that are now associated with other games: for instance, a player who touched the ball behind the opponents goal line (known as a "''touch down'') was entitled to a free kick at the opponents goal. At the final meeting, the representative from [[Blackheath Rugby Club|Blackheath]] withdrew his club from the FA over a rule outlawing ''hacking'' (kicking an opponent in the shins). Blackheath and some other football clubs continued to play a handling game but there was still no formal set of rules for this form of football.

Blackheath (founded in [[1858]]) was later regarded as the world's first rugby club. In [[1871]], 21 clubs that supported the handling game came together to form the [[Rugby Football Union]] (RFU). Ironically, it was Blackheath which now lobbied to ban hacking. The first official RFU rules were adopted in June [[1871]].

[[Canadian football]] and [[American football]] are descendants of [[rugby football]], as it was played at Canadian universities in the [[1870s]]. Most [[US]] universities at the time used rules which were closer to English Association football. American football grew out of a series of three games between [[McGill University]] and [[Harvard University]] in [[1874]]. The two teams alternated between each set of rules. In the next few years, however, Harvard persuaded other US universities to adopt rugby-type rules, and in [[1876]] the [[Intercollegiate Football Association]] was formed, the first American football league. During the [[1880s]], the rules of American and Canadian football diverged significantly from rugby and eventually became two distinct games.

Although football had been played in Ireland for centuries, especially in a famous game between [[Louth]] and [[Meath]] at [[Slane]] in 1712, the game was not formally codified until [[1884]] with the establishment of the [[Gaelic Athletic Association]] (GAA), to promote traditional Irish sports and to reject "foreign" imports.

==Football today==
Today there are many games which are called football by its players and spectators. Each game has its own well-defined codes and governing bodies. The main games are listed below and described in their own articles.

=== Games descended from FA rules ===
''(Based on older games played at [[Eton College|Eton]], [[Harrow School|Harrow]], [[Winchester College|Winchester]] and other English public schools.''
* [[Football (soccer)|Association football]] &mdash; called '''soccer''' in the [[United States of America|United States]], [[Canada]], [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]] and simply "football" in most other English speaking nations
** ''Indoor varieties of Association football''
*** [[Futsal]], or '''five-a-side football''' &mdash; the [[FIFA]]-approved indoor game
*** [[Indoor soccer]] &mdash; the indoor game as played in [[North America]]
** [[Paralympic Football]] &mdash; Association football for disabled competitors.

=== Games descended from [[Rugby School]] rules ===
* [[Rugby football]]
** [[Rugby League]]
** [[Rugby Union]] 
** [[Touch Football]] &mdash; a form of Rugby League without tackles.
** [[OzTag]] &mdash; a form of Rugby League without tackles.
** [[Rugby Sevens]]
* [[American football]] &mdash; called "football" in the United States, and "'''gridiron'''" or "gridiron football" in Australia
** [[Arena football]] &mdash; an indoor version of American football
** [[Flag football]] &mdash; non-tackle American football, also known as '''touch football'''.
** [[XFL]] &mdash; a version of American football with fewer regulations 
* [[Canadian football]] &mdash; called simply "football" in Canada.
** [[Canadian flag football]] &mdash; non-tackle Canadian football.

=== Irish and Australian varieties of football ===
* [[Gaelic football]]
* [[Australian rules football]] &mdash; sometimes (erroneously) referred to as "[[AFL]]", which is really the name of the league involved.
* [[International Rules]] &mdash; a compromise code used for games between Gaelic and Australian Rules players.
* [[Auskick]] &mdash; a version of Australian Rules designed for young children

=== Surviving [[medieval]] games ===
* ''Traditional [[Shrove Tuesday]] matches in the [[United Kingdom|UK]] -- annual town- or village-wide football games with their own rules''
** [[Alnwick]] in [[Northumberland]]
** [[Ashbourne, Derbyshire|Ashbourne]] in [[Derbyshire]] (known as [[Royal Shrovetide Football]])
** [[Atherstone]] in [[Warwickshire]]
** [[Sedgefield]] in [[County Durham]]
** [[Haxey]] in [[Lincolnshire]] (the [[Haxey Hood Game]], actually played on [[January 6]])
* [[Calcio Fiorentino]] &mdash; a modern revival of Renaissance football from [[16th Century]] [[Florence]].

=== Modern [[Invented sport|Inventions]] and derivations ===
*Based on Mediaeval  'mob' football
** [[Murder Ball]]
* Based on FA rules
** [[Three sided football]]
** [[Triskelion (sport)|Triskelion]]
* Based on Rugby
** [[Scuffleball]]

=== Tabletop games and other recreations ===
* Based on FA rules
** [[Subbuteo]]
** [[Blow football]]
* Based on Rugby
** [[Paper football]]

== The use of the term "football" in English-speaking countries==

Depending on which part of the world you live in, the word ''football'' when referring to a specific game can mean any one of the above.  Because of this, much friendly controversy has erupted over the term ''football'', primarily because it is used in different ways in different parts of the world.

*'''In the [[United States]]''', "football" refers to [[American football]].  Association football, which is much less popular, is called "soccer", and rugby football, which is less popular still, is usually called "rugby" or occasionally "rugger".

*'''In [[Canada]]''', "football" refers to Canadian football, though some Canadians recognize American football as simply "football" as well.  Association football, which is much less popular, is called "soccer".

*'''In [[Australia]]''', "football" (or "footy") refers to Australian rules football (as played in the [[Australian Football League]]) in some states, [[Rugby League]] in others. Association football is called ''soccer''. American football is called ''gridiron''.

*'''In [[New Zealand]]''', "football" refers to rugby football. Association football is called ''soccer''. American football is called ''gridiron''.

*'''In the [[Republic of Ireland]]''', "football" generally refers to Gaelic football, with Association football generally called "soccer".

*'''In [[South Africa]]''', "soccer" and "football" both refer to association football, although the name "soccer" is more commonly used. Rugby football is called "rugby".

*'''In the [[United Kingdom]]''', and in most other English-speaking countries, "football" refers to Association football.  Britons are less likely to use the terms "rugger" than Americans, and "gridiron" than Australians to describe those games.  One British [[punk rock|punk]] band has released a song entitled, "It's Football, Not &lt;''[[expletive]] deleted''&gt; Soccer".

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Bleachers	Football for Dummies, Second Edition	When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De LA Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak	Football Drill Book
The Football Coaching Bible	Defensive Football Strategies	Offensive Football Strategies	Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
Wooden

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